Companies Catch Up On Health Reform

June 20, 2011

In the months since my business ended its company-paid health insurance coverage last October, our employees have been learning to adjust. During that same time, other companies have just been learning. A recent study published in McKinsey Quarterly found that the number of employers who plan to stop offering employer-sponsored health insurance after 2014 — when the bulk of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) comes into effect …

Comments Off

Getting Real Health Insurance On Campus

October 15, 2010

When a student chooses a college, he or she often is selecting a health plan as well. And that plan may not be as good as the classes. More than half of U.S. colleges offer a school-sponsored health insurance plan. Many require that students buy the insurance unless they submit a waiver indicating they are already covered through another plan. In some cases, even students with other coverage do not …

Comments Off

The End Of Our Company-Paid Health Insurance

September 1, 2010

For 15 years, I have taken pride in paying the full cost of health insurance for every full-time Palisades Hudson employee who wanted it. This month marks the last time I will do that. Beginning in October, our 20 employees will make their own decisions, and their own arrangements, regarding health coverage. They can stay on our company’s plan, but they will have to pay the entire cost — ranging …

Ending My Company’s Health Care Benefit

March 17, 2010

Since I hired my first full-time employee 15 years ago, I have always offered to pay for my staff’s health insurance. Employees received the same protection my family enjoyed, and if an insurer made life too difficult for anyone, we all switched. This will soon change if the House of Representatives approves the health care overhaul that President Obama has made his top priority. The 20 of us who now …

Comments Off

Health Care Summit Theatrics

February 19, 2010

The health care “summit” that President Obama proposed for next week will be mainly theatrics, assuming it actually happens. But, probably unintentionally, the White House maneuvering has illuminated the issues at the heart of the dispute. On one side, Obama and congressional Democratic leaders are doing everything in their power to extend health coverage to the roughly 15 percent of Americans who do not have it. This is going to …

Comments Off

Time Is Running Out For Truth In Budgeting

February 2, 2010

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. So, if your president promises to chop the deficit while increasing spending for job creation and college tuition, all without any tax increases for 98 percent of taxpayers, you might want to look at the numbers a little more closely. And if the president’s opposition says it can balance the federal budget without tax increases for anybody, history teaches …

Comments Off

Universal Coverage: A Bus Ticket To Omaha

December 22, 2009

Is the health care overhaul staggering through the Senate this week the most important social welfare legislation in a generation, as Democratic leaders claim? Or is it so compromised that the final product is not worth the agony, and the political risk, required to produce it? The bill that cleared its first crucial test vote in the wee hours Monday morning has become a make-or-break gamble for President Obama and …

Comments Off

For Same-Sex Couples, Love Ain’t Cheap

October 15, 2009

They say the best things in life are free. Being with a partner you love is certainly one of the best things in life, but, if you happen to be gay, it’s far from free. Two New York Times writers, Tara Siegel Bernard and Ron Lieber, recently attempted to calculate the price of being gay in America. While they acknowledge that the emotional costs of fighting prejudice are incalculable, they …

Comments Off

Why Public And Private Health Insurance Cannot Coexist

June 24, 2009

President Obama does not buy the argument that a government-run health insurance program would drive private insurers out of the business. He ought to think about Medicare. Since Medicare was enacted in 1965 to insure elderly Americans, comprehensive private insurance for that segment of the population has disappeared. There are plans that cover items that Medicare does not, and there are private insurers that are paid by the government to …

Comments Off

Protect Us From Our Protection

June 18, 2009

Health insurance is supposed to provide you with the assurance that if you have a medical emergency, you won’t be crushed by debt as well. But what if your insurance company drops your policy just when you really need it? Jennifer Wittney Horton of Los Angeles told a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee this week that she believed she was protected. Then, when she needed costly treatment, her coverage was …

Comments Off

Sorry, you can not to browse this website.

Because you are using an outdated version of MS Internet Explorer. For a better experience using websites, please upgrade to a modern web browser.

Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Internet Explorer Apple Safari Google Chrome