Health Benefits

When Howard County Orphans' Court Judge Sherae M. McNeal's husband lost his job more than a year ago, the couple and their two children found themselves without health insurance until McNeal realized she could be insured through her job by the county. But about 30 days later, she received a letter from the county informing her that at the end of 2006, it would no longer cover health benefits for Orphans' Court judges. And so at the end of her term next December, McNeal and her family will once again be without health insurance.

M arinating meat before grilling might reduce cancer-causing compounds produced during the cooking process. Trading that bland, plain burger for one flavored with herbs and spices also might give a boost of beneficial antioxidants. And blending some ginger into that iced tea could ease muscle inflammation. McCormick & Co., the world's largest spice company, has made research into such potential health benefits of seasonings, ranging from cinnamon to turmeric and curry, a cornerstone of its business - not just a way to add zest to your picnic.

Rouse retirees lose health benefitsGeneral Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago real estate giant that bought the Columbia developer Rouse Co. in November, is dropping company-paid health and life insurance for Rouse retirees - a move that follows a national trend but breaks with Rouse's tradition of comfortable benefits. Retirees over 65 will be offered Medicare supplemental policies through AARP when coverage ends Dec. 31, but will have to pay up to $250 per month per person. Those under 65 can buy the coverage General Growth offers to its active employees.

Performax, a Baltimore company that manages employer health benefits, emerged yesterday with a new identity, a new chief executive, a new majority owner and a new infusion of capital. All of that is designed to position the company, which has 135 employees at its downtown headquarters and about two dozen more in 13 sales offices around the country, for rapid growth - 20 percent to 25 percent a year for the next several years, according to Keith B. Sullivan, the new chief executive officer.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Pressing a new case for the equal treatment of same-sex couples, San Francisco is moving to become the first major city in the country to require the companies with which it does business to offer health and other benefits to the unmarried partners of their employees.The city's board of supervisors passed legislation by a 10-0 vote Monday to prohibit the city government from contracting with companies that do not make the same benefits available to employees' domestic partners that they do to the married spouses of their workers.

I HAVE BEEN standing on my head, off and on, for about 35 years now, as well as sitting cross-legged, breathing through one nostril at a time, and - my favorite - lying flat on my back, utterly relaxed, in the so-called "corpse pose." I am, in other words, one of the 15 million Americans who, according to a 2003 poll for Yoga Journal, have fallen in love with this ancient Indian practice - part meditation, part exercise. To the cognoscenti - and our numbers grew by nearly 29 percent from 2002 to last year - yoga is a pleasant practice that seems to enhance physical and emotional strength, flexibility and balance.

Maryland health officials said yesterday that they will begin reinstating health benefits for thousands of legal immigrant women and children who were dropped from a state health insurance program 16 months ago. The decision - a week after Maryland's highest court sided with 13 sick immigrant children who were cut from the program - amounts to a major policy reversal by the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. In July 2005, administration officials...

An Annapolis alderman wants to offer health benefits to same-sex partners of city employees, but first he is looking into whether the city can afford it this year. Alderman Josh Cohen said Friday that he might still introduce an amendment to next year's proposed city budget despite preliminary estimates from the city's insurance consultant that the measure could cost from $100,000 to $1 million in the first year, depending on how it is structured. The plan would include coverage for unmarried heterosexual domestic partners as well as same-sex domestic partners.

Until recently, most Americans were opposed to a tax on health-care benefits. Now, however, public sentiment may be shifting.About 56 percent of U.S. workers are willing to pay tax on some portion of their health-care benefits, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). An additional 41 percent said they were not willing to pay a tax on any part of those benefits, and 1 percent offered no opinion.When the same question was asked in 1989, 88 percent were opposed to taxing health-care benefits.

Retirees of United Container Machinery Inc. have been told by union officials that they will be without health benefits after the company is sold at the end of the month. Glen Arm-based United, which makes machines that make corrugated boxes, has agreed to sell its assets to Barry-Wehmiller Cos. Inc., a St. Louis-based holding company that also owns United competitor MarquipWard of Cockeysville. United's operations will be folded into MarquipWard's. The acquiring company is not taking over the health benefits for about 80 retirees.