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Families USA Director Explains What Could Block Health Care Reform

Excerpt: [Ron Pollack, director of Families USA,] told a small group of bloggers and journalists in an interview at the Families USA conference last Friday, 'I know where the sharp dividing lines are.' When ... asked 'What are the intractable differences between the insurance industry and health care reform?' Pollack listed three[.]

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Dying for Health Insurance Coverage - New State Reports from Families USA

Excerpt: In 2002, the Institute of Medicine released a groundbreaking report, Care without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late, which estimated that 18,000 adults nationwide died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance. Subsequently, The Urban Institute estimated that 22,000 adults died in 2006 because they did not have health insurance. To find out what this means for people across the nation, Families USA has generated the first-ever state-level estimates of the number of deaths due to lack of health insurance. Our estimates are based on both the Institute of Medicine and The Urban Institute methodologies applied to state-level data.

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Families USA and Health Care Reform

Excerpt: Back in the day when there was some vague interest from Democrats in fixing our health care system, a kindly millionaire gave a pile of money to a lobbying pressure group that had quite some influence behind the ill-fated Clinton Health Plan. Not too much has been heard since from Families USA and its leader Ron Pollack. Sadly, those of us of a certain age felt that its day in the sun had come and gone.  MORE >>

ABC News/Kaiser Family Foundation/USA Today Health Care in America 2006 Survey (PDF)

Excerpt: This poll examines Americans' views and experiences related to health care costs and quality, as well as their attitudes toward possible policy solutions. The results are featured in a series of reports on ABC News programs, ABCNews.com, and in USA Today during the week of Oct. 15, 2006.  MORE >>

USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Survey: The Public on Prescription Drugs and Pharmaceutical Companies (PDF)

Excerpt: [The survey] finds Americans greatly value prescription drugs' potential benefits for their families, but most believe they cost too much money and many struggle to pay for needed medicines. The survey also provides a comprehensive look at Americans' views on, and experiences with, prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical industry, including drug costs, advertisements, safety issues, government regulation and medical research.  MORE >>

Families USA Report Says Gap in Medicare Drug Coverage Will Be Costly

Excerpt: Medicare beneficiaries will have to pay substantially more next year for coverage of brand-name prescription drugs that keeps them from falling into the 'doughnut hole,' according to a new report that government officials swiftly criticized as incomplete.

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Universal Savings Accounts (USAs) Introduced

"Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Representative David Brat (R-VA) are introducing companion Senate-House bills to create Universal Savings Accounts (USAs). The accounts are like supercharged Roth IRAs.... Anyone 18 years of age or older could open a USA, contribute up to $5,500 after-tax a year, and use the tax-free withdrawals for any purpose at any time. Funds would be invested in bonds and equities, and grow tax-free. USA accounts would allow individuals to decide what to use their savings for and when, without Congress micromanaging their choices, as they do with other accounts."  MORE >>

Another Freedom Endangered: Threat of Pension Mandate Looms with Proposed 'USA Retirement Funds Act' (PDF)

"The life insurance companies and the Federal Government would control asset management, benefit payments, and other plan functions traditionally under the control of the private pension system.... The proposed USA Funds would continue to deplete employers' ability to control their compensation and benefits programs at a very high cost to both employers and their employees.... Some private pension plans are not cost effective because the employer's management ceded its investment and administrative responsibilities to Third Party Administrators and insurance companies that portend the inefficiencies of the proposed USA Funds ... . [The author believes] the ultimate effect of a USA Funds would be a 3.0% to 6.0% in crease in employers' direct compensation costs to maintain employee relationships. Once in place, Congress could easily make employer contributions to the USA Funds mandatory."  MORE >>

The Retirement Crisis and a Plan to Solve It: Introducing 'USA Retirement Funds' (PDF)

"By ensuring that every American has access to a retirement plan at work and making participation automatic, we can drastically reduce the retirement income deficit and promote retirement security.... Because USA Retirement Funds would be licensed and overseen by a board of trustees, employers would not have any fiduciary responsibilities in selecting, administering, or managing the funds. Employers' only obligation with regard to the USA Retirement Funds would be to automatically enroll employees, ensure that employee contributions are processed, and make modest contributions.... USA Retirement Funds are intended to supplement, not supplant, DC Plans. Employers could certainly offer both a USA Retirement Fund and a DC Plan for their employees."

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Born in the USA, But I'm a Cool Rockin' Employee Not in the USA Now

"Employers may need to consider customized health care solutions to specifically cover employees living in a foreign country.... Typically, qualified retirement plan participation is not affected for U.S. citizens living and working abroad for a limited period of time.... Employers should also consider childcare benefits, employee wellness programs, tuition reimbursement, travel insurance and expense reimbursement benefits[.]"  MORE >>

Rewriting Retirement Readiness: Will the USA Retirement Funds Act Amend Your Plan?

"MyRA provides for a supplement to the current retirement system; the Retirement Security Act would modify it; the USA Retirement Funds Act would profoundly alter it. How? ... [All] employers with 10 or more employees would be required to offer a retirement plan with automatic enrollment and a lifetime income option."  MORE >>

Court Tosses Beazer Homes USA Stock Imprudence Claim

Excerpt: A federal judge in Georgia has thrown out claims by 401(k) participants that Beazer Homes USA breached its fiduciary duties by offering company stock as an investment option when it was no longer prudent.

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Group Pushes for Required Contributory Plan: 'Retirement USA'

Excerpt: All employers would be required to contribute to a retirement plan for their workers under a series of reform principles offered today by a group of worker advocacy and policy associations. At a conference in Washington, the group, which includes the Pension Rights Center and the Service Employees International Union, rolled out its new 'Retirement USA' initiative, which is intended to pave the way for the creation of a new retirement system that would provide workers without an employer-sponsored retirement plan enough income on top of their Social Security payments to 'maintain a reasonable standard of living in retirement,' according to a statement the group released.  MORE >>

Horror Flick at USA Today: Return of the Granny Bashers XCIV

Excerpt: USA Today decided to get its entry in the summer horror flicks out early, The Return of the Granny Bashers XCIV tells readers how the affluent elderly are ripping off their children and grandchildren by collecting Social Security and Medicare (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!).  MORE >>

The USA TODAY Lifetime Social Security and Medicare Benefits Calculator: Assumptions and Methods (PDF)

3 pages. "C. Eugene Steuerle and Adam Carasso ... helped USA TODAY design a web-based retirement benefits calculator that appeared on the paper's website October 4, 2004. The calculator estimates the lifetime value of Social Security and Medicare benefits and compares them against the lifetime value of taxes for these two programs. Included is the new Medicare prescription drug program. Not included are estimates of the benefits and taxes for the Disability Insurance program."  MORE >>

Milliman USA Creates Online Plan Design Tutor

Excerpt: Welcome to Plan Design Tutor created by Milliman USA, Inc. Plan Design Tutor is an interactive tool that helps you find a retirement plan that is right for you and your employees.

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Health Care Costs Too Great a Burden: America's Families at Risk (PDF)

28 pages. Excerpt: In order to understand how high health care costs affect American families, Families USA commissioned The Lewin Group to analyze data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Census Bureau. This analysis allowed us to determine how many non-elderly people are in families that will spend more than 10 percent of their pre-tax income, and how many will spend more than 25 percent of their pre-tax income, on health care costs in 2008.

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Health Care Costs Too Great a Burden: America's Families at Risk

Excerpt: In order to understand how high health care costs affect American families, Families USA commissioned The Lewin Group to analyze data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Census Bureau. This analysis allowed us to determine how many non-elderly people are in families that will spend more than 10 percent of their pre-tax income, and how many will spend more than 25 percent of their pre-tax income, on health care costs in 2008.

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USA's Biggest Health Insurer Embraces Obamacare After Sitting Out Year 1: A Shrewd Decision

"A carrier laying back the first year will have the advantage of coming into the market after the first year carriers, particularly the big Blue Cross plans, have harvested most of the initial market share and with it all of those first year people who were pretty sick and wanting to take advantage of the new Obamacare underwriting reforms to finally get themselves covered. Yes, these people can change carriers the second year but they likely won't -- particularly if they are sick and worried about their provider relationships.... [UnitedHealthcare's] strategy of laying back a year ... [to make] sure in 2015 to be able to keep and compete for the more healthy pre-Obamacare legacy business looks like a very savvy underwriting move[.]"  MORE >>

Senator Harkin's USA Retirement Funds Proposal

"From the sponsor's point of view, the key feature of a USARF arrangement is that generally the sponsor would have no fiduciary responsibility with respect to the USARF. The sponsor's responsibility would generally be limited to 'meeting the enrollment requirements and transmitting contributions.' It also appears that the USARF would handle most required reporting and disclosure. Some believe that these features of the USARF -- relieving employers of much of the headache that comes with sponsoring a qualified ERISA retirement plan -- are so appealing that some sponsors may terminate their DB or DC plans and set up a USARF arrangement."  MORE >>