Depending on health insurance plans is a common reality in Brazil. According to figures released by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE) in June, 27.9% of the population had some type of health insurance plan in 2013, and more than one-third of the monthly payments were made by the policyholder’s employer. If we consider that this data is from 2013, we can assume that the total amount of private health insurance purchased by companies for their employees is even higher today.

The 2015 IGP Conference held in Boston, MA, IGP’s hometown, included three presentations that provided unique perspectives on otherwise well-known topics. GBV reports on the impact of a changing workforce and on adherence to a global benefits structure in this issue and will cover progressing from a wellness program to an integrated wellbeing approach in the March 2016 Special Issue about Wellness.

The MAXIS Conference devoted to sleep, “Sleep, a Business Case for Bedtime: The hidden Global Health Issue Impacting Employee Performance,” took place in November 2015 in Amsterdam, with the support of Zilveren Kruis, the health insurance division of Achmea.

Demographic factors and the current socio-economic context present major challenges to the statutory (i.e., state) pensions system. Lowering the statutory pension age is not an option, nor is increasing contributions. These two factors together inevitably lead to a tightening of the conditions for access to statutory pensions and to early retirement, as recent government measures in this area confirm.