Cindy Bucher

Contributing Editor Cindy Bucher maintains that parents of young employees can be invisible stakeholders in your benefits plan.

Last fall, our benefits team received a request from the executive staff: "How can we encourage retirement in 2012? And if we can do it, should we?" We completed our analysis and recommendations, highlighting risks to avoid, best practices and permissible approaches. We never believed we'd actually implement something.

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through HR, the year's work was done, some mundane and some bizarre.

Let me begin with a two-part confession: First, I do not claim to be a health reform expert. I have not read through the massive regulation and rely heavily on the interpretation of other, smarter people. Second, I am fairly apolitical. I don't find politics at the local, national and state levels particularly engaging.

The authors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would be quick to point out that our plan is not required to cover dependent children — but we do have to cover the 26-year-olds if we want to cover the newborns and preschoolers. Some choice.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the day we announced that those who use tobacco will pay higher health plan premiums than their tobacco-free counterparts.

You may remember the two extremes depicted in the 2008 presidential election regarding health care. We heard health care proclaimed as an inalienable "right" of sorts. Politicians would ask their constituents polarizing questions like, "Is health care a right for all Americans?" or, "Is it a privilege to which only the wealthy minority are entitled?," as if these two extremes were the only positions that a health care stakeholder (consumer, provider or carrier) might have on such a complex topic.

My teenager is never separated from his cell phone. Never. Yet, sometimes when I dial his number, he doesn't answer.

Some of you may remember exercise instructors such as Jane Fonda or the late Jack LaLanne. When I was a kid, my mom had Jack LaLanne exercise books.