Monthly Archives: May 2010

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.

Even though the recent health care reform legislation was signed into law, most of its big provisions don't actually take effect for several years, giving insurance companies and the public time to prepare for what will assuredly be a huge shift in buying and owning health insurance coverage. Well, according to an article in the LA Times entitled, "National Restaurant Assn. and UnitedHealth join on coverage effort for restaurant workers," we might have an unlikely ally in the private sector when it comes to giving people affordable health insurance coverage. According to the article, UnitedHealth -- a pretty huge private health insurance company, and The National Restaurant Association -- a huge restaurant group that represents nearly 400,000 employers and millions of their employees nationwide -- are planning to team up to give restaurant workers access to low-cost, affordable health insurance coverage.

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.