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5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years
The premier resource in the field of Form 5500 preparation, 5500 Preparer's Manual will help you handle the required annual Form 5500 filings for both pension benefits and welfare benefit plans.
From Spencer's Benefits Reports: Consumers are pessimistic that health care reform will be achieved in the next ten years, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center (HPC). The survey, conducted between Dec. 14 and Dec. 21, 2007, included 1,018 U.S. residents ages 25 to 75 who were the heath care decision-makers for their families.
Survey respondents were asked about 23 different health care reform options developed by the Mayo HPC over the past two years with input from the various health care stakeholders and experts. Fewer than half (43%) of respondents said that they were satisfied, very satisfied, or completely satisfied with the current state of health care in the U.S. Although the great majority (80%) agreed that it is very important to increase the quality of health care and reduce costs, two-thirds (66%) felt that changes were unlikely to happen in the next decade.
The most favored reform options, ranked as extremely important or very important by between 70% and 79% of respondents, were the following:
Insurers, health care providers, and Congress are most likely to bring about change, but 30% of respondents believed that consumers have the best potential to bring about such change.
The most often cited barriers to health care reform were politics, insurers, costs, and excessive government involvement; while health insurers were viewed as the group most able to influence change. In contrast, only one-third (32%) of respondents felt that it was very important or extremely important that the government play an important role in health care oversight. Fewer than half of respondents rated individual health insurance mandates as very important or extremely important. In addition, few (15%) favored paying higher taxes to pay for reform.
Furthermore, respondents ranked health care as the second most important issue that a president should address (the war in Iraq and terrorism were the top and third most important issues, respectively). However, respondents said that they were unlikely to base their vote for president only on health care—20% would not use a candidate’s position on health care to determine their vote, and the vast majority said that they would consider health care among many other issues to place their vote.
The uninsured respondents were more likely than the other respondents to rate as poor the coordination of and access to care, and value. Respondents in poorer health were more likely to express dissatisfaction with the current health care system, and those with fair or poor health prioritized health care as a critical issue for the next president.
Respondents’ “pessimism doesn’t mean that consumers were just throwing up their hands,” commented Robert Smoldt, Mayo HPC executive director. “The reform ideas that resonated most showed that Americans want the information, tools, and access to providers to better manage their own health.” This last concept resonates with group health plan sponsors, who are striving to provide their insureds with the information and tools that they need to make informed health care decisions and to manage their own health.
For more information. about the Mayo HPC survey, visit http://www.healtyhpolicyblog.mayoclinic.org/2008/03/10/your-voice-new-vision/.
For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.
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