insurance

As work continues to repair Maryland's health exchange, enrollment of uninsured Marylanders is going more smoothly and a big marketing push is set to get underway, users and state officials said Wednesday.

All insurers selling policies on the state's health care exchange have agreed to extend the enrollment deadline for coverage that begins Jan. 1, state officials said Tuesday.

Two days after Gov. Martin O'Malley declared the state's online insurance marketplace finally worked for most consumers, a server crashed Monday morning, the call center became overwhelmed and the governor announced he was bringing in another contractor to improve the website.

The reality, however, is that this arrangement is probably no more permanent than any other organizational arrangement made in local or regional health care in the past 50 to 100 years, which is to say not very permanent at all.

Launch of health insurance exchange not Maryland's finest hour

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown cast uncertainty Tuesday on the administration's ability to meet a deadline for repairs of the state's online insurance marketplace, which has had one of the country's most troubled rollouts of Obamacare.

Documents reveal behind-the-scenes trouble at Maryland health exchange

Three years after touting his medical background as he campaigned for Congress, Rep. Andy Harris is emerging as a top spokesman in opposition to Obamacare — and taking on other health policy issues as well.

Rather than putting a happy face on Obamacare website fixes, the administration needs to be more forthright about the problems that remain.

Since 2010, about 400 Marylanders complained to state regulators about property damage they said utility companies or their contractors caused, from scratched driveways and dug-up lawns to fried appliances. Opportunities for more damage are poised to mount as electric and gas utilities pick up the pace of infrastructure work.

While much of the focus on the troubled rollout of Obamacare has been on individuals who are either losing coverage or are unable to buy a new plan on botched websites, small-group policies purchased by businesses are also being affected by the new law.

A hearing has been set for Jan. 10 on a motion to return "Paysage Bords de Seine" to the Baltimore Museum of Art. Meanwhile, settlement discussions are ongoing.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield said Tuesday that it would offer more than 55,500 individuals the chance to extend their healthcare plans for a year even though they don't comply with the federal Affordable Care Act.

Two rival campaigns for governor took aim Tuesday at Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown over his role in the glitch-riddled launch of Maryland's new health care exchange, contending he mismanaged implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

As Maryland Health Connection exchange undergoes fixes, consumers and groups use other means to find care.

Scrap Obamacare for a single-payer system

More than 1,700 Marylanders had enrolled in health insurance coverage through a new state marketplace as of Friday, and of those who signed up in October, most were women and middle-aged.

Representatives from the Maryland Health Connection will be visiting Carroll County CVS stores and libraries over the next three weeks to discuss health care options for uninsured residents.

Obama and the 4 percent

With millions of consumers getting cancellation notices for their current health plans, President Obama announced Thursday that he will encourage insurance companies to continue offering their customers the same health plans next year.

Health care reform law offers too many benefits to Americans to be abandoned now

Among the 106,000 Americans who have successfully signed up in October for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, 1,284 were in Maryland.

Health care reform may be flawed but it's better than anything else available

Parity rules should help more people gain better access to mental health care and addiction treatment

Closer examination of canceled health insurance policies reveals their inadequacy

Most Americans with health insurance will be guaranteed access to mental health services, including for depression and alcoholism, equal to medical and surgical treatment under long-delayed rules issued on Friday by the Obama administration. But the protections do not apply to tens of millions of people, including the elderly.

As Obama continues his campaign to win over Americans skeptical of the Affordable Care Act, the ranks of critics are growing, swollen by people who are losing their existing health insurance because it does not comply with the law

Howard County Department of Citizen Services is warning Medicare recipients and residents who qualify for health coverage through the new health care exchanges of misleading and what they say are illegal offers of help cropping up in the county, according to a county government news release.

Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Co., a presence in Baltimore since its founding 54 years ago, will be moving its headquarters to Des Moines, Iowa — another disappointment for the city that has seen a loss of corporations based here.

About 73,000 policy holders around the state will lose their insurance in coming months because nine insurance companies are dropping some health plans that were not grandfathered under the Affordable Care Act, the Maryland Insurance Administration confirmed Monday.

Kenny Tate couldn't have known how fleeting it would be -- those heady weeks after his junior season of 2010 when the NFL beckoned and he made a fateful decision to postpone the career he long imagined and return to Maryland.

Don't blame Obamacare for how community colleges are struggling with adjunct faculty pay and benefits

Critics in Congress warned that many Americans would lose their existing insurance coverage. But when a key part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect in January, the only ones who will be forced to drop their insurance and find coverage through a health exchange will be those who work in Congress.

A bad website is one thing but latest attack on Obamacare greatly exaggerates the 'dropped insurance policy" phenomenon

Small businesses may be the future of health insurance co-op in Maryland

Lessons from Hurricane Sandy are still being put into action, but officials in Crisfield and Garrett County, the hardest-hit areas of Maryland, say they are better prepared for future disasters.

Republicans are more than happy to complain that people can't get health insurance the GOP didn't want them to have.