Costs for employer-provided health plans are expected to rise more than 10 percent within the next year, a jump workers may feel in their paychecks or through changes to their insurance coverage.

For the insurance industry, long an opponent of health care reform, it was a striking change: with a new administration coming to Washington, insurers agreed to abandon some of their most controversial practices, like denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing medical conditions.

Stocks ended slightly lower Tuesday, though the Nasdaq eked out a gain. And Citigroup shares soared.

Stocks eked out a gain Monday as banks got a boost from a jump in new-home sales. Stocks had struggled for much of the day as investors worried about a a record $200 billion in Treasury auctions this week and lowered outlooks from Honeywell and Aetna cast a shadow over the market.

A general air of uncertainty over what Washington has in store for health care reform is spreading to Wall Street, where investors are leery over what ramifications the undertaking will have on portfolios.

A Seattle clinic for people fed up with insurance, started by doctors fed up with insurance, has gotten $4 million in private venture capital money to expand.

Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

The average family with health insurance shells out an extra $1,000 a year in premiums to pay for health care for the uninsured, a new report finds.