The National Flood Insurance Program has received another temporary extension, this time through May 31, 2012, meaning its future will remain in question for another year.

The Obama Administration has proposed sharing with states the responsibility of defining essential health benefits (EHBs), a move that empowers states to detail their specific offerings within broad federal categories.

The Obama Administration appears to have used a fairly convoluted process to make clear what many have been suggesting since federal health reform passed in March 2010. Simply put, the Obama Administration, through its U.S. Health and Human Services Department, wants insurance agents and brokers out of providing advice on health plans to consumers and businesses.

U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va) says President Obama‘s Medicare nominee, Marilyn Tavenner, is “eminently qualified” to run the federal program.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Nov. 29 he was crafting a plan with other Republicans to extend payroll tax cuts, which if allowed to expire this year could could cause the average family making $50,000 per year to have to pay an additional $1,000 in income taxes for 2011.

Under Obamacare Americans who don’t buy health insurance will be penalized with an extra tax. Now the Obama Administration has come up with a proposal that if you buy too good of an insurance plan as a senior citizen you will also be penalized. Obama wants to charge Medicare beneficiaries an extra 30% on top of their Part B premiums if they purchase Medicare supplemental insurance that covers their deductibles and copays. If passed this will become effective for policies purchased in 2017 or later.

Senior Obama Administration officials met with three health-care advisors and experts involved in the creation of the health reform law passed in in Massachusetts by Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006.

President Obama signed a patent reform bill with a provision that will help prevent “frivolous” lawsuits that increase costs for consumers, a national insurance association says.

The actuarial team at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was assigned to come up with the premium amounts and design of a government-run, long-term care program called CLASS has been dismissed.

President Barack Obama supports reforming the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) by eliminating the premium subsidy for certain properties, an act that would help to save about $4.2 billion in the next decade.