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Three months after the passage of the health care insurance reform plan, people are still complaining that we don’t need universal health care. Some state governments are even suing the feds because they feel universal health care is somehow unconstitutional. Rather than going into a long-winded explanation of why we’re for universal health care, we offer this video, gleaned from YouTube.
Tags: friday filmstrips, health care reform, health insurance
Amidst constant concern about the next extension of unemployment benefits (due in September) come some numbers from theAmerican South. Specifically, there were job gains posted in Louisiana and Texas last month, but losses in both Arkansas and Oklahoma.
According to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, that state’s seasonally adjusted non-farm employment improved by 5,800 jobs in the period from May through June, with the first recorded over-the-year increase in jobs since December 2008.
In Texas, the total non-agricultural jobs increased by 14,000 in June for a total of 166,100 since the beginning of this year, making it the sixth month in a row that the Lone Star State has seen improvement, at least according to Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken. Sectors that added jobs in June include, manufacturing, construction, mining, and logging, as well as education, health services, and professional and business services.
The numbers out of Arkansas and Oklahoma are less encouraging, however. In the former, there was an 8.200 decline in the workforce, with most of the lost jobs coming in the public sector, though some jobs were added in educational and health services, manufacturing trade, transportation, and utilities.
In Oklahoma, on the other hand, the number of unemployed people (after seasonal adjustment) grew by 1,010, or about 0.8 percent of the state’s population. Despite this, Oklahoma’s 6.8 percent jobless rate is below the national average of 9.5%, and below the other states in it’s region, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.
The June seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are 7.0 in Louisiana, 7.5 in Arkansas, and 8.2 percent in Texas.
Tags: economyunemployment
After Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein ruled, last May, that the state was not required to repay them, companies that sold lead-based paint have appealed the decision.
The paint manufacturers argued that they were due reimbursement because in 2008 the state Supreme Court had ruled in their favor, reversing a landmark verdict that may have cost them billions of dollars.
On Friday, a notice of appeal by the three companies that had won the original case, Millennium Holdings LLC, NL Industries Inc., and Sherwin-Williams Co. Three other companies that had been sued for the same infraction – selling lead based paint – but never went to trial, joined in the appeal.
Charles Moellenberg, the lawyer for Sherwin-Williams, said that Rhode Island rules allow winning sides of a lawsuit to recover costs, and that there should be no difference with this case.
Tags: Lead Paint, Rhode Island
Earlier this month when we talked about the bizzare things people insure, we neglected to mention weather insurance, but there really are companies who offer such a product. It works much like wedding insurance, making sure that you get reimbursed for deposits and such if weather forces you to cancel any kind of event.
A company offering weather insurance products recently opened in Lakeville, MN.
The insurer in question, Milltown Insurance Group, specializes in “…niche property and casualty program business and provides solutions for smoothing revenues, locking in profits and increasing sales through the use of weather insurance products for virtually any type of business, event or promotion.”
The company was opened by Dana D’Arrigo
Milltown says their weather products are extremely customizable as well as being affordable additions to existing insurance and/or marketing programs.
Anyone who is, or has a parent who is, covered by medicare knows that healthcare fraud is a tangible risk. Some good news, then, on this Monday, is that Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last Friday at a healthcare fraud summit in Miami, that the feds are in the process of the largest fraud takedown ever, with 94 defendants charged in five different cities (Baton Rouge, LA, Detroit, MI, Houston, TX, Miami FL, and New York, NY)
Also in conjunction with the Miami summit, which gathered together insurance providers, consumer advocates, and patients as well as federal, state, and local authorities, came the announcement from HHS that the state of Florida has been granted a Medicaid waiver which will help fund a program allowing the state’s Medicaid Fraid Control Unit to scan insurance claims for patterns that are red flags for insurance scams. Currently, Federal law prohibits federal matching funds from being used in such fraud control efforts.
As of Friday morning, 36 alleged participants had been arrested in connections with schemes involving over $250 million in fraudulent claims, according to the Justice Department. The suspects include insurance company owners, medical assistants, and doctors, and the allegations against them fit the profile of the kind of healthcare fraud typical of South Florida over the last several years – fraud that is now spreading across the country, with scammers filing false claims for HIV infusion services, home healthcare, durable medical equipment, and physical therapy, and beneficiaries getting monetary kickbacks for their Medicare numbers.
There are plans for additional, similar healthcare fraud summits to be held in Boston, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia.
Source: Modern Healthcare
Tags: Fraud Insurance fraud, medicare
Every year LifeHappens runs a scholarship contest, where people submit videos explaining why life insurance has (or would have) helped them. This video is one of this year’s entrants, and really brings home why life insurance is important – it can save your dreams.
After watching it, can you really doubt that the best time to buy life insurance is now?
Homeowners in Texas may want to consider boosting their homeowners insurance polices, and re-evaluating their inventory lists after reading this:
Allstate Insurance has shared that burglary claims for their customers in Texas increased 9 percent last year. The insurer is advising people to keep their homes locked, their alarms engaged, and their vacation plans secret, if they go away this summer.
What are the most common stolen items? Allstate surveyed police departments across the Lone Star state, and found that the number one target in home burglaries are flat-screen televisions, which are followed by laptop computers, jewelry, and cash. In some cities, the survey found, an increasing number of home burglaries are being tied to organized groups, like street gangs, which, police say, have “shopping lists” of things to steal, and will actually back into their target’s driveway, knock on the door, and kick it in if no one answers. They then take valuable, portable items and leave within a few minutes. Afterward, most of the stolen goods end up being filtered to other cities and states, or even across the border into Mexico, by an organized fencing operation.
David Christopher, an Allstate agent in the Dallas/Fort Worth area explained, “”Not only do these home burglaries disrupt homeowners’ lives because their valuables are stolen, but they create a potentially dangerous situation if the theft is interrupted. That’s why it’s so important for homeowners to take precautions because these thefts can happen anywhere.”
Source: Insurance Journal
Tags: burglary, homeowners insurance, texas
A man in Belfast, Maine, is facing charges that he set a car on fire, and then posted photos of the flaming vehicle on Facebook.
The suspect, 36-year-old Asgard Tarick Gilbert, was arrested for felony arson roughly two weeks after local police found a1982 Mercedez-Benz smoldering on River Avenue.
According to the police, Gilbert told officers that he saw the car with a “small campfire” blazing in the back seat. They arrested him after examining his cell phone and computer, and watching surveillance tapes from a local store.
The owner of the car, which wasn’t working, had been trying to sell it.
Photo Credit: Belfast, ME Facebook Page | Click to enlarge
Tags: car insurance, insurance fraud
There may be an IPO for AIG’s AIA.
If that seems like so much alphabet soup, let us explain: the board of directors of American International Group (AIG) is planning to meet later this week, in order to consider the future of one of it’s business units, and an IPO is the most likely outcome, according to a report in the Insurance Journal.
AIA, the Asian life insurance division of AIG is likely to have an IPO – that’s “initial public offering” – because it’s the most attainable option, as opposed to pursuing another acquisition offer and the attendant risks associated with potential funding issues for the buyer.
Company sources, who say that while they’re directly involved in the future of AIA, but are not authorized to make public statements, said that AIG’s board would gather in New York on Wednesday, but that as of yet, no final course has been determined for AIA.
On Tuesday, there was much attention given to the notion of AIA receiving an outside offer. The South China Morning Post reported that four Chinese groups had approached AIG and the U.S. Treasury Department not long after Britain’s Prudential had withdrawn its $35.5 billion bid for AIA last month, after it tried (and failed) for a price renegotiation.
While it’s possible that a second offer may come, the spectacular failure of Prudential to acquire AIA has taken its toll on both company, and sparked disagreements within the upper tiers of AIG’s management.
AIG chose not to comment on the Chinese offers or the likelihood of an IPO.
Tags: AIA, AIG, life insurance
Earlier today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law the bill which will prevent insurance companies from dropping coverage of homeowners who have found corrosive Chinese drywall in their homes.
The new law, which was sponsored (as a bill) by Senator Julie Quinn of Metairie, will prohibit insurers from canceling or refusing renewals on policies for homes because of Chinese-made drywall which has been blamed for health concerns and corrosion, though insurers will NOT be prevented from raising relevant deductibles or premiums.
This new law only applies to drywall that was imported from or manufactured in China before Dec. 31, 2009. Insurers found to be in violation will face a penalty of up to $15,000.
The law remains in effect until July 1, 2013.
Tags: homeowners insurance, Louisiana
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