We're getting close to the annual Open Enrollment period for our health benefits. A note describing our plans and the process for signing up will be distributed shortly, and then Felicia White and Tom Kiley from HR will be making themselves available over the next few weeks to help everyone through the process.

For those who have heard me discuss the health insurance fiasco in this country, you'll know that this is not my favorite time of year. As in the past, our health insurance provider came at us with another completely outrageous price increase proposal. Through a lot of work by Felicia, Tom, Allison Hoffman and our insurance consultants, we were able to knock that down to an increase that almost approaches reasonableness. But getting there forced us to tinker with some parts of the program and to make choices about how to allocate those increases.

During 2008, health benefits will cost a total of $5.7 million for all of our employees. Thanks to our negotiators, that overall cost will rise 4.2% next year--more than we would like but a lot less than it could have been. The company picks up just over 70% of that cost, with employee semi-monthly premium payments covering the remainder. We check every year what other companies are doing to make sure that we are being competitive, and find 70/30 to be a pretty typical split for the mid-size US media companies.

One of the principles we use in figuring out what employee premium costs should be is that those who make the most should pay the most. I guess some politicians would call that "socialism"--to us, it is just a matter of fairness. We'll continue with that practice during 2009.

We offer several different health plans, and I would encourage you to look at them carefully. Several years ago we introduced the IN Plan, designed to keep premium costs low for those who primarily use in-network physicians. Put simply, the more employees sign up for IN and stay in-network, the lower our insurance costs. So we do what we can to keep those premium rates as low as possible and encourage as many as can do so to sign up for it. Meanwhile, with out-of-network costs going through the roof, those who sign up for Core Plus are going to see much more substantial rate increases as the years go by. That plan is already expensive and is going to become even more so in the future.

We also offer the CMP plan for those who want the lowest possible insurance premiums. If you are young, single and healthy, with relatively minimal annual healthcare costs, you should seriously look at this plan. In addition to potential expense reductions, it also allows for a Health Savings Account--kind of like the 401k we offer, but for health expenses.

In addition to the coverage choices we make as individuals, our costs also reflect the collective health of our organization. That is, when health insurance claims go up, then the insurance company looks to increase everyone's premiums to make sure those costs are covered. When claims go down, we all see savings in future premiums. One reason that UHC wanted to raise our premiums so much this year is because our claims have gone up by a great deal in 2008.

One way to keep our healthcare costs down is for our staff to stay healthier. That's one reason why the HR Department started its "Wellness" initiative, to make sure everyone has the chance to learn tips about things like reducing stress, eating healthier, smoking cessation and the like. Please take advantage--not only will those wellness strategies keep you healthier, but they will also keep our future insurance premium costs down. And don't forget your annual check-ups, to make sure that any small problems are caught and dealt with before they become big ones.