BOSTON, May 24 (Reuters) – College graduates are carrying
more than just their diplomas this spring as they enter the real
world: student loan debt – a lot of it.

Seventy percent of the Class of 2013 is graduating indebted,
with an average balance of $35,200, says a recent Fidelity
Investments survey.

BOSTON, May 20 (Reuters) – When the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, starts rolling out in
October, it will overhaul how Americans get healthcare coverage.
Yet many workers will feel little immediate impact.

That’s because almost half the 160 million Americans who
received health coverage through their jobs in 2012 were
enrolled in what’s known as a “grandfathered” insurance plan,
according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.

March 19 (Reuters) – At 54, Steven Eisen knows he’s pretty
lucky to be considering
retirement from his Nashville law firm within the next year. But
beyond the usual financial considerations, he has another
advantage unavailable to most workers today: guaranteed
employer-sponsored health benefits until he turns 65.

“Health coverage is extremely critical to my wife and me
since we both have chronic illnesses,” Eisen says. “We probably
would have difficulty obtaining coverage elsewhere at a
reasonable rate.”

By Kathleen Kingsbury

(Reuters) – For many Americans, the health reform law passed in 2010 will forevermore tie their health to their taxes.

And even though the big changes required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care don’t start until 2014, the tax impact starts now.

By Kathleen Kingsbury

NEW YORK, March 11(Reuters) – Latte buyers in select New
York City venues may have noticed an addition to coffee shop
counters lately: DipJar, a tip jar that takes plastic.

With a quick dip of their credit cards into the sleek
machine, grateful customers are able to leave a pre-set tip
(generally $1) for baristas. An old-fashioned cash-register
chime alerts them that the transaction has gone through, but
there is no receipt. Counter workers later divvy up the
proceeds, which right now are not subject to a processing fee.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Marie D’Orsaneo’s rheumatoid arthritis worsened three years ago, her doctor prescribed Rituxan, an expensive injectable drug that her employer-sponsored health plan had to sign off on first.

In the four weeks D’Orsaneo waited for that approval, the 41-year-old physician’s assistant says her health deteriorated so rapidly she had to leave her job, move in with relatives and was eventually hospitalized.

NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) – When Mitch and Susan Glavas
began the domestic adoption process in 2010, there was one
expense they weren’t anticipating: the marketing budget.

The couple’s adoption agency initially suggested that they
build a website to introduce themselves to birth parents. But
they hesitated — until an expected six- to 12-month wait for a
baby grew longer and longer.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Russia’s new ban on U.S. adoptions is the latest setback for hopeful American parents as countries increasingly impose restrictions.

Other countries, including China and Guatemala, have erected hurdles for adoptive families as they create their own domestic adoption programs. The signing of the Hague Convention on adoption in 2008 drastically improved regulation of the process, which had been rife with corruption. But it has also led to a slowdown in adoptions or shutdowns in some countries. Internal politics and abuse concerns are additional reasons why countries have tightened controls.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One in three workers is about to give income back to their employer at the end of the year. That is because some 33 percent of employees are holding balances in use-it-or-lose-it flexible spending accounts (FSA) for healthcare, according to WageWorks Inc, a company that administers benefits programs.

An FSA allows employees to set aside pretax dollars to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses; most commonly they are used for doctor visit co-pays or prescription drugs. “It’s a really a way to maximize your take-home pay, give yourself a raise,” said Jody Dietel, chief compliance officer at WageWorks.

NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Rising U.S. college costs hit a
ceiling this fall and student borrowing dropped for the first
time in 20 years, according to data released on Wednesday by the
College Board.

Tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year
institutions rose 4.8 percent, averaging $8,655 for the
2012-2013 school year, the College Board said. That is the
smallest annual increase in 12 years.