Health insurance subsidy deadline nears for laid off workers

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• Survey: Employers shift more insurance costs to workers

  Survey: Employers shift more insurance costs to workers

  An annual survey released Thursday finds that workers are paying, on average, about $482 more for job-based family health insurance this year as companies force employees to shoulder more of the burden of health care costs.

  The increase in premiums, up 14 percent from last year, means that workers are paying nearly all of a $495 increase in the average cost of family coverage this year.

  Employers' contributions to family coverage showed no increase at all in 2010, according to the Employer Health Benefits Survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

• Health overhaul's supporters make case in hearings, protests

  Health overhaul's supporters make case in hearings, protests

  WASHINGTON — Joanne Johnson wiped a tear from her cheek as she told a congressional hearing Wednesday how her brother died an unnecessarily early death because he didn't have health insurance.

  Johnson, a retired Bell South employee who lives in Blythewood, S.C., joined two dozen other "insurance abuse survivors" from across the country as part of a weeklong push by President Barack Obama to compel congressional passage of his health-care overhaul.

  Johnson struggled to tell the room packed with lawmakers, health activists and reporters about her brother, Marvin Wright.

• Changes coming to health insurance plans

  Changes coming to health insurance plans

  WASHINGTON — Consumers and employers who provide health insurance are scrambling to understand what will change in their premiums and benefits once the recently passed law goes into effect.

  The new legislation applies broadly to nearly all private plans. That includes policies offered by large self-insured employers, through whom about half of the nation's covered workers get their insurance.

  Some new rules — such as barring insurers from rejecting children with medical conditions or from canceling policies retroactively — are aimed at problems that mainly affect the 17 million people who buy their own insurance in the so-called non-group market.

• Workers bear larger share of health premium costs

  Workers bear larger share of health premium costs

  Workers are paying a larger portion of their health insurance costs as businesses shift more of the burden to their employees to help ride out the economic downturn, an annual study shows.

  The average employee contribution toward premiums for family coverage climbed 14 percent this year to nearly $4,000, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust released Thursday. Contributions for single coverage grew 15 percent. But total premiums - the amount split by the employer and employee - rose a modest 3 percent for family coverage and 5 percent for single employees this year.

  Companies that offer benefits still pay at least 70 percent of the total premium, on average, for their workers. But this year, companies passed most of the premium increases on to employees instead of absorbing them as they usually do, something researchers had not seen before, Kaiser CEO Drew Altman said.

• Details of the new health insurance overhaul

  Details of the new health insurance overhaul

  WASHINGTON — The health care overhaul package is the most far-reaching health legislation since the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. While the underlying Senate bill is now law since President Barack Obama signed it Tuesday, additional changes will occur if the Senate passes the House of Representatives' reconciliation-bill part of the package.

  The following is a look at the impact of the entire package, which would extend insurance coverage to 32 million Americans but also would affect almost every citizen:

  Q: I don't have health insurance. Would I have to get it, and what happens if I don't?

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