The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: rise
Employer Health Costs To Rise Nearly 9 Percent This Year, Survey Finds

Employer Health Costs To Rise Nearly 9 Percent This Year, Survey Finds

By Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES—Employer health care costs are expected to rise nearly 9 percent in 2014, a slight improvement over recent years, according to a new survey.

However, that modest decline doesn’t offer much relief to companies and their employees, who are seeing health insurance costs take a bigger bite out of their paychecks.

“Even though the decline is good news, most (health) plan sponsors still find 8 percent to 9 percent cost increases unsustainable,” said Harvey Sobel, a principal at Buck Consultants, a benefits consulting company that surveyed 126 insurers and health plan administrators nationwide.

Those companies surveyed provide health benefits to 119 million people.

The report released Thursday found that costs for preferred-provider organization, or PPO, plans are expected to rise 8.7 percent this year. That’s down from 9 percent last year.

HMO plans should increase 8.6 percent, down just slightly from the previous year, according to Buck Consultants.

Some insurers surveyed cited patients’ lower use of medical care as the primary reason for the decreases.

“This may be a result of the economic slowdown and its impact on consumers’ willingness to seek medical treatment,” Sobel said.

Overall, U.S. health care spending has been growing at historically low levels from 2009 to 2012, federal data show.

Many health economists and industry officials have attributed the slowdown primarily to lingering effects of the Great Recession, when millions of Americans cut back on medical care.

But the Obama administration and other experts have pointed to fundamental changes in health care reimbursement and the delivery of care spurred by the Affordable Care Act.

Even with the slowdown, the rise in health premiums continues to outpace inflation and wage growth.

For 2013, the average total cost for a family health plan rose 4 percent to $16,351, according to a closely watched survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

The typical employee’s share of that premium was $4,565, up about 6 percent from 2012. But the employer’s share of the premium increased just 3 percent, a further sign that employers continue to shift more medical costs onto their workers.

Photo: ProgressOhio via Flickr

Florida Is ‘Ground Zero’ For Sea Level Rise

Florida Is ‘Ground Zero’ For Sea Level Rise

Miami Beach (United States) (AFP) – Warm sunshine and sandy beaches make south Florida and its crown city, Miami, a haven for tourists, but the area is increasingly endangered by sea level rise, experts said Tuesday.

During a special Senate hearing held in Miami Beach, Senator Bill Nelson described south Florida as “Ground Zero” for climate change and its threats to coastal communities.

The perils for Miami are particularly concerning because it has the most assets at stake in the world in terms of assets like homes, beachfront hotels and businesses, according to the World Resources Institute, a global research firm.

Not only is there $14.7 billion in beachfront property, but Miami is also home to the world’s fourth largest population of people vulnerable to sea level rise, the WRI said.

Nearly 20 million people live in the entire state of Florida, and about three quarters live on the coast, said Nelson.

The waters around south Florida are rising fast. The Florida coast has already seen 12 inches of sea rise since 1870.

Another nine inches to two feet are anticipated by 2060, said the WRI.

Miami is located just four feet above sea level.

“We are on this massive substrate of limestone and coquina rock which is porous and infused by water,” Nelson said at the hearing, held on the 44th anniversary of Earth Day.

“You could put up a dyke but it is not going to do any good,” he added, describing the land beneath Florida as “like Swiss cheese.”

“So we have to come up with new, innovative kinds of solutions,” said Nelson, a Democratic senator who was born in Miami.

The mayor of Miami Beach, Philip Levine, said residents are commonly seen wading through knee-deep waters to get to their homes and businesses during high tides and floods.

“This reality is not acceptable and it is getting worse,” said Levine.

Officials are investigating the use of tidal control valves and new water pumps to improve drainage, with three pumps planned for installation before October’s high tides, Levine said.

“We are projecting the cost of being anywhere from three and four hundred million dollars,” he said.

Discussions are also under way on urban designs and city plans that could better equip the area for rising sea levels, he said.

Climate change may bring more severe weather, warned Piers Sellers, deputy director of the science and exploration directorate at NASA.

“What does all of this mean to Florida? By the end of the century the intensity of hurricanes, including rainfall near the centers of the hurricanes, may increase,” Sellers said.

“Rising sea levels and coastal development will likely increase the impact of hurricanes and other coastal storms on those coastal communities and infrastructure.”

Fred Bloetcher, a professor of engineering at Florida Atlantic University, said sea level rise is a present threat to “nearly six million Floridians, their economy and lifestyle, 3.7 trillion dollars in property in southeast Florida alone and a $260 billion annual economy.”

Meanwhile, insurance companies are still unprepared to cope, said Megan Linkin, a natural hazards expert at Swiss Re Global Partnerships.

“Presently I know of no insurance or reinsurance company that directly includes the risk of climate change,” she told the hearing.

“And that is because our product is typically contracted on an annual basis, and in that time period the impact of any climate changes — including sea level rise — are too small and insignificant and without scientific consensus to responsibly include in our model and approach.”

Despite the risks, tourism continues to boom in Florida.

In 2013, 14.2 million visitors spent nearly $23 billion in the Miami area, said William Talbert, president of the greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Last year also marked the first time in history that more visitors came from foreign countries than from the United States, he said.

AFP Photo

Unemployment Claims Rise and Layoffs Intensify

Unemployment claims rose this week, and the Wall Street Journalprofiles a recent surge in firing at major firms:

Companies are laying off employees at a level not seen in nearly a year, hobbling the job market and intensifying fears about the pace of the economic recovery.

Cisco Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and troubled bookstore chain Borders Group Inc. are among those that have recently announced hefty cuts, while recent government numbers underscore how companies have shifted toward cutting jobs.

The increase in layoffs is a key reason why the U.S. recorded an average of only 21,500 new jobs over the past two months, far below the level needed to bring down unemployment, which now stands at 9.2%.

The cuts also reflect the shifting outlook of employers, many of whom had expected the economy to gain speed as the year progressed. Instead, growth has faltered. If the pace continues to disappoint, more companies will feel pressure to pull back. “Layoffs have played a big role [in weak job growth] over the last few months,” said Mike Montgomery, an economist at IHS Global Insight. “The soft patch is more layoffs and nothing else to pick up the slack.”

The trend is evident across several sectors. On Monday, following two straight quarters of lower profits, Cisco, the San Jose, Calif., networking-equipment giant, revealed plans to lay off 6,500 employees—about 9% of its staff. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., struggling with an unexpectedly steep decline in its trading business, said Tuesday that it is eliminating 1,000 jobs and indicated it may need to cut more.

Not discussed here are the massive cuts in public sector jobs that are ongoing, and the obvious solution–more fiscal stimulus to boost the still-sluggish economy.