“Jewel on health kick with first child on way - Chicago Sun-Times” plus 1 more |
Jewel on health kick with first child on way - Chicago Sun-Times Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:33 PM PST Jewel on health kick with first child on wayJan 11, 2011 06:15PM As happy announcements go, Jewel's is a gem. The pop-country singer is pregnant. It will be the first child for Jewel, 36, and her husband, rodeo champion Ty Murray. They've been trying to conceive since marrying in 2008, Jewel told People. "I have always been a workaholic, so I had to learn how to slow down and take care of myself in a different way," she said. It was a busy day on the celebrity baby beat: † A spokeswoman for Owen Wilson, 42, said the "Little Fockers" co-star is expecting his first child with girlfriend Jade Duell. † The first baby for Tia Mowry (of BET's "The Game" and the '90s sitcom "Sister Sister") is due July 3, Us Weekly reported. Mowry, 32, is married to actor Cory Hardrict. † Us also reported "Inception" actress Marion Cotillard, 35, and longtime love Guillaume Canet have an infant on the way. AP This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
What you can expect from the health-reform law in 2011 - ConsumerReports.org (blog) Posted: 11 Jan 2011 08:45 AM PST Don't expect for it to be repealed. While the House of Representatives plans to vote on that soon, a repeal bill has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. And President Obama has said he would veto it if it did reach his desk anyway. Meantime, important parts of the law continue to be implemented. The first batch of benefits occurred last September and the second went into effect Jan. 1. NEW THIS YEAR • Discounted drugs for seniors. For brand-name prescriptions, drug companies must now provide a 50 percent discount for people who fall into the Medicare Part D coverage gap, known as the ''doughnut hole." About 30 million people are enrolled in Part D plans, and some 3 to 4 million will fall into the doughnut hole in 2011, after spending $310 as a deductible and then after they and Medicare together have spent another $2,840. The average savings per beneficiary: $700. But some seniors could save up to $1,800, according to the National Council on Aging. A smaller subsidy also kicks in for generic drugs. It's 7 percent in 2011 but increases over time. • Free preventive care. Co-pays and deductibles are eliminated for Medicare-covered preventive services that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts, has judged to be effective. Some examples: colorectal cancer screening, mammography, and screenings for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Seniors can also get a free annual wellness visit that includes a "personalized prevention plan." The plan includes a review of your medical history and a prevention screening schedule for the next decade. The law also eliminates the 20 percent co-pay for the "Welcome to Medicare" physical exam. • Better value for your insurance dollar. Insurers must now annually report the proportion of the revenue they get from premium payments that goes to medical care and certain quality improvement programs, and how much goes to executive salaries and administrative and marketing costs. The hope is the rule will encourage insurers to become more efficient. The target is 85 percent for policies sold to large employers, and 80 percent for those sold to small businesses and individuals. Insurers that miss the targets might have to give rebates to consumers. Of the 75 million or so people who have insurance that's covered under the rule, the government estimates that 9 million will be eligible for a rebate in 2012. • Improved access to some health-care providers. In an effort to encourage more doctors to see Medicare patients, the agency now pays a 10 percent bonus to family doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who provide primary-care services to them. General surgeons who practice in underserved areas will also get a 10 percent bonus. • The launch of website to help patient's choose doctors. The website, Physician Compare, now contains a directory of most of the nation's doctors and thousands of other health providers—932,000 in all. It's searchable by zip code, or city and state, as well as by doctor specialty and name. Eventually, it will allow patients to choose doctors based on patient reviews and the quality of care they provide. • Higher income seniors will pay higher Medicare premiums. Higher income Medicare beneficiaries have had to pay larger Part B premiums, the portion that covers doctor's fees, since 2007. But the income level at which the increase kicked in was indexed to inflation; that is, it rose every year. The reform law freezes the income threshold at $85,000 for individuals and $170,000 for couples, until 2019. This year, the monthly Part B premium for high-income seniors will be between $161.50 and $369.10, compared with $115.40 for other beneficiaries. And starting in 2011, premiums for Medicare Part D, which covers prescription drugs, will be also linked to the same income thresholds. • Limits tax-free flexible-spending and health-savings accounts. You can no longer use money in any of these accounts—including Health Reimbursement Accounts, medical Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, or Archer Medical Savings Account—to pay for over-the-counter drugs, unless they are prescribed by a doctor. Also, people with high deductible insurance policies who spend money in a Health Saving Account for unapproved uses will not only owe taxes on those expenditures but also face a tax penalty of 20 percent, double the previous rate. BENEFITS THAT STARTED IN 2010 Those changes are in addition to the health insurance consumer protections and other parts of the law that started phasing in last year, such as: • Allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health plans until their 26th birthday. • Prohibiting insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. • Prohibiting most health plans from rescinding coverage or imposing lifetime limits on what they will cover. (The exceptions to the coverage limit ban are so-called "mini-med" plans that have received government exemptions to offer more meager coverage.) • Creation of new subsidized pre-existing condition insurance plans for people who have been uninsured for at least six months and have a pre-existing condition that locks them out of the private market. • The creation of Healthcare.gov, a one-stop shopping site where you can look up individual policies for sale in your state and compare them on the basis of premiums, deductibles, co-pays, out-of-pocket limits, and the percentage of applicants who are denied or charged more because of pre-existing conditions. —Steven Findlay, M.P.H., senior health policy analyst This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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