“Across the country, businesses already strapped by the economy to turn a profit are sacrificing or scaling back employee health insurance plans because of their escalating costs,” The Associated Press reports.

Some stark statistics shed light on the problem.

• Small business pays 18% more than the largest firms for comparable insurance
• Many small businesses are facing double-digit rate hikes (10-15% in Ohio)
• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 46% of businesses with 3-9 employees offer health insurance, down from 58% in 2002

Read more here…

Making something fun can change people’s behavior.

See the theory in action:

AccuQuote, a leader in providing term life insurance quotes, leverages blogs, online videos, podcasts, and tweets to generate leads and revenue.

In the video below, the company’s VP of marketing and business development, Sean Cheyney, offers examples of how the company uses social medial and measures success.

The following are some key takeaways:

• Life Insurance Education – Give something of value to the community, try to avoid posts that contain a “call to action” message
• Recruiting – Use social media to recruit and connect, save money over traditional channels
• Strategic Partnerships – Use social media to drive strategic partnerships, use an integrated approach
• PR – Use Twitter, follow reporters that typically cover the company and industry and allow them to follow you
• Tools – Use tools like TweetDeck and Twitter Search to help manage your social media efforts. Applications like SiteCatalyst from Omniture help track and measure success.

Social Media for the Analytic Marketer, by Sean Cheyney; presented by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Additional interesting information:

• The company has been blogging for 4-5 years
• Company bloggers currently post 5-7 educational articles each week
• The CEO contributes several posts each week
• An estimated 2% of all leads are a result of organic traffic because of their blogging efforts
• Within 1.5 years of the blog’s launch, leads resulted in mid-six figures in revenue

Incredible video of a 500kV switch opening in the Nevada desert.

Full-time nursing home care averages $69,000 to $78,000 per year or 8 hours per day of home health care can cost $43,000 to $70,000 annually.

Almost one in four of those surveyed say they will rely on family and friends to help pay for long-term care costs. Others mistakenly believe their health insurance coverage or Medicare will help pay their costs.

Results of a new LIFE Foundation survey: What Americans say they would rely on most to help pay for long-term care services if they found themselves in need of assistance with the basic tasks of daily living, such as bathing, eating and dressing.

Read more at Medical News Today

Visit the LIFE Foundation website

Are you retired or thinking about retirement?

Ask yourself, “Will my loved ones suffer a financial loss if I die tomorrow?”

A “no” answer usually suggests that there is no need for life insurance, but Forbes.com recommends that you think twice before giving up your policy.

Young adults will soon have to deal with the cost of government mandated health insurance.

Currently, a large percentage of young adults are uninsured. According to the CDC:

• Young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 are the most likely to be uninsured
• 30% of those between 18 and 29 are uninsured

In an attempt to curb this trend, Wisconsin has passed a law allowing people up to age 27 to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans unless they have access to cheaper plans through their employers.

Read more here…

According to an Associated Press article by Christopher S. Rugaber, job openings are at rock-bottom levels.

Overall, it’s an extremely difficult time to be unemployed.

Pockets of demand existing in information technology and sales but on average, 6.1 unemployed workers compete for each job opening, a Labor Department report shows. That’s up from 1.7 workers per opening back in December 2007.

Read the AP article…