Washington, American Samoa are worst U.S. markets for insurers

Californias Pay as You Drive Insurance Program Could Reduce Driving
The California Department of Insurance has approved a pay-as-you-drive insurance program encouraged by environmental advocates and transportation planners because it provides an incentive to drive less by reducing premiums for low-mileage drivers. Widespread adoption of similar insurance policies could reduce driving in the U.S. by as much as eight percent, according to a Brookings Institution study. “The voluntary pay-as-you-drive initiative is an innovative program that will allow insure...

Feds issue proposal to review insurance hikes
Health Insurance hikes greater than 10 percent will be scrutinized by the states and the Federal Government under a proposed Regulation released Tuesday morning.  The highly anticipated Regulation defines what constitutes “unreasonable” health Insurance Premiums under the Healthcare Reform law, which gives the Federal Government greater Oversight of health Insurance premium increases. However, the provision does not give the Federal Government the power to block an unreasonable increase.

Consumer advocacy group urges tougher insurance rate review
A California-based consumer Advocacy Group said Tuesday that federal Regulations on Health Insurance rates should be "strengthened" to "prevent insurers from imposing unreasonable premium increases on consumers." The Regulations implement a provision of Democrats' Healthcare Reform that requires health plans to justify "unreasonable" rate increases. Proposed Regulations unveiled Tuesday define as unreasonable annual hikes of 10 percent or more, and set up a mechanism for federal Regulators to ...

Consumer Price Index, November 2010
Correction: Consumer prices rose 2.0% in the 12 months to November, following a 2.4% increase in October. The 0.4 percentage point decrease can be largely attributed to a slowdown in the growth rate of energy and food prices, and a decline in clothing prices. Energy Prices rose 6.7% during the 12 months to November, on the heels of a 9.1% increase in October. Prices at the pump were 7.2% higher than a year earlier, following an 8.8% increase the previous month. Electricity Prices increased 5.9% ...

Health insurers may have to justify large premium hikes
Reporting from Washington — Moving to restrain skyrocketing health Insurance Premiums, the Obama Administration is proposing rules requiring insurers to justify increases of more than 10% a year in 2011. At the same time, administration officials plan to step up federal review of premiums if state Regulators cannot adequately protect consumers, a move cheered by many leading consumer advocates. The increased Oversight comes as consumers nationwide struggle with rate hikes that have exce...

Health insurers face new rules over price hikes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health Insurance Companies that want to increase premium rates by 10 percent or more next year would face tougher government scrutiny under new rules proposed on Tuesday. The draft rule, called for under the sweeping healthcare law passed in March, will require insurers with price increases of 10 percent or more in 2011 to submit data justifying the higher rates for states or, in some cases, the Federal Government to assess. The rules put further pressure on Health Insurer...

Sebelius Warns Insurers that Rate Hikes Could Lead to Government Review
Starting in 2011, insurers who serve the small group or individual markets and who raise rates by 10 percent or more will need to disclose and publicly justify the rate increases, announced Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius today. In states with review policies for insurers already in place, the rate review will be conducted locally, according to the proposed HHS regulations. If there is no policy in the state, the HHS will handle the review. While the HHS lacks the authority...

MORE PROOF OBAMACARE IS CREEPING SOCIALISM
Or, perhaps, Creeping Totalitarianism. From the New York Times: U.S. Proposes Rules on Raising Insurance Premiums WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration said on Tuesday that it would require health Insurance Companies to disclose and justify any increases of 10 percent or more in the premiums they charge next year. State or federal officials will review the increases to determine if they are unreasonable, the administration said in proposing Regulations to enforce the requirement. Kathleen ...

HHS reg: Magic number is 10 percent (Politico)
Health insurers will be required to justify double-digit premium increases under a proposed health reform rule the Obama Administration released Tuesday. Beginning in 2011, Health and Human Services will require insurers to publicly disclose any rate increases higher than 10 percent. While such rates will not automatically be deemed “unreasonable,” either state or federal Regulators will have to review any proposed increases above the 10 percent threshold to determine whether they a...

Federal proposal would force insurers to justify big premium hikes
WASHINGTON — Moving to restrain skyrocketing health Insurance Premiums, the Obama Administration is proposing new rules requiring insurers to justify increases of more than 10 percent a year in 2011. At the same time, administration officials are planning to step up federal review of premiums if state Regulators cannot adequately protect consumers, a move cheered by many leading consumer advocates. "Ultimately, we know that the bright light of sunshine convinces more insurers to think twic...

U.S. Proposes Rules on Raising Insurance Premiums
WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration said on Tuesday that it would require health Insurance Companies to disclose and justify any increases of 10 percent or more in the premiums they charge next year. State or federal officials will review the increases to determine if they are unreasonable, the administration said in proposing Regulations to enforce the requirement. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said the review of premiums would “help rein in the ...

Federal proposal would force insurers to justify big premium hikes
WASHINGTON — Moving to restrain skyrocketing health Insurance Premiums, the Obama Administration is proposing new rules requiring insurers to justify increases of more than 10 percent a year in 2011. At the same time, administration officials are planning to step up federal review of premiums if state Regulators cannot adequately protect consumers, a move cheered by many leading consumer advocates. "Ultimately, we know that the bright light of sunshine convinces more insurers to think twic...

Obamas Health Secretary: Health Insurance Rate Increases Will Have To Be Justified To The Government
But don’t worry, ObamaCare wasn’t a government take over of Health Care. Starting in 2011, insurers who serve the small group or individual markets and who raise rates by 10 percent or more will need to disclose and publicly justify the rate increases, announced Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius today. In states with review policies for insurers already in place, the rate review will be conducted locally, according to the proposed HHS regulations. If there is no p...

Banks Accused Of Breaking Into Homes
Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions New York Times: TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the word...

Banks to Homeowners: Were In Ur Houses, Changin Ur Lockz
Photo: iStockPhoto Bank of America might be on edge about what would happen if BrianMoynihanSucks.com gets into the wrong hands, but they're not afraid to look like the bad guy. According to a federal Lawsuit, Bank of America not only wrongfully foreclosed on Mimi Ash's ski home, but they also broke in, changed the locks, and threw out all her possessions, including a wooden box inscribed with the words Together Forever that held the ashes of her late husband, Robert. Alan Jaffa, chief executi...

Banks Break Into Homes, Not Always Legally
Banks have made the occasional huge mistake in the massive home Foreclosure crisis of the last decade, including illegally ordering home break-ins once in a while. When Homeowners are behind on their Mortgage payments, or attempting to modify their home loan, or even on occasion fully paid up but lost in the bureaucratic shuffle, they are in danger of having their home broken into and their possessions removed by the banks. A New York Times report details the occasional terrible mistakes banks h...

Bank Break Ins Leading to Litigation
Even though banks piously insist that every one of their Foreclosure actions is fully justified, evidence in the court system continues to prove that claim to be false. We pointed out this sorry development in October, that of banks entering and changing the locks on homes they had not foreclosed upon. Per a report from the Sarasota Herald Tribune: The process of banks hiring people to break into homes, even when occupied, is just the latest oddity of the messy Foreclosure crisis in Florida. S...

More Illegal Foreclosure Bank Break-Ins
I wonder if you could go to a Bank CEO’s home, break into his house, and throw out all of his personal possessions — family heirlooms, photos, awards — then claim a paperwork error. That is the excuse they have been using: “In an era when millions of homes have received Foreclosure notices nationwide, Lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing. And in the wake of the Scandal involving shoddy, sometimes illegal paperwork that has b...

Federal Reserve Blocks New Foreclosure Regulations
WASHINGTON -- Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper Foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute. The new regulations ...

Preeti Vissa: An Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas?
This time of year conjures up traditional images of family gatherings, cozy fireplaces, shared meals and happy exchanges of presents -- images of home, security and friendship. But millions of Americans who have had their homes foreclosed or who are in imminent danger of Foreclosure have no such sense of security, and in many cases no real home. Far too little is being done to help them. It seems like Ebenezer Scrooge is running Christmas this year. But it doesn't have to be this way. I've wri...

Reviews of rate hikes may be extended to large groups
Federal Regulators will consider applying new Health Insurance consumer protections announced Tuesday to the large group market, a Health and Human Services Department official told The Hill. The proposed rule unveiled yesterday would require Health Insurers that increase premiums by more than 10 percent to publicly justify the higher rates, and it empowers HHS to impose its own review if states do not have an effective process in place. The rule, which implements a Healthcare Reform law prov...

Health Insurance Rate Hikes: Unreasonable if Excessive, Excessive if Unreasonable
A lawyer friend once joked to me that every time the government passed a Regulation based around the word “reasonable,” it meant Full Employment for another class of lawyers. Between the FCC—which earlier today gave itself the right to determine what counts as “unreasonable” network management on the Internet—and a new rule governing Health Insurance rate increases released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the government put a lot of lawyers to work today.

Bad investment of the day, life-insurance edition
You’ve heard of robo-signers. Now meet the robo-doctor: Dr. Cassidy said Life Partners paid him a monthly retainer of $15,000, plus $500 for every policy bought by Life Partners clients. That translates to $270,000 annual pay for part-time work that has brought him more than $1.3 million since 2002, Life Partners confirmed. Dr. Cassidy, who declined to be interviewed, testified that he reviewed case histories three days a week for Life Partners and it sent him 100 to 200 cases weekly. Tha...

The Globalization of Militarism
US Foreign Policy architects are clearly incapable of recognizing or acknowledging the fact that different peoples and nations may have different needs and interests. Nor are they capable of respecting other peoples' aspirations to national Sovereignty. Instead, they tend to view other peoples, just as they do the American People, through the narrow prism of their own nefarious interests. By selfishly dividing the world into "friends" and "foe," or "vassal states," as Zbigniew Brzezinski put i...

Shining a Light on Health Insurance Rate Increases
The Affordable Care Act brings an unprecedented level of scrutiny and transparency to Health Insurance rate increases. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that Insurance Companies publicly justify any unreasonable rate increases, consumers who experience large increases will know why they are paying the rates that they are.  On December 21, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services, working in partnership with States, proposed a new Regulation to implement this imp...