Health Insurance

Burnishing his political credentials among the Republican right wing may be the only logical explanation for Gov. Christie's blocking the creation of state health-insurance exchanges, which would aid not only the 1.3 million New Jerseyans without coverage, but also small businesses and people who don't have enough medical insurance. Choosing politics over policy, Christie has caved to party extremists who were calling the exchanges "Christiecare. " The term served as a loosely veiled threat to a potential running mate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has his own problems trying to escape references to "Romneycare," the affordable-health-care plan he created as governor of Massachusetts.

Provident American Corp., which is developing an Internet site to sell health insurance, has agreed to sell its traditional agent-based insurance business to an Ohio company for $15 million. Central Reserve Life Insurance Co., an acquisition-minded firm in Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland, is buying Provident American Life and Health Insurance. The Provident American Corp. subsidiary includes 27,000 agents nationwide and about 60 employees at the head office in Norristown, Peter Nauert, Central Reserve's chief executive, said yesterday.

NEW YORK - Roman Catholic dioceses, schools, and other groups sued the Obama administration Monday in eight states and the District of Columbia over a federal mandate that most employers provide workers free birth control as part of their health insurance. The federal lawsuits represent the largest push against the mandate since President Obama announced the policy in January. Among those suing are the Pennsylvania Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Erie, the University of Notre Dame, and the Catholic University of America.

EIGHTIES' SINGING sensation Angela Bofill is coming to Philadelphia this weekend on a concert tour. Don't look for her to sing, though. Bofill will be onstage but a stand-in will be doing the vocalizing. Sadly, that silky, golden voice that charmed us with "I Try," "Angel of the Night," and "This Time I'll Be Sweeter" is long gone, a side effect of a series of strokes that knocked Bofill off her feet first in 2006 and then again the following year. Her high heels are gone too, replaced by a cane for balance.

Higher prices for visits to doctors, surgery, and drugs were the main cause of higher health-care costs for privately insured Americans in 2010, when overall utilization of health-care services was down, a report by the Health Care Cost Institute in Washington, said Monday. The report, using data provided by Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare, analyzed three billion claims for 33 million individuals covered by employer-based health insurance from 2007 through 2010. "For the first time, we have comprehensive data on the privately insured.

Gov. Christie rejected a key provision of President Obama's health care plan on Thursday, becoming the second governor in the country to veto a bill that would have set up a state-run exchange to allow consumers to collectively shop for health insurance. The decision was immediately panned as political by Democrats but welcomed by tea party conservatives, who had expressed alarm in recent days that the Republican governor would allow "Christiecare" in New Jersey. The 2010 federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - now called Obamacare by conservative opponents and the president himself - requires most Americans to get health coverage by 2014.

A state court judge has ruled against Gov. Christie's administration for a second time in a lawsuit over whether the state can increase judges' health insurance and pension contributions. Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg ruled Wednesday that New Jersey cannot increase judges' contributions while the case proceeds. Last week, Feinberg sided with Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale, who sued the state over its pension and benefits overhaul. DePascale argued that the increases would diminish his salary.

RICHMOND, Va. - The Obama administration received a generally friendly hearing Tuesday from a panel of three Democratic appointees for its first appeals court defense of the national health-care law. Two of the three judges - Andre Davis and James Wynn Jr. - were Obama appointees, and the third, Judge Diana Motz, was a Clinton appointee. The panels are chosen randomly by computer. Lawyers for Virginia struggled to explain how the state had the legal standing to challenge the health-care mandate on behalf of its citizens.

By Matt Joyce As I slid slowly into Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's glistening, space-age MRI machine recently, preparing for a 40-minute, $1,500 procedure that would yield more than 100 images of my injured wrist, thoughts of American entrepreneurship, preventive care, and the glaring ironies of our health-care system circled through my head. Three years ago, my former college roommate, Tim Ifill, and I started a nonprofit organization called Philly Fellows. Both of us chose to forgo traditional jobs with stable salaries and benefits to build a program that we were passionate about, and that we felt would make a tangible impact on the city of Philadelphia.

State insurance regulators yesterday warned consumers and businesses who have purchased health insurance coverage from Atlantic Healthcare and United Healthcare Benefits Trust that they should find replacement coverage from licensed companies. Both Atlantic and United are unlicensed insurance companies that have operated illegally in the Philadelphia, Reading and Allentown areas, Acting Insurance Commissioner Cynthia M. Maleski said in a statement. The Insurance Department has received complaints that United Healthcare Benefits was not paying claims and had refused to answer customer inquiries.

Higher prices for visits to doctors, surgery, and drugs were the main cause of higher health-care costs for privately insured Americans in 2010, when overall utilization of health-care services was down, a report by the Health Care Cost Institute in Washington, said Monday. The report, using data provided by Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare, analyzed three billion claims for 33 million individuals covered by employer-based health insurance from 2007 through 2010. "For the first time, we have comprehensive data on the privately insured.

NEW YORK - Roman Catholic dioceses, schools, and other groups sued the Obama administration Monday in eight states and the District of Columbia over a federal mandate that most employers provide workers free birth control as part of their health insurance. The federal lawsuits represent the largest push against the mandate since President Obama announced the policy in January. Among those suing are the Pennsylvania Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Erie, the University of Notre Dame, and the Catholic University of America.

Burnishing his political credentials among the Republican right wing may be the only logical explanation for Gov. Christie's blocking the creation of state health-insurance exchanges, which would aid not only the 1.3 million New Jerseyans without coverage, but also small businesses and people who don't have enough medical insurance. Choosing politics over policy, Christie has caved to party extremists who were calling the exchanges "Christiecare. " The term served as a loosely veiled threat to a potential running mate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has his own problems trying to escape references to "Romneycare," the affordable-health-care plan he created as governor of Massachusetts.

No matter how the case turns out, one group of Americans is assured of getting quality health insurance when the Supreme Court rules on President Obama's Affordable Care Act in June: members of the court itself. The Supreme Court, which is expected to issue its decision in June, gets its health insurance through the same plan available to members of Congress and other federal employees — and though benefits have been trimmed in recent years, it remains among the best. In one little-known feature of the law, however, members of Congress would have to leave the generous federal plan and obtain their coverage through online insurance exchanges, or markets, if the law is upheld.

Gov. Christie rejected a key provision of President Obama's health care plan on Thursday, becoming the second governor in the country to veto a bill that would have set up a state-run exchange to allow consumers to collectively shop for health insurance. The decision was immediately panned as political by Democrats but welcomed by tea party conservatives, who had expressed alarm in recent days that the Republican governor would allow "Christiecare" in New Jersey. The 2010 federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - now called Obamacare by conservative opponents and the president himself - requires most Americans to get health coverage by 2014.

Missed opportunity I really appreciated Inga Saffron's review of the Barnes museum ("Art in a new light," Sunday). I agree that what was supposed to be the urbanization of a suburban museum turned into the creation of a suburban plot within a city, devoid of context and any sympathy for the public realm. However, as someone who is two years out of architecture school, I think the larger picture is the public's expectation of public buildings. During a recent drive down the Parkway, I asked my sister what she thought of the new Barnes, and if she was disappointed in its utter lack of beauty.

Hospitals and insurers never have an easy time negotiating contracts, but the level of brinkmanship in Pittsburgh between Highmark Inc. and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was unusual by any measure. In a bid to compete if it failed to get a contract with UPMC, which has more than 20 hospitals and its own health insurance company, Highmark even went as far as buying the financially ailing West Penn Allegheny Health System in a deal valued at up to $475 million when it was announced last year.

At Project H.O.P.E. in Camden, a group of 10 behavioral health patients is sometimes packed into an exam room at midday while the doctor is at lunch. That is expected to change over the next few years as the health center for the homeless triples its size with the help of a $4.7 million grant, part of $728 million in capital funding to community health centers nationwide that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday in a visit to the Fairmount Health Center in Philadelphia.