Archive | May, 2012

GOP Plans To Attend Health Summit As Obama Calls For Compromise

President Barack Obama warned during the weekend that both Republicans and Democrats should be careful not to turn this week’s health care summit into “political theater” but to work to find “common ground” on the issues, The Washington Post reports…

KHN Column – Malpractice Reform: A Test Case For Bipartisanship At The Health Summit

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, done in collaboration with The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes: “Ever since President Barack Obama announced he’d be having a bipartisan meeting to talk about health care reform, Republicans have been denouncing it as a charade. He’s not really interested in their ideas, they say. And he doesn’t really want their support…

White House Releases Health Reform Plan Ahead Of Thursday’s Summit

On Monday morning, President Obama released a health care reform proposal that “attempts to merge the Senate legislation (HR 3590) with its counterpart in the House (HR 3962) in ways that would address some of the most controversial provisions in the stalled bill,” the Washington Post reports…

White House Unveils Revamped Reform Plan, GOP And Industry React

President Obama began a final surge to overhaul the nation’s health system Monday, unveiling a White House-drafted plan days before a planned meeting with Republicans, The Washington Post reports. “This is the opening bid for the health meeting” on Thursday, a White House spokesman said…

CMA Tells State: Protect Patients, Keep Bogus Discount Health Plans Illegal Testimony Calls Into Question DMHC Plan To Regulate Discount Plans

Discount health plans that provide few or no discounts, often overstate benefits and send patients to phantom networks of physicians are illegal and should not be allowed to operate in this state, the California Medical Association testified yesterday…

NAIC Would Fight Obama Plan For US Insurance Rate Regulation

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is ready to oppose any provisions in proposed health care reform legislation that would allow federal preemption of state insurance rate regulation, an official said. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland, the NAIC Secretary-Treasurer, said rate regulation is a prerogative of the states. …

Next Credit Card Statement is Going to Contain an Ugly Truth

NEW YORK (AP) — Now, thanks to a long-awaited law that goes into effect Monday, you’ll know that if you pay the minimum on a $3,000 balance with a 14 percent interest rate, it could take you 10 years to pay off.
“Jaws will drop,” said David Robertson, publisher of The …

Are Insurers Too Dependent On Catastrophe Modeling?

Are insurance carriers putting too much weight on the results of catastrophe models in underwriting risks and managing their concentration of exposures? Have insurers allowed rating agencies and reinsurers to bully them into an overreliance on the models, and do users understand the uncertainties inherent in such predictive analytics?
Those …

P/C rating upgrades outnumber downgrades in ’09

OLDWICK, N.J.—A total of 36 commercial property/casualty insurers received rating upgrades in 2009 while 24 were downgraded, A.M. Best Co. said Friday in a special report.
In the report, “Upgrades, Downgrades Moved at a Similar Pace in 2009,” Oldwick, N.J.-based Best said upgraded commercial lines insurers “generated strong operating results in …

Property catastrophe remains top risk, but others gain ground

The risks confronting insurers appear to become more complex every day.
Traditional risk, notably catastrophes, remains a core concern for underwriters. But newer risks, such as inflation and even advancing technology, must be taken into insurers’ risk management calculations as well, observers say.
Property catastrophe risk “is and continues to be the …