Health Insurance

Healthcare costs will continue to grow slowly even as President Obama's healthcare law adds millions of new people into the system, according to a new analysis.

The study, released by the Health Research Institute at the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), said medical inflation will likely fall to 6.5 percent next year — a 50 year low.

The rate of growth in healthcare costs slowed predictably during the recession, but has remained low even as the rest of the economy has gained steam.

Healthcare costs are the top concern for manufacturers in expanding their businesses, a new report showed Monday. 

The National Association of Manufacturers' (NAM) second-quarter survey said that 82.2 percent of manufacturers identified rising healthcare and insurance costs as their top challenge, an increase from 74 percent in the previous survey, according to the IndustryWeek Survey of Manufacturers. 

In addition, taxes and regulation, along with uncertainties related to the political climate, are major concerns.

"The manufacturing sector remains stuck in neutral as manufacturers continue to face a number of challenges and uncertainties dampening their ability to grow,” said Chad Moutray, NAM's chief economist.

“This quarter’s survey shows that manufacturers need solutions and certainty as concerns about rising healthcare costs climb and taxes and regulation remain a top challenge for growth."

Nearly one in five people will purchase health coverage through a privately run insurance exchange within four years, according to new research. 

Accenture Research, an arm of the global consulting firm, predicted that private exchanges will "upend … purchasing for many of the 170 million people who receive benefits through their employer." 

In this model, employers purchase coverage through a marketplace, allowing their workers to choose from a range of health plans. It is comparable to the publicly run exchanges soon to launch under healthcare reform. 

Health insurance premiums could rise by as much as 40 percent as a result of President Obama's healthcare law, according to a new study.

The survey of premiums in six states found that premiums could increase most significantly for young, healthy men. 

Premiums will rise for people who currently purchase bare-bones plans with high deductibles and meager coverage. They'll be forced to upgrade to policies that must offer at least a certain level of coverage.

Employers have been cutting back employees' hours and access to health insurance since before President Obama's healthcare law passed, according to new research released Wednesday.

The findings are potentially significant as the healthcare law is about to take full effect. The law's critics say employers will cut workers' hours to avoid offering healthcare benefits.

But the trend toward part-time work predates the Affordable Care Act, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI).

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday unfavorably compared questions about donations solicited by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Republicans questioning the president's birth certificate.

At a tense briefing where Carney took tough questions on a series of issues that could damage the White House politically, the press secretary aligned himself with White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, who over the weekend accused Republicans of engaging in “partisan fishing expeditions.”

“You know, we could go down the list of questions — we could say, what about the president's birth certificate?" Carney responded. “Was that legitimate?”

Early filings show that insurers in some states are planning to lower their premiums after President Obama's healthcare law takes effect, Democrats noted on Monday.

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee cited the initial rate filings to argue that the health law's Republican critics have oversold the potential effect on premiums.

Early filings in five states have shown that premiums will likely stay the same, or even fall, once the health law is fully in place. But those filings come only from states where insurance is already heavily regulated — data are not yet available in states where bigger increases are more likely.

Two key rules within ObamaCare are set to be published this week in the Federal Register.

Nearly two-thirds of people younger than 40 expect their health insurance premiums to rise because of the healthcare law.

The Hill's Bob Cusack and Elise Viebeck discuss the implementation of President Obama's landmark healthcare reform law and the concerns being raised by Democratic lawmakers.

Read more from The Hill.