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Information regarding COBRA and, specifically, the COBRA premium reduction extension can be gathered directly at the Department of Labor website. This site receives many questions about the COBRA premium reduction from employees and employers and the DOL does a great job of addressing the questions with up-to-date information.

On December 21, 2009, Phyllis C. Borzi, Assistant Secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, issued a statement posted to the site: “I am pleased Congress has acted and the President has signed the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Act. The act extends the eligibility period for the COBRA premium reduction for an additional two months (through Feb. 28, 2010) and the maximum period for receiving the subsidy for an additional six months (from nine to 15 months).”

The Senate has passed its version of health care reform. Now there are two bills and reconciliation must take place.

Let’s look at some key differences (to the extent time would allow I have garnered these differences directly from the legislation or from legislative summaries) between the Affordable Health Care for America Act (House) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

• How Will Effect Employers? – Larger employers will be mandated to provide coverage by both versions. The Senate Bill requires coverage for employers with more than 50 employees and will penalize the employer at $750 per employee if the employee is receiving subsidized coverage. The House Bill exempts employers under $500,000 in payroll and imposes an 8% tax on non-compliance based on payroll.

It looks as though the Senate will pass a bill.

In the early hours…of the shortest day of the year…the Senate overcame the first of three Republican roadblocks. Two more procedural attempts to derail the legislation before Christmas will occur; but it is likely the Democrats and other supporters will sweep those aside and we will have a Senate bill.

The bill differs a great deal from the bill passed by the House. There will need to be a consolidation of the plans.

As we get closer to the end of the year and your business is looking for tax savings, remember that certain insurance premiums are tax deductible as a business expense. I have posted an article on that issue that explains the most common premium deductions.

It is often worthwhile, especially if you are a small business on a cash accounting system, to review those liability policies that have renewal dates close to the new year. For example, a professional liability policy may have a six-month premium of $1000 due on February 1, 2010. If that premium is paid in advance (assuming the insurer allows) by year end, then the realization of that deduction comes for the 2009 tax year. Assuming a real tax rate of 20-30%, that could be a savings of $200 to $300.

Yesterday, I posted about climate change insurance. Someone sent me an e-mail suggesting that I had gotten the idea of the post from a Thomas L. Friedman (as in three-time Pulitzer Prize winning author for the NYT, Thomas L. Friedman) December 8, 2009 op-ed post. In that piece, Mr. Friedman writes about climate change:

“When I see a problem that has even a 1 percent probability of occurring and is “irreversible” and potentially “catastrophic,” I buy insurance. That is what taking climate change seriously is all about.”

Nope, I had not seen this brilliant piece. But, I certainly agree with it.

Climate change and global warming. Topics that can ignite debate among educated scientists as well as politicians and those who elect them. Stephen Schnieder, a climate scientist, writing for The Huffington Post, summarized the global warming debate quite well:

“The past 40 years, when attached at the end of a reconstruction of the temperatures of the past 1000 years, look like a bit like a “hockey stick” with a wavy handle but a “blade” that rises above the climatic history of the millennium and exhibits the warmest decades in the record in the past 30 or so years. This reconstruction has been the object of intense arguments between the climatologists who constructed the hockey stick and some skeptical attackers who claimed it was erroneous.”

As the second Friday of December passes us by and we head off for the weekend (dome of us anyways), keep in mind there are only twenty days left until the end of the year.

End of the year is the perfect time to review your company’s business insurance. It is a good time to make sure that equipment purchased during the year is insured. It is a good time to make sure that automobiles and their drivers are properly identified. Update procedure manuals, review wellness plans, meet with your insurance professional–these and other steps are perfectly suited for the end of the year because the steps coincide with tax planning.

Zurich in North America has created an electronic library of risk management and product information. Zurich calls it: the Zurich Virtual Literature Rack (VLR).

The VLR contains information relevant to risk managers, customers, and those looking to purchase business insurance. The VLR requires registration and the information requested is a bit invasive, but that is probably my only complaint. I have always liked RiskInsight, a publication produced by Zurich that covers different types of risks in each issue. That publication is available in the VLR for direct viewing or downloading.

Always on the look out for ways to keep business insurance interesting, I came across a video at insurancejournal.com that illustrates the importance of planning and creating proper written procedures. Planning for risks and creating procedures in advance to reduce risk are the best ways to reduce the cost of business insurance.

Just ask the people at Gatorland. As a part of its video series “Watching the Risks,” Insurance Journal posted a video interview with Tim Williams, Gatorland’s dean of gator wrestling, discussing the ways Gatorland manages risk. The video is great, not only because of the great shots of gators, but because of the lesson it teaches on the importance of risk planning.

Yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement on the “Benefits of Health Reform for Businesses.” A copy of the Statement is available online with links to supporting documentation.

Secretary Sebelius states that a November 30 letter to Senator Evan Bayh from the Congressional Budget Office on the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordability Acts supports claims from legislators that “[s]mall businesses are likely to see premiums drop by 1 to 4 percent under the proposal.”