The Affordable Health Care Act, which requires businesses with 50 or more employees to offer coverage, may be coming at a good time for Florida. Nearly a quarter of state residents don’t have health insurance. That makes Florida second only to Texas with the most uninsured, an Associated Press report said, citing just-released U.S. Census data. The status is attributable to the makeup of Florida’s labor market, which includes a significant amount of small businesses and an economy dependent… Reported by bizjournals 21 hours ago.

*Managing Medicare*

Medicare offers comprehensive health insurance coverage to people 65 and older. But the decisions and choices you face can be confusing and overwhelming. Here's our step-by-step guide for getting the most out of Medicare.

Navigating Medicare can be confusing, especially for new beneficiaries. Here's what you need to know.

*What's covered by parts A, B, and D*

Medicare comes in three parts:

· Part A covers hospital inpatient care, some types of home health care, hospice care, and care in skilled nursing facilities. There is no premium for Part A if you or your spouse has earned at least 40 Social Security work credits.
· Part B covers doctor services, outpatient hospital care, preventive care, and some types of home health care. You have to pay a monthly premium for Part B. In 2013, it's $104.90 for individuals with an income of less than $85,000 a year and couples with an income of less than $170,000. Higher-earning beneficiaries pay more on a sliding scale up to $335.70 a month for the wealthiest, with incomes above $214,000 for individuals and $428,000 for couples.
· Part D covers prescription drugs. You have to pay a separate monthly premium for Part D unless you get it as part of a Medicare Advantage plan. In 2013 the average premium for a plan is about $40 a month, but prices can vary considerably. Individuals with an income of more than $85,000 a year and joint tax filers with an income of more than $170,000 pay a premium surcharge of up to $67 a month on a sliding scale related to income and tax filing status.

For details on each plan part, see Medicare's website.

All types of Medicare plans must cover certain preventive services, such as screening tests for breast and colon cancer, without any deductibles or co-pays.

Get health insurance rankings

Click on the image at right for rankings of health insurance plans nationwide. Use the tool to:

· Choose a plan category such as private HMO or PPO, or Medicare HMO or PPO.
· Choose a state.
· Customize your search to compare plans' scores and their performance in measures such as consumer satisfaction and providing preventive services.

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*Signing up for Medicare for the first time*

The "initial enrollment period" for Medicare Parts A (hospitals), B (doctors and outpatient care), and D (drugs) consists of the three months before, the month of, and the three months after your 65th birthday.

· If you already receive Social Security, Medicare will contact you in advance. If not, you must enroll on your own either online or at a Social Security office.
· If you do not sign up during this initial period, you must wait until the next annual General Enrollment Period to join Medicare, which runs from January through the end of March. Your coverage will begin the following July 1.

· Normally everyone enrolls in Part A immediately because it's free. The only exception: If you are still working at a large employer (20 employees or more) and have a high-deductible plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA), you can't continue contributing to the HSA once you join Medicare. If you want to do so, you can delay Part A enrollment. There's no penalty for late signup. Whether to delay signing up for Parts B and D can be tricky, especially if you're still working or have a retiree plan. If you delay signup under certain conditions, you can be penalized with higher premiums.*When to sign up for Part B*

If you don't sign up for Part B when you should, you will be hit with a harsh penalty: a permanent increase in your premium of 10 percent for every year that you should have been enrolled but weren't. In 2013 the standard Part B premium is $104.90 a month.Most people should sign up for Part B either when they turn 65 or when they or their spouse stop working, whichever comes later. Sounds simple, but be aware of these exceptions and gotchas if any of these situations apply to you or your spouse:

· *You are still working at a large employer.* You can delay enrollment without penalty if you have health insurance through your own or a spouse's current job at a workplace with 20 employees or more. Once the last working spouse leaves his or her job, even if they're getting COBRA or retiree insurance, it's time to sign up for Part B. You have eight months, starting the month after the job ends, to get this done without penalty.
· *You are still working at a small employer.* If your workplace has fewer than 20 employees, sign up for Part B as soon as you turn 65. Your employee health plan then becomes a secondary plan that kicks in after Medicare has paid its share of the bills. Workplaces this size are allowed to drop you from their employee plan after you reach 65, something that's against the law for larger employers). If you ignore this rule, and your group health plan finds out you're over 65, it may refuse to pay claims that Medicare would have paid.

· *You or your spouse is on COBRA.* Even though the COBRA plan is exactly the same as your former group health plan, once you turn 65 you must switch to Medicare. But COBRA can still function as the main insurance for the younger spouse, and you can keep parts of your COBRA plan that Medicare doesn't cover, such as your dental benefit. Learn more about Medicare and COBRA.
· *You have a retiree plan.* If you have a retiree plan from your old job, you must sign up for Part B when you turn 65, even if your retiree plan doesn't change at all. After you go on Medicare, the retiree plan becomes a secondary plan (but may still function as the main insurance for your younger spouse). Your plan might not, however, pick up all the costs that Medicare doesn't, so check with your plan administrator. If coverage is meager and premiums high, compare this to what it would cost to drop your retiree plan and get a Medigap or Medicare Advantage plan instead. Also find out if you can rejoin your retiree plan later if circumstances change; sometimes you can and sometimes you can't.

· *You receive veteran's benefits.* The Department of Veterans Affairs and Medicare operate independently of each other for the most part. Medicare won't pay for care you get at a VA facility, and the VA won't help you with your Medicare co-payments and deductibles (except if the VA authorizes you to get care at a non-VA hospital). The VA encourages veterans to sign up for Medicare A and B to have the flexibility to seek care at non-VA facilities if need be. Moreover, if you are not in one of the VA's higher priority groups, you could lose your coverage suddenly if Congress decided to cut back the VA's budget. At that point, you would have to pay a penalty for late enrollment in Medicare Part B. Learn more about VA and Medicare.
· *You have TRICARE for Life.* If your military service entitles you to TRICARE for Life, you must sign up for Part B when you turn 65, regardless of whether you are working or have other sources of coverage. If you don't, you lose your eligibility for this valuable benefit. Learn more about how TRICARE works with Medicare.
· *You are on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHB).* FEHB will continue to cover you after retirement, even if you don't take Medicare at all. But if you delay enrollment in Part B after retiring, and then change your mind later, you'll be hit with the Part B late-enrollment penalty. Because FEHB premiums can be substantial, you need to consider your options carefully. Learn more about how FEHB works with Medicare.*Part D do's and don'ts*

For most people, signing up for Part D at 65 is the best strategy. But be prompt. There's a penalty—1 percent extra on your premium for every month you could have signed up, but didn't—for enrolling more than three months after your 65th birthday month. So if you are a year late enrolling, your premium will be 12 percent higher than it would have been otherwise.There are exceptions to signing up right at 65, though. See Medicare Part D for more information.

*Protecting yourself against high out-of-pocket Medicare costs
*

Original Medicare is the familiar program that's been around since 1965, in which the government pays Medicare's share of your medical bills directly to providers of Part A and B services. You can go to any provider anywhere in the country that accepts Medicare reimbursement.

The problem is that original Medicare has some substantial deductibles and co-insurance (for example, a $1,184 deductible for every hospital stay and 20 percent of outpatient doctor visits). And unlike the private insurance you're used to from your working years, Medicare does not have an out-of-pocket limit. Those deductibles and coinsurance payments can add up fast, especially if you need costly treatments like outpatient chemotherapy.

You may have a retiree plan (a health plan provided courtesy of your former employer) that helps pick up some or all of this cost sharing.

If not, you have two options for limiting your exposure to excessive out-of-pocket costs.

One is to buy a  Medigap plan, a private supplemental plan that helps cover most or all of those costs. If you select this option, you will continue to be covered by original Medicare. After Medicare has paid your claims, it will automatically forward them to your Medigap plan, which will then pay its portion of the bill. Learn more about Medigap.Since Medigap plans do not over prescription drugs, you must also purchase a  standalone Part D plan if you want drug coverage.

Your other option is to purchase a Medicare Advantage plan, a private plan that you can choose in place of original Medicare. These plans now cover about one in four Medicare recipients. Every Medicare Advantage plan substitutes for Part A and Part B (although you continue to pay your Part B premium as usual). You might also pay an extra premium for the plan itself. Most of the plans also include Part D drug coverage. If they don't, you can buy a separate Part D plan.   Medicare Advantage plans typically come with deductibles and copays, but once these hit your annual out-of=pocket limit, the plan will pick up 100% of your bills for the ret of the year.

Medicare Advantage plans are a lot like the managed care plans you may have had during your working years. You will have to receive your care from doctors, hospitals, and other providers within the plan's network or the plan won't pay.If you have a retiree plan, check with your plan administrator before signing up for a Medicare Advantage plan because it may affect your eligibility for your retiree benefits.

The vast majority of Medicare Advantage plans are HMOs or PPOs that require you to get your care within a local provider network. You will also be responsible for the plan's deductibles and co-pays, and the law that created the Medicare Advantage program prohibits you from buying Medigap coverage to help with these expenses. Read more about Medicare Advantage.

*Changing to a different plan*

Once you are enrolled in Medicare, you can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan once a year during the annual open-enrollment period. In 2013 the dates are Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 for plans beginning on Jan. 1, 2014.

 

Which Medicare plan do you have?

You may be uncertain whether you have original Medicare or a private Medicare Advantage plan. The name on your insurance card probably doesn't say "Medicare Advantage." Instead, it might list a plan name, like "Secure Horizons." Here's how to find out which Medicare plan you have:
1. Call 800-MEDICARE (800-633-4227).
2. The system will ask you to say your "Medicare number." That's the number on your red, white, and blue Medicare card (see example). Everyone has this card, even those enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans.
3. The system will give you some options. Select 0 for a customer service representative.
4. When the representative comes on the line, you will be asked for your Medicare number again, as well as some other identifying information such as date of birth and full address.
5. Once your identity has been confirmed, ask the rep: "Could you tell me whether I have original Medicare or Medicare Advantage"? You will be told either: "There's no Medicare Advantage plan on file" OR the name of your Medicare Advantage plan.

Caregivers can make this call on behalf of a Medicare enrollee, if they have the identifying information.

Medicare Advantage plans are private plans that you can choose in place of original Medicare. They now cover about one in four Medicare recipients. Medicare's open enrollment period runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 each year.. During this period, you can switch from original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan (or vice versa), or from one Medicare Advantage plan to another, with the new coverage to commence on Jan. 1.*Get impartial information*

Your mailbox may be overflowing with sales brochures from Medicare Advantage plans, but our advice is to ignore them. Instead, use the government's Medicare plan finder and NCQA's rankings of Medicare HMO and PPO plans. We also recommend checking out MedicareRights.org. That site has an excellent tool that will walk you through a comparison of original Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

*Choose carefully*

Before you choose a plan, make sure you understand these key points.

· Understand the difference between a PPO and an HMO.  In general, in an HMO it is very difficult to get care out of network. In a PPO, it's allowed but you will have to pay more of the cost yourself.
· Find out which doctors and hospitals are in the plan's provider network. Ask your doctors which Medicare Advantage plans they take part in, and which they would recommend.
· If you regularly take prescription drugs, check the Medicare plan finder to see whether they are on the plan's formulary, its list of preferred drugs. But before you sign up, double-check with the plans themselves to be sure.
· Look at all expenses you'll be paying, not just premiums. Deductibles, co-insurance, co-payments, and out-of-pocket maximums can vary greatly from plan to plan. Because you're not allowed to purchase a Medigap supplement plan alongside Medicare Advantage, you'll be responsible for paying those expenses out of your own pocket.
· If you have retiree coverage from an employer, do not sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan without checking first with your plan administrator. In some cases, it could void your retiree coverage.
· Find out what coverage you will have outside the plan's service area. Many HMOs and PPOs will only pay for emergency care when you are away from home. That is an especially important consideration if you, for example, spend the winters or summers in different locations, or pay extended visits to your adult children.

Medicare Parts A and B do not cover all of your health-care expenses. For example, you'll still pay a $1,184 deductible for the first 60 days of a hospital stay, and 20 percent of the cost of Part B services such as doctor visits, outpatient treatments, and laboratory tests.

If you don't have retiree coverage from a former employer to fill in those gaps, you might consider buying a private Medicare supplement (Medigap) policy.

Here's what you need to know about Medigap.

*Medigap plans come in standardized varieties*

In most states, Medigap plans are available in 10 standardized benefits packages, which vary according to how much of your expenses they will pick up. The more generous the plan, the higher the premium.

The most popular plan is F, which pays for pretty much everything Medicare doesn't, including the 15 percent excess charge that you can be billed by doctors who don't accept Medicare as payment in full. Here's a chart of the various Medigap plans.

You can find a complete list of Medigap carriers in your area on Medicare.gov.

The search engine will give you a range of prices for each category of plan, and the names and contact information for companies that sell them. But it's up to you to contact the carriers directly to get their specific pricing information.

*The type of premium pricing method you choose will affect your future costs*

A policy that looks inexpensive when you first buy it at age 65 could end up being the most expensive when you hit 80.

Carriers use three pricing models (though in some states you may have a choice of only one or two):

· Community-rated (also called no-age rated). The same premium is charged to everyone, regardless of age. Medigap experts say these plans are the least expensive over time, though not necessarily when you first purchase them.
· Issue-age-rated. The premium is based on your age when you buy the policy. It won't go up as you age, but will increase due to cost inflation.
· Attained-age rated. The premium starts low but goes up as you get older. Over time, this type of policy is the most expensive.

Learn more about policy pricing.

*Medigap plans can turn you down or charge you more for pre-existing conditions at certain times*

In every state, you have a guaranteed right to buy a Medigap policy for six months starting the first day of the month you are at least 65 and enrolled in Part B.

After that, you're only entitled to guaranteed issue Medigap in specific situations, such as:

· Your Medicare Advantage plan shuts down or you move out of its service area.
· Your retiree plan shuts down.
· You joined Medicare Advantage at 65 but decide to switch back to original Medicare within a year.
· Your Medigap plan shuts down.

The minimum rules for when Medigap must sell you a plan are explained in this publication from Medicare. But some states have chosen to go beyond these minimums, for example, by requiring insurers to sell Medigap plans to applicants at any time. Your State Health Insurance Assistance (SHIP) program or state insurance department can give you information on your state's rules.

*Signing up*

You can sign up for Medicare Part D, which helps cover prescription drug costs, along with other components of Medicare starting three months before your 65th birthday. It's important to be prompt because there's a penalty for enrolling more than three months after your 65th birthday.

There are exceptions to signing up right at 65, though. If you have access to drug coverage through your job (either as an active employee or a retiree) that is at least as good as a Part D plan, you can defer signing up for Part D without penalty. Your plan administrator can tell you whether your plan qualifies.

If you are already enrolled in a Part D "standalone" plan or a Medicare Advantage plan that incorporates drug coverage, you can switch plans during the annual open-enrollment period, which runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, 2012.

*Making Part D work*

In 2013 the average deductible is $325 (your actual deductible can vary depending on the plan).

During your initial coverage period, you will pay an average of 25 percent of the costs of your medications until you and Medicare together have spent $2,970. At that point, you will enter the "doughnut hole" and will have to pay a larger share of your drug costs.

Inside the doughnut hole, you will pay 47.5 percent of the cost of brand-name drugs and 79 percent of the cost of generics until the TOTAL cost of your brand-name drugs and YOUR share of the cost of generic drugs together add up to $4,750. At that point, you will exit the doughnut hole and enter the "catastrophic coverage" period, which lasts until the end of the year, when you will pay only 5 percent of the cost of your drugs.

For more information on the closing of the doughnut hole, download this guide from Medicare.

*Choosing a good plan*

Depending on where you live, you might have dozens of private plans to choose from, with different premiums, co-payments, and levels of coverage, including which drugs are covered. Choosing a plan that is right for you can save you thousands of dollars per year in premiums and out-of-pocket drug expenses. It pays to review your Part D coverage every year, especially if you have started taking new drugs.**

· *Start at Medicare.gov.* You can find the basics about the benefit and Part D plans at Medicare's website. There's a link to the Medicare Part D Plan Finder, which allows you to compare offerings and coverage options in your area and includes a helpful formulary finder that allows you to compare plans based on their coverage of your personalized list of drugs. It will even show you your monthly out-of-pocket drug cost for the year.
· *Ignore sales pitches.* Print, TV, and radio ads and plan brochures are unlikely to offer enough information for you to make a wise choice. Avoid selecting a plan just because it has a familiar name or brand. If possible, consult a trusted broker.  But watch out for brokers pushing plans from just one carrier.
· *Learn more.* We recommend consulting the website of the nonprofit Medicare Rights Center. There you can find in-depth information on Medicare Part D.

-Getting financial help-

Individuals with annual incomes of less than $16,755 and resources of less than $13,070  in 2012, or married couples with incomes of less than $22,695 and resources of less than $26,120, might qualify for extra financial help from Medicare to pay their Part D premiums and out-of-pocket drug costs. (Those numbers may change for 2013.)  Download Medicare's instructions on applying for the Extra Help program.

Getting Medicare help from your state

For information and free counseling about Medicare, Medigap, Medicare Advantage, and long-term care, contact your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP). These federally funded programs are not connected to any insurance company or health plan. SHIPs were established to help beneficiaries with plan choices, billing problems, complaints about medical care or treatment, and Medicare rights.

Alabama 800-243-5463

Alaska 800-478-6065 or 907-269-3680

Arizona 800-432-4040 or 602-542-4446

Arkansas 800-224-6330 or 501-371-2782

California 800-434-0222

Colorado 888-696-7213

Connecticut 800-994-9422

Delaware 800-336-9500 or 302-674-7364

District of Columbia 202-739-0668

Florida 800-963-5337

Georgia 866-552-4464

Hawaii 888-875-9229 or 866-810-4379 (TTY)

Idaho 800-247-4422

Illinois 800-548-9034 or 217-524-4872 (TDD)

Indiana 800-452-4800 or 866-846-0139 (TDD)

Iowa 800-351-4664

Kansas 800-860-5260

Kentucky 877-293-7447

Louisiana 800-259-5301

Maine 800-262-2232 or 800-606-0215 (TTY)

Maryland 800-243-3425 or 410-767-1100

Massachusetts 800-243-4636, 617-727-7750, or 800-872-0166 (TDD/TTY)

Michigan 800-803-7174

Minnesota 800-333-2433

Mississippi 800-345-6347 or 601-359-4929

Missouri 800-390-3330

Montana 800-551-3191

Nebraska 800-234-7119, 402-471-2201, or  800-833-7352 (TDD)

Nevada 800-307-4444 or 702-486-3478

New Hampshire 866-634-9412

New Jersey 800-792-8820

New Mexico 800-432-2080 or 505-476-4846

New York 800-701-0501

North Carolina 800-443-9354 or 919-807-6900

North Dakota 888-575-6611, 701-328-2440, 800-366-6888 (TTY)

Ohio 800-686-1578

Oklahoma 800-763-2828

Oregon 800-722-4134

Pennsylvania 800-783-7067

Rhode Island 401-462-4000

South Carolina 800-868-9095

South Dakota 800-536-8197

Tennessee 877-801-0044

Texas 800-252-9240

Utah 800-541-7735

Vermont 800-642-5119

Virginia 800-552-3402 or 804-662-9333

Washington 800-562-6900

West Virginia 877-987-4463 or 304-558-3317

Wisconsin 800-242-1060

Wyoming 800-856-4398

*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2007-2013 Consumers Union of U.S.*

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Update your feed preferences Reported by Consumer Reports 17 hours ago.

The 5 Groups of Employees Who Benefit the Most from the Marketplaces

Park City, Utah (PRWEB) August 30, 2013

Today, Zane Benefits, the number one online small business health benefits solution, published new information on who benefits from health insurance marketplaces.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, starting in 2014, health insurance coverage for individuals will become available through new state individual health insurance marketplaces. Most importantly, the individual health insurance tax subsidies will only be available for coverage purchased through a state health insurance marketplace.

The goal of the individual health insurance marketplaces is to make health insurance more affordable and easier to understand. A website will provide a variety of online tools to learn more about the range of health plans that will be offered through the state health insurance marketplace.

For eligible employees, there will be federal financial assistance to help lower the amount employees pay for health insurance premiums.

All state marketplaces will open October 1st, 2013 for open enrollment, with coverage starting January 1, 2014. Employees will be able to shop online, in person, or by phone for health insurance in every state.

Here are five groups of employees who may benefit greatly from the health insurance marketplaces and individual health insurance reforms:

1) Uninsured Employees

Individual health insurance becomes more accessible with easier to understand options.

2) Employees with a Stand-Alone HRA

For employees with a stand-alone HRA through their employer, the health insurance marketplaces provide more health insurance options to employees.

3) Employees Paying a Lot for Their Premium

If employees are currently spending a large portion of their paycheck on their health insurance premium, the marketplaces (and health insurance tax subsidies) may help with premium affordability.

4) Older Employees (But Not Yet 65)

Uprating based on age will be allowed in 2014, but the ratio is controlled by health reform (3:1 compared to 5:1 now). Individual health insurance will likely be more affordable in 2014 than it is today for this age group.

5) Employees with High Medical Expenses

Starting in 2014, annual and lifetime limits on coverage will no longer be allowed by any health plan. The prohibition of annual and lifetime limits on coverage benefits employees with high medical expenses and may help prevent medical bankruptcies.

Click here to read the full article.
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About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and defined contribution health care. The flagship software provides a 100% paperless administration experience to small businesses and insurance professionals that want to offer better health benefits without a traditional group health insurance plan at lower costs. For more information about ZaneHRA, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

Like many labor negotiators, I looked to health care reform for legislative relief from endless haggling with management over employee benefit costs. My own union and others worked hard for passage of President Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) three years ago. Despite its failure to take health insurance issues off the bargaining table, as a more preferable Medicare-for-All system would do, Obamacare was widely cheered by labor.

Union members were told, correctly, that the ACA would expand Medicaid access for millions of lower-income Americans and make private insurance coverage more consumer-friendly for everyone else. Organized labor also expected the new law to aid union bargaining by leveling the playing field among all employers, much like the minimum wage and other protective labor legislation does.

Unions hoped that the ACA would restrain medical cost inflation and corporate pressure for health care cost shifting. Both trends have been a major cause of recent strikes or contract rejections at AT&T, Verizon, and United Parcel Service.

Instead, just months before key ACA provisions go into effect, Obamacare is backfiring in multiple ways on a labor movement already battered and bruised. Contrary to repeated White House assurances, many unionized workers now face more, rather than fewer, health plan problems and costs. Alarmed by Obama administration decisions and ACA provisions unfriendly to labor, top union leaders now fear that Obamacare will create "nightmare scenarios" for millions of workers, retirees, and their families.

*Unintended Consequences?*

In frantic letters to Congress, national presidents of the Teamsters, Laborers, Hotel Employees, and United Food and Commercial Workers unions cite the multiplying "unintended consequences" of the ACA. Around the country, smaller firms are already outsourcing so they can keep their total head count below 50 and not be covered by ACA requirements. Larger ones, like Wal-Mart, are planning to hire more part-timers and schedule existing employees for less than 30 hours a week so they won't have to cover their non-fulltime workforce.

Even unionized retailers like Stop & Shop, faced with higher ACA-imposed medical plan costs, are pushing back. The food store chain sought to eliminate health coverage for thousands of part-time workers in New England, creating what one union official called his most difficult negotiations in 40 years.

Under the ACA, federal subsidies for eligible workers who wish to keep their individual job-based insurance won't help them add or maintain family coverage -- because the cost of that is not factored into the ACA subsidy formula. Even lower-income participants in multi-employer plans (known as Taft-Hartley funds) may end up being disadvantaged if ACA rules don't permit them to qualify for subsidies on the same basis as workers without union-negotiated medical benefits. In both the private and public sector, employers are already citing the ACA's 2018 tax on mis-named "Cadillac coverage" to justify givebacks from employees who, in reality, only have a healthcare Chevy in their garage.

According to MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, a top White House consultant, this impending 40 percent excise tax on higher cost plans "is intended to shift compensation away from excessively generous health insurance to wages." Yet few in labor believe that more premium sharing, higher deductibles and co-pays will translate into better pay for workers without a fight over that as well.

*Race to the Bottom*

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which faults the ACA for triggering a "race to the bottom with respect to benefits," is one of those labor organizations still hoping that the White House will make "common sense corrections" in the ACA.

However, the only flexibility that President Obama has shown so far is delaying, until 2015, the law's requirement that larger employers provide insurance or pay a penalty. Plus, the White House has postponed much-needed limits on out-of-pocket costs for health care consumers. As D. Taylor, president of UNITE HERE, complained to HuffPo's Dave Jamieson on Aug. 21, the "people who've gotten special treatment are the business community... Here's what we're saying: 'You made the problem, you fix it.' Here we have a situation you can't blame on the Republicans."

Labor's love will certainly be lost, this Labor Day and future ones, if ACA implementation punishes the president's friends and rewards their corporate adversaries. In 2010, rank-and-file anger over Obama Administration plans to tax union members' benefits produced a big labor vote in favor of Republican Scott Brown, when he briefly captured a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts. The national GOP, which has no positive agenda for health care reform, may yet reap the harvest of wider working-class disillusionment with health care reform.

One leading single-payer activist worries that labor's growing disaffection with Obamacare will generate more calls for its repeal -- a stand already taken by the Roofers Union--followed by "a return to the status quo ante." This former local union officer fears that a labor movement "more divided and cozying up to the Republicans to teach the Democrats a lesson" is not likely to find a better way forward.

To steer union discontent in a better direction, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare has collected hundreds of signatures on an open letter to be distributed to delegates at the national AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles, Sept. 8-11. The letter urges AFL President Rich Trumka to "push the envelope further" in "the cause of health care justice" by using the shortcomings of Obamacare to build broader support for tax-supported universal coverage that "would take healthcare off the bargaining table."

Instead, there are strong indications that top AFL-CIO officials want to tamp down any public criticism of ACA and the president (even though they are hailing their 2013 convention as "a time for decisive action to answer the challenges facing working people.")

Preventing the labor backlash against Obamacare from actually forcing a real discussion on the convention floor will take some doing. In a resolution passed earlier this month, even the Nevada AFL-CIO has joined the public chorus of Obamacare critics, noting that "our health plans only get worse" while the White House fails to respond to serious union concerns.

(Steve Early is a labor journalist, lawyer, and retired national staff member of the Communications Workers of America. He was involved, for many years, in bargaining with manufacturing and telecom firms in New England. He is the author, most recently, of Save Our Unions: Dispatches From A Movement in Distress, forthcoming from Monthly Review Press in November. He can be reached at Lsupport@aol.com) Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.

America's third largest health insurer, Aetna Inc., has announced it will not sell insurance on New York's Obamacare health insurance exchange, the fifth state the company has pulled out of in the last few weeks.

The other states Aetna has opted out of for Obamacare insurance exchange participation are Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, and Connecticut. 

"We believe it is critical that our plans not only be competitive, but also financially viable," said Aetna spokesperson Cynthia Michener. "On New York, as a result of our analysis, we reluctantly came to the conclusion to withdraw."

Obamacare's individual mandate requires all Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty. Some health insurers are foregoing participation in the Obamacare exchanges due to costly mandates to provide a selection of services and a requirement to accept all individuals regardless of pre-existing conditions. 

Aetna never intended to participate in California, and Anthem Blue Cross and United Health Group made a similar decision to steer clear of California's Obamacare exchanges as well. 

In 2009, President Barack Obama promised his government healthcare overhaul would not threaten personal insurance plans. 

"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period," he claimed. "No one will take it away. No matter what."

 
 
 
  Reported by Breitbart 13 hours ago.

Health Insurance Marketplace enrollment begins October 1; will provide people with disabilities with more health care options.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) August 30, 2013

Since March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been making preventive care and prescription drugs more accessible and affordable for Americans, especially the elderly and people with special needs, who often find paying for medical and long-term care expenses to be more challenging. The Department of Health and Human Services has reported that 6.6 million Medicare beneficiaries have saved more than $7 billion on prescription drugs since the passage of the ACA, according to HHS.gov.

Enrollment in the ACA's new Health Insurance Marketplace begins October 1, 2013, for coverage beginning January 1, 2014. The ACA prohibits insurance companies from denying people coverage if they have pre-existing conditions, denying them particular services, or charging them more for coverage based on their health status. With enrollment just around the corner, it’s important to know what the ACA means for you. NAELA member attorneys will be actively helping families and guardians understand how the ACA will affect medical and long-term care insurance options and create a financial and legal plan that works best for a specific situation.

In “How the Affordable Care Act Affects Special Needs Planning,” an article published in the August/September 2013 issues of NAELA News by NAELA members Kevin Urbatsch, Esq., and Michele Fuller, Esq., the authors state, “…Much of the ACA is focused on protecting the rights of people with chronic, long-term physical or cognitive conditions…Under the provisions of the ACA, many of the barriers to private health care for persons with disabilities will disappear. The biggest change is that a pre-existing condition will no longer deny an individual access to private health care. The ACA also makes private health care more attractive because it removes the lifetime limits on health insurance that made private plans unattractive to many persons with profound disabilities.”

“Special needs planning and Elder Law attorneys, with their particular expertise and knowledge of public and private resources, will be uniquely positioned to assist families in evaluating all available health care options. The ACA, while adding complexity for the consumer, opens doors for increased access to care for people with disabilities. Matching clients' needs with available benefits is like putting together a puzzle. The ACA gave us a few more pieces,” said Urbatsch.

The new Health Insurance Marketplace is designed to help people who don't have any health insurance. The Marketplace won't have an effect on those people who have their health insurance through Medicare. The Medicare open enrollment period (October 15-December 7, 2013) is a time of increased fraudulent activities and people with Medicare should be cautious about offers to sell them a health plan.

“NAELA members are dedicated to helping the elderly, people with special needs, and their families. The ACA and health care reform is often talked about in the news, but it’s not always easy to put all the pieces together. Elder and Special Needs Law attorneys are knowledgeable about the ACA. NAELA members and other advocates across the country are helping clients understand its impact on a personal level and providing guidance in making the right long-term choices,” said NAELA President Howard S. Krooks, CELA, CAP.

To receive a free NAELA brochure: “Questions and Answers When Looking for an Elder or Special Needs Law Attorney,” contact Communications Associate Abby Matienzo by email [amatienzo(at)naela(dot)org] or phone at 703-942-5711 #230.

Find an Elder and Special Needs Law attorney in your area using NAELA’s Member Directory.

About NAELA
Members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) are attorneys who are experienced and trained in working with the legal problems of aging Americans and individuals of all ages with disabilities. Established in 1987, NAELA is a non-profit association that assists lawyers, bar organizations and others. The mission of NAELA is to establish NAELA members as the premier providers of legal advocacy, guidance and services to enhance the lives of people with special needs and people as they age. NAELA currently has members across the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit NAELA.org.

### Reported by PRWeb 12 hours ago.

Premium, deductible, copay, all basic health insurance terms many Americans don't understand, according to a recent poll. Reported by TwinCities.com 8 hours ago.

At the Minnesota State Fair, state employees are promoting a health-insurance marketplace called MNsure by handing out fans imprinted with pictures of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Reported by Wall Street Journal 5 hours ago.

A Comparison of Defined Contribution vs. the SHOP Exchange

Park City, Utah (PRWEB) August 31, 2013

Today, Zane Benefits, the number one online small business health benefits solution, published new information on defined contribution and SHOP exchange.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, with health care reform right around the corner, many small businesses and their brokers are strategizing about the best health benefits solution for 2014. Here's a look at two common small business health insurance approaches: pure defined contribution and group health insurance through the new SHOP exchanges.

A "pure" defined contribution health plan allows the employer to contribute any amount to employees' health care costs (including individual insurance), and gives employees access to individual health insurance subsidies through the new health insurance exchanges.

Pure defined contribution health plans allow the business to defined their contribution amount, rather than defining the specific plan of coverage. A pure defined contribution plan is not linked to a group health insurance plan. Rather, the defined contribution health plan is the business's health benefit.

The business provides employees a fixed monthly allowance for health insurance premiums and other eligible medical expenses.

With the help of a broker or agent, employees purchase their own individual health insurance premiums.

Employees submit their expenses to their defined contribution provider, and the business reimburses employees tax-free on payroll, up to the amount available in their allowance.

One hurdle preventing some businesses to switch to a defined contribution health plan was key employees with a pre-existing condition.

In 2014 this hurdle goes away with guaranteed-issue policies starting.

The SHOP exchanges are a public small group exchange that will be offered in each state. The SHOP exchange is similar to the current small group market except that the small business health care tax credits will only be available through the SHOP, and a limited number of states will offer "employee choice" plans.

Small businesses with less than 100 employees or less than 50 employees are eligible, depending on the state. The small business SHOP exchanges will open on October 1, 2013 for shopping and enrollment, with plan coverage starting January 1, 2014.

Starting in 2014, the small business health care tax credits will only be available through the SHOP exchanges.

Some state's SHOP exchanges will offer small businesses an "employee choice", in which small businesses can offer a choice of health plans to their employees through the SHOP exchange.

Click here to read the full article.
--
About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and defined contribution health care. The flagship software provides a 100% paperless administration experience to small businesses and insurance professionals that want to offer better health benefits without a traditional group health insurance plan at lower costs. For more information about ZaneHRA, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 18 hours ago.

Nearly every Michigander will have access to basic health insurance - and be required to get it - beginning Oct. 1 as federal health reform's largest provisions start snapping into place with the launch of each state's Health Insurance Marketplace. Reported by Freep 4 hours ago.

The Michigan Senate's intense, months-long debate over Medicaid expansion and the federal health care law is not over, even after the Republican-controlled chamber's milestone vote to provide health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-income residents. Reported by detnews.com 4 hours ago.

All parts of Iowa are not created equal when it comes to health insurance. Reported by KansasCity.com 4 hours ago.

Ramps.org has created a directory of community service organizations that provide free or low cost ramp building services for members of their community that cannot obtain them on their own for financial reasons.Ramps.org has spent the past several years creating a directory of community service organizations that provide free or low cost ramp building services for members of their community that cannot obtain them on their own for financial reasons. That directory is now available on the Ramps.org website at ramps.org/free-ramps.htm. According to Thom Disch the CEO of Handiramp.com, “This project was started several years ago when we discovered that many of the people calling our offices for home access ramps would describe their need and then explain that they didn’t have the funds to pay for a ramp system. Our customer service people, trying to find funding for these people who had such a desperate need, researched and complied lists about community service organizations that use grants, low cost financing and a variety of means to secure ramps for people who could not afford them. As far as we could tell these organizations and lists were never put into one central location until now.”

Providing home modifications for people with limited mobility is one area of medical need that has been overlooked by all health insurance programs, and continues to be neglected by the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). Many health insurance programs will pay for a wheelchair or scooter, sometimes valued at $20,000 or more, however, health insurance will not provide funding for any home modifications, forcing the person needing a ramp to pay for it themselves. Since many of the people who need a wheelchair or scooter are on disability or fixed incomes, they often don’t have the funds to pay for these modifications. As a result, these people become prisoners in their own homes, not able to go outside even to doctor’s appointments, because they can’t get their wheelchair or scooter down the front steps.

“At HandiRamp we realized that hundreds of community organizations were stepping up and providing services and meeting the needs of the people that were under-served by the insurance companies. These community organizations and volunteers need to be celebrated. That was a big part of the reason for creating the online Ramp Builder directory,” explained Disch. “We also realized that no one organization could meet the needs of everyone, so by building this directory of organizations we’ve increased the opportunity to help more people all around the country.”

Ramps.org has collected data on over 100 organizations that provide support for people that need a ramp for their home. The directory is organized by state and has at least one ramp builder for each state. This is by no means a comprehensive list of support organizations and there are always new organizations that are being formed. If you know of an organization that will build a ramp system for a person or family in need please let us know by filling out the form at http://www.ramps.org/suggest-resource.htm

Ramps.org is a free resource providing information on home accessibility and ramping systems. HandiRamp and the HandiRamp Foundation maintain and provide funding for the Ramps.org website as part of their community service efforts. The mission for Ramps.org is to create access for everyone, regardless of the ability to pay. For more information on Ramps.org please contact Wanda Oehrli at 847-680-7700.

Company Contact Information
Ramps.org
Wanda Oehrli
510 North Ave
60048
847-680-7700

News and Press Release Distribution From I-Newswire.com Reported by i-Newswire.com 3 days ago.

http://www.bendfamilylawattorney.com, a site operated by the Law Office of Janine Curtis, breaks down some of the new child support laws in Oregon. Their new blog goes into detail on how the changes will affect parenting time credit, insurance requirements, and more.

Bend, Oregon (PRWEB) August 30, 2013

New child support laws are now in effect in the state of Oregon. There are many changes but two of the most substantial are in regards to parenting time credit and health insurance requirements.

Janine Curtis, a Bend Oregon family law attorney, explains these changes in a new blog on her website.

"Non-custodial parents might benefit under the new rules by giving more credit for the time the child spends with this parent," the blog says. "Previously a non-custodial parent could only receive a credit for child support if the child spent at least 25 percent of the total overnights with them. This meant that a parent with 90 overnights per year did not receive credit against his or her child support for that time. The new guidelines are giving parents credit on a graduated curve."

Curtis says this change will be one of the biggest reasons parents go to court to restructure their current child support setup.

The blog also explains the changes for health insurance requirements. Previously, both parents were required to carry health insurance for their children. With the new changes to the law, only one parent must carry coverage.

Some of the other changes are in regards to income determination, child care caps, cash medical support, and allowing a larger degree of agreed upon deviation from presumptively correct child support amounts.

Curtis urges parents to see a family lawyer if they think these new changes could affect them. Before going to court to try to change the current setup, she says, parents would benefit from a conversation with an attorney to prepare them for what the changes will mean.

About Janine Curtis

Curtis has been practicing law for 30 years. She received her law degree from the University of Idaho College of Law in Moscow, Idaho. Now Curtis is a member of the Oregon and Idaho state bars and is licensed to practice as a member of the Federal bar.

She is passionate about assisting her clients through the difficult issues they face in divorce and other family transitions. She is most happy when she can help a client through the difficult process and see them resolve their issues to transition to a more positive place and a new chapter in their lives.

When not practicing law she can be found running, hiking, kayaking, scuba diving, practicing yoga or dancing. She is an animal lover and has fostered and rescued many dogs, some of which have become her companion buddies! Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.

Four Buying Characteristics of Small Businesses When It Comes to Health Benefits

Park City, Utah (PRWEB) September 01, 2013

Today, Zane Benefits, the number one online small business health benefits solution, published new information on how small businesses buy health insurance.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, with health care reform right around the corner, many small businesses and their brokers are strategizing about the best health benefits solution for 2014. Here's a look at two common small business health insurance approaches: pure defined contribution and group health insurance through the new SHOP exchanges.

A "pure" defined contribution health plan is not linked to a group health insurance plan. Rather, the defined contribution health plan is the business's health benefit. It allows the employer to contribute any amount to employees' health care costs (including individual insurance), and gives employees access to individual health insurance subsidies through the new health insurance exchanges.

The business provides employees a fixed monthly allowance for health insurance premiums and other eligible medical expenses.

Employees submit their expenses to their defined contribution provider, and the business reimburses employees tax-free, usually on payroll.

One hurdle preventing some businesses to switch to a defined contribution health plan was key employees with a pre-existing condition. But this hurdle goes away in 2014 due to the guaranteed-issue mandate.

The SHOP exchange is similar to the current small group market except that the small business health care tax credits will only be available through the SHOP, and a limited number of states will offer "employee choice" plans.

Small businesses with less than 100 employees or less than 50 employees are eligible to shop in the small businesses health options exchange, depending on the state. The small business SHOP exchanges will open on October 1, 2013 for shopping and enrollment, with plan coverage starting January 1, 2014. Small business health care tax credits will only be available through the SHOP exchanges.

Click here to read the full article.

About Zane Benefits

Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and defined contribution health care. The flagship software provides a 100% paperless administration experience to small businesses and insurance professionals that want to offer better health benefits without a traditional group health insurance plan at lower costs. For more information about ZaneHRA, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 20 hours ago.

For Candy Seibert, a self-employed property manager from northeast Iowa, getting by without health insurance is just a way of life. Reported by Miami Herald 4 hours ago.

CHEYENNE -- Airman First Class Daniel Henderson needed to make an important stop before beginning his new post at F.E. Warren Air Force.

While driving to Cheyenne in the spring of 2011, he and his partner, Jerret Henderson, took a detour to Sidney, Iowa -- a small town near the border of Nebraska with a population of about 1,300.

The two were already domestic partners under California law. But they wanted an official declaration in a state that allowed same-sex marriage.

"We had always planned to get married," Daniel said. "We just wanted the documentation, because the closest thing to marriage at the time in California was domestic partnerships, and we just wanted to be married, married."

But their marriage license was largely symbolic n at least in the eyes of the military at the time.

Before a change was announced last month, spouses of same-sex couples were not eligible for the numerous benefits that the military offers.

For Daniel and Jerret, this meant forgoing more than $29,000 worth of medical, housing and other benefits that they would have received if they were man and wife.

"The benefits are huge, and it's a huge part of their pay and compensation," Jerret said. "I don't know of another career field where if you're married, your pay increases."

But like thousands of other same-sex couples, Daniel and Jerret will be able to enroll in the spousal benefits starting Tuesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act allowed the military to begin offering the full spousal benefits to gay married personnel for the first time.

"The Department of Defense remains committed to ensuring that all men and women who serve our country and their families are treated fairly and equally," Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel wrote in an Aug. 13 memo announcing the change. "Expeditious implementation of the decisions announced in this memorandum will help the department remain true to that commitment."

Having the benefits will be a life-altering change for Daniel and Jarrett. But the couple said it remains too little, too late.

"It will be bittersweet, but for me, I'll still be sad," Jerret said. "I'll probably cry, and not tears of joy, because we have been going through this fight for so long that it has just been exhausting."

Daniel is a member of the 90th Security Forces Group, which guards the base and its 150 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Hoping to become a police officer but too young to enroll in the police academy, he enlisted with the Air Force and set out for basic training in November of 2010.

Daniel and Jarrett were already together, and the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule had yet to be repealed.

But the two did little to conceal their relationship.

"Because of his career field n I mean he guards nuclear weapons n I assume there is some kind of in-depth background checks," Jerret said. "So they were aware of our marriage, but they looked the other way."

The couple said they expected to face challenges and discrimination because of the openness of their relationship. But they were still surprised and disappointed by how other airmen and the military establishment treated them.

Daniel said he was the victim of homophobic slurs, and the couple received multiple hateful voicemails.

And the two quickly realized their marriage would not be treated anything like opposite-sex couples on the base.

"People would ask what it is like to be a same-sex spouse, and I would compare it to being a woman in Saudi Arabia," Jerret said. "And I know that sounds extreme, but I can't get on base without him, I can't buy a stick of gum on base without him.

"And one time I needed to go the bathroom, so he went ahead, and I was stopped and asked for a military ID. Since I didn't have one, it was like I was being read the riot act."

The Air Force additionally refused to give them a housing allowance, which is given to other married couples who wish to live off-base.

And since Jerret was not covered under Daniel's military health insurance plan, he had to pay thousands in out-of-pocket health-care expenses.

Dismayed by their treatment, Daniel and Jerret decided to join a legal effort seeking equal recognition, benefits and family support for gay military personnel.

On Oct. 27, 2011, they were named among the plaintiffs in the OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's federal lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

Daniel is the only enlisted member who is part of the lawsuit. The other seven service members are officers.

Daniel said this gave him a much different perspective than those in the leadership roles, who he said were treated better.

"I would see the other members of lawsuit on CNN or MSNBC and all these big-time things, and the way they portrayed their experience was always contradictory to ours," he said.

Most of their grievances in the lawsuit will be addressed by the military's new policy honoring benefits to same-sex couples.

But Daniel and Jerret said they will continue to fight because the VA has not yet changed its policy to allow same-sex spouses to be eligible for veterans benefits. (Though a judge ruled in federal court Thursday that a lesbian veteran and her spouse should be entitled to disability benefits, given the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act.)

"And that's a shame because this is the heartland and this is Wyoming," Jerret said. "People love their trucks, their Bible, their guns, America, and they really respect soldiers.

"But when you have someone who is a combat veteran or who has served their country, to not take care of their family, that is unpatriotic."

Additionally, they are seeking the money they would have received if the military honored their marriage in the first place. Daniel and Jerret said they have itemized those missed benefits and the total amount is $29,300.

Jerret said he is looking for something else too: an apology.

"I really want that public apology, I really do," he said. "It is something that is important to me, more than any kind of retroactive benefits or getting that $29,000 back. I think we deserve it."

Daniel and Jerret have a lot to talk about before Daniel's enlistment ends in a little more than three years.

Jerret said he is literally counting down the days until Daniel is able to leave the service.

"Nov. 29, 2016. I know the exact date," he said. "It's like a countdown, I'm not kidding."

Daniel, however, has not made up his mind. And his attitude toward the military is more conflicted.

"It has been so stressful," he said. "But I enjoy what I do, and I honestly have a passion for it."

Daniel said military culture toward gay service members is obviously changing for the better. But he said homophobia still exists among some, and it likely always will, to some degree.

And by the time his enlistment is up in 2016, Daniel said he expects the military and the rest of the country will continue to change.

"Oh yes, I do believe that," he said. "And I will be happy to know that I helped out in some way." ___

(c)2013 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.)

Visit Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.) at www.wyomingnews.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

For nearly two years, Tom Allen clocked into his job at a defense hardware plant in Lansing, Mich. in the afternoon to start a 12-hour shift, usually operating a metal lathe machine. The hours were long, but the overtime pay was welcome. Still, at the end of the week, Allen said, he'd get home Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m. so tired he'd sleep until dinnertime.

"By Sunday night you felt pretty good," Allen, 63, said in an interview. "Then it started all over again."

But when the company, Demmer Corporation, told him he had to work on Saturdays and Sundays as well, Allen refused. "I literally told them, 'I'm not going to have a heart attack and die in the traces just so you guys can make a little extra money.'"

Demmer fired him in December 2010 and has appealed his unemployment claim, saying he had no proof he'd been promised only 60 hours and he had no right to skip shifts. In August, a Michigan court sided with Demmer.

Eighty-four hours per week -- that's the kind of schedule Americans worked more than 200 years ago, back when there was no cure for "consumption" and happiness was a revolutionary pursuit. Americans fought and fought to get those hours down.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, workers went on strike thousands of times and bled to death in the streets in the struggle against long hours, which they argued were dangerous and inhumane. They demanded "time to eat, time to live, time to be happy, time to be a person," as one union worker put it in 1919, using terms that ring no less true today.

Back then, labor advocates linked the problems of the over- and under-employed, arguing shorter hours would reduce joblessness by spreading work around. The argument applied whether it justified reducing the workweek from 72 to 60 hours or 40 to 30. Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor until his death in 1924, put it this way: "So long as there is one who seeks employment and cannot find it, the hours of labor are too long."

For more than a hundred years, workers successfully pushed for shorter and shorter hours as productivity kept increasing. In the early 1900s, progress appeared unstoppable. Soon, it seemed, people would hardly have to work at all.

"By 1933, observers were predicting that the 30-hour week was within a month of becoming federal law," labor historian Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt has written, "and that the 'progressive shortening of the hours of labor' was an inescapable economic fact of life and the dominant political trend."

Yet the movement for shorter hours has fizzled. Since the passage of the landmark Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which established the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek, the idea that shorter hours could reduce unemployment and lessen misery has been largely forgotten.

Today, two-thirds of American workers are on the job at least 40 hours per week, with 25 percent working longer and nearly 7 percent putting in more than 60 hours, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The entrepreneurial spirit is our holiest ghost, and slacking is downright un-American. And whereas technology was supposed to make work easier and give everyone more free time, for some people, bedside smartphones have made work relentless. Studies have shown that overwork leads to excessive stress and devastating health problems.

Meanwhile, the benefits of shorter hours to workers and society have never really been discredited. The concept is so powerful that it inspired both Karl Marx and, even though its members don't realize it, today's Republican Party.

People ought to wonder on a day like Labor Day, when friends and neighbors and family have gathered, when ice-cold beer cans are sweating in a bucket and hot dogs sizzle on the grill, when pride swells in the American way of life -- why don't we do this more often? If more time off could benefit both individual human beings and the broader economy, we don't we have more long weekends? Why isn't every Monday a Labor Day?

The basic logic of shorter hours has always been simple. As technological advances keep making workers more productive, fewer people are needed to get the same amount of work done. If overemployed people worked less, underemployed people could pick up the slack.

"If you think of the economic problem we're facing now, it's kind of absurd. We're basically able to make too much stuff," Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research, said in an interview. "Why don't we all just work a little less and let the people who aren't working pick up part of that time?"

There's no question that some Americans would like to work less. According to the government's Current Population Survey in 2001, 7 percent of Americans said they would be willing to work fewer hours, even if it meant earning less money. The government hasn't asked the question since.

Private surveys yield a wide range of estimates, and results depend on the way the question is asked. Fifty-two percent of respondents to a Center for the New American Dream survey in 2003, for instance, said they would be willing to trade one day off a week for an equivalent pay reduction. A 2002 survey by the Work In America Institute found 27 percent of non-union workers would take 10 percent less pay for 10 percent less work. A 2006 survey of working moms by CareerBuilder.com found 52 percent would take a pay cut to spend more time with their children. And in July, 18 percent of respondents to a Huffington Post/YouGov poll said that they would take the opportunity to work one less day each week and receive 20 percent less pay.

If 18 percent of the working population wants 20 percent less pay for another day off, that's 26 million people who favor a permanent three-day weekend.

Of course, there are a lot of reasons we don't all just work less. One major obstacle is our health care system. Though the percentage of employers offering health insurance has been declining for years, most workers still get their health care coverage that way. Working part-time could mean sacrificing the insurance. And from the employer's perspective, continuing to offer the same health insurance at a fixed cost while getting fewer hours of work in return is not a good bargain.

We cling to the 40-hour workweek for cultural reasons as well. We valorize hard work and hate loafers. A shorter workweek? They surrendered to that idea in France. (Or at least they tried to -- the French workweek still pretty much looks like ours.)

In a 2007 paper, economists Lonnie Golden and Morris Altman summarized the myriad reasons research has shown workers don't seek fewer hours: Employers use longer workdays to screen out less productive workers, while employees put in more hours to build up savings in case they're fired. They also out-work their colleagues to try to win promotions or so they look good in the event of downsizing. And while some workers might be okay with less pay for more time off, others want to keep their income as high as possible in order to maintain their spending habits -- and to keep up with the neighbors.

High levels of unemployment can also make workers even more committed to long hours, as there are so many others eager for your job. Tom Allen said he witnessed a pattern of burnout at his company. "They would hang in there as long as they possibly could," he said of his colleagues. "They would gradually not be able to hang on and end up getting fired." Then they'd be replaced.

In an interview, Golden, a professor at Penn State Abington, lamented that the U.S. government so closely tracks underemployment but ignores overemployment.

"National policy ought to make it safe for people to use a wide range of reduced-time options," Golden said, acknowledging that pushing such a policy would be pretty difficult. "It's a different cultural standard. There must be something about Americans who think it's not feasible."

And yet the idea of shorter hours is uniquely American.

Most people in the colonies in the early 1700s had Sundays off but still worked from sunup to sundown the other six days of the week, according to "Our Own Time," a 1989 history of the American working day by David R. Roediger and Philip S. Foner.

The first strike for 10-hour days occurred in 1791, and it wasn't long before workers connected long hours with seasonal unemployment. In 1827, striking carpenters in Philadelphia argued that 10-hour days would spread their work out evenly throughout the year, and "make a journeyman of nearly as much value in the winter as in the summer."

Employers did not appreciate all the strikes for more time off. "Before I will employ a 10-hour man my ships shall rot at the wharves -- my half-finished buildings shall totally decay," a New Bedford ship-builder vowed in 1832, anticipating Ayn Rand's fictional shrugging capitalists by more than a century. Still, laborers enjoyed scattered success prying shorter hours directly from businesses and favorable policies from the government. Hours declined steadily.

After the Civil War, workers started demanding even shorter eight-hour days, sparking a national movement.

"Out of the death of slavery a new life at once arose," Marx wrote in 1867. "The first fruit of the Civil War was the eight hours' agitation, that ran with the seven-leagued boots of the locomotive from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California."

By 1868, eight states had passed eight-hour laws, and Congress gave eight-hour days to federal workers -- though Roediger and Foner write that these measures were largely ineffective. Most people still worked longer than 10 hours a day, and on Saturdays, too.

Labor leaders called for a general strike on May 1, 1886, in support of the eight-hour workday, and local unions across the country pushed for the new limit. A Wisconsin official later wrote that eight hours "was the topic of conversation in the shop, on the street, at the family table, at the bar, in the counting room, and the subject of numerous able sermons from the pulpit."

Hundreds of thousands of workers joined days of strikes across the country. In Chicago's Haymarket Square, however, things got ugly. On May 4, somebody -- the person's identity remains unknown -- threw a bomb at police trying to disperse a crowd of peaceful protesters. Seven officers and at least four civilians died from the explosion and the ensuing gunfire. In the days that followed, police arrested hundreds of people, and eight were prosecuted for conspiracy and sentenced to death. The government eventually hanged four of them.

Today, international May Day celebrations mark the anniversary of the strike. But at the time, public opinion in the U.S. sided with the police. Labor activists considered the event a huge setback for the eight-hour movement, and largely moved away from mass strikes as a tactic for winning shorter workdays. Congress declared Labor Day a national holiday shortly after a similarly tragic crackdown on rail workers in 1894.

* * * * *

Not all economists and historians link the shortening of hours to labor agitation. In a 1995 survey of 178 members of the Economic History Association, a majority agreed that the shortening of hours was a result of economic growth.

Some industrialists considered it good for business. Henry Ford, no friend to unions, adopted the eight-hour day in 1914 "because it so happens that this is the length of time which we find gives the best service from men, day in and day out." In 1926 Ford also gave his workers two days off instead of one, something labor leaders had begun to demand.

The five-day week didn't catch on with most other business moguls, though, as Hunnicutt, Roediger and Foner have documented. John Edgerton, head of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in 1926 that it was "time for America to awake from its dream of an eternal holiday." George L. Markland, chairman of the board of Philadelphia Gear Works, said that year that "any man demanding the 40-hour week should be ashamed to claim citizenship in this great country," adding that "the men of our country are becoming a race of softies and mollycoddles." Elbert Gray of U.S. Steel cited the Bible: "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work."

But labor had God on its side as well. Jewish leaders pointed out that Saturday work violated the Jewish Sabbath. "I can see but one way to save the Sabbath for the Jew, and that is through the establishment of the five-day week," Rabbi Israel Herbert Levinthal said in 1925.

The early 20th century also witnessed new attitudes toward leisure, and workers couched their demands not only in practical terms but also in humanitarian ones. In 1919 for instance, Juliet Stuart Poyntz of the International Ladies' Garment Workers union argued that workers wanted "time for rest, time to play, time to be human."

"[The worker] is not the slave of 50 years ago. He has something to live for. He is not a machine. He is a person," Poyntz wrote. As such, what he wants most is time -- "time to eat, time to live, time to be happy, time to be a person. … More education, more recreation, more pleasure, more rest, more time for himself."

An Italian immigrant steelworker fresh off a 24-hour shift, responding to the claim that people in his profession received good pay, put it this way that same year: "To hell with money! No can live!"

Monsignor John Ryan, an economist and Catholic priest, argued in 1931 for shorter hours and against what he called a "new gospel of consumption" designed to justify income inequality and human suffering.

"Just why a people should spend its time in turning out and consuming a hundred kinds of luxuries which minister only to material wants, instead of obtaining leisure for the enjoyment of higher goods of life is not easily perceptible," Ryan wrote. "After all, neither production nor consumption is an end it itself."

As the Great Depression threw the economy into disarray, labor advocates set their sights on the 30-hour week -- six hours of work per day, five days per week. In the early 1930s, Sen. Hugo Black (D-Ala.) introduced legislation calling for a 30-hour week as the "only practical and possible method of dealing with unemployment." The Senate passed the bill, but it died in the House, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration signaled its opposition, partly out of sympathy to business.

Instead, Congress passed the Social Security Act in 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. The former offered unemployment insurance and retirement benefits, which effectively shortened work over a lifetime, if not in an individual week. The latter established a minimum wage and the 40-hour week, with time-and-a-half pay for overtime.

The arrival of World War II prompted some backlash against shorter workdays, and manufacturing hours rose to support the war effort. As the war's end drew near, unions argued for the six-hour day as a way to reduce the inevitable unemployment of returning troops, but when the unemployment didn't happen, the shorter-hours movement lost steam. Anti-Communist sentiment during the Cold War didn't help.

Calls for shorter hours have remained scarce in recent decades. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) pushed for a 35-hour week in 1979. "One of the chief methods of keeping unemployment in check during the Depression was the adoption of the 40-hour work week," Conyers said at the time. "During the past 30 years, however, the work week has remained substantially unchanged, despite the frequency of massive unemployment, large-scale technological displacement of human labor, and considerable gains in productivity. We ought to look at reducing the working week and spreading employment among a greater number of workers, once again, as a means to reducing joblessness without sacrificing productivity."

The AFL-CIO backed the legislation, but Republicans said it would cause inflation and it didn't get much attention. As Roediger and Foner have pointed out, dips in the number of working hours are now largely seen "not as labor victories but as omens of a deteriorating economy."

Conyers hasn't revisited his proposal for shorter hours as a response to the current economic crisis. Instead, he recently supported taxing banks and using the money to pay for public jobs, a proposal partly modeled after the New Deal's Works Progress Administration.

"Since the depression, public policy has been designed to maintain 'adequate demand' and 'full employment,'" Hunnicutt writes. "Government deficit spending, liberal Treasury policies, increased government payrolls, expanded public works projects, and increased military spending have usually been employed when the economy has become 'sluggish.'"

Shorter hours have simply not been part of the equation.

* * * * *

But don't count shorter workdays out. Some companies voluntarily shortened their workweeks in response to the Great Recession. A 2009 survey of 245 large U.S. companies found that 13 percent had decreased hours to prevent layoffs.

Casino mogul Steve Wynn and steelmaker Nucor Corp., for example, cut hours and pay that year instead of firing people. A Nucor production manager told the Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel in 2010 that the shorter hours weren't easy for everyone. "People were severely impacted from a pay standpoint, in terms of hours being cut and our unique bonus structure," he said. "But everyone also understood that they kept their jobs and their benefits."

The recession has also triggered a slew of proposals for government-sanctioned work-sharing, also known as short-time compensation. Under such a program, firms can reduce workers' hours instead of laying them off, and workers can keep their jobs while collecting unemployment checks proportionate to the hours they've lost. Since the policy doesn't cost much money, it's appealing to Republicans wary of anything that might increase the federal budget deficit.

This year, Republicans in the House of Representatives also proposed changing the Fair Labor Standards Act so that instead of paying wage-earners time-and-a-half for overtime, businesses could offer future comp time instead. Democrats countered that the bill, known as the Working Families Flexibility Act, would effectively let employers stop paying overtime. The family flexibility bill passed the Republican-controlled House but got no love from the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Hunnicutt, who has written several books on shorter hours, including one this year titled "Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream," said he's not a Republican but he liked the proposal a lot.

"The argument for it is this would be a way to reward people with time rather than money," Hunnicutt said. "There is this pent-up consumer demand for leisure that's out there. I was for it. I thought it was a great bill."

Of course, Republicans are not interested in deliberately shortening the workweek. The Affordable Care Act, they say, is forcing some employers to cut hours in order to escape the law's insurance mandate for full-time employees.

“The Working Families Flexibility Act was designed to give moms and dads more choices as to how they balance their jobs and family time, and make it possible to better schedule doctor’s appointments and school events," said Rory Cooper, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). "The biggest threat to the 40-hour workweek in America today is Obamacare, which is quickly transforming our full-time workforce into a part-time workforce given the extra costs now associated with giving hardworking employees more hours, and that is shameful."

But Obamacare may also give some new freedom to the overemployed. The Congressional Budget Office reported in 2011 that the Affordable Care Act would reduce employment by the equivalent of 800,000 jobs in 2021 because new subsidies will make it easier for people to buy their own insurance, "which will encourage some people to work fewer hours or to withdraw from the labor market."

Unlike most other developed countries, including Canada, Germany and Italy, the U.S. does not have a national work-sharing program. But an increasing number of states have begun trying it out. In 2012, a bipartisan agreement led Congress to give states extra cash to promote and operate short-time compensation programs. Last year the U.S. government estimated the program saved some 60,000 jobs. In 2009 it saved 165,000.

Economist Dean Baker, one of the foremost proponents of work-sharing, is baffled by how little attention the concept has received, given its bipartisan backing.

"It's almost incredible, the lack of publicity," he said. "We've been able to get almost nothing from the White House in terms of promoting it."

Germany's short-time compensation program increased employment there by 250,000 to 400,000 jobs in 2009, according to the Urban Institute. Here, the scheme is available in only 26 states, with Ohio having signed up this year.

"The appeal is that employees don't have to have the conversation with their families that [they are] laid off," Bob Peterson, a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, said in an interview in March. The Ohio General Assembly approved the work-sharing plan in July.

Still, even as he sponsored the work-sharing plan, Peterson scoffed at the notion of a shorter work week.

"My background is I'm a farmer," Peterson said. "I'm used to a 60-hour work week. A 40-hour week sounds like a vacation to me." Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

Although the recession caused more people with eating disorders to avoid spending money on treatment, industry revenue still grew slightly during the five years to 2013, partially due to increasing understanding and awareness of the prevalence of eating disorders. For these reasons, industry research firm IBISWorld has added a report on the Eating Disorder Clinics industry to its growing industry report collection.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 02, 2013

Today, more than 11 million Americans suffer from eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Eating disorders, which have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, are most prevalent among adolescents between the ages of 12 and 25. Despite the severity of eating disorders and the necessary nature of medical treatment, eating disorder treatment is often deemed a nonessential health benefit, especially by health insurance companies. “Because of the large gap in access and coverage, a number of individuals coping with eating disorders have to rely on their own financial resources,” according to IBISWorld industry analyst Anna Son. As such, the Eating Disorder Clinics industry was not completely immune to the recession, during which many cash-strapped patients were no longer able to afford costly treatment. Nevertheless, the industry has since gained traction on the back of rising demand and improving economic conditions. IBISWorld estimates that the Eating Disorder Clinics industry's revenue will grow at an average annual rate of 1.7% during the five years to 2013. In 2013 alone, revenue is expected to increase 5.2% to total $2.7 billion. Despite the prevalence of eating disorders, they continue to receive inadequate research funding. While research dollars spent on Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia averaged $88 and $81 per affected individual, respectively, only $0.93 was allocated to individuals affected by eating disorders, based on 2011 data from the National Institutes of Health. “As a result, lack of research on most effective methods of treating the mental and the physical aspects of eating disorders creates unclear protocols for treatment and leaves some wiggle room for insurance carriers to opt out of providing the coverage,” says Son.

The Eating Disorder Clinics industry is characterized by its large number of small-scale establishments that service relatively narrow, geographically dispersed markets. The fragmented structure of this industry is evident in the total number of private firms and independent eating disorder clinics. Additionally, many participants employ fewer than 10 people. The larger-scale players in this industry are multi-establishment firms that operate across many regional markets and typically maintain permanent operations in each location.

Over the next five years, the destigmatization of eating disorders will underpin industry demand as more people come out of the shadows and seek necessary treatment. In addition, healthcare reform that is expected to expand coverage to millions of previously uninsured individuals will be a boon to industry growth. Beginning in 2014, as a part of healthcare reform, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to those with preexisting conditions, and expanded Medicaid coverage will provide low-income individuals with greater access to treating disorder treatment. As a result of growing demand, industry revenue is forecast to increase over the five years to 2018.

For more information, visit IBISWorld’s Eating Disorder Clinics in the US industry report page.

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IBISWorld industry Report Key Topics

This industry includes establishments devoted to the diagnosis and care of outpatients with disorders that affect, disrupt or more generally involve eating. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating. Industry firms are often associated with hospitals or medical schools as treatments for eating disorders usually involve psychotherapy, nutrition education, family counseling, medications and hospitalization.

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About IBISWorld Inc.
Recognized as the nation’s most trusted independent source of industry and market research, IBISWorld offers a comprehensive database of unique information and analysis on every US industry. With an extensive online portfolio, valued for its depth and scope, the company equips clients with the insight necessary to make better business decisions. Headquartered in Los Angeles, IBISWorld serves a range of business, professional service and government organizations through more than 10 locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.ibisworld.com or call 1-800-330-3772. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

Open enrollment on October 1, 2013. Coverage starts as soon as January 1, 2014.Open enrollment starts October 1, 2013. What is the Health Insurance Marketplace offered by the Goverment and can it help you?
Marketplaces are a new way to find health coverage to meet your needs. Apparently with one application, you can explore all your options and even enroll. With the Health Insurance Marketplace, youll see all of the health plans available in your area to which will enable you to compare costs and monthly premiums for private insurance plans.Appling for Marketplace coverage is available three different ways: online, mail, or in-person. Telephone help and online chat will be available 24/7 to help you complete your application. Open enrollment starts October 1, 2013. Coverage may start as soon as January 1, 2014.

Important: Insurance plans in the Marketplace are offered by private companies. Under the law plans cant turn you away or charge you more because you have an illness or medical condition. They must cover treatments for these conditions. Plans cant discriminate or charge women more than men. Market Places are slated to be available in each state. A Marketplace is run by either your state or the federal government. Therefore information will be available through each states website.Ideally, the Marketplace will simplify searches for health coverage by making the options available in one place for your area.

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2013 Philadelphia Healthcare Reform Expo & Summit will be a historic meeting of providers, public servants and private industry. A percentage of the proceeds from the Summit will be donated to the community.  The Healthcare Expo is formulated to educate individuals, employees, businesses and healthcare professionals about the Patient Accountability and Affordable Care Act.  The following professionals will be participating: Healthcare Professionals - Physicians, Care Providers & Administrators;  Top-level researchers & members of the scientific community;  Pharmaceutical executives and representatives and executives and representatives from the health care system.We hope to open ongoing dialogue that will bridge the divide between the perceptions and realities that will soon impact healthcare, a situation complicated by social-economic and environmental factors. While employer mandate may have been delayed , other changes under the Patient Accountability and Affordable Care Act could be critical to your understanding. The mission of the Summit is to provide a venue for forming partnerships that will actively inform and change health behaviors from reactive to proactive and move healthcare delivery from acute to preventative. The Summit will focus on understanding the new laws and how each demographic can make the best decisions on managing healthcare costs.Company Contact Information
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