Open Enrollment Eye-Opener

By Isaiah J. Poole
October 16th, 2008 - 10:39am ET

On the heels of an explosive political document that has been hitting millions of mailboxes of potential voters— third-quarter 401(k) statements showing how much the Wall Street meltdown has hurt individual retirement savings—another potential game-changer is beginning to brew in employee conference rooms and lunch halls: the annual open enrollment sessions for health insurance benefits.

When workers hear—as I did Tuesday—how much their health insurance premiums are about to rise or what kind of compromises in coverage they will have to accept to keep them from going even higher, a lot of them will be reminded just how hazardous the right-wing plans to remake health care embraced by Sen. John McCain—highlighted in this opinion-page ad in The New York Times on Tuesday— will be to their health.