Health Care Reform

An Affordable Care Act provision mandating health insurance exchanges to be formed by each state by 2014 is creating a great deal of controversy and negativity among some states.

A Fidelity Investments report notes that retiring couples this year will need $230,000 for medical expenses -- a drop from the $250,000 originally predicted by the Boston-based advisory firm.

The Obama administration on Thursday outlined a new approach to medical care that it said could mean higher quality and less risk for patients, while also saving millions of dollars for taxpayers.

Republican lawmakers charge that the AARP, which supported the Affordable Care Act of 2010, will profit from its passage, and that the organization should be stripped of its federal tax exemption.

ACOs are designed to facilitate coordination and cooperation among providers but some fear a drop in the number of dependent hospitals and doctors.

Whether North Carolina makes health insurance as easy for individuals and small businesses to shop for as a plane ticket on a travel website could be left up to an oversight board on which business interests outnumber consumer advocates.

A handful of high-profile Republicans eying the White House told hundreds of conservative activists this weekend that most Americans agree with their values, and insisted that opposition to the president's health care overhaul could help the GOP make historic gains in 2012.

Gov. Mary Fallin defended efforts to create an insurance exchange for uninsured Oklahomans on Monday, explaining if the state does not have an exchange in place by 2013 the federal government will step in and create its own.