Author: Reporter

Love them or hate them, it is hard to see health savings accounts losing traction any time soon. Used in conjunction with high-deductible healthcare plans, the accounts have been touted as a way to put downward pressure on healthcare costs. Even though HSAs are the only triple tax-advantaged vehicle in the tax code allowing for pretax contributions, tax-free compounding, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses, few HSA owners fund the accounts to the maximum. HSA critics point out that the high-deductible healthcare plan/HSA combination is a good fit for the “healthy and wealthy” but is apt to be...

While obesity is high and holding steady in the U.S., the proportion of those with severe obesity, especially women, has climbed since a decade ago, according to new government research. The U.S. obesity rate is about 40%, according to a 2021-2023 survey of about 6,000 people. Nearly 1 in 10 of those surveyed reported severe obesity, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report severe obesity. The overall obesity rate appeared to tick down vs. the 2017-2020 survey, but the change was not considered statistically significant, the numbers...

Unlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her health insurance covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the much-hyped medications didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13...

Lego opened a $1 billion factory in Vietnam on April 9 that it says will make toys without adding planet-warming gas to the atmosphere by relying entirely on clean energy. The factory in the industrial area of Binh Duong, close to Ho Chi Minh City, is the first in Vietnam that aims to run entirely on clean energy. Lego says it will do that by early 2026. It’s the Danish company’s sixth worldwide and its second in Asia. It will use high-tech equipment to produce colorful Lego bricks for Southeast Asia’s growing markets. “We just want to make sure...

Hamburger Hill, Hue, the Ia Drang Valley, Khe Sanh: Some remember the Vietnam War battles from the headlines of the 1960s and 1970s, others from movies and history books. Thousands of Americans and Vietnamese know them as the graveyards of loved ones who died fighting more than a half-century ago. Today the battlefields of Vietnam are sites of pilgrimage for veterans from both sides who fought there, and tourists wanting to see firsthand where the war was waged. “It was a war zone when I was here before,” reflected U.S. Army veteran Paul Hazelton as he walked with his...

Loyal customers of Asian supermarkets and other grocery stores that specialize in selling imported food heaved a collective sigh of dismay when President Donald Trump announced extra-high U.S. tariffs on goods from dozens of countries. What would happen to prices at 99 Ranch Market and H Mart?, wondered Asian Americans and immigrants who shop at the two American chains for preferred brands like Japan’s Kewpie mayonnaise and China’s Pearl River light soy sauce. “We’re all going to be crying in H Mart,” a TikTok user commiserated, referencing the title of a bestselling memoir by Korean American musician Michelle Zauner...