October 6, 2011
Filed under: Economy, Health Care, Insurance, Personal Finance
The second in a two-part series on breast cancer costs.
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October 5, 2011
Filed under: Health Care, Insurance, Personal Finance
Marci found a lump in her breast in April of last year. She went to the doctor the next day.
October 4, 2011
Filed under: Health Care, Insurance, Personal Finance
Marci found a lump in her breast in April of last year. She went to the doctor the next day.
September 22, 2011
Filed under: Earnings, Federal Express, Insurance
FedEx Corp. (FDX) cut its earnings expectations for the fiscal year ending in May due to slowing global economic growth.
September 20, 2011
Filed under: Goldman Sachs , Insurance
Betty White’s endorsement can be a powerful boon for business. The former “Golden Girl” was recently named America’s most trusted celebrity. That’s good news for William Page and Associates: They’ve got White starring in a music video promoting “life settlements.”
The irony here is that White, 89, is probably as unfamiliar with the downside of life settlements as most senior citizens are when they get pitched these products. And while life settlements, also known as “viaticals,” are presented as win-win propositions, they can be anything but for the seniors who buy into them.
September 13, 2011
Filed under: Insurance
Last week, Dallas County in Texas joined the growing ranks of employers that charge employees who smoke a higher monthly health insurance premium than employees who don’t light up. Beginning Jan. 1, smokers employed by the county will pay an additional $50 per month per person for not only the employee, but also any family member who smokes and is covered by the county’s health insurance plan. The county estimates that this “non-smokers’ discount” will reduce its medical costs by $500,000 as early as next year.
The idea of increasing insurance premiums on smokers has been around since the 1980s, when the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the standard-setting organization representing the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, calculated that roughly 60% to 80% of all of the health care expenses incurred in the United States were attributable to things that people could potentially control, such as failing to wear a seat belt, engaging in unsafe sex, ingesting drugs or alcohol, driving drunk, overeating or under-exercising, and smoking. Given that only some portion of the population was involved in these activities, but that everyone was essentially picking up the tab for the associated medical care, the NAIC wondered if it made sense to require people who made less healthy choices to pay more than those who didn’t.
September 10, 2011
Filed under: Insurance
The numbers aren’t too pretty. Underinsured adults — those with health insurance all year and very high medical expenses relative to their incomes, rose by 80% between 2003-2010, from 16 million to 29 million. Nearly half of U.S. adults, 81 million people, were either underinsured or uninsured in 2010, up from 75 million in 2007 and 61 million in 2003.
The staggering stats come from the study, Affordable Care Act Reforms Could Reduce the Number of Underinsured U.S. Adults by 70 Percent, authored by staff of The Commonwealth Fund, and published in Health Affairs.
September 1, 2011
Filed under: Insurance
There’s something about life insurance that just freaks some people out. For one thing, it forces them to confront the notion of dying. For another, it demands they think about tomorrow when they don’t know what to do about today. So instead, they stick their heads in the sand.
It’s not surprising then, that according to the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), 40% of adults in the U.S. have no life insurance.
August 29, 2011
Filed under: Insurance
So, let’s assume you did the right thing in getting insurance to protect yourself against those times when Mother Nature comes knocking. Your next challenge may be getting the insurance company to pony up the cash instead of trying to deny your claim.
“Families will have to dig deeper into their pockets, because insurers have been steadily increasing hurricane wind coverage deductibles and imposing other policy limitations,” said J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America and former federal insurance administrator and Texas insurance commissioner, in a prepared statement.
August 25, 2011
Filed under: Insurance, Video, Travel
Hurricane Irene’s swath through the Caribbean this week probably left many of the no-longer paradise-bound wondering: Should I have taken out travel insurance?
Gabe Saglie, senior editor for the deal publishing site Travelzoo, doesn’t often buy travel insurance, but this time of year makes him think twice, he told DailyFinance.