Benefits June 16, 2003

Maine Universal Health Bill Set to Become Law

June 16, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The state of Maine may prove to be a national testing ground for a universal health plan with a bill passed out of the state legislature to make available affordable health care to every Maine citizen by 2009.
Reported by

A spokesman for Maine Governor John Baldacci, the plan’s top backer, said Baldacci would likely sign the bill into law next week, according to a Reuters news report. The plan would create a state-sponsored agency, Dirigo Health, to offer health insurance beginning July 1, 2004.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

Dirigo Health will try to sign up 31,000 Maine citizens during its first year and will provide coverage access for at least another estimated 110,000 individuals by 2009. Coverage will be offered through private health insurance carriers to provide a comprehensive package of benefits and the new agency will pay providers at private insurance market rates.

With health care shaping up to be a major issue in the 2004 presidential campaign, the Maine reforms may be a test case for similar overhauls nationwide, some analysts say. Some 40 million Americans do not have health insurance.

Dick Cauchi, health analyst at the National Conference of State Legislators, told Reuters that at least a dozen states are considering legislation that would grant universal health care coverage or create a single payer system to cover the uninsured. But he said the Maine legislation goes farther than any other state level proposal and is the first poised to become law. “Certainly, states will be looking closely at it (the Maine plan) to the extent they are able to get it off the ground,” Cauchi said.

Benefits June 13, 2003

Edwards Calls for Curb on Pension Inequities

June 13, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Presidential hopeful Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina) unveiled his pension-reform proposals during a campaign swing through northern Iowa, calling for curbs on pension abuses by executives.
Reported by

In stops in Mason City, Algona and Fort Dodge, Edwards said his proposal would cut down on inequities that allow corporate executives to give themselves huge benefits while cutting pensions for workers – a common employee complaint during the spate of recent corporate scandals.

“Executives at far too many corporations today use tricks and gimmicks to give themselves huge benefits while cutting pensions for workers,” Edwards said . Iowa precinct caucuses next January are considered the first test of strength for candidates for the presidential nomination.

“CEOs who build their companies deserve to be rewarded, but working people deserve to be treated fairly,” insisted Edwards, who often touts his working-class background as the son of a mill worker and a postal employee. Edwards, of course, rose to prominence as a personal injury trial lawyer in his home state of North Carolina.

The Edwards “pension fairness plan” would:

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

  • eliminate tax breaks for executive pensions that are disproportionately large compared to rank-and-file pensions
  • require that companies allow older and long-tenured workers to retain their existing pension plans. Edwards said hundreds of companies are converting traditional pensions to “cash balance” plans, in which older workers can lose as much as half of their pensions (See Cash Balance ). Edwards charged that the Bush administration has proposed regulations that would allow conversions without real protections for older workers.
  • prohibit bankruptcy protection for “golden getaways.” Edwards backs a provision in legislation proposed by US Representative John Conyers, (D-Michigan), that would prohibit executives from safeguarding their pensions in bankruptcy-proof trust funds while workers’ pensions are exposed.
  • crack down on executives who use loopholes to avoid paying taxes if the pensions aren’t outside their control and at risk of loss, as is supposed to be the case on most nonqualified deferred compensation programs . The move would save taxpayers $1 billion over 10 years, Edwards said.

«