Search the News Archive

Prospect of Military Build-Up Creates Benefits, Other Employment Issues

"The prospect of Americans being called into military service in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks raises issues of the employment and benefits rights of employees going on active duty. Certain employment and benefits rights were established or clarified under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) as a result of the Persian Gulf War."

Doctors Increasingly in Favor of Major Reforms to the U.S. Health Care System

Excerpt: Doctors have historically been the watchdogs of the U.S. medical system, with the American Medical Association scaring New Dealers into dropping national health coverage from the Social Security Act and then the AMA shredding Harry Truman's reform efforts in the late 1940s. But a new poll and other significant indicators suggest that doctors are turning against the health-insurance firms that increasingly dominate American health care.

The Solution on Health Care

"The fragmented, for-profit health industry leaves tens of millions of Americans uninsured and underinsured. It gives insurers incentives to discriminate against the sick. It leaves drug prices far higher they ought to be. The solution to all of this is universal coverage. Then no insurance company would spend a nickel on marketing or on dividing the sick from the well or on thinking up incentives to divide doctors from patients, because everyone would be insured."

Liberals Should Make Case for Universal Health Care on National Security Grounds

Excerpt: How can we hold the line and secure the American people from biological attack? Universal health care, that's how.... Because it is so difficult to prevent the release of biowarfare agents-- we still don't know who perpetrated those mail-borne anthrax attacks-- it makes perfect sense that our national strategy should focus on detecting an attack and stopping it from spreading.

Text of IRS Notice 2021-48: Guidance on Single-Employer Defined Benefit Pension Plan Funding Changes Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (PDF)

18 pages. Topics addressed include: Application of Section 430(c)(8) of the Code and Section 9706 of the ARP Effect of Section 9706 of the ARP on interest adjustments with respect to certain contributions made pursuant to Section 3608(a) of the CARES Act Applying the ARP segment rates to statutory hybrid plan interest credits Manner and Timing of Making Elections under the ARP Rules for Elections under Section 430(f) of the Code as a Result of the ARP and Flexibility to Redesignate Contributions Between Plan Years Election to add to a prefunding balance Revocation of an election to use a prefunding balance or funding standard carryover balance Revocation of an election to reduce a prefunding balance or funding standard carryover balance Redesignation of plan year for contributions Changes in AFTAP under Section 436 of the Code as a Result of the ARP Prospective application of change in benefit restrictions reflecting amendments made by the ARP Retroactive application of change in benefit restrictions reflecting changes under the ARP Rules with respect to elections under Section 3608(b) of the CARES Act Recharacterization of contributions made to avoid benefit limitations pursuant to Section 436 of the Code Corrections Reporting Requirements for Changes for the 2019 Plan Year Reporting Requirements for Changes for the 2020 Plan Year

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!).

Rehnquist Court's Fickle Federalism Hobbles Both Congress and the States

Excerpt: As the [Rush Prudential HMO v. Moran and similar] preemption cases indicate, the Court's commitment to federalism is highly erratic. The Court's conservative majority may use a states' rights argument to strike down national actions, but the same justices may also be unsympathetic to state autonomy if it results in new state initiatives.

Why American Workers' Retirement Income Security Prospects Look so Bleak: A Review of Recent Assessments

"The measurement of preretirement income and its spendable portion as an indicator of living standard in working years is often exaggerated owing to inappropriate indexing. This leads to overestimates of earnings to be replaced in retirement, underestimates of the income replacement capacity of Social Security for various segments of the workforce, and misperceptions about workers' own responsibility for securing their retirement prospects. Although clearly some workers are not saving sufficiently to maintain their standards of living throughout retirement, the situation is less dire than a number of studies have suggested."

What the Massachusetts Experiment Teaches Us About Incremental Efforts to Increase Coverage by Expanding Private Insurance

Excerpt: [T]he proposals for reform taken most seriously by Democrats -- including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- would retain the central role of the investor-owned private insurance industry as well as the thousands of for-profit businesses it pays to deliver medical services. This is the industry, mind you, that has brought us to the predicament we're in now, so let's take a quick look at it.

Remaking Steel Without Throwing Retirees on the Slag Heap

Excerpt: His union's mission, says Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers of America's international president, is 'saving these damn plants for our members, retirees and the next generation of workers' -- not for corporate executives or nonunion subcontractors.