Health insurance ads were up this year despite a slashed budget

Dec 15, 2017
Today is the last day to enroll in Obamacare insurance plans. Earlier this year, the Trump administration slashed the Affordable Care Act advertising budget by $90 million, so many people assumed there would be far fewer TV ads encouraging people to sign up. But it turns out there’s been 51 percent more insurance commercials compared […]

California consumers are buying gold health insurance plans in record numbers

Dec 13, 2017
Obamacare’s open enrollment period closes for most states Friday. Thanks to a complicated federal formula, a spike in premiums this year has given consumers who are eligible for subsidies more money to buy insurance. And early signs suggest some people in California and Washington state are going for the gold —the gold, normally expensive, plans. […]

The mysterious jump in Obamacare enrollment

Nov 24, 2017
We’re half-way through the Obamacare open enrollment period and we’ve got a bit of a health care mystery on our hands. Earlier this week, federal health officials reported nearly 800-thousand consumers selected plans on healthcare.gov – the federal website where people shop for plans under the Affordable Care Act. It’s the third consecutive week enrollment […]

The health insurance exchanges were meant to lower premiums through competition. So what happened this year?

Oct 30, 2017
It’s sign up season for the Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment starts on Wednesday. Government numbers out today show that almost half of the population live in places where they can only choose from three or fewer insurers. Not much competition, so you’d expect premiums to be high. But in other places, there’s seven, eight or even […]

Time to think about saving for retirement (again)

Nov 28, 2014
The average household nearing retirement has just $110,000 socked away in retirement accounts, one expert says.