LAI Insurance

By Budd McLaughlin, The Huntsville Times

NEW YORK — Allstate, the largest publicly traded U.S. home insurer, is increasing prices for residential coverage after results missed the company’s targets, Bloomberg News reported.

“Overall returns have been inadequate” in the homeowners’ segment, the Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer said today in a presentation for its Investor Day.

Chief Executive Officer Thomas Wilson said the company needs to cushion its losses from natural disasters, including the April tornadoes in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Virginia. Catastrophes cost the firm $1.4 billion that month, the insurer said.

Allstate “significantly reduced” the potential for losses on earthquakes and hurricanes by curtailing the sale of homeowners’ policies in the most vulnerable regions and buying reinsurance, the firm said.

You’ve figured out how much life insurance you need, how many years you need it, how much you can spend and what type of policy best fits your situation.

But your homework isn’t finished yet. Now an array of life insurance policy add-ons, called riders, must be considered.

“Riders can give policyholders additional benefits and increase peace of mind that if something goes wrong, there’s a Plan B,” says Shelley Fiore, an agent for Detroit Financial Group, a general agency of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

When you buy life insurance, available riders vary by insurance company and policy, as do the rules for how they work. Costs also vary and depend on many factors, including your age, health and type of policy. We can’t list every option available, but here are some of the most useful riders.

In case you become totally disabled

1. Waiver of premium rider

With this rider, you don’t have to pay the premium if you become totally disabled and can’t work.

(CBS/AP) RICHMOND, Va. – You may not have heard of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but you probably want to hear what it’s going to say about the future of health care.

This week, a three-judge panel began the tough business of figuring out if his health care plan is constitutional.

They are looking at two lawsuits, one filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli and the other by Liberty University. Both had argued that the health care plan has no business being law. The state of Virginia said it’s unconstituationl to force the uninsured to buy insurance. Liberty fretted that the law interferes with their business.

The judges were chosen randomly from a pool of 14, but the three that were picked could swing towards President Obama.

“This was certainly a favorable draw for the government,” said Kevin Walsh, an assistant professor of law at the University of Richmond who attended the hearings.

Obama’s healthcare plan has been nothing if not controversial. Many conservatives believe it is an unaffordable expansion of the government. Many liberals believe it didn’t go far enough to provide care for the poor and protection from insurance companies.

The core of the plan makes it easier to get Medicaid, the government’s health program for low income people; makes it harder for insurance companies to refuse enrollees for pre-existing conditions and tries to create markets for uninsured individuals to buy insurance at a reasonable cost.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the plan would actually save money, potentially reducing the deficit by more than $1 trillion over a decade, but that assertion has come under sharp attack from conservatives.

In all, 31 lawsuits have been filed challenging the law, and nine of those have been appealed, but the two Virginia cases are the first to reach the argument stage in a federal appeals court. The judges are expected to rule within a few weeks, but all parties expect this fight to be finished in the Supreme Court.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Should the courts repeal the health care plan or leave it alone?
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20061857-10391704.html#ixzz1M4lJhTF4

Life insurance rates are determined by a combination of factors, including your age, gender, occupation, financial status, risky pastimes, lifestyle (particularly tobacco, alcohol and drug consumption), face amount of the policy and your health.

Armed with actuarial tables and company history, a life insurance underwriter will place you in a risk class based on the likelihood that you will expire before your life insurance policy matures, thus forcing the company to take a loss on your policy. Naturally, the higher the face value of your policy, the closer the underwriter will scrutinize your health.

Those deemed a good bet to go the policy distance may qualify for the preferred or preferred-plus rate class that offers the best rates. Riskier applicants may only qualify for standard or substandard rates, while some individuals may be deemed too risky to insure.

Which health conditions are most likely to affect your life insurance rate class?

When one is looking for health insurance choices, there are a vast variety to choose from. Most people choose the health insurance from their employer or their spouse’s employer. But, there are many unique lifestyle situations people face and that requires unique health insurance choices. Short term or temporary health insurance may be an option for some.

What is Short Term or Temporary Health Insurance?

Short term or temporary health insurance is health insurance that just lasts for a certain period of time, typically 6-12 months but sometimes policies are as short as 30 days. Short term health insurance works the same as long term health insurance. Depending on the policy, you will get a health insurance card and will have a deductible and limits on services. Although short term health insurance works the same as long term health insurance, one needs to realize that there is a major difference in coverage.

Coverage Limitations of Short Term or Temporary Health Insurance

Short term health insurance does have coverage limitations. It generally does not cover pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition is a medical problem that was documented prior to getting your health insurance. Also, is usually does not cover preventative care such as physicals. It is made to pretty much cover a major health problem. It is important to also note that when one chooses a short term health insurance policy they will make themselves ineligible for guaranteed insurance coverage. Guaranteed insurance coverage is health insurance that is guaranteed, regardless of your health. Of course, guaranteed insurance is expensive, but if you for some reason would want to consider a guaranteed health insurance policy then you would not want to get a short term health insurance policy.

Continue reading the rest of the article, “Insurance Tip of the Week: Short Term and Temporary Health Insurance” by Bobbie Sage at About.com.

As the one year anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act nears, The New York Times notices that health insurance premiums still haven’t gone down. Just the opposite, in fact:

The new federal health care law may eventually “bend the cost curve” downward, as proponents argue. But for now, at many workplaces here, the rising cost of health care is prompting insurance premiums to skyrocket while coverage is shrinking.

As Congress continues to debate the new health care law, health insurance costs are still rising, particularly for small businesses. Republicans are seizing on the trend as evidence that the new law includes expensive features that are driving up premiums. But the insurance industry says premiums are rising primarily because of the underlying cost of care and a growing demand for it.

Across the country, premiums have more than doubled in the last decade, with smaller companies particularly hard hit in recent years, federal officials say.

The article presents the two stories of the rising cost of health care—costs are rising because of government mandates, and costs are rising because of growing demand for expensive care—as competing. But they don’t have to be. In some sense, they’re both right.

We know, for example, that benefit mandates drive up the cost of insurance. This ought to be self-evident to anyone who’s ever purchased, say, car insurance: A bigger benefit package means more expensive premiums. The same is true in the health insurance market. In 2009, the Council on Affordable Health Insurance, an insurance-industry group, counted 2,133 state-level insurance mandates nationwide and estimated that the existence of the mandates adds anywhere from 20 to 50 percent to the cost of health insurance.

Continue reading “One Year After Obamacare, Health Insurance Premiums Are Still Rising” by Peter Suderman at Reason.com…

North Carolina won’t be joining the list of states challenging federal health care reform legislation — not yet, anyway. Over the weekend, Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed legislation passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature that challenges a provision that would require the purchase of health insurance.

In a statement, Perdue called the house bill “an ill-conceived piece of legislation that’s not good for the people of North Carolina.” She said the state law contradicts federal law, and that since 27 states are already challenging it, “this issue will reach the Supreme Court in a timely manner without North Carolina spending money and energy on it.”