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Did You Know?
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- What's new for 2009 Taxes?
- Mileage rate, COBRA continuation coverage and health coverage tax credit.
- How to search for drug prices?
- Check the prices for the most frequently prescribed medications in Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont.
- Your rights in buying and continuing Individual Health Insurance?
- Buying an Individual Health Insurance can be a nightmare and expensive. Furthermore, if you have a precondition, and if you are not coming out of a Group Insurance, you may be denied by Individual Health Plans.
- Health benefits for same-sex couples
- That even if your employer provides health insurance to your same-sex domestic partner, you may end up paying higher taxes compared to heterosexual spouses? You can avoid this, if your partner meets IRS' definition of dependent.
- You can include fees to Christian Science practitioners as medical expense in your tax return?
- (Cannot help to wonder if IRS accepts Cristian Science treatment as medical care, then why not accept the healing methods of other religions!)
- Extra Help program for Medicare prescription drug plan may reduce your expenses?
- If you are a Medicare beneficiary with limited income and limited resources, you may qualify for Extra Help program, which is estimated to be worth an average of $3,900 per year. Benefits vary by income.
- Walmart's $4 for a 30-day or $10 for a 90-day prescription medication program?
- Walmart offers a prescription-drug program for 90-day supplies of more than 300 generic drugs for only $10.
- Suze Orman recommends Health Saving Accounts
- The personal finance guru says regardless of what reform may be coming down the road, having the ability to save money in a tax-deferred account is never going to lose its value?
More Did You Know?
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In The News
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Medical billing and insurance in the news.
- President Obama's new health reform proposal
- Read what President's health insurance reform would mean for you and your family
- Beginning January 1, 2010, changes in the law makes more people on Medicare to qualify for Extra Help with their Medicare prescription drug plan costs
- Life insurance policy does no longer count as a resource; and the help received regularly from someone else to pay household expenses does no longer count as income. Income limits are $16,245 a year for singles and $21,855 for married couples living together. Assets such as stocks, bonds and bank accounts must be limited to $12,510 for singles and $25,010 for married couples. The value of homes and automobiles are excluded.
- Historical moment: The House passes the Affordable Health Care for America Act [H.R. 3962]
- It will end increases in premiums or denials of care based on pre-existing conditions, race, or gender, and strictly limit age rating; guarantee that every child in America will have health care coverage that includes dental, hearing and vision benefits.
- The House Health Care Bill
- A summary of the House Health Care Bill.
- No premium increase for Medicare recipients
- The House passed the bill to eliminate all premium increases for Medicare Part B patients. The bill now goes to the Senate. Medicare Part B provides coverage for doctor's visits. The bill would not affect scheduled increases in premiums for the Medicare prescription drug program, known as Part D. Average monthly premiums for the drug program will increase slightly, from $28 this year to $30 in 2010.
- New rules: "No lifetime or annual limits on health insurance benefits"
- As part of the Healthcare Reform, the Senate Finance Committee proposed that health insurers could not include lifetime limits on coverage or annual limits on any benefits.
- President Obama announces that several industry groups, including insurers, hospitals and drug industry, signed a commitment for reducing the health care cost.
- Although it is not clear yet, how this will be accomplished, it is a step forward towards the promised hope that the average family of four could be saving $2,500 in health care costs annually.
- Insurance industry promises not to charge women higher premiums.
- Women who are covered by individiual health insurance plans pay higher premiums than men. On May 5 2009, the insurance industry told Congress that they would stop this practice.
News Archives
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