Shecantbeserious steps in it, jumps up and down

I don't understand why the various states' Departments of Insurance aren't up in arms about ObamaCare©'s blatant flaunting of McCarran-Ferguson:"Today [May 19th, 2011], The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final regulation to ensure that large health insurance premium increases will be thoroughly reviewed... In 2011, this will mean rate increases of 10-percent or more must be...

Is It Working Yet?

Is Obamacare actually reducing the cost of health insurance and health care? The short answer is no, and it never will.The folks at Consumer Reports fielded this question and fumbled miserably.Rather than actually reporting, they took the short route and repeated political rhetoric and theories from the talking heads in the lame stream media.CR cited these as reasons for hope and change in health...

Risk Management and PGI

At its heart, insurance is a risk management tool. Whether that risk is loss of income, or damage to a vehicle, or the loss of one's life, insurance is a way to mitigate a risk.One risk that business owners face is the loss of their personal assets. Say you own Acme Widgets, a small C-Corporation that's looking to expand. One financial option open to you is a line of credit, but the bank wants you...

Cavalcade of Risk #132: Call for submissions

Russell at Chatswood Moneyblog hosts next week's 5th Anniversary edition. Entries are due by Monday (the 31st).NB: We're now using this submission tool: The BC WorkAroundOnce there, you'll be asked to provide:■ Your post's url and title■ Your blog's url and name■ Your name and email■ A (brief) summary of the post ("Remarks")At the bottom of the form, you'll see a drop-down menu; simply select "Cavalcade...

MVNHS©: Water, water, everywhere

You know that old saying "take two aspirin and call me in the morning?"Well, in Merry Ol' England, they're skipping the actual aspirin part, and prescribing Dihydrogen Monoxide:"Doctors are prescribing drinking water for neglected elderly patients to stop them dying of thirst in hospital."Apparently, some 800 (perhaps more) seniors die of dehydration in British hospitals every year. Another 300 are...

RIP, Chuck

Turn on the TV, check out the movies, fire up Hulu, and you'll never find "The Exciting Adventures of [your name here], Insurance Agent." Sure, there was Banacek and Longstreet, but they were insurance investigators, not agents. Truth be told, there's generally little danger (or "real life" excitement) on my side of the desk; sure, it's exciting when that big case comes through, but that hardly makes...

Memorial Day Health Wonk Review

Health Affairs' Chris Fleming hosts this week's eclectic collection of interesting posts on health care policy. I really appreciate (and like) how it's organized: crisp and clear.Enj...

Can Medicare Be Saved?

We'll leave the obvious follow-up question ("should" it be?") for another time.The short answer is, "yes, yes it can be," but don't take just my word for ...

MVNHS©: No Smoking, Christianity

Alternate title: MVNHS© Hits Bottom, Continues DiggingLong-time readers may recall that Britain's Much Vaunted National Health System© appears quite willing to appease those who practice Islam (including forbidding "health care workers from eating at their desks during Ramadan"). Christians, on the other hand, are offered no such accommodation:"A Christian doctor in England has been threatened with...

Helping Neighbors

Tax blogger Kay Bell switches gears a bit, and offers this round-up of ways we can help our devastated fellow citizens in Missouri, Kansas and Minnesota.[Hat Tip: FoIB Joe Krist...

Ezra Klein: Still Batting .000

One of ObamaCare©'s key features is the requirement that insurers cover routine, preventive care from dollar one. Of course, this increases premiums, but the trade-off, at least according to the "pass it to see what's in it" folks, would be well worth it.Many years ago, I had an enlightening conversation with a company rep. I posited that paying for (or at least counting towards the deductible) routine...

Paying for Results

Wellpoint, parent of several large Blue Cross plans including Anthem, Empire and BCBSGA have announced a major change in the way they will compensate hospitals for care. Wellpoint companies operate in 14 states and cover 34 million people. In recent years, it has raised its payments to those hospitals by an average 8% a year.Under the new system, the company will pay increases only to hospitals that...

Dentists Say No To Medicaid

Dentists are refusing to treat patients with Medicaid and SCHIP due to low reimbursement rates. Patients paying cash or with private insurance don't have these same issues. Only those with "free" insurance courtesy of the taxpayer.The LA Times reports.children on Medicaid were 38 times more likely to be denied any appointment by dentists who were not enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health...

ObamaWaiver© Update: Old Eyes and Hawkeyes

We've long castigated the ostensible seniors' advocacy organization for throwing its own members under the ObamaBus©. But just like Harry Reid and others, this hypocritical group, which pushed long and hard for ObamaCare© itself, has received its own ObamaWaiver©:"Although not specifically mentioned by name in the rate review rules finalized last Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services...

Billions and Billions (in taxes, natch!)

Something which cannot be stated often enough is the breadth and depth of ObamaCare©'s job-killing nature. Health insurance is a big-ticket item for many (most?) small businesses, and it's about to get worse. In just a few short years, the new ObamaTaxes© come online; these will add upwards of $90 billion in additional excise taxes on insurers.Oh, wait: did I say "on insurers?"I meant "on thee and...

Long Term Care: Rising Tides

FoIB Holly R sent along this rather disturbing news:"Costs of assisted-living care in Ohio are growing faster than the national average ... In Ohio, the annual cost of long-term care in an assisted-living facility is $39,900, and costs have risen 9 percent annually over the past six years. Nationally, the average cost is $39,135, with average yearly increases of 6 percent."Some perspective's called...

The Public Be Damned

A Tulsa, Oklahoma reader forwards this timely article“expanding Medicaid would cost Oklahoma taxpayers 11 billion dollars in the first 10 years . . . the program’s expansion would mean 314,000 and 340,000 new Medicaid enrollees in this state . . . you are talking about four times more than we’ve ever spent on Medicaid.”Despite the Administration’s claims that Obamacare will reduce health care costs...

Life(less) Partners

Five months ago, we reported on the bizarre tale of Life Partners (LP), "a fast-growing company in Waco, Texas, [which] has made large fees from its life-insurance transactions."There were a number of problems in LP's business model, not the least of which was their on-call oncologist of dubious reputation, and the apparent lack of transparency on the part of the founding "Partner."Adding to their...

Told Ya So!

In case you were wondering, it was never about compassion for "those left behind."No, I'm not talking about tomorrow's planned events, but this:"Last week, we reported on efforts in California and Florida to force life insurance companies to keep (better) track of their insureds ... It is not, and never has been, the responsibility of a life insurer to track its insureds. If you move, then you darned...

Trip: Interrupted?

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article the other day about risk management and vacation planning. With travel costs at an all-time high, it pays to ensure (and, perhaps, insure) that your hard-earned dollars aren't wasted.We covered trip interruption and cancellation policies last year, and this new WSJ piece does a good job of exploring some of the "loop-holes" through which the folks...

Breaking: First Nancy, now Harry [UPDATED]

Un-freakin'- believable:"ENTIRE State of Nevada Scores Obamacare Waiver"Words fail (for now).Just two days ago, Bob noted that SanFranNan had scored 20% of the latest ObamaWaiver©s for her district. He wisely observed that "we have to pass the waivers in order to know what is in them."The term "prescient" comes to mind:"The Health and Human Services Department announced late Friday that Nevada had...

Punishing the Good Guys

[Caution: long rant ahead]Last week, a good friend and colleague called to ask for help on what had become a rather complicated case. His clients, a husband and wife, were about to lose their health insurance - through no fault of their own - and had asked him for help. While he dabbles in this area, he's really a (very, very good) P&C guy, and turned to me for advice.Bill and Mary are in their...

Fresh Air PSA

The Fresh Air Fund provides free summer vacations to New York City children from low-income communities. Every year, some 10,000 kids benefit from this opportunity. In its over 130 years of service, the FAF has provided almost 2 million youngsters with access to unique programs and, of course, fresh air.The Fund's Sara Wilson tells us that they're "in need of host families for this summer. Host families...

Alphabet Soup Update

■ First up, courtesy of our friend Joe Kristan, next year's Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution limits:For singles, the max you can drop in will be $3,100 (up $50 from this year); for families, it's $6,250 (up $100). Remember, you need to be covered by a qualifying High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) to make contributions. The 2012 minimum deductible for these plans remain at the 2011 level ($1,200...

Cavalcade of Risk #131 now up

Emily Holbrook makes her CavRisk hosting debut with this outstanding edition. It's short, sweet and right on poi...

Joe K goes big time

Our good friend (and favorite TaxBlogger) Joe Kristan was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal.Mazel Tov, J...

Chasing Profits

The New York Times' Reed Abelson is a good writer, but (as with so many in the MSM), she seems unable to distinguish between "profits" and "profit margins." What's the diff, you ask?Here's a good example:"ABC Widgets builds 100 widgets, and sells them for $1 each. First they have to buy the materials for about 60c, then assemble...

Saving Medicare

Over the years, we've chronicled the precarious path on which the 45 year old program finds itself. The $64,000 Question is whether or not it's too late to change its course.The Center for Freedom and Prosperity's Dan Mitchell lays out the stakes, and the possibilities:[Hat Tip: RedSta...

I Left My Heart . . .

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. Politicians leave Obamacrap waivers.Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree noted something curious about the latest round of waivers.Of the 221 new waivers a high percentage were in Ca-lee-forn-ya.Specifically, San Francisco.The waivers went to hotels, restaurants and of course unions. But a curious pattern seemed to evolve. According to Dupree:As for the...

Grand Rounds is up

The venerable weekly collection of interesting medblog posts is hosted this week at the Prepared Patient bl...

It's (Oddball) Claim Time!

We've reported before on some unusual insurance policies, but here's something different: unusual insurance claims. FoIB David Law passes along this infographic of "Dodgy Insurance Claims:"[Click here for full graphic]Naturally, something like this begs for vetting, so I first went to snopes for debunking. After poking around...

1,372 [PDATED]

[Please scroll down for updates]1,372 Obamacrap waivers. Did you get yours? Is anyone going to be subject to this incredibly stupid law?The Obama administration approved 204 new waivers to Democrats' healthcare reform law over the past month, bringing the total to 1,372.Makes you wonder why this is never reported in the lame stream media. What are they afraid of?"The fact that over 1,000 waivers have...

Health Wonk Review: Spring Renewal edition

[UPDATE: HWR now back up - Thanks to Roy Poses for the heads' up!]Spring is traditionally a time to air out the house, clean out the garage, and generally spruce up the homestead. One important task in this process is reducing the clutter. To that end, this week's HWR is simple in design, sparing in verbiage, and focused on the beauty of my fellow wonkers' efforts. As advertised, it's first in, first...

Cavalcade of Risk #131: Call for submissions

Emily at the Risk Management Monitor makes her CavRisk hosting debut next week. Entries are due by Monday (the 16th).NB: We're now using this submission tool: The BC WorkAroundOnce there, you'll be asked to provide:■ Your post's url and title■ Your blog's url and name■ Your name and email■ A (brief) summary of the post ("Remarks")At the bottom of the form, you'll see a drop-down menu; simply select...

Dying to win?

I'm a big fan of life insurance (of course), primarily as a particularly effective risk management tool. As agents, we're often asked which is "better:" term or permanent. While there's really no "one size fits all" answer to that, my colleague Bill M graciously forwarded this email that he received from a client:"I want to look at whole life and term. If I am going to spend the money. I might as...

(Really) Stupid Client Tricks (P&C Edition)

In general, insurance is a one-sided contract: that is, the bulk of responsibilities (underwriting, paying claims, etc) rests with the carrier; the insured is tasked with paying premiums and not filing fraudulent claims.Oh, and not interfering with the carrier's ability to effectively adjudicate those claims.So, for example, it's considered bad form (and a breach of the insurance contract) for the...

Health Insurance Games

Seems HHS Secretary Sebelius has a "joystick" she can use to play God with the health insurance rules under Obamacrap. By moving her joystick ever so slightly she can cause small business group health insurance premiums to skyrocket.Now isn't that special?Bob Graboyes, Senior Healthcare Advisor at NFIB gave us a heads up on his post which is excerpted below.Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health...

Blogging from beyond...

First, our condolences to the Miller family of British Columbia; Derek Miller, the blogger behind penmachine died last week of colorectal cancer.For once, this is not a post condemning CanuckCare©. Rather, it is a celebration of the life of a fellow blogger whom I never met; indeed, of a blog of which I'd never before heard.Turns out, Mr Miller (it just doesn't seem right to call him "Derek") spent...

iDoc

Many Georgia doctors are using electronic technology to communicate with patients. Anything from appointment reminders to test results can be communicated direct to your smart phone. The AJC reports: Patients can have the doctor virtually diagnose skin lesions. They can learn how to lose weight using a calorie counter. And facts and figures on medications are right at Dr. Stone’s fingertips. Across...