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  • Reinsurance in A minor

    March 8, 2010

    While we all start to sit down, our broker tries to put us at ease by cracking a few jokes. No matter how funny the humor, it doesn’t overshadow reinsurance renewal time for our self-insured plan.

  • Health care reform, we hardly knew ye

    March 1, 2010

    It is with more than a little trepidation that I even embark on this column about health care reform, knowing that whatever I write today could be obsolete by, oh, let's say tomorrow, shall we?

  • Why do Canadians live longer while spending less?

    March 1, 2010

    Canada has a single-payer health care system in which virtually all medical care is government-paid. Consumers have no copayments, no deductibles and no medical cost sharing.

  • Hospital admissions can turn holiday joy into pain

    November 1, 2009

    When Marge went out to put her letters in the mailbox, she didn't realize that such a short walk would change her life. She slipped on her icy driveway, hitting the ground hard.

  • Editor's Inbox: Readers sound off on health care reform

    November 1, 2009

    Don't wait for reform - prepare for the future now, brokers urge

  • The public option: It’s baaack

    October 27, 2009

    Fittingly close to Halloween, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) resurrected the possibility of a government-run insurance option when he announced on Oct. 26 that he intends to include in the Senate bill a public plan with the option for states to opt out.

  • Editor's inbox: Vendor refutes plan sponsor interest in exchange-traded funds

    October 1, 2009

    I read with interest the front page story on exchange-traded funds and 401(k) plans that appeared in the August issue ('Rubber meeting the road: Exchange-traded funds' role in 401(k) portfolios growing as ETFs gain traction with investors, plan recordkeepers').

  • Remembering Robert Whiddon: Paying tribute to dear colleague, friend

    September 1, 2009

    It was well known around the EBN/EBA offices that when Robert challenged you — questioned your way of doing something or pushed you to do better — it was his way of showing you that he cared. In that case, Robert cared about me an awful lot. We had some infamous 'discussions' over the years about the direction in which to take our magazines— some of them so confrontational that at first glance, you might never know that we were truly close colleagues and friends. But although we rarely started out on the same page, Robert and I always were on the same side. As much as he challenged me, he encouraged me. If I was at the end of my rope, he was there to pull me up again.

  • Editor's inbox: Reader pleads with lawmakers to take FSAs off 'the chopping block'

    August 1, 2009

    Picture yourself watching the news, optimistic that the nation has elected its first African-American president, and pleased to live in a county that is fair, just and forging ahead with the best intentions for all. This was me, Nov. 4, 2008.

  • Overheard @: Trimming FSAs could pay for health care reform

    June 1, 2009

    In a recent article written for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, authors Chuck Marr and Kris Cox suggest that "Congress should consider scaling back or eliminating health care flexible spending accounts as part of its effort to pay for health care reform." Among their reasons for deep-sixing FSAs, Marr and Cox say: * FSAs encourage excess utilization of health care. * FSAs' 'use or lose it' requirement promotes wasteful spending. * FSAs complicate…

  • Editor's Inbox: Readers jeer opt-out payments, cheer onsite clinics

    June 1, 2009

    Palmieri's stance on opt-out payments is 'paternalistic' Frank Palmieri rarely writes something that doesn't spark interest, and I always look forward to reading his column in Employee Benefit News. I don't always agree with him, and his April 1 column on opt-out credits ('Incenting workers to opt out of health coverage may carry unintended consequences') brought out the old paternalistic line that 'opt-out payments should not be made unless employees can prove the existence of other medical coverage.' I disagree.

  • Readers sound off on March editorial

    May 1, 2009

    Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the response to my March editorial, 'I regret enrolling in an HSA.' For all the mail I've received since it was published — which ranged from congratulatory to condescending to critical — I am heartened by the vigorous debate regarding the future of our nation's health care system and that, if this response is any indication, benefits stakeholders will continue to be a powerful voice in that ongoing dialogue.

  • In defense of the 401(k) plan

    April 7, 2009

    Samuel Clemens wrote in 1897 “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Hopefully, the same can be said about the death of the 401(k).

  • Goodbye, yellow-brick road

    March 25, 2009

    The following is one benefit professional's satirical take on employee attitudes about self-service benefits enrollment tools. It is not, nor meant to imply, the opinions of an actual individual.

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