Archive for December 1st, 2009

Your health insurance premiums will go down $2,500 … Not !

December 1, 2009

Candidate Obama said repeatedly that his healthcare reforms would bring down family insurance premiums by $2,500.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/07/23/parsing-obamas-promise-to-lower-insurance-premiums-by-2500/

The CBO analysis of the Reid Senate bill concludes that many folks premiums will go up, not down.

Oops.

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Excerpted from Washington Post Online, CBO: Senate health plan will increase some premiums — and expand coverage, Nov. 30, 2009

The Senate’s plan to overhaul the health insurance system would increase premiums in the individual market … and six in 10 families would have their premium payments subsidized, congressional budget analysts said.

By 2016, two years after the Senate reforms are to take effect, the CBO projected that premiums for 32 million people in the individual insurance market would be driven as much as 30 percent higher because insurance companies would be required to offer better coverage than they do now.

But that increase would be partially offset by lower costs for insurers, who would have access to a new pool of younger, healthier customers who might previously have gone without insurance.

The result: Nongroup premiums on average would increase by about 13 percent compared with current law, to $5,800 for individuals and $15,200 for family coverage. But the CBO predicts that 57 percent of purchasers in that market would also be receiving federal subsidies that would cover roughly two-thirds of that cost, leaving them paying 60 percent less for insurance than if the legislation were not enacted.

But Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said: “At the beginning of the health care debate, we were told that this trillion-dollar experiment would lower premiums for American families.And yet just this morning, the independent Congressional Budget Office provided an analysis showing that the Democrat bill will actually increase premiums for American families.So a bill that’s being sold as a way to reduce costs actually drives them up.”

“The bottom line is this: after 2,074 pages and trillions more in government spending, massive new taxes and a half-trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare for seniors, most people will end up paying more or seeing no significant savings.”

Full article:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/11/cbo_senate_health_plan_will_in.html

Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | Leave a Comment »

“Open Enrollment” … finally, I actually looked at my health insurance costs … you should, too!

December 1, 2009

I’m embarrassed to admit that, in the past, I just hadn’t given much thought to my company provided health care insurance.

The premiums – or more precisely, my share of the premiums – seemed reasonable, our docs were on the plan, and the plan covered our needs fairly. Every year, I simply continued the coverage I had in place the prior year.

Since I’ve gotten deep into the health care reform fiasco, I was more diligent this year.

Below is what I found, and far below are some observations re: Cadillac insurance plans.

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The Plans

My employer offers 3 plans that are relatively comparable in coverage.  See the chart below for premium details.

The 3 plans differ slightly in co-pays, deductibles, limits, etc., but I concluded that the differences aren’t “statistically significant”. (Note: I didn’t even consider the lowest cost alternative – a Kaiser HMO).

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First, note that – depending on the specific plan — my employer pays somewhere between 59% and 77% of the total premiums – employees pay between 41% and 23%.   I’m told that the split is comparable to most company plans – with the COMPANIES paying at least half of the premiums, often more, sometimes much more.

The shocker was the range in total premiums by carrier – for roughly equivalent coverage.  For example, the UHS premium for a couple ($15,376) is more than $6,000 higher (almost 70%) than the premium from CareFirst Blue Shield ($9,088).

Note that there’s a modest “marriage penalty”.  The total premiums for a couple are more than twice the individual premiums – by about 10%.

If you’re going to have kids, you might as well have a lot of them.  The family rate is 3 times the individual rate, regardless of the number of children in the family.  Hmmmm.

On balance, the premium levels are about what I expected.  Per capita health care expenditures average a bit over $7,000 – pretty much in line with UHS – the high cost provider.

I’d been riding along with United Healthcare (UHS).  I knew they were premium priced, but I didn’t realize by how much. Ouch.  My shiny new CareFirst card is in the mail, and my projected 2010 disposable pay is plus $4,000 … not bad.

Teaching point: Do the homework when selecting healthcare insurance plans.  There’s serious money involved.

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Cadillac Plans

Company paid premiums are not subject to income taxes.  I think that’s unfair (to folks paying 100% of their policy’s premiums), and arbitrary (it sure looks like compensation).  I’m all for rolling company paid premiums into W-2s,  giving taxpayers an exclusion – say, $3,000 for individuals, $6,000 for couples, $10,000 for families, and then income-taxing the balance.

While the approach is different (largely to “hide the weenie”), I agree with the spirit of the Senate bill.  Taxing Cadillac plans can raise some money, and might start to cap the upside on coverage.  In effect, the folks getting the best health care benefits have to ante in to support folks who get none or relatively little.  Seems fair to me.

The Senate proposal is to levy a 40% tax on the excess of premiums over $8,500 a year for individuals or $23,000 for families.  If anything, the levels – which were set to outboard lucrative union plans  —  are too low – probably by a factor of 2 based on my company plans.

Side note: I haven’t heard or seen anything that distinguishes between premiums paid by individuals and premiums paid by companies.  Obviously, premiums paid by an employee aren’t wages to be taxed.

Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | Leave a Comment »

A portrait in black & white…

December 1, 2009

Last week, Gallup reported that Pres. Obama’s approval rating has dipped below 50%.  That is, less than half of the country approves of the job he’s doing as president.  That’s less than the percentage of folks who voted for him, and 17 points lower than his inaugural approval rating.

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Among the telling — but largely unreported trends — is Obama’s sharp drop-off among whites.  While his approval rating by blacks has stayed sky high — above 90% — his approval rating among whites has gone down from 61% to 39% — a 22 point drop. Ouch.

To diffuse any racial undertones, Gallup points out that  Bill Clinton averaged 55% job approval during his presidency, including 52% among whites … and 82% among blacks” … leading them to conclude: “One reason Obama may have maintained support among blacks is their overwhelming affiliation with the Democratic Party.”

Is that an elephant I see in the middle of the room ?

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http://www.gallup.com/poll/124484/Obama-Approval-Slide-Finds-Whites-Down-39.aspx?CSTS=alert

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Posted in Obama Administration, Polls & Surveys | Leave a Comment »

Extra mayo, please: extending the product life cycle

December 1, 2009

Takeaway: As Americans have tightened their budgets throughout the current recession, the relatively mature mayonnaise market has experienced significant growth.

Sensing a large jump in top-of-mind awareness, Unilever has been making a strong push of its Hellman’s brand to take advantage of the rise of brown-baggers.

With the economy hopefully turning around, the brand is now in a classic dilemma of figuring out how to extend the product life cycle.

Their plan: pushing the “real” ingredients that make up mayo and give it the mystique of the secret ingredient you’ve had in your pantry that can enhance all dishes, from appetizer to dessert.

Creating new uses for a product is a tremendous way to extend that product life cycle; just ask Arm & Hammer. And with Thanksgiving just around the corner, maybe Hellman’s can continue to grow…one clogged artery at a time.

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Excerpted from BrandWeek, “The Mayo Clinic” by Elaine Wong, November 7, 2009

Thanks to the recessionary rise of eating at home and brown-bagging lunches for the office, mayo is no longer the staid standby in the back of the kitchen cupboard. And so sales growth — any sales growth — is welcome news for the folks who work in Hellmann’s nondescript office park in Englewood Cliffs. But Fish’s efforts raise some hard questions, among them: As the recession lifts, will mayo’s popularity fade once more? Will vigorous marketing be enough to overcome the market’s vicissitudes? And, in these health-conscious times, is it even possible to overcome the fact that mayonnaise is among the fattiest foods on the market?

Nonetheless, Fish is confident he can get fat-conscious, weight-obsessed Americans to eat more of the stuff. He plans to do that through a combination of creating more uses for the condiment and through the nostalgia sell — appealing to consumers who long to recreate the good-old days of meat and potatoes and other so-called “real food.”

“Remember,” Fish says, “Hellmann’s has always been made with eggs, oil and vinegar.” It’s the sort of message that purists would appreciate — and there seem to be a growing number of those. They’re the sort who devour books by culinary journalist Michael Pollan, and who thrust Julia Child’s half-century-old Mastering the Art of French Cooking back into best seller status in the wake of the film Julie & Julia.

Fish’s approach is on full display in this month’s “Hellmann’s real holiday helpings” campaign, which stars chef Bobby Flay. The Food Network personality is appearing in print and online ads touting Hellmann’s as an essential component in family-oriented, Thanksgiving meals. Ads from OgilvyEntertainment show Flay cooking alongside mothers and their kids. (It is Hellmann’s contention that involving children in the cooking process renders them more willing to eat the results. Plus, introducing them to mayo can’t hurt, either.)

“Recipes that require you to go to the grocery store and buy 10 new things that you didn’t happen to have is asking a lot of people,” Fish says. “This isn’t the time to be asking people to go the extra mile.” If mom is cooking and happens to have a jar of Hellmann’s around, she won’t have to go that extra mile at all.

At the same time, much of Fish’s strategy also hinges on getting home cooks to consider Hellmann’s mayo as their “secret sauce — that special something that I’ve done that you don’t know about that makes this dish taste so good,” he said. “We know from research that consumers love recipes with a secret ingredient in them,” Longfield adds. And mayonnaise, in this instance, does the trick.

Unilever has, in fact, been a staunch proponent of the “real food” movement. The basic line of reasoning is that consumers are more likely to buy goods from companies who can readily tell their ingredients’ stories. And Unilever’s not alone. In introducing Select Harvest, for instance, The Campbell Soup Co. touted it as a soup line “made from only ingredients that people can readily recognize.” Haagen-Dazs also has a line called Five named after the ice cream’s total list of ingredients.

Americans might not like the idea of fat, but they’re still willing to accept it. As the resurgence of Julia Child’s landmark French cookbook proved, Americans’ fear of fat seems secondary to their appreciation of honest and wholesome foods — many of which have lots of fat.

But how long would the good news last? With economists having just declared the recession officially over, it’s only a matter of time before brown-bagging it for lunch will lose its retro cool and families will again go out to eat for dinner. In fact, according to senior associate brand manager Jessica Teilborg, “the biggest competitor we deal with every day is out-of-home dining.”

Edit by JMZ

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Full Article:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i8875589fada415ac765d6617882ef4b3

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Posted in AMS Concepts-Frameworks-Examples, Mktg - PLC | Leave a Comment »

Re: Brand Image … Is “bulletproof” Tiger out of the woods?

December 1, 2009

Key Takeaway: As more facts become public, will the controversy around Tiger Woods’ recent accident damage his long-term marketability? More likely than not, the answer to that question will be a resounding no.

Woods’ ability to position himself in such a different way than all other golfers (and all other athletes, for that matter) will help keep him atop the appeal list for both fans and sponsors.

Furthermore, the fan that loves Tiger tends to be more forgiving than most. So you better believe the next time Tiger is being given a green jacket, all of Augusta will be cheering him on.

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Excerpted from Brandweek, “Tiger Woods’ Image Likely Unharmed by Accident” by Kenneth Hein, November 30, 2009

Smashed up, semi-conscious and bleeding may be how Tiger Woods was discovered three days ago. However, his reputation as a top brand endorser should remain relatively unscathed, according to sports marketing experts.

Allegations of infidelity and other stories that are currently swirling will not greatly affect his abilities as an endorser, said David Schwab, vp, Octagon Sports Marketing’s First Call and managing director of athletes and personalities. “If it’s only a spat and the story is what we’ve seen, then it doesn’t affect him,” Schwab said. “He is unique in terms of his global appeal, size and long-term ability. He’s not like a prime-time actor competing with 30 other competitors. He doesn’t compete with anyone.”

Woods’ target demographic, namely middle- to upper-class males, “tend to be a lot more forgiving,” said Larry McCartney, associate professor of sports marketing at Seton Hall University’s Center for Sport Management. “There are obviously rumors flying around all over the place at the moment, but he’s pretty much bulletproof.”

The only danger for Woods involves any offers that are currently on the table. “Right now if I’m a brand manager negotiating to do a global campaign, do I pull out because maybe it could get worse?” said Sturner. Still, “long term will it hurt? No. Look at Kobe Bryant right now. Look at the other stars that have had worse incidents that have dampened their reputations [and rebounded]. It’s about what happens on the golf course. That will make or break his marketing appeal.”

Edit by JMZ

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Full Article:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i4c19162f98c24488bb3e623d9707c6ff

Posted in Mktg - Brands | Leave a Comment »

There’s still hope for MBAs …

December 1, 2009

TakeAway:  There is no doubt that the hiring environment is less than ideal for MBAs … all MBAs. 

However, there is hope.  Companies appear to be hiring but students must be a little more flexible and patient than in the past.

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Excerpted from BusinessWeek, “MBAs Confront a Savage Job Market,” By Anne VanderMey, October 29, 2009

Adam Rosenberg did everything right. He got into a good school. He landed a great internship. He was even vice-president of two MBA clubs and a graduate teaching fellow. But when it came time for companies to hire this year, the 2009 graduate … was surprised to find out how little it all mattered … 

He’s not alone … MBA students have found themselves facing what schools say is the worst hiring season they’ve ever seen.

According to the latest data … 16.5% of job-seeking students from the top 30 MBA programs did not get even one offer … three months after graduation. Last year that was true of just 5% of students. And … starting pay was down … For many programs, it marked the first time since the tech bubble burst that salaries didn’t increase. Signing bonuses, too, fell both in value and quantity …

One factor that made this recession different was that it hit MBA students where it hurt the most, with thousands of high-paying finance jobs going up in smoke …

The most successful schools this year were able to direct students who were shut out of investment banking and consulting into different industries … Rather than holding on to their hopes of working on Wall Street, students looked at their other skill sets …

A few sectors have been able to pick up some of the slack. Health care, energy, government, and nonprofit hiring are holding up particularly well …

Much of the hiring happened months later than normal. Many companies shifted from hiring on an academic schedule, which requires the stability to sign on new employees almost half a year before they show up to work, to hiring on an as-needed basis—often making offers much later in the year …

Early signs this year don’t point to a swift recovery for the class of 2010. Some believe the coming months will be even worse. That means many students will end up taking jobs they might not otherwise have considered or returning to industries they came to business school to get out of. That could be both good and bad news for this recession’s new grads.

Some students will discover jobs in new fields, try entrepreneurship, or travel to new countries. Instead of gravitating to a few companies that dominate recruiting, many schools say students are going to boutique firms or startups where they might be the only MBA hire that year … Students are opening their minds to new things …

Edit by TJS

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Full Article
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2009/bs20091029_862211.htm

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Posted in MBA Degree, MBAs | Leave a Comment »