http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Consumers saw nearly $1.5 billion in insurer rebates and overhead cost savings in 2011, due to the Affordable Care Act's medical loss ratio provision requiring health insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care or quality improvement activities or pay a rebate to their customers, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Consumers with individual policies saw substantially reduced premiums when insurers reduced both administrative costs and profits to meet the new standards. While insurers in the small- and large-group markets achieved lower administrative costs, not all of these savings were passed on to employers and consumers, as many insurers increased profits in these markets. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-consumers-benefitted-billion-aca-medical.html Health Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:39:15 EST news273904723 The number of underinsured adults -- those with health insurance all year, but also with very high medical expenses relative to their incomes -- rose by 80 percent between 2003-2010, from 16 million to 29 million, according to a new Commonwealth Fund study published in the September issue of Health Affairs. Nearly half (44%) of U.S. adults -- 81 million people -- were either underinsured or uninsured in 2010, up from 75 million in 2007 and 61 million in 2003. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-underinsured-percent-.html Health Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:14:01 EST news234677622 Modifications to current policies could help ensure that health insurance coverage and subsidies provided under the Affordable Care Act remain stable even through major life changes, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report released today. At least 34 million people will gain new coverage under the law, and the report's authors say that it will be important to ensure that life changes like fluctuations in income and job transitions don't cause abrupt changes in people's health insurance coverage or financial responsibilities for their premiums or care. Uncertainty about how life changes could affect their health insurance and premium costs might lead people to delay signing up for coverage through the exchanges and Medicaid, and could cause people who have received premium subsidies to have to pay money back if their incomes are higher than expected. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-health-reform-access-coverage.html Health Thu, 19 May 2011 04:07:06 EST news224996814 According to two new policy briefs from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the majority of state residents likely to be eligible for federally mandated health insurance coverage initiatives in California in 2014 are also those who may be least likely to excessively use costly health services: men, singles and those of working age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-beneficiaries-health-reform-california.html Health Tue, 10 May 2011 13:17:05 EST news224252198