Uncle Jack's Retirement Plans

a. i. An employer with a defined-contribution plan pays into the plan either an annual lump-sum per employee or calculates payments based on the employees‟ current wages and or time of service with the firm. Under such a plan, the employer does not guarantee the future amounts employees will receive when they retire. The employees covered by a defined-contribution plan assume the risk for the pension plan‟s financial performance. Under a defined-benefit plan, the employer specifies the size and timing of the payments that the employees will receive when they retire. Typically, these retirement benefits are commensurate with the wages earned by the employee in his or her last few years of employment

When the sole beneficiary of a retirement account is the spouse of the owner, the requirements for how the account must be distributed is dependent upon whether the owner has passed away before the date upon which distributions were required to have begun or after this time. When the owner has died before the date upon which the distributions were required to begin, the spouse is provided with three options as to how the distributions will occur. I will discuss each option below and provide an analysis of how this would be applied to Ms. Dutton upon the occurrence of this course of events.

Greater than 150 million workforces, pensioners and their household members receive their healthcare through occupation-based coverage, which, in accordance with the AFL-CIO, is the foundation of this nation state health care coverage and financing. Approximately one-third of occupation-based coverage comes through coalition-negotiated strategies. (The AFL-CIO, n.d.)

In the case study for Implementing Budget Cuts in the Basic Health Plan, the core problem is how and who to cut or qualifies for disenrollment from the insurance program. This issue came about when Washington Legislature passed the 2009-11 Biennial Budget. Here government officials started to reassess the regions budget due to a heavy recession. They were looking at trying to save billions of dollars, which almost a quarter million of those billions would come from reducing the funds to the program for Basic Health Plan.

A pension is a regular payment made during a person's retirement from an investment fund from which that person

Employers should offer affordable( employee premium less than 9.5% of employee’s wages) and of minimum value( employers must pay at least 60% of insurance cost) healthcare benefits to their employees depending on factors like number of FTE, number of employees receiving premium tax credits and other complex measurements to calculate the amounts. Employers should also notify employees by written about State exchanges, and advise them that if an employee decides to purchase a health Plan through an exchange, they may lose the employers’

By the 1960s, the formation of unions help to standardized employer health benefits and the access to insurance was prevalent for workers. This system seemed to be well established as the employers, private health insurance carries, physicians and hospitals would recycle health cost amongst each other. However, there were many underlying problems with this tightly organized system. Self employed individuals, small companies, the poor, and the unemployed had no organized access to health insurance. Also, at this time the majority of elderly retirees lost their health insurance in old age when they needed it most. These underserved populations began to seek care in emergency facilities driving the cost of urgent care back on the hospital and

An employee can help reduce the cost of health cost by doing several things. There has been an outcry from organizations due to the rising number of competitors with high expenses catering for health benefits during employment periods and on retiring. The employee can be of great help by being participative in the programs set by their employers to benefit more from other advantages far from health costs (Kerzner, 2013). Some of the choices an employee may consider to help control health costs are by boosting consumerism, use technology to manage benefits, and indulge in fitness and health programs.

Mrs. Jones, like many older adults, is on a fixed income, has Medicare for health coverage, but lacks prescription drug coverage. She was recently prescribed a new medication by her physician, which she cannot afford. As Mrs. Jones nurse, it is my responsibility to advocate for her by providing education and sharing information on the multiple different avenues available to decrease the cost of the medication prescribed. I will identify three strategies in which I can help Mrs. Jones afford her medication. First, I will provide education on her insurance plan and explain Medicare Drug Plans and their enrollment process. Secondly, I will identify a financial assistance program which she might qualify for. Finally, I will identify different ways to lower the cost of the medication such as coupons, drug discount cards, switching to a generic medication, and store programs ("Prescription Drug," 2014). All of these options are a solution to Mrs. Jones problem. In the meantime, it may be beneficial to obtain free samples from the physician 's office if possible, but this only makes sense if there is a strong likelihood that she will eventually be able to afford the new medication.

Healthcare is expensive and Americans look for the best healthcare they can possibly get. Since consumers are always demanding for better insurance covers, employers are trying to provide the resources that have an effective prices and not raising costs. The Human Resources department in Arapahoe County has recently developed a new health care insurance guide in order to control the County’s rising cost for health care insurance. This project will be experienced on all County’s departments, including Clerk &Recorder 's Office. In this memo, I provide you with a cost-benefit analysis of this new project to change the way benefits are provided on an experimental basis. Based on my analysis, there will be a slight positive return with Benefit-cost Ratio 1.07; however, this new project would be not smart financial decision to be applied on Clerk &Recorder 's Office.

Employers assume responsibility for providing retirement funds in a defined benefits plan. In the plan, a specified amount is set aside for future payments to employees, for life, during retirement. The amount is determine in advance is based on factors such as age, salary, and length of employment. In 2009, the maximum amount to be allotted under the plan was $195,000.

During the recession of economic, Susan Pamela, a single fifty-six years old woman who lived in suburb of Ohio, was working in a cleaning company as dustman. Due to the recession, both of her working hours and wage was cut by the company, just like most of the low-paid Laborers in this period. What’s worse, her health insurance company decided to raise het insurance premiums simultaneously because with the reason of her potential health risk. As a single older woman, Susan do care about the guarantee of insurance. Bur she already had no ability to maintain her insurance. The low salary can only support the basic need of her life, excluding the high insurance premiums. However,

Therefore to meet the Board of Directors demands Calleta would have to focus on cutting employee costs in the area of employee benefits. The first area Calleta can cut cost is in employee’s personal benefits. Calleta can cut employee cost by only paying a percentage of employee’s healthcare, dental, and life insurance versus providing these benefits at no cost to the employee. This approach along should reduce Calleta’s cost tremendously considering the increasing cost of healthcare. This method would not hurt Calleta recruiting shceme because it’s a method most U.S. companies are adopting. According the Los Angeles Times, “in 2010 nearly a third of employers reported that they either reduced the scope of benefits they are offering this year or increased the amount that workers must pay out of pocket for their medical care”. This approach will share the liability of cost with employees instead of Calleta taking on the full incurred cost. By sharing the cost for healthcare and insurance benefits Calleta will be able to cut employee cost drastically.

The growing concern regarding the financial security of Medicare is one of particular interest to the nearly 72 million baby boomers that become eligible for this government-assisted, and tax-payer bolstered, program over the next two decades. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010), there will be a rapid increase in baby-boomers between 2010 and 2030, as the entire baby boomer population move into the 65 years and over category (p.3). Political and financial revisions must be made to ensure the security of Medicare as the numbers of individuals paying into this program are soon to be surpassed by the number of individuals drawing-off this program (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The elderly are also at a disadvantage with transportation to health care visits, picking up prescriptions, and rehabilitation services. There needs to be an establishment of access not only to primary care providers, hospitals, and rehabilitation services, but access to other aspects of the health care system for the elderly population.

The higher cost of affordable Health care is also eroding the ease with which to afford other insurance that covers about 30 percent of Medicare enrollees ‘expenses. In 2005, about 89 percent of beneficiaries obtained such additional coverage, including through former employers (33 percent), medical policies (25 percent), Medicare advantage plans (13 percent), Medicaid (16 percent), or other programs (1 percent) (MedPAC). These supplemental insurance programs were all very helpful at the onset, but with the passage of time and as health care costs continued to rise, employers are finding it difficult to support these programs and as a consequence, a greater number of these employers are either reducing the benefit or eliminating these benefits especially those that affects their retirees thereby increasing the cost of these supplemental insurances.