Recently, Forbes contributor Chris Conover took an interesting angle on the issue of health care in America by calculating the health care costs of the average worker. According to his figures, they add up to $8,953 per year -- the equivalent of 58 days of work.
Americans kept health care spending in check for three years in a row, the government reported Monday, an unusual respite that could linger if the economy stays soft or fade like a mirage if job growth comes roaring back.
Sometimes the most important news stories get overshadowed by short-term crises and teakettle tempests. With that in mind, we at DailyFinance decided to take a look back at the nine stories of 2012 that are likely to have the biggest impact on your wallet in the year ahead.
Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too: It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Election-year politics evidently put some strain on Americans' vocabularies in 2012. The two most looked-up words of the year in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary were "socialism" and "capitalism," followed closely by "democracy," "marriage" and "bigotry."
First, Papa John's CEO John Schnatter drew a harsh backlash from liberal pizza lovers over his suggestion that health care reform was going to force him to reduce employees' hours. Then on Tuesday, he was hit with a $250 million class-action lawsuit over text message advertisements.
We at DailyFinance asked you, our readers, what you want from the first debate: which questions you were concerned about, which issues you wanted discussed, and which policies you wanted clarified. As always, you gave us fantastic feedback.
Wednesday's first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama is being hyped as an epic battle: More likely, it'll be a highly scripted rehash of well-worn talking points. But if real drama does occurs, one likely flashpoint will be health care reform.
The IRS assured GOP lawmakers Tuesday that agents would play no role in enforcing the requirement that Americans buy insurance under President Obama's health care overhaul. "IRS revenue agents will not be involved. There will not be audits," IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller said.
GOP governors have balked at carrying out a key part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law -- setting up new private health insurance markets in their states. But increasingly, it's looking like Washington will just do it for them.
Arizona State University grad student Arijit Guha was shocked when his health insurance provider, Aetna, stopped paying for his cancer treatment. But a clever social media campaign that ended in a Twitter conversation with Aetna's CEO has set matters right.
For years, employers have been dropping old-style pensions in favor of 401(k)s, putting more responsibility for retirement in the hands of workers. Now, companies are considering doing the same thing with health insurance benefits: Meet the "defined-contribution" health plan.
If the Affordable Care Act performs as advertised, tens of millions of Americans will benefit directly. But there will be other beneficiaries, too -- and some will make good investments. For example: Weight Watchers.
Last week, DailyFinance explored several myths about how the health care reform law will effect average Americans -- myths that had little basis in fact. But these five rumors about the PPACA do contain at least a grain of truth, and they may hit your pocketbook.
A key goal of the Affordable Care Act was to reduce national cost of health care. But one of its effects may be to eliminate a popular product that cuts Americans' personal health insurance costs: high-deductible health plans.