The market for long-term care (LTC) is expected to grow at an annual rate of 10.5 percent through 2009, with revenues expected to reach $394 billion, according to a new study, The Long Term Care Market: Nursing Homes, Home Care, Hospice Care, and Assisted Living, from Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com.

“It’s galling that they have a marriage penalty for seniors, when they’ve addressed it for everyone else,” Lonell Spencer, a 77-year-old retiree from Arcadia, Connecticut, told the Hartford Courant.The penalty he’s referring to is the tax on Social Security income, which applies to every dollar of income over $32,000 for married couples, compared to $25,000 for a single taxpayer.

For years governments have promised retirees hefty health care benefits to control current labor costs, experts say, according to a Crain’s Chicago Business report. “No one has thought about it as a long term liability, says Fitch Ratings analyst Joseph D. Mason.

You’ve been staring at your computer or poring through ledgers for hours. You have hours more to go. Then you notice your eyes are dry, burning and feeling gritty. You could be among the estimated 20 to 30 million Americans with Dry Eye Syndrome, or even the 9 to 10 million suffering from moderate to severe dry eyes.Dry eyes can be caused by many things: aging, extended contact leans wear, LASIK surgery, diabetes, arthritis or dietary deficiency of omega-3s. Prolonged computer use and dry air, stemming from either indoor heating or air conditioning, can exacerbate the symptoms.

Four in five employers that pay for retirees’ drug costs will accept government subsidies to continue coverage, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates, of 300 companies with 1,000 employees each, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. When it drafted the program, Congress created a tax-free subsidy to encourage companies to continue offering retiree drug coverage. The subsidy, for 2006, will be equal to 28 percent of a retiree’s drug costs between $250 and $5,000, the Intelligencer states.

A new survey from MetLife reveals that nearly 60 percent of Americans have $5,000, or less, in personal savings available for use in the event of a major illness. Even more ominous, nearly half would have to borrow against retirement savings, or secure a line of credit on their home, if they needed access to between $10,000 and $35,000 to cover expenses related a major illness.

They’ve been called one of the most under-used employee benefits for small businesses. Not only do they allow employees to set aside a portion of their pre-tax salary for qualifying insurance premiums, medical expenses and even child-care expenses, they also reduce employer payroll tax liability by eliminating matching FICA taxes of 7.65 percent and, depending on the state the business is operating in, possibly also workers compensation. What are they?

As the healthcare debate in Washington, D.C. fizzles out, the states are taking on ambitious proposals to expand insurance coverage."The lack of action in Washington is not because of the lack of a problem,” Alan R. Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, told the Los Angeles Times. “It's because of a lack of agreement and, frankly, a lack of consequences for failing to address the issue.

Seniors can begin enrolling in the new Medicare prescription drug plan starting today, but many are finding the wealth of options confusing.Selecting the best plan may be difficult, but President Bush touted it in his weekly radio address as “the greatest advance in health care for seniors and Americans with disabilities since the creation of Medicare 40 years ago.”Some of the country's 40 million Medicare beneficiaries have felt stymied by the system in the past.