Bruce Japsen, Contributor, 2/17/2014 @ 4:43PM

Using language seldom reserved for Congress, the nation’s most powerful lobbies for physicians are heaping praise on rare bipartisan legislation heading to the floors of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives perhaps within the next month to fix a flaw in how doctors are paid by the federal Medicare health insurance program for the elderly.

After years of watching Congress delay, debate and dither on the repeal of Medicare’s “sustainable growth rate,” or SGR, reimbursement formula, a solution has passed three powerful Congressional committees and is headed possibly next month to likely passage.

By Hazel Bradford | February 17, 2014

Despite the growing drumbeat in Washington to stimulate more retirement savings, the prospect for real change is dim, and retirement plan sponsors are braced for more bad news from Congress and the White House.

The next delivery will come in early March, when President Barack Obama unveils a 2015 budget that is expected to propose curtailing the tax advantages of workplace retirement savings for higher-income earners, in a bid to direct more of the tax preference for retirement savings to getting more low- and middle-income people into the habit of saving.

By ADAM SNEED| 2/16/14 9:55 AM EST

Sen. Mike Lee says President Barack Obama’s executive actions delaying portions of Obamacare are “shameless” acts done purely for political reasons.

“This is a shameless act, a shameless power grab that is designed to help the president and his political party achieve a particular outcome in a partisan election,” the Utah Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.”

The Obama administration announced Monday that some small businesses will be allowed an extra year to provide health insurance to their workers, and larger businesses can phase in the mandate over two years.

By Jim Angle, Published February 16, 2014

People with serious pre-existing diseases, precisely those the president aimed to help with ObamaCare, could find themselves paying for expensive drug treatments with no help from the health care exchanges.

Those with expensive diseases such as lupus or multiple sclerosis face something called a “closed drug formulary.”

Dr. Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute explains,”if the medicine that you need isn’t on that list, it’s not covered at all. You have to pay completely out of pocket to get that medicine, and the money you spend doesn’t count against your deductible, and it doesn’t count against your out of pocket limits, so you’re basically on your own.”

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) — A Democratic  congressman Sunday said President Obama  was not exercising undue authority when he delayed the employer mandate of his  healthcare reform program.

Rep. Javier Becerra, D-Calif., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told  “Fox News Sunday” there was nothing improper in the president’s decision to  postpone the mandate for small businesses without the blessing of Congress.

Feb. 15, 2014 at 10:19 AM

WASHINGTON, (UPI) — U.S. President  Obama’s promises on healthcare have been “proven false,” Rep. Tom Rooney,  R-Fla., said Saturday, calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Delivering the weekly GOP address, Rooney said what he called the president’s  broken promises were a “breach of faith” with senior citizens.

By Robert Powell, Feb. 14, 2014, 4:46 p.m. EST

Good news for boomer and Generation X households, according to a new report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Yes, overall retirement income adequacy for those cohorts improved last year, though factors like age, income, and especially access to an employment-based 401(k)-type retirement plan, can produce significant individual differences, the EBRI said in its report.

Using its proprietary Retirement Security Projection Model (RSPM), the EBRI finds that last year’s gains in the financial markets and housing values mean that fewer of these households are likely to run short of money in retirement.

Mitch Tuchman, Contributor, 2/14/2014 @ 11:15AM

Retirement investors often hear that they should build a portfolio, rather than picking stocks based on tips and gut feelings. Easy to say and, for a long time, it was hard to do.

Pension funds and universities really understand portfolio building, as do many wealthy individuals. For all the blather you hear on TV about which stock or sector a famous-name investor supposedly will buy next, the fact is rich people do not often take all-in risks.

Rather, they keep their money in a variety of asset classes. The rich also regularly rebalance  — they sell the investments that have gone up and use that cash to buy those that have fallen — and they own more conservative investments than you might guess.

By Erik Wasson, February 14, 2014, 01:11 pm

Senate Democrats on Friday told President Obama they don’t want to see cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid in his annual budget.

Sixteen senators wrote to the president as fears persist among liberals that Obama will once again offer some entitlement cuts in his budget, which is set to be released March 4.

In last April’s budget, Obama proposed changing the way the government calculates inflation. The change to the chained consumer price index (CPI) would have reduced retirement benefits as well as increasing some taxes.

By Russ Britt, February 13, 2014, 2:28 PM

A couple of proposed changes to President Obama’s health-care overhaul are drawing the attention of the credit evaluators at Moody’s Investors Service — and not in a good way.

In a note to clients Thursday, the ratings agency targeted two proposals: One forcing insurers that offer plans on public exchanges to expand their network of doctors and hospitals, and the other allowing individuals to retain non-compliant insurance policies through the end of 2016.