There’s been a lot of excitable talk in the media about the future of Medicare and related health coverage programs. We separate the truth from the noise.

People are worried about employers cutting off existing health insurance coverage. Here are some reasons not to be too worried…and steps to take if a cut-off actually does happen.

The health insurance market follows a cycle of expansion and contraction, like any other. The challenge for smart consumers: understand where the market is in its cycle when you’re buying coverage.

What do pre-existing conditions, adverse selection and statistical complexities have to do with health care premiums and coverage? They all drive up costs—and can be reined in by smart consumers.

Election-year politics generate heat but not much light on matters of cost-containment, incentives and real choice when it comes to medical care. Smart consumers know there’s no such thing as “free” care—everyone pays, sooner or later.

One of the surest ways to get a good deal–in any commercial transaction–is to understand the mindset of the seller. When it comes to buying health coverage, this means understanding how insurance companies measure the medical payments they make…and use these measurements to set the prices of the policies they sell.

With so much media attention being given to health care and health care reform, ordinary people aren’t sure how to get the best coverage for their circumstances and needs. This new column aims to explain and analyze the health insurance marketplace in a way that gives consumers the tools they need for making good buying decisions.

Recently, it was announced that the Obama administration is changing and improving the way customers appeal to their health insurance companies when they’re denied a claim or when their health insurance coverage gets canceled. According to an article in the Associated Press entitled, “Feds move to improve health insurance appeals,” the legislation will start in 2011, to give time to insurance companies so they can deal with its complexities.

With our economy the way it is these days, sometimes people forget that the backbone of our economy are small businesses. Small businesses not only grow into large businesses, they also do quite a bit of the hiring as well, something that is desperately needed in today’s economy. Sadly, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times entitled, “Health insurance rate hikes hitting California small businesses could hurt state’s economic recovery,” small businesses are facing yet another hurtle that, as the title of the article says, could hurt the economic recovery of not just business in California, but elsewhere as well.

We don’t usually cover COBRA related topics here, because honestly it doesn’t pop up in the news that often, but that’s likely to change in the coming months, especially with how the recently-signed health care reform law changes things for COBRA recipients. The story we’re looking at today, “Health Insurance Dilemma: COBRA Subsidies Will Soon Run Out for Many” from DailyFinance, talks about how COBRA is about to run out for many people, and what people can do once they do lose coverage.