Insurance Blog

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who promised early in his campaign to repeal President Barack Obama's health care reform, says he would keep several important parts of the overhaul.

Although Romney has yet to articulate or set forth any semblance of a reform plan, he says, "of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I'm going to put in place," he told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Romney favors the following:

• make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage."
• and would allow young adults (up to any age) to keep their coverage under their parents' health-insurance.

In addition though Romney has also said on the campaign trail that he favors allowing interstate purchase of health insurance, allowing employers to circumvent their own state's insurance lwas in favor of less strict regulations, which I believe would allow many employers to seek out the cheapest, and therefore inferior coverage possible.

Romney has also said he'd allow businesses to band together in asscoaitations to purchase health coverage.

11 million uninsured Americans came from the middle class, or nearly a quarter of the nation's total uninsured and under ObamaCare most would achieve coverage through health insurance exchanges.

Most middle-class Americans - nearly three out of four - are insured through their employers, according to the report. For the one out of four who are not, it's become more and more expensive to buy health insurance on their own. Between 2000 and 2008, health insurance premiums grew three times as fast as wage increases and because of that employer-based coverage has dropped from 68% of Americans to just 60% over that timeframe.

Romney reforms

One reform promoted by Romney would be to allow people to buy insurance in other states but that might dilute strong insurance standards and create a "race to the bottom.

"I want these individuals and businesses to be able to buy insurance across state lines to get the best deal they can get anywhere in the country," Romney said in a speech in June in Florida.

Romney's website outlines other reforms: Allowing individuals and businesses to buy insurance as a group to get more bargaining power, for example, and allowing money in health savings accounts to be used towards purchasing premiums.

The findings of a new NFIB survey show the cost of health insurance is what's keeping small employers up at night--still.

The latest National Federation of Independent Business survey reveals more than half of small business employers view the cost of insurance as their "most critical problem."

Health insurance costs for small firms have risen 103 percent in the last decade, causing many to forego offering health insurance. This increase outpaces wages and inflation, and renders insurance unaffordable for many small-business owners, the survey finds.

"Fears over increasing health insurance costs continue to dominate the list of concerns for small businesses, very much in spite of the president's health insurance reform law--certainly not an endorsement of the policy, nor a good sign for the future of the sector," says Holly Wade, senior policy analyst and survey author.

The NFIB authors also note the PPACA has failed to address the "fundamental causes of rising health care cost while opting to focus on coverage." As you know I have put forward numerous ideas in this space to courageously attack increasing costs. See this article for the details.

Health care costs overshadow the No. 2 problem for small business owners--economic uncertainty--by 14 percentage points.

The study was based on surveys of more than 3,800 small business owners.

LIMRA is reporting that less than 50% of individuals in the U.S. have life insurance. There are many untapped markets therefore that agents can target.

One of those markets perhaps is those from Generations X and Y. When it comes to retirement planning, Generations X and Y have learned from the mistakes of their elders, according to new survey findings released recently.

One site I've found, by financial advisor/ consultant, Lanh Nguyen brings together financial planning resources that may be helpful for insurance agents. This is one example of how insurance agents and financial planners can improve contacts and sales through collaboration.

Nearly 60 percent of Gen X (59%) and Gen Y (56%) make regular, automatic contributions toward their retirement savings, compared to 46 percent of non-retired Baby Boomers. And when it comes to getting a jump on their nest egg, younger generations are eager to get started - both Gen X and Gen Y started saving for retirement, on average, in their mid- to late-twenties illustrating that this is a forward thinking group perhaps in need of life insurance. That's nearly a decade earlier than Baby Boomers who, on average, stared saving at age.

By linking websites and creating partnerships for mutual referrals with local financial advisors, insurance agents can gain access to new clients and new markets. Networking is always important, partnering with other financial services professionals is key to expanding business.

Beginning October 1, hospitals face steep Medicare penalties for high readmission rates, as they work fast to implement solutions to carry out safe transitions for patients.

Oct. 1 is shaping up to be hospitals' version of doomsday, in which organizations performing poorly in heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia readmissions could see cuts from 0.42 percent to 1 percent in revenue, which could run well into the high six or low seven figures a year for single, large facilities, FierceHealthFinance reported.

And those penalties will only increase--2 percent in October 2013 and up to 3 percent in October 2014 for persons covered by Medicare.

The Medicare penalties "have been motivating," Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the policy institute, the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, told the Detroit Free Press. "Nothing focuses physicians and hospital executives more than facing financial penalties."

Being a health policy wonk I have been waiting,.... and waiting to hear about Mitt Romney's plan to replace ObamaCare since I know he definitely wants to repeal it. After three days of the RNC, I'm still waiting.

I tend to float between liberal and conservative on many issues, but on health reform I have very specific ideas that ObamaCare DID NOT include like payment reform, efficiency incentives for physicians and health plans, extension of Medical Home model beyond Medicaid/ Medicare, etc. If you're a loyal reader you know this. If not, this is my stance: Its great to extend coverage to the uninsured, expand Medicaid etc, but until we face the cost issue, courageously, health care costs will continue to run over us like an 18 wheeler over a tomato. Not pretty, and pretty much unrecognizable.

Romney and Ryan had three days to tell us more than, "I hate ObamaCare and its bad policy." Yes, much of it is bad policy, and some other portions are great like eliminating pre-x, extending dependent coverage to young adults, eliminating gender rating so that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition because they might become pregnant, etc.

I need more. We all do. Its about time we find out what their plan is to replace ObamaCare.

Hurricane Isaac is likely to cause as much as $1.5 billion in onshore insured property damage, catastrophe modeler Eqecat Inc. said Wednesday according to Business Insurance.com.

The storm made landfall in southeastern Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. But hurricane-force winds did not appear to have extended to downtown New Orleans, although tropical storm-force winds were observed within New Orleans.

Eqecat also said damage estimates would be higher if the Mississippi River was expected to go above flood stage. At this point it is not expected to do so.

This morning a Plaquemine Parish official in Louisiana was quoted by NPR as saying "In some ways Isaac is Worse than Katrina" for Plaquemine Parish because the storm is slower moving and its dumping more rain overflowing the levee's in an area that did not have as severe flooding 7 years ago.

Hurricane Isaac is packing 80 mph winds so its not as a strong as Katrina, but is a wider, slower moving storm and some areas may see 20 inches of rain so the flooding could be worse than Katrina in some areas. The wind destruction will probably be less than Katrina, however.

There is some good news so far in that, "there is no evidence of any (water) overtopping (canals)," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. "We have full confidence the levees will hold."

According to NBC News, Isaac is now a Category 1 Hurricane as it nears New Orleans. Bands of rain are coming ashore with periods of actual light rain, according to NBC's Tamran Hall, allowing some officials to state that the newly installed pumps will have a fighting chance of averting much worse flooding than might otherwise occur.

However, the "dirty side" of the storm, much like with Katrina, appears to be the Mississippi Gulf Coast which could again incur multiple tornados just like what happened seven years ago with Hurricane Katrina.

And now Dailyfinance.com reports that Hurricane Isaac damage estimates stand at $39 Billion for residential damage.

In the meantime, here's a resource on averting hurricane damage.

According to a government report, an estimated 2,900 clothes dryer fires are reported to by homeowners and renters to U.S. fire departments each year and cause an estimated $35 million in property losses.

The report by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) said that 84 percent of clothes dryer fires took place in residential buildings. Also, according to the report:

• Clothes dryer fire incidence in residential buildings was higher in the fall and winter months, peaking in January at 11 percent.
• Failure to clean (34 percent) was the leading factor contributing to the ignition of clothes dryer fires in residential buildings.
• Dust, fiber and lint (28 percent) and clothing not on a person (27 percent) were, by far, the leading items first ignited in clothes dryer fires in residential buildings.
• Fifty-four percent of clothes dryer fires in residential buildings were confined to the object of origin.

If you have a client newsletter or perhaps an email list this might be an important piece to inform your clients about and create an informational relationship as well as a sales-based relationship building added rapport with clients.