Crash Survival Zone

A U.S. program aimed at helping unemployed people keep their health insurance costs so much it is largely unaffordable, a health consumer group said in a report released on Friday.

On average, health insurance plans available under the so-called COBRA program take up more than three-quarters of a worker’s government unemployment compensation, the non-profit Families USA [...]

With home prices in free fall and mortgage delinquencies mounting, pressure to modify troubled loans is ratcheting up.
But lawyers who represent candidates for modifications say the programs are hobbled by the complexity of securitization pools that hold the loans, as well as uncertainty about who actually owns the notes underlying the mortgages.
Problems often emerge because [...]

Hospitals, which employ 5 million people, are reporting that donations and investment returns are down, patient visits are flat and profitable diagnostic procedures and elective surgeries are declining as people with inadequate insurance delay care. But those patients are turning up later at ERs, seriously ill, making it tough for hospitals to lay off nurses [...]

A major reduction in real prescription drug spending growth has created a “turning point” in healthcare with several policy implications, according to a study published this month by the journal Health Affairs as a Web Exclusive. The report, “Prescription Drug Spending Trends in the United States: Looking Beyond the Turning Point,”uses IMS Health RX information [...]