In 2007, only 45% of large companies subsidized health insurance for early retirees, compared with 88% in 1991, according to Hewitt Associates. As a result, many employees who retire before age 65, when they become eligible for Medicare, would have to find a new source of health insurance, such as the individual coverage market, Rick McGill, head of retiree medical consulting at Hewitt, said

Marruecos encabeza la lista de países de procedencia, con 277.671 afiliados, seguido de Rumanía, con 272.886; Ecuador, con 255.631 y Colombia, con 146.467.

Del total, 687 441 extranjeros eran procedentes de la Unión Europea y el resto, 1 316 398, de otros países, precisaron fuentes del Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales. La mayor parte de los afiliados extranjeros procede de Marruecos, 267 631; luego Ecuador, con 253 921 afiliados; Rumania, con 238 314, y Colombia, con 140 749.

No obstante, en el caso de los ecuatorianos, esta cifra se redujo con relación a abril de 2007, cuando se registraron 268 700 personas. En cambio, en el caso de Colombia la cifra subió casi en el doble, pues en esa fecha se anotó un total de 70 989 personas afiliadas.

'We have a health care crisis. We don't have an entitlement crisis,' says David Certner, legislative policy director of the AARP, which represents seniors." What the hell is that? We have a health care crisis, not an entitlement crisis? Here are the numbers for all of you weenies out there, "We need to get out of Iraq, Mr. Limbaugh, so we can spend money on education and on health care for our children." The cost of government benefits for seniors, $27,289 per person in 2007. "The federal government spent $952 billion in 2007 on elderly benefits, up from $601 billion in 2000. It's the biggest function of the federal government." It's the biggest function of the federal government, senior care!

Remember the ad campaigns for Ford ("At Ford, Quality is Job One"), and Maytag (the lonely Maytag repairman)? Those ads have faded away, and so has the sentiment behind them. Have you noticed the decline in quality of products under those two great names? They're not alone – many great names are suffering the same fate. Even Craftsman and Kenmore, the stalwart store brands of Sears, aren't what they used to be.

One of the factors behind this is greed, pure and simple. Companies have become so short-term, bottom-line oriented, that investment in the future has suffered. And what greater investment in the future could there be than satisfying customers so they return for more? Incentive-based compensation programs have wreaked havoc on our values. We've all witnessed the huge windfalls that company executives have reaped while they drove their companies to bankruptcy, by cooking the books to achieve short-term objectives. Not only does this hurt the companies and their investors, but employee loyalty and pride suffers as well.

Although the presidential campaign has been going full force here for the better part of a year, large numbers of voters remain undecided in the final days. Many of them have been attending multiple candidate events in an attempt to make up their minds.

Take, for example, Nancy Baldwin, who turned out yesterday for a rally for Edwards in Boone. She pronounced herself "very impressed" with Edwards after the event but still couldn't say who she would caucus for. "Clinton, Obama and Edwards all stand for change," she told The Fix. "I am ready for change."

But occasionally, consumers overlook money that's rightfully theirs. As the year moves toward a close, we offer several possible sources of no-strings-attached cash. Don't quit your day job; we're not talking about big bucks. But as those holiday bills start to arrive, every little bit helps. Some examples:

•Currency conversion refund. If you traveled overseas in the past 10 years and used a credit card, you're eligible for a rebate of at least $25.

The rebate stems from the $336 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the major credit card issuers, which were accused of failing to disclose currency conversion fees. These fees can add up to 3% of the cost of foreign purchases. The settlement affects consumers who used a credit or debit card with a Visa, MasterCard or Diner's Club logo, for foreign purchases and transactions between Feb. 1, 1996, and Nov. 8, 2006.

All of your personal banking and credit card information, your birthdate and your social security data are worth about $21 on the Internet, according to a study released today.

And much of that data may have been stolen from government offices, says the report by computer security firm Symantec Corp.

Symantec says thousands of Internet chatrooms and websites openly sell credit card and personal information for the purpose of identity theft -- and are doing plenty of business.

At request, anti-virus firm Symantec checked two high-traffic websites — FreeCreditScore.com, operated by Experian, and TrueCredit.com, operated by TransUnion — and found hundreds of "typo squatters" misdirecting consumers to imposter Web pages.

STORY: 'Free' credit reports sometimes aren't free

Typo squatters set up Web pages with Internet addresses that are slightly different from the location of the official site. Their aim: to capture visits from Web users who mistype the official address.

While the new data collection could add to the annoyance of air travel for the masses of air passengers, the move would pose a special challenge for those of us for whom the question of gender is more complicated than checking one of the two boxes.

Now, I fly a lot. And while some people may see me as female, and others as male, the fact of the matter is that almost no one looks at the gender written on my driver's license. It's there, but right now, the only time it is being checked is when a screener double-checks that the name matches the one on the ticket. Besides, most people use their eyes to determine gender and only if they are particularly confused, will they look at such documentation.

The well-prepared traveler - Hello fellow flyers!

I have to fly out of Albuquerque, 90 minutes from my town. So, if I have a 6:00 a.m. flight, I take the shuttle the previous evening, stay at an inexpensive hotel which has a shuttle to the airport. This saves me cost of gas and parking (cost of shuttle and hotel costs less than if I drove myself.

From Albuquerque, I avoid travelling through Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and instead usually go via Phoenix or Dallas-Ft. Worth. I pack a suitcase, and then empty the contents into cardboard boxes and ship them UPS to my U.S.A. destination. ... Yes, it costs $$$, but I don't have to wait in any lines, deal with lost bags or heavy carry-ons or deal with tiny bottles of cosmetics and the like in that 1 quart bag routine.

The deal, the company?' largest ever deal in Latin America, would be spread over four years. TCS would maintain, manage and provide support for hardware and software related applications for IMSS and its affiliates across systems that run medical insurance, pensions, birth certificates and other services.

TCS won the contract following a public bid process and an assessment based on technology and financial parameters over three other leading global and local technology companies, a company release said. Impressed by the level of technical education and skilled workforce in Latin America, Indian software companies have made a beeline to set up delivery centres in Latin America to service American as well as global clients.

Juan Chavolla was initially reluctant to join the 401(k) retirement savings program offered by his employer.

An immigrant from Mexico, Chavolla said he feared the money he earned as a warehouse worker for building products distributor OrePac would be lost if he changed jobs. He also figured a savings program in which the employer contributes matching dollars sounded "too good to be true," he said.

"There are some that say it's better to have the money in my pocket than to have it in the program," he said.

In an email Paul sent contributors, the straight-laced doctor sounded more like a child of the '60s than any of the Democratic candidates:

I have to admit being floored by the $4.2 million dollars you raised yesterday for this campaign. And unlike the fatcat operations of the opposition, the average contribution from our 36,672 donors was $103

The latest example of this tendency is the virulent opposition from anti-immigration activists to a proposal by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who wants to eliminate the requirement for driver's license applicants in that state to have a Social Security card.

To be sure, those of us whose principal concern is security must concede that the activists have a point. The ease with which people can illegally enter this country is a loophole terrorists can exploit to pull off another 9/11. And, so, whatever one's view of whether illegal immigration is a net economic benefit or burden (put me in the "benefit" camp), it is imperative that we finally get serious about policing our borders.