Insurance Companies

2009-06-06 Op-Ed Columnist - Keeping Them Honest

Now nobody is proposing that Americans be forced to get their insurance from the government. The public option, if it materializes, will be just that 8 an option Americans can choose. And the reason for providing this option was clearly laid out in Mr. Obamas letter: It will give Americans a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep the insurance companies honest.

Right now the health insurers are promising to deliver major cost savings. But history shows that such promises cant be trusted. As President Obama said in his letter, we need a serious, real public option to keep the insurance companies honest.

www.nytimes.com

Health reform will fail without serious cost control, which will require a fundamental change in the way the insurance industry behaves. - Reform and Reorganization Health Insurance and Managed Care United States Politics and Government Senate House of Representatives Obama Barack Kristol William

2009-06-05 Central Valley Business Times

The Department of Insurance says the new regulations will make sure they insurance companies do all their underwriting before they accept a policyholder and stop the insurer practice of reviewing policy applications for incriminating data once the policyholder becomes sick.

The rules proposed by the Department of Insurance go a long way to protect innocent patients from losing their coverage when they are sick and need it most," says Jerry Flanagan of Consumer Watchdog. "The Schwarzenegger Administration must also follow through with its planned rules applying to HMOs and PPOs, which are separately overseen by the Department of Managed Health Care. Without such rules, health insurers will be able to discriminate against patients on the basis of which agency regulates their insurer.

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2009-06-04 Obama on Health Care: The Economic Case for Reform - Political Punch

As far as the federal government cost of health care to its own employees you can Google FEHB and see what the different plans available to federal employees are. It should be noted that these are the same exact plans which are available to our elected federal officials. The government does not pay 100 pct. of the employee health insurance and the portion they pay is considered a benefit in lieu of wages just like most major employers who provide a health benefit to their employees. Usually the larger the company (more employees) the more likely is that they provide the health insurance rather than paying the larger wage as most employees would rather have access to the health insurance instead of the small increase in wages. For an employee in California with a family looking at an HMO (California Health Net, High Option) this

blogs.abcnews.com

President Obama pushed for health care reform after a meeting with Democratic senators. Political Punch Blog - Health care obama president obama senate congress hill capitol house reform bill ted kennedy council of economic advisers economy business max baucus chris dodd blog political punch

2009-06-01 Insurance reform will have to wait two more years in Texas News for Dallas, Texas Dallas Morning News Texas Legislature

One of the biggest necessities is to speed up the process for resolving disputes between the state and insurance companies," he said, citing the six-year-old legal battle between the insurance department and State Farm Insurance over alleged overcharges by the company.

Its a real tragedy that true insurance reform is not going to occur this session," said Senate Democratic leader Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio. "At the end of the day, its the insurance industry that won because for another two years they get to charge the highest rates in the country. "

www.dallasnews.com

Texas News - The Dallas Morning News Texas section is your trusted source for news from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico. Senior Political Writer Wayne Slater - Wayne Slater is senior political writer for The Dallas Morning News.

2009-05-31 Daily Herald Remove insurance companies from picture

I work in health care now and have worked for a large health insurance company in the past. The health insurance industry is a parasite that siphons billions of dollars away from providing health care to lining the pockets of their executives and stockholders. And if the trial balloon I read about the other day about the government subsidizing the purchase of insurance from these people is true, it will be another case of those who need to be controlled writing the plan for health care. The insurance industry will have written the health care reform bill just like the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies wrote the Medicare drug benefit. These companies will continue to siphon money away from the health care system reaping huge profits and massive bonuses for their executive and the taxpayers will subsidize it.

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2009-05-30 Letter _Web version__ Take insurance companies out of health care reform plan The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.

As Dr. Rob Stone, head of Hoosiers for Commonsense Health Care, who organized this rally for the government to pay health coverage for every American, explained, the way they make a profit is to find ways not to pay for health care. Health insurance companies, as he and other speakers pointed out, are the biggest barrier to health care for all.

All this misery, and what is being proposed in the land of the free is compulsory insurance, a bonanza for Susan and Evan Bayh and Braly, not so good for the rest of us. How much longer will we allow human beings whose only motivation is money to make decisions about our health How many more will die How many more will lose their homes How many more will be chained to jobs they hate so they can have insurance, which is no guarantee of coverage

www.journalgazette.net

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2009-06-03 Highway towing bills trigger outrage

Towing company owners say their pricing in complicated. The patrols rotation brings the good with the bad, they say. Some estimate that for every four paying customers, they swallow at least one. If the owner never comes to claim the car, theyve lost out on the bill and must pay to dispose of it. They try to recoup those losses from paying customers and the insurance companies covering their crash.

Hundreds of companies on the patrols rotation list prices that exceed usd. 800 for towing wrecked cars. The patrol randomly selected a number of those companies and checked to see what price they quoted individuals who called needing a tow. Of the 62 companies the patrol checked, all offered and ldquo;citizen and rdquo; prices at a fraction of their rates for Highway Patrol calls.

www.charlotteobserver.com

If a state trooper calls a wrecker to tow your mangled car off the highway, you could be swallowing a steep bill. - Highway towing bills trigger outrage

2009-06-02 Budget was big, but Broomfield legislators bills still made the cut : Broomfield : Broomfield Enterprise

House Bill 1059 will require insurance companies to continue paying for routine care for clients who enroll in clinical trials for experimental treatments, while House Bill 1164 will ensure money from the sale of breast cancer license plates will go to breast"It was a hard session because of all the budget cuts. We were trying to do good things with no money. Despite all that we had a good session and did some really good things. " Rep. Dianne Primavera

www.broomfieldenterprise.com

After four months at the Capitol, Democrats and Republicans still dont agree on what, or wasnt, achieved this session, but Broomfield lawmakers did achieve passage of bills aimed at the health of people and the health of businesses. - Budget was big but Broomfield legislators bills still made the cut After four months at the Capitol Democrats and Republicans still dont agree on what or wasnt achieved this session but

2009-06-07 Florida Citizens insurance rate freeze rejected

The measure would increase Citizens premiums by an average of 10 percent a year statewide until the rates were high enough to stabilize the state-owned company. It would also eliminate usd. 12 billion in optional coverage offered to private insurance companies by the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.

Not allowing any changes could wreak havoc on the states property markets, supporters say. One rating agency has threatened to downgrade insurance companies that depend on the Catastrophe Fund, a move that would make it more difficult to obtain a mortgage in Florida.

www.jacksonville.com

Subhead:and The House bill would raise premiums to keep the company solvent. Priority:and 1Summary:and The House turned aside proposals Thursday to continue a freeze on premiums for customers of taxpayer-backed Citizens Property - Florida News

2009-05-29 EP Approves New Regulations on Insurance Companies

The approved directive eliminated a proposal by the Commission for "group support" setting how much capital insurance companies should put at store to deal with risk across all their European businesses, leaving each nation to decide separately.

The European Parliament approved on Wednesday a proposed Directive aimed at lowering cost in monitoring multinational insurance companies.

He said that the new rules would help protect policy holders from bad practice and "help shield our economies against a repeat of the disastrous excessive risk taking by financial institutions, including certain insurance operators, that has contributed to the global crisis. "

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