Headlines about "Health plan costs - misc"

Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.

Will Rising Required Benefit Plan Contributions Encourage Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market?
Excerpt: "[In a report entitled 'Dark Vision: The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market', Frederick J. Sheehan] notes that 'spending is rising and revenue is collapsing' for all levels of government. Pension fund losses will require governments to double their contributions to pension plans . . . ." (Phillip Greenspun)

Childhood Obesity Weighs on Benefit Budgets
Excerpt: "Childhood obesity weighs heavily on the financial scales when it leads to increased health care utilization and higher costs for employers. Further, poor child health will decrease employee productivity as working parents often must leave early or be absent to care for their child." (BenefitNews.com)

Health Insurance at Risk: Small Business Employees Risk Losing Coverage (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "As a result of high health care costs, the percentage of firms offering health insurance coverage has declined. Between 2000 and 2009, the percentage of firms offering coverage fell from 69 to 60. Much of that drop occurred in the past year alone, from 63 to 60 percent. Small businesses in particular struggle under the current health care system. For firms employing less than 10 workers, the erosion in coverage is striking ? from 57 percent offering coverage in 2000 to 46 percent offering coverage in 2009." (Healthreform.GOV)

Letter to the Honorable Charles B. Rangel: Preliminary Analysis of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (PDF)
27 pages. Excerpt: "According to CBO and JCT's assessment, enacting H.R. 3962 would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $104 billion over the 2010?2019 period (see Table 1). In the subsequent decade, the collective effect of its provisions would probably be slight reductions in federal budget deficits. Those estimates are all subject to substantial uncertainty." (U.S. Congressional Budget Office)

Debate Rages Over Health-Risk Age Bands
Excerpt: "A significant disparity in health insurance costs between young and old tied to risk-based ratings has crippled the individual and small group markets with generally fewer than 50 lives. It also is one of the least discussed issues of health care reform. . . . Small businesses are keeping a watchful eye on proposed age bands in hopes that any final legislation will level the playing field on underwriting restrictions so that they can better manage insurance risks relative to large companies. Big business is able to self-insure hefty claims and more easily spread underwriting risks in fully insured plans." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Wellpoint and Other Health Insurers Say Claim Costs Increasing with COBRA and the Flu
Health insurer officials say that between flu and COBRA claims' costs, they will be forced to raise premiums. (The Associated Press via Google)

[Guidance Overview] Deferred Compensation Timing Rules, Rather Than Subchapter L, Govern Insurance Company's Deduction for Retiree Medical Benefits (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt: "In a Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM 200939019 (June 10, 2009)), the Internal Revenue Service concluded that the deduction timing rules of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ? 404(a)(5) trump Subchapter L in governing a deduction for retiree medical expenses." (Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP)

The 'Big Three' VEBAs and other Stand-Alone Welfare Benefit Trusts: What Is and Is Not Novel About Them
Excerpt: "The 'Big Three' automakers, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, as well as other companies, have agreed to establish and fund voluntary employees' beneficiary associations, or 'VEBAs,' to meet their post-retirement health insurance obligations. . . . The VEBAs established most recently by the automakers, however, are different. They do not serve merely as an advance-funding vehicle by which the employer can pre-pay part of its liability under the plan. Rather, they actually assume the employer's liability for benefits under the plan, and the employer is relieved of that liability.6 Thus these trusts serve as a mechanism not merely of pre-funding, but of permanently settling, the employer's obligations under the plan. The assumption of the employer's liability is the critical distinguishing feature that makes the Big Three trusts, and other recent trusts like them, different from what had gone before." (Tax Management Inc.)

CMS Issues 2010 Medicare Premium, Deductible and Coinsurance Amounts
Excerpt: "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released 2010 premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing amounts for Medicare Parts A and B. The standard Part B monthly premium increases to $110.50, and the annual Part B deductible increases to $155. The Part A deductible will increase to $1,100 in 2010, while daily hospital cost-sharing amounts will increase by $8 or $16, depending on length of stay. However, a rarely applied rule will keep premiums the same for nearly three-quarters of recipients." (Mercer LLC)

Small Businesses Facing the Largest Health Insurance Premium Increases in Massachusetts
Excerpt: "Three years after Massachusetts enacted its sweeping health-reform legislation, rising health costs continue to bedevil the state and threaten to derail reform efforts. Despite a significant restructuring of the state's health sector and dominance of nonprofit health plans, Massachusetts still has the highest health-insurance costs in the nation, averaging $13,788 for a family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.One of the reasons so many people supported the reform effort in Massachusetts is that they were told universal coverage would lead to lower costs. With universal coverage, Massachusetts politicians argued, as many in Washington do today, people would no longer have to pay the medical bills of those who don't have insurance -- the 'free riders' -- and therefore health-insurance premiums would fall, or at least level off." (The Wall Street Journal via Galen Institute)

The New Health Participation and Access Data from the National Compensation Survey
Excerpt: "New data on participation in and access to health care benefits allow for the study of the correlation between health care cost and health plan participation. This article compares this correlation between two occupational groups: management, professional, and related workers and service workers. Although participation is a significant factor in determining the estimates of average employer costs for health care benefits, other factors, such as annual hours worked, mix of jobs and industries, and the percentage paid by the employer can also have substantial effects." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

'Cadillac' Tax on Health Insurance Worries Unions
Excerpt: "Unions representing thousands of teachers and state and local government workers are bracing for the worst if Congress adopts a proposed 'Cadillac' tax on health insurance. The 40 percent levy on health care costs above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families passed the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Oct. 13. If the tax were to become law, experts said, government employees in New York would be hit hard because their powerful unions have negotiated benefits that go beyond medical and prescription drug coverage to include, among others, dental and vision. The tax would be paid by insurers who then are expected to pass it along in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and co-pays. 'A lot of state workers would qualify because of the dental and vision, and the fact that health care is the fastest growing expense,' said Kenneth Brynien, head of the 59,000-member state Public Employees Federation." (Newsday)

Small Businesses Want to Be Able to Buy Insurance Together for Less
Excerpt: "Having a national plan as an option in the exchange is 'really important,' said Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, because it would provide efficiencies of scale and more choices to small businesses in states where the small-group market is dominated by one or two insurers. The National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agree. They contend giving small businesses the ability to shop for insurance across state lines is vital to increasing competition in the health insurance marketplace." (Portfolio.com)

.Small Business Faces Sharp Rise in Costs of Health Care
Excerpt: "Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15 percent for the coming year -- double the rate of last year's increases. That would mean an annual premium that was $4,500 per employee in 2008 and $4,800 this year would rise to $5,500 in 2010." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Employer-Based Insurance: Employees Are Paying More, Getting Less
Excerpt: "Changes to 2010 health benefits, which reflect the first chance employers have had to restructure their plans since the economy started tanking in September 2008, look to be even more daunting than usual. Surveys indicate that in 2010, 40% of employers will shift more premium costs onto employees and 39% will increase deductibles, co-payments, co-insurance or out-of-pocket maximums. More employers are steering workers toward catastrophic health policies with deductibles as high as $5,000 or $10,000." (Time Inc.)

Congressional Analysis Finds Health Care Plan Excise Tax Would Hit 34 Percent of Group Plans in 2019
Excerpt: "U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, R-Connecticut, who requested that the Joint Committee on Taxation analyze the provision in health care reform legislation that the Senate Finance Committee passed last week, released the results Tuesday, October 20. Under the provision, the excise tax would apply to that portion of a group health care plan premium that exceeds $8,000 for individual coverage and $21,000 for family coverage. For plans covering early retirees and employees in certain high-risk professions, the tax threshold would be $9,850 for individuals and $26,000 for families." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

Fight Erupts Over Health Insurance Rates for Businesses with More Women Employees
Excerpt: "Insurers say women under the age of 55 cost more to cover because they use more health services, and not just for maternal and infant care. But Bettinazzi, the president and CEO of Visiting Nurse Association of Indiana County, believes there's something inherently wrong in charging her company more because it hires a lot of women. 'There's a great sense of unfairness,' Bettinazzi says. 'I feel angry, and maybe betrayed would be a good word.' Gender rating is the norm today, part of a complex formula of risk factors ? including health history and age -- insurers say has been necessary to fairly price policies. But advocacy groups for women argue that charging more for women than men is discriminatory and should be illegal. The battle is playing out on Capitol Hill through the debate on health overhaul legislation." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

[Guidance Overview] 2010 Cost-of-Living Adjustments for Medicare (PDF)
2 pages. Note the paragraph on page 2 regarding employer action to be taken. (Milliman)

As Cost Tops Health Care Concerns, Employers Reject Higher Expenditure for Reform
Excerpt: "Many of the nation's employers are focused on the health care reform deliberations in Congress and plan to adjust their benefit strategies based on how the final legislation affects their costs, according to a pulse survey of 433 HR and benefit executives from midsize and large organizations conducted by Towers Perrin. Employers say they will not absorb any additional costs resulting from reform and that they plan to take action to avoid doing so. Proposed cost-cutting strategies include: reducing benefits; raising prices for customers; reducing head count." (Towers Perrin)

GM Replacing Traditional Health Plan for Some Retirees
Excerpt: "General Motors Corp. will replace its traditional health care plan for salaried retirees younger than 65 with a consumer-driven health plan linked to health savings accounts effective Jan. 1, 2010. Under the new arrangement, posted on a GM retiree Web site, the annual deductible will be $2,500 for individual coverage and $5,000 for family coverage. The maximum annual out-of-pocket expense will be $3,500 for individuals and $7,000 for families." (Business Insurance)

Watson Finds Employer Spending on Retirement Benefits Declining
Excerpt: "Employers' investment in workers' retirement benefits, measured by benefit values as a percentage of pay, has dropped consistently over the last decade, according to research by Watson Wyatt. A Watson Wyatt analysis of 183 employers found that the total value of retirement benefits -- DB, DC and retiree health plans -- provided to employees decreased from 7.8% of pay in 2002 to 6.9% of pay in 2008, according to a press release. For the 79 companies that maintained DB plans throughout this period, the value of the overall benefits declined from 9.4% to 8.6% of pay, mostly due to a significant cut in post-retirement health benefits." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

[Opinion] The High Cost of Small Business Health Insurance: Limited Options, Limited Coverage
Testimony at October 20, 2009, Hearing Before the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations United States House of Representatives. Excerpt: "Small employers and their workers face an assortment of barriers to obtaining health insurance coverage. These include high administrative costs, limited ability to spread health care risk, and a low-wage workforce. These issues have led to low rates of coverage offers by small employers and high rates of uninsurance among their workers. An insurance exchange, such as the one proposed in H.R. 3200, would spread health care risk and reduce administrative costs. The financial assistance provided to the low-income under the bill would benefit many small-firm workers. As such, the bill would significantly increase coverage among workers of small employers." (Urban Institute)

[Guidance Overview] Key 2010 Medicare Values (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "This For Your Information provides key 2010 Medicare values just released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including the income-adjusted Medicare Part B premiums as prescribed by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA)." (Buck Consultants)

Technical Answers to Questions Pertaining to PWC Report on Potential Impact of Health Reform on Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage
Excerpt: "A recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers1 examines the potential impact of key provisions of the Senate Finance reform proposal on the cost of private health insurance premiums and premium-equivalents for self-insured plans. The report estimates the potential impact of four elements of the proposed reforms on the cost of private insurance premiums: insurance market reforms, the tax on high-value plans, cost shifting of reductions in Medicare and Medicaid hospital payments, and new fees imposed on certain industries. [The target page contains] some questions that have arisen about technical aspects of the report and to what extent other factors were considered." (America's Health Insurance Plans)

Employers May Not Restore Benefits to Pre-Recession Levels
Excerpt: "'Since the downturn began, thousands of employers have cut pay, increased workers' share of health-care costs or reduced the employer contribution to retirement plans,' The Wall Street Journal reports. 'Two-thirds of big companies that cut health-care benefits don't plan to restore them to pre-recession levels, they recently told consulting firm Watson Wyatt. When the firm asked companies that have trimmed retirement benefits when they expect to restore them, fewer than half said they would do so within a year, and 8% said they didn't expect to ever.' The changes are 'reshaping unemployment in America' and 'eroding two pillars of the late-20th-century employment relationship: employer-subsidized retirement benefits and employer-paid health care.'" (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Employee Benefit Cost Pressures Plague CFOs, Survey Finds
Excerpt: "Of all the pricing pressures that senior finance executives are most worried about, employee benefits tops the list by far, according to the results of a Grant Thornton survey released Monday. Fully 77% of the 846 U.S. CFOs and senior comptrollers participating pointed to benefits-cost pressures, including those involving health care and pensions. . . . Perhaps aligning with their concern about benefits pressures, 33% said their companies were cutting average per-employee health-care costs and 26% said their employers would reduce their matches of their employees' 401(k) contributions." (CFO.com)

Basic Medicare Premium to Rise 15% Next Year
Excerpt: "The basic Medicare premium will shoot up next year by 15 percent, to $110.50 a month, federal officials said Monday. The increase means that monthly premiums would top $100 for the first time, a stark indication of the rise in medical costs that is driving the debate in Congress about a broad overhaul of the health care system." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Employees Facing 'Shockingly Higher' Health Costs
Excerpt: "It's open enrollment time at work. Prepare yourself. Starting in 2010, your employer is making sure that when it comes to paying for your health care, you're going to be sharing much more of the burden. 'The headline is greater cost sharing,' said Tom Billet, senior consultant with human resources consultancy Watson Wyatt. 'That means higher [employee] contributions, higher deductibles, or both,' he said. In 2010, employers are 'putting everything on the table,' implementing benefit changes aimed at making workers more aware of the actual cost of services,' said Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a public policy research group." (CNNMoney.com)

IRS Representatives Address Employee Benefits Issues at Meeting
Excerpt: "In a meeting on employee benefits issues raised by the American Bar Association's (ABA) employee benefits committee section on taxation, representatives of the Internal Revenue Service addressed COBRA, imputing fair-market value to self-insured employer-provided health care coverage, and one-time lump sum cash payments for irreversible waiver of retiree health benefits. Two of the COBRA situations involved the tax treatment of employer voluntarily continued coverage after COBRA ends for certain beneficiaries, and waiver of the COBRA subsidy." (Wolters Kluwer)

Some Firms Get Tougher on Workers' Health Habits with High-Risk Employees Forced to Pay More for Health Insurance
Excerpt: "While smoking surcharges remain the most popular added premium assessment used, the size has grown significantly from a nominal fee when such surcharges were introduced several years ago to what many consider 'real money,' especially during a recession. A few intrepid employers have gone a step further, relegating employees who decline to take better care of themselves to health plans that provide less coverage. Some benefits law experts are concerned these employers may be pushing the envelope a bit too far, but legislation passed last week by the Senate Finance Committee appears to reinforce employers' aggressive efforts to rein in health care costs through the use of incentives . . . ." (Business Insurance)

[Opinion] Making Sense of High-Deductible Health Plans
Excerpt: "During the open enrollment season for employee benefits, now under way for next year, you are likely to hear a whole lot about Consumer-Directed Health Plans. You, of course, are the consumer. And you're being directed to save your employer a lot of money -- so much so that many employers are offering workers lucrative incentives to make the switch into a consumer-directed plan. Should you bite?" (The New York Times; free registration required)

Corpus Christi, Texas, Police Pension Benefits Curtailed
Excerpt: "Trustees for a union-run health insurance trust voted to curtail benefits in July, citing unsustainable obligations. The plan had paid about $400 per month for her benefits, Roberts said. Now the plan will pay just a fraction of that. According to financial statements filed in 2008, the trust had roughly $2 million in assets in 2007. But the trust had incurred nearly $38 million in obligations. Since then, the obligations have risen and the assets have declined." (The E.W. Scripps Co.)

[Guidance Overview] Health Plan TPA Could Still Be a Fiduciary
Excerpt: "A federal judge in Massachusetts has ruled that a third-party administrator (TPA) for two health plans cannot be blamed as a 'functional fiduciary' for problems in processing claims that allegedly cost the plans millions of dollars. However, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts indicated that a trial would have to be held to decide whether the TPA, BeneFirst LLC, was instead a 'named fiduciary.' Saylor asserted BeneFirst's discretion over the health plans, sponsored by a chain of New England and New York hardware stores, as well as its ability to control plan bank accounts did not rise to the level of making the TPA liable as a 'functional fiduciary' under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Smoking Bans Reduce Heart Attacks and Disease
Excerpt: "Bans on smoking in places like restaurants, offices and public buildings reduce cases of heart attacks and heart disease, according to a report released Thursday by a federally commissioned panel of scientists." (New York Times; free registration required)

Can VEBAs Alleviate Retiree Health Care Problems?
Excerpt: "Recent negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Detroit automakers focused attention on an innovative response to the long-term decline in retiree health insurance in the United States. The union agreed to set up a trust called a Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association (VEBA) to assume responsibility for the UAW retiree medical care at the companies. An analysis of the General Motors Corporation VEBA suggests that it is a second-best option to employer-paid retiree coverage. However, absent comprehensive national health-care reform, it may be a viable alternative for those unable to fend off the elimination of retiree health elimination by an employer." (Pension Research Council; registration required to download fulltext of paper)

North Carolina to Target Smokers and the Obese with Higher Health Plan Costs
Excerpt: "North Carolina is set to become the second state to charge obese workers more for health insurance, the Charlotte Observer reports. Smokers will face higher costs also, as North Carolina state employees who use tobacco are slated to pay more for health insurance next year. Tobacco users get placed in a more expensive insurance plan starting next July and, for those who qualify as obese, in July 2011, according to the news report. North Carolina officials say they are aiming to improve state workers' health, which saves money in future medical expenses." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Health Bill Won't Prompt Job Cuts for Most Retailers
Excerpt: "Some 71% of chief financial officers (CFOs) at leading U.S. retailers do not think they will reduce headcount as a reaction to health care reform, according to a new poll. The BDO Seidman LLP news release about the accounting and consulting firm's survey said 80% of those who do not eliminate positions will pass increased health care costs on to employees. The remaining 20% do not anticipate that employees will incur increased health care costs." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

[Opinion] Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage (PDF)
26 pages. Excerpt: "America's Health Insurance Plans engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to examine the impact of four components of the health reform bill being proposed by the Senate Finance Committee as introduced. These include: Insurance market reforms and consumer protections that would raise health insurance premiums for individuals and families if the reforms are not coupled with an effective coveragerequirement. An excise tax on employer-sponsored high value health plans (or 'Cadillac plans') that in a few years could also raise premiums for some moderate value plans. Cuts in payment rates in public programs that could increase cost shifting to private sector businesses and consumers. These changes are expected to more than offset the potential reduction in cost shifting resulting from providing coverage to the uninsured. New taxes on health sector entities that are likely to be passed through to consumers." (America's Health Insurance Plans)

Estimated Revenue Effects of Revenue Provisions Contained in Title VI of the 'America's Healthy Future Act of 2009,' As Amended Through October 2, 2009
3 pages. Under Consideration by the Committee on Finance. (U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Taxation)

During Open Enrollment Season, Rethink Your Health Insurance Options to Trim Costs
Excerpt: "'History tells us that most workers . . . default to their previous year's benefits,' says Sara Taylor, health and welfare strategy leader at benefits consulting firm Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Ill. 'In doing so, they may be losing out on a huge opportunity to save money and fully maximize the benefits available to them.' Hewitt estimates that the employee share of healthcare costs will rise 10% next year, from an average of $3,656 to $4,023, when higher premiums and co-pays are taken into account." (Los Angeles Times)

Employers Offering More High-Deductible Plans This Enrollment Season
Excerpt: "When open enrollment rolls around again this year, workers may be faced with more health insurance choices: 'more employers may include a new type of plan that can chop premium payments by nearly 20 percent and give consumers a tax break,' The Associated Press reports. 'The tradeoff is higher deductibles, which have the potential to swamp customers with big bills. The plans, called consumer-directed health plans, vary from employer to employer and require careful comparison with other choices before making the switch.'" (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Employment-Based Medical Benefits Will Average $10K Next Year
Excerpt: "U.S. employers will see medical benefit expenditures increase 7% in 2010, pushing the average annual per-employee costs for healthcare across the $10,000 threshold, according to Towers Perrin's annual Health Care Cost Survey. The survey is also projecting components under consideration in healthcare reform legislation -- such as an excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans -- could potentially increase the cost burden for employers, who will pass those additional costs to employees, exacerbating the affordability gap." (HealthLeaders Media)

Age Rating Under Comprehensive Health Care Reform: Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Household Financial Burdens
Excerpt: "Congressional proposals health care reform proposals have differed in the premium rating rules that would be applied to non-elderly adults. Some have proposed allowing premiums for the older adults to be as much as 5 times as high as those for younger adults (5:1 rating), while others would limit the highest premiums to be twice that of the lowest (2:1 rating). This analysis uses the Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) to compare the financial implications of the premium rating choice (5:1, 2:1, and 1:1) for households of different ages, incomes, and sizes." (Urban Institute)

[Opinion] Health Care Economics: Why Prices Are Not Costs & Why That Matters
Excerpt: "The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has revised estimates of the tax burden imposed by the Senate bill. According to the report, the bill would raise $121 billion in fees on drug companies, health insurers and the makers of medical devices, up from the $29 billion over the amount it reported last month. Of course, only the very naive would fail to understand that these taxes will be passed on to consumers." (Roy Harmon III via Health Plan Law)

[Opinion] Can a City Make Employers Offer Insurance or Pay a Fee?
Excerpt: "As part of San Francisco's push toward broader health-insurance coverage, city businesses with 20 or more employees must offer health insurance or pay a fee that goes toward health care for the uninsured. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court wants to know what the Obama administration thinks of that idea. The city's restaurant association has been fighting the ordinance in court, arguing that federal law says only the federal government can mandate employer benefits. Lower courts have gone back and forth on the issue; the Supremes earlier this year refused to issue an emergency order blocking the fees while the case is pending, the San Francisco Chronicle notes." (The Wall Street Journal)

Supreme Court Asks for Obama Administration's Stance on Healthy San Francisco
Excerpt: "The justices' action Monday is not unusual. The court regularly asks the federal government for its position in important cases, particularly those that involve a possible conflict between federal and state or local laws. Such requests indicate that one or more justices are undecided about granting review, which requires four votes on the nine-member court." (San Francisco Chronicle)

As Health Reform Debate Continues, Some Employers Are Attempting Innovative Ideas to Engage Their Workers
Excerpt: "Employers are venturing beyond many 'tried and true' cost-containment strategies because some believe they have shifted as much cost as possible, while others are concerned that healthcare reform will lead to additional cost sharing not being a viable long-term option. 'Past recessions gave rise to innovative, often untested new solutions such as point-of-service plans and managed care,' according to Mercer. 'The current recession appears to be following the familiar path.'" (Human Resource Executive Online)

WellPoint Cuts Workers' Health Insurance Benefits
Excerpt: "WellPoint health insurance company, which has encouraged its employees to lobby against health care reform, is now cutting their benefits. The insurance giant plans to raise deductibles and premiums for some of its employee health benefits. 'Your cost per paycheck will probably increase,' said a memo to Wellpoint employees that was obtained by Bloomberg News." (The Huffington Post via Consumer Watchdog)

Massachusetts Health Reform: Employer Coverage from Employees' Perspective
Excerpt: "Despite the economic downturn and rising health care costs, access to employer-based coverage in Massachusetts has increased, as has the scope and quality of coverage as assessed by workers, according to an analysis of the state's health reform plan. However, some employees in small firms have seen a significant rise in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses." (The Commonwealth Fund)

[Opinion] How Should California Pay for Public Employee Retiree Health Benefits?
Excerpt: "California has a number of options, including reducing or reneging on benefits, raising taxes, cutting spending elsewhere, earmarking surplus money for unfunded health premiums, issuing bonds and doing nothing. We asked several stakeholders how California should deal with its retiree health care obligations." (Center for State and Local Government Excellence)

[Guidance Overview] Former Employees Have No Claim Against Bankrupt Employer for Unpaid Medical Bills, But Can Seek Unpaid Employee Health Premiums
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: At the end of the day, the only relief that these employees could seek from their employer was the recovery of the employee portion of the unremitted health insurance premiums. This illustrates not only the litany of claims that employees may make when their employer fails to remit health insurance premiums, but also the harsh reality that in many instances this is a wrong without a remedy." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)

Obama Administration May Decide Healthy San Francisco's Fate
Excerpt: "The US Supreme Court has delayed a decision on the Golden Gate Restaurant Association's legal challenge to the Healthy San Francisco program, instead asking for the Obama Administration's opinion on whether the required employer contributions that fund the universal health care plan violate federal law. The GGRA suit contends the employer mandate violates the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a view that was supported by the Bush Administration but opposed by the city and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, whose ruling against GGRA the Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear, a decision that had been expected today." (San Francisco Bay Guardian)

San Francisco Health Care Approach Hailed As a Model
Excerpt: "For two years, three-quarters of San Francisco's uninsured adults have enrolled in a public program that guarantees access to medical services, and the effort is being touted as a national model during the rancorous health care insurance debate. More than 46,000 adults have enrolled in Healthy San Francisco since it was launched; this first-in-the-nation, city-run universal health care effort has received high marks in recent independent studies. The program is funded in part by an employer mandate, a controversial component of the plans under discussion in Washington." (The Boston Globe)

Medicare Bite Tied to Roth Would Be Temporary
Excerpt: "Yes, converting to a Roth could result in paying higher Medicare premiums, but the increase will likely be temporary. The key: If you are a Medicare beneficiary, or about to become one, it is smart to calculate whether the additional income created by a conversion could increase your Part B premiums, as well as your tax bill. Then, with that information in hand, you can make an informed decision about whether a Roth conversion makes sense for you." (The Wall Street Journal)

Health Insurance Actuaries Review Administrative Costs: Impact of Individual, Small Group Insurance Market Mergers
Excerpt: "In two separate papers published in September as part of a series examining Critical Issues in Health Reform, the American Academy of Actuaries reviews administrative functions and expenses currently assumed by health insurers and the potential impact of merging the individual and small group insurance markets." (Wolters Kluwer)

Public Pension and Retiree Healthcare Expense Problems Mount for Local California Governments
Excerpt: "Unless government officials muster up the political courage to implement reforms that would make government pensions and retiree health-care benefits sustainable, the cost of government services will continue to be inflated and growing pension costs could threaten the very solvency of state and local governments." (PublicCEO.com)

2009 Health and OPEB Funding Study Available Now
Excerpt: "According to a new survey partially funded by NCPERS, approximately 49 percent of the nations' cities, counties and townships expect less revenue in 2010, 21 percent expect fewer employees, and about 26 expect increased consolidation of local services. With shrinking budgets and fewer staff, local officials are taking several approaches to contain long-term costs associated with employee and retiree health care." (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems)

When HR Asks About Your Health
Employers want you to answer some personal questions. Should you? (CNNMoney.com)

In Rationing Health Care, More Not Always Better, Experts Say
Excerpt: "Medical professionals say the fundamental problem in the nation's health-care system is the widespread misuse and overuse of tests, treatments and drugs that drive up prices, have little value to patients, and can pose serious risks. The question, they say, is not whether there will be rationing, but rather what will be rationed, and when and how. " (Washington Post; free registration required)

Reforming Health Care: The Paradoxes of Cost
Excerpt: "[T]he rhetoric of unspecified cost reduction is used to avoid the painful choices needed to prune health care outlays, choices which inevitably involve agonizing denials of medical services in a world of finite resources. Medical costs cannot be controlled without denying something to somebody. Yet, paradoxically the term 'cost' is used in contemporary political discourse to avoid the difficult choices involved in such denials." (Prof. Edward Zelinsky via Social Science Research Network)

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