BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter for February 22, 2002

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Welfare Plans Edition

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February 22, 2002 - 6,496 subscribers

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Health Plan Crunch for CalPERS
Excerpt: "The California Public Employees' Retirement System is exploring a radical overhaul of its health benefits program, admitting it can no longer use the market power of its 1.2 million members to hold down skyrocketing health care costs. After raising out-of-pocket fees and slashing the number of HMO options in its health plan last year, CalPERS is now looking to save more money and improve the quality and stability of care." (The Sacramento Bee)

Federal Health Task Force Recommends Mammograms; Risk of Death Reduced by 20% Over 10 Years
Excerpt: "The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts that advises HHS on preventive medicine, on Feb. 21 issued new guidelines that 'strongly recommend' that women between the ages of 40 and 69 undergo a mammogram every one to two years, the New York Times reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)

Health insurance and transplants: How much of 'John Q' is true?
Excerpt: "A 2001 study by Harris Interactive found that while people say they dislike managed care, most consumers also say they are happy with their own health plans. How can this be true if-- as this film suggests-- health insurers are routinely denying care to catastrophically ill patients because they don't make enough money and lack the right coverage?" (insure.com)

Opinion: Private Sector Is Best Way To Extend Health Coverage
Excerpt: "Bush is providing new incentives to put that control in the hands of citizens to make their own choices in a competitive, free market. He would allow people to create tax-free 'personal health accounts' to purchase routine health-care services, coupled with insurance for bigger bills." (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

Juggling Life, Work Getting Harder
Excerpt: "Ninety-five percent of respondents to a Rutgers University survey worried that work is taking too much time away from their families. And in a 2000 survey of more than 2,500 graduating college students from 11 countries, PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that for 57 percent of these graduates, balancing work and personal life was their most important goal, up from 45 percent two years earlier." (Scripps Howard News Service via International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)

(Following items are in both editions of the BenefitsLink Newsletter)

Controversy Tags Paperless Trend
Excerpt: "A growing number of brokers, insurers and employers predict that electronic capabilities eventually could eliminate the need for many time-consuming face-to-face enrollment meetings. Fewer agree that would be a good thing." (BenefitNews.com via CareerJournal.com)

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