Monthly Archive for September, 2010

The Guardian Weighs in on the Life Insurance Educational Challenge

Have you heard?  It’s Life Insurance Awareness Month…and soon it will be Open Enrollment.  Getting employees to focus on these issues, particularly the younger ones, can be a sizable challenge.  Guardian offered a few tips this month to help ensure employees recognize the need for life insurance and take advantage of workplace opportunities for coverage:

Benefits Communications

The Life Insurance Educational Challenge

  • Make sure that employees and family decision makers have easy access to educational materials and enrollment forms
  • Have enrollment specialists conduct on-site meetings that can explain the advantages of the plan
  • Sharing real life stories that illustrate the value of the plan are highly effective

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Published by bbenedict on September 28, 2010

Employees Taking on the Burden of Rising Health Care Costs

A new study was released by the Kaiser Family Foundation showing that employees are continuing to shoulder a larger share of their health care costs.  Here are 5 key takeaways that give the substance of the report:

  • Since 2005, workers’ contributions to premiums have rose 47%, while overall premiums increased 27%, wages jumped 18%, and inflation spiked 12%;

    Higher Premiums, Less Comprehensive Coverage

  • U.S. workers saw the cost of their health care coverage jump by 14% over 2009 rates;
  • Employer contributions for family coverage remained steady, meaning companies are shifting more of the health care costs onto workers;

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Published by bbenedict on September 15, 2010