Insurance Space

Unmarried older women are twice as likely to be without health insurance than are their married peers. This was the finding of a new policy brief from the University of California Center for Health Policy Research, which evaluated health issues and health insurance coverage among approximately 3 million older women.

According to Roberta Wyn, associate director of the center and the study’s lead author, women ages 50 to 64 face a “time of critical change,” because not only are they “at risk of new and complex health conditions, but as they near the age of retirement, their insurance status may change too.”

Insurance giant American International Group said Friday that it lost about $11  billion last year, surprising analysts and showing the long-term risks inherent in the types of large, complex insurance coverage that the company once pioneered.

Of the company’s $11 billion total loss for the year, $2.7 billion on a pretax basis resulted from its decision to increase its reserves for paying future claims. This indicated AIG has been receiving significantly larger claims than it anticipated when it first sold the insurance, most of it more than seven years ago.

Auto insurance is a requirement that you can not afford to be without. If you doubt that, just turn on the news and see what sort of troubled Toyota’s been getting into lately. Regardless of whose fault it is, cars have a tendency to malfunction and break down. Unfortunately, getting the right car insurance coverage can be difficult. The cost of insurance ranges from person to person and state to state.

The Obama administration announced its support Tuesday for a bill by Rep. Betsy Markey to end antitrust exemptions for health insurance companies.

“The president announced the administration’s strong support for repealing the antitrust exemption currently enjoyed by health insurers because, at its core, health reform is all about ensuring that American families and businesses have more choices, benefit from more competition and have greater control over their own health care,” White House spokesman Adam Abrams told the Coloradoan.

“The president believes we need to set some common-sense rules of the road to make competitive markets work for families and help rein in the soaring cost of health care, and he appreciates Congresswoman Markey’s efforts to do just that.”

President Barack Obama is trying to revive his stalled national health care overhaul by taking the fight to the private insurance companies.

Mr. Obama on Monday will propose giving U.S. officials the power to limit rate hikes by health insurance companies, in a last-ditch bid to salvage his signature issue.

The proposal would give the federal Health and Human Services Department – in conjunction with state authorities – the power to deny egregious premium increases, roll them back, or demand rebates for consumers, said a White House official, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity because details have not yet been officially released.

Health insurers across the country are dramatically increasing rates and slashing benefits for many of the 17 million consumers who have individual insurance policies. The issue is being addressed by the President, as he attempts to create an affordable insurance package in his overhaul of healthcare in the United States.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in California, for example, has announced a rate increase of 39 to 60%. Currently, however, consumers have very little option except to pay the increase or drop coverage as affordable options are few.

Revving up for next week’s bipartisan health care summit, President Barack Obama slammed greedy health insurance companies on Saturday.

A California insurance firm is hiking rates by an average of 25 percent, he said, while one in Kansas is boosting rates by up to 20 percent.

Obama’s right-on money quote in his Saturday weekly address:

“The bottom line is that the status quo is good for the insurance industry and bad for America. Over the past year, as families and small business owners have struggled to pay soaring health care costs, and as millions of Americans lost their coverage, the five largest insurers made record profits of over $12 billion.”

Dramatic increases in health insurance rates aren’t limited to California, according to a report issued Thursday by the Obama administration that found insurers had asked for large rate hikes in at least six other states.

The report by the Department of Health and Human Services found, for example, that UnitedHealth, Tufts and Blue Cross requested rate increases of up to 16 percent in Rhode Island. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan sought to raise rates by as much as 56 percent. Increases were also reported in Maine, Washington, Oregon and Connecticut.

Big, dominant insurance companies in Michigan and five other states continue to seek large rate hikes, a sign that the U.S. health insurance system is broken and needs reform, the nation’s health chief said today.

Citing a 56% rate hike that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan sought last year for non-Medicare customers who buy their own insurance, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said big increases sought “highlight the need to address comprehensive health reform.” She spoke in a media briefing from her Bethesda, Md.

As the prospect of a major health care overhaul expires with a terminal case of filibuster, the last week provided a clear diagnosis of what we will get instead.

We have seen the future, and it looks like Anthem Blue Cross.

Last week Anthem, providing coverage to 800,000 individual buyers in California, announced rate increases for next year of as much as 39 percent.

That’s not a misprint, even if you couldn’t afford to get your eyes checked lately.