Administration April 2, 2005

EBRI: More Confidence in SS than UFOs

February 4, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Americans may have voiced confidence in the Social Security system in a survey, but that's not the whole story.
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A 1997 poll by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates found that a whopping 86% of “pre-boomers” and 63% of “Gen Xers” said they were more sure they would be able to collect Social Security benefits than in the notion that life exists in outer space.

With “pre boomers” defined as those born before 1946 and “Gen Xers”   as those born in 1965 and after, 33% of the younger generation said they believed more in the suggestion of alien life existing in outer space while only one in 10 of their older counterparts agreed.

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Focusing just on Social Security, 83% of “pre-boomers” said they were confident they would get benefits from the system while 10% were not so sure and the remainder didn’t know. Of the younger respondents, 52% were not confident of getting benefits while 43% were sure they would and the rest didn’t know.

One thing the two age groups agreed on: the exact definition of an unidentified flying object. Some 68% of “pre-boomers” and 79% of “Gen Xers” said a UFO was an “object in the sky that can’t be identified” while the remainder of both groups opted for a “spacecraft that is controlled by aliens.”

The Social Security issue has become a key topic of public policy discussion with Bush Administration efforts to partially privatize the system by allowing younger workers the chance to invest some of their money – a key theme of Wednesday’s George Bush State of the Union speech.

The EBRI report is  here .

Benefits April 1, 2005

HMO Decline Stabilizing in Oregon and Washington, Study Says

April 1, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The decline in HMO membership in Oregon and Washington is slowing, while PPO growth is not as dramatic as in the past, according to a new study.
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HealthLeaders-InterStudy , a provider of managed care industry intelligence, has announced in its “Oregon & Washington Health Plan Analysis” that the decline in HMO membership has stabilized. From January 2003 to the same month in 2004 in Oregon, membership in such organizations fell from 42.6% of market share to 32.3%. However, by mid-2004, this number had only dropped to 28.9%, according to a press release from the company.

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An almost identical trend was noticed in Washington, according to the study.

“HMOs have been evolving to include fewer restrictions, making them moreattractive to consumers. As a result, the mix of HMO and PPO membershipis stabilizing,” said Micaela Brown, HealthLeaders-InterStudy analyst, in the news release. “At the same time, employers are looking for gatekeeper features likeutilization and care management.”

The study also noted that plans in both states that have initiated pay-for-performance arrangements for physicians are reporting “good cooperation and little pushback from the doctors involved.”

Also of note is that Oregon’s Insurance Pool Governing Board has created two new health plans for small businesses that have, before now, been unable to provide health insurance for employees.

In Washington, the study notes, the notoriously partisan legislature has come together to sponsor “pay-or-play” bills that would require employers to aid in the funding of benefits for the uninsured.

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