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September 15, 2006

TOP TWENTY U.S. LIFE/HEALTH INSURANCE

Rank
Group
Revenues		 Assets
1 MetLife $39,535 $356,808
2 Prudential Financial 28,348 401,058
3 New York Life Insurance 27,176 144,421
4 TIAA-CREF 23,411 347,580
5 Mass. Mutual Life Insurance 23,159 124,510
6 Northwestern Mutual 17,806 123,957
7 AFLAC 13,281 59,326
8 UnumProvident 10,611 50,832
9 Guardian Life of America 8,893 35,395
10 Principal Financial 8,756 113,798
11 Assurant 7,404 23,969
12 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans 6,445 53,541
13 Lincoln National 5,371 116,219
14 Pacific Life 4,930 77,137
15 Conseco 4,330 30,756
16 Jefferson-Pilot 4,102 35,105
17 Mutual of Omaha Insurance 4,080 16,409
18 Western & Southern Financial 3,695 26,032
19 Torchmark 3,072 14,252
20 Unitrin 3,041 8,790
Source: Fortune.

 

Posted by at 7:26 PM |

May 6, 2006

Health Insurance - Your legal rights

  If you work for a company with 20 or more employees and you lose your job, a federal law called COBRA (for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) requires your ex-employer to let you stay on the group policy for at least 18 months, at your own expense. If you have generous coverage paid mostly by your employer, the full premium (plus 2% for administrative costs) could be quite a shock. Still, it's wise to hang on to your old coverage until you're covered at a new job or find more affordable insurance elsewhere.

The Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act (HIPAA) goes COBRA one better. It says that as long as you've been covered under a group policy within the previous 63 days, no insurer can turn you down for coverage, even if you're seriously ill. Unfortunately, HIPAA doesn't regulate premium costs so there's no guarantee that you can afford the insurance you're legally entitled to.

As the number of uninsured continues to rise, states have become increasingly active in helping individuals get insurance, though price continues to be a problem. Thirty states have so-called "high-risk pools," which guarantee insurance to applicants whose health histories make them undesirable to insurers.

 

Posted by at 8:40 AM |

March 16, 2006

Health Insurance - Top Things To Know

1. Insurance costs a lot but having none costs more.

There are sensible ways to save money on insurance, but skipping coverage isn't one of them. Medical bills from even a minor car accident can deplete your savings -- a major illness can push you into bankruptcy.

 

Posted by at 10:06 PM |

March 13, 2006

Wisconsin Health insurance proposal draws mixed reviews

Area businesspeople expressed interest and doubts Wednesday about a new proposal to provide health-care insurance coverage for most Wisconsin residents.

Roughly 80 people attended a public forum at Ashwaubenon High School about the new Wisconsin Health Plan, the latest attempt to provide universal health coverage for the state.

"We need to do something, but long term I'm not sure this would solve our problem because I think costs would still go up," said Karen Besaida-Hansen, president of Besaida Health Innovators.

 

Posted by at 8:04 PM |

March 12, 2006

Many Medicare Recipients Could Cover Premiums

 
Many Medicare Recipients Could Cover Premiums by Switching to Cost-Effective Drugs; Taxpayers Also Could Save Best Buy Drugs identifies affordable medicines; Alzheimer’s meds latest category
 
(Washington, D.C.) – Many seniors could save enough money to cover the cost of their Medicare drug benefit premiums if they consider switching to equally effective, lower-cost medicines identified by Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, according to the latest analysis by Consumers Union.
 

 

Posted by at 12:01 AM |

March 11, 2006

Insurance Probe Defies Death

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer isn't finished with the insurance industry. Now, he's going after one of its more tawdry businesses -- life settlements.

Insurance broker National Financial Partners disclosed late Wednesday that it recently received a subpoena from Spitzer's office seeking "information regarding life-settlement transactions.'' The life-settlement business is a fast-growing corner of the insurance market in which hedge funds and other investors buy and sell unused life insurance contracts taken out by wealthy individuals and by corporations on top executives. In this somewhat morbid area of the financial world, speculators buy up these insurance policies in the hope that the insured will die before the pricey premiums eat up too much of the final payout.

 

Posted by at 11:57 PM |