I was on a jury once

I've only been on one jury. At first I felt very patriotic and important. Only 45% of Americans ever serve on a jury and if you are called, sometimes the case is settled before you hear it. The case for which I was seated involved Ohio's infamous Scott-Pontzer insurance law which was finally reversed in 2003. It was incredibly confusing and caused me to lose chunks of faith in our laws and our jury system. It was referred to as the Golden Turkey award and had allowed employees and their families injured on their own time in their own cars to collect from their employers’ auto insurance policies.

https://www.porterwright.com/content/uploads/2017/11/216_litdec2003.pdf?

What a shocker—Obamacare co-ops are failing and we’re on the hook

“The insolvent Iowa-based health insurance cooperative, CoOportunity Health, had to be taken over in December by Iowa insurance regulators. Iowa and Nebraska's Guarantee Associations - and state and federal taxpayers - are now on the hook for millions in claims the insurer could not pay.

CoOportunity Health wasn't a traditional health insurer. Rather, it was a taxpayer-funded, non-profit health insurance cooperative (co-op) established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The co-op program is plagued by numerous flaws. When co-ops were established, they had no customers and no historical actuarial data to assist in setting plan premiums. Startup funds and cash reserves were mostly borrowed from taxpayers. According to industry data only one of the 23 co-ops was profitable last year (a 24^th co-op located in Vermont failed before it even got off the ground). While some of the remaining co-ops are losing money because of small size, others appear to have the strategy of losing money to gain market-share at taxpayers' expense.”

Read more here.

Get ready for a third world experience—or medical care

Obamacare is three years old, but what terrible tantrums this oversize, clumsy youngster is having. Premiums going up, employers shrinking their work force, doctors retiring early, and young people who might have become doctors are selecting a different career route. The insurance exchange official (Chao) in charge is hoping it won't be a third world bureaucratic experience. And we're hoping we haven't been downgraded to 3rd world medical care, but wouldn't that be "fair" in the president's eyes?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2013/03/22/cms-on-obamacares-health-insurance-exchanges-lets-just-make-sure-its-not-a-third-world-experience/

You can keep your health care he promised

But even the cheapest will cost you $20,000 a year for a family of five, so good luck with that.

How the public option is working in Florida

You've probably read about insurance companies pulling out of Florida, and wondered about that. Well, Florida has a "public option" for property insurance. How's that working? They're waiting for the big one, and other policy owners are paying a surcharge to support the public option. Sound familiar? From the Beacon Blog)

"After Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992 some Floridians were having difficulty purchasing homeowners’ insurance. (The reason: rates are regulated, and at the regulated rates some properties are too great a risk.) So, the state government formed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, which is owned and operated by the State of Florida.

As originally envisioned, Citizens would charge rates above those charged by private insurers, to make Citizens the insurer of last resort. Nevertheless, Citizens found plenty of customers.

After two bad hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 property insurance rates in Florida rose, and in his campaign for the office, current Governor Charlie Crist promised voters that if elected he would see that their property insurance bills “dropped like a rock.”

One tactic he used was to change Citizens’ rate structure so it was competitive with private insurers. His idea, like President Obama’s idea with health insurance, is that with a public option, private insurers would have to keep their rates in line or risk losing customers to the government insurer.

That’s what’s happened in Florida. Today about 30% of homeowners’ policies are written by Citizens, which is the largest property insurer in the state. It’s about to get bigger too. The largest private insurer, State Farm, had a rate request rejected last year, and now is pulling out of the state altogether (for property insurance; they’ll still insure your car). As the largest private insurer pulls out over a three-year period (that period negotiated with the state), Citizens will get an even larger share of Florida’s property insurance.

Everybody in Florida knows Citizens is a fiscal time bomb. Already, every Florida insurance policy (on homes, boats, cars, etc.) pays a surcharge that goes to Citizens, but Citizens still doesn’t have sufficient reserves to weather a major hurricane. When one comes, Florida taxpayers will be on the hook for the bill.

$54 billion in 10 years

That's all. The CBO says tort reform would reduce health care spending by .05 percent. Lawyers must be wetting their pants. Now, to the rest of us, that sounds like A LOT of money, but in government, which now doesn't bat an eyelash at trillions and thinks the stimulus actually stimulated something, that's nothing. That's play money. That's Monopoly money in pretty colors. We could save more than that by just cleaning up graft in the food insecurity programs in USDA.

Tort reform could affect costs for health care both directly and indirectly: directly, by lowering premiums for medical liability insurance; and indirectly, by reducing the use of diagnostic tests and other health care services when providers recommend those services principally to reduce their potential exposure to lawsuits. Because of mixed evidence about whether tort reform affects the utilization of health care services, past analyses by CBO have focused on the impact of tort reform on premiums for malpractice insurance. However, more recent research has provided additional evidence to suggest that lowering the cost of medical malpractice tends to reduce the use of health care services.

CBO now estimates that implementing a typical package of tort reform proposals nationwide would reduce total U.S. health care spending by about 0.5 percent (about $11 billion in 2009). That figure is the sum of a direct reduction in spending of 0.2 percent from lower medical liability premiums and an additional indirect reduction of 0.3 percent from slightly less utilization of health care services. (Those estimates take into account the fact that because many states have already implemented some of the changes in the package, a significant fraction of the potential cost savings has already been realized.)

On treating the uninsured

Linda Halderman MD sees a lot of women in her rural practice--some without insurance are subsidized by the cash payments of the esthetics clients.

"Upon questioning Sherry S., a pretty 46-year-old seeking wrinkle relief, I learned that four of her immediate family members had been diagnosed with breast or colon cancer before the age of 50. Alarmed, I asked why she had not had the recommended screening mammogram for more than four years.


She said that she knew already that her risk for developing breast cancer was likely higher than that of most women.

"But I don't have insurance," she replied.

A screening mammogram could be obtained for about $90 and was discounted or free at local facilities every October for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month."

She smiled when I proposed a deal: if she were to get a screening mammogram within sixty days of her treatment, I would offer a discount on what she paid me for cosmetic services.

"I'll think about it," she said, then shelled out over $400 for BotoxTM injections that took me ten minutes to administer.

Five months later, when she returned for her next wrinkle treatment, she reported that she still had not obtained a mammogram."

Read her observations on those who don't have insurance.

New magazine, Cesar's Way

Today I bought a copy of Cesar’s Way, a first issue journal, for my collection. It promotes the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, a program I’ve watched a few times on cable. Until I glanced through it, I didn’t realize he had such a love affair with pit pulls. They are everywhere in this magazine. The photo that really disturbed me was on p. 19: Halle Berry in Miami Beach playing with a neighbor’s dog--a pit bull. The toddler in the photo appears to be her daughter, but children shouldn’t be encouraged to play with strange dogs. ALL DOGS WILL BITE--they especially will bite children whose actions they don’t understand or which appear threatening to them. If Cesar has pit bulls and trusts them, fine, but this magazine encourages their selection as pets for families, and that's dangerous for your neighborhood.

According to the Examiner.com, only Ohio has a breed specific dog law singling out pit bulls, and it is considering legislation (H.B. 79) that would keep them from being labeled inherently vicious. But in Lucas County (Toledo) where Ohio State Representative Barbara Sears, who is from suburban Toledo, introduced the bill, over 1350 pit bulls were picked up in 2007.

According to DVM360.com, other states are considering breed specific bills. In Montana, House Bill 191 seeks to prohibit the ownership, harboring, or keeping of dogs described as pit bulls. The legislation considers pit bulls to include Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and "any dog that has the physical characteristics of a pit bull.

In Oregon, H.B. 2852, introduced in March, would require pit bull owners to have $1 million in insurance to cover any economic or non-economic damages that result from physical injury or any damage their dog causes to personal or real property. Of course, what insurance company would do that?

Hawaii Senate Bill 79 would prohibit the ownership, possession or sale of pit bulls in the state.

A New Mexico bill introduced in February would have automatically labeled pit bulls and Rottweilers as dangerous. Under current law there, any owner of a dog deemed to be dangerous must be spayed or neutered, microchipped and registered each year.

Many dog shelters are overrun with pit bulls. Nice pit bulls exist, says Sharon Harmon, Oregon Humane Society executive director, but "you can't escape the fact that it's a dog bred to kill."

Let's ruin long term care

We've had a "long term care" policy for over 10 years. It isn't cheap, but even a month in a nursing home costs more than a year's cost for the policy. It's like any insurance--we've never gotten anything out of our auto insurance either--thank goodness--but have been buying it for almost 50 years. But Obama-Biden licking their chops over the money that's in it already? Oh no! Link.

A new roof for my son

You may remember that Hurricane Ike blew through Columbus in September. It took a large part of my son's roof. He had purchased the home from us in July, and although we had a local bank (Arlington Bank), a lawyer, a title company, and assurances from our home owner's insurance company that everything was taken care of with the bank, when he went to make a claim, he had no home owner's insurance--it was still in our name. Needless to say, we were outraged, but the bank eventually settled by giving him enough cash to get it repaired, but not replaced. And he found a new bank (he had been banking there since he was a child) and a new insurance company. Columbus and central Ohio had 60 mph winds last Thursday, and the repaired part of his roof held, but the rest of it went. He called today to say the new insurance company will replace his roof. Although I won't hold my breath. Remember, the government has sent him a letter demanding fifty cents of unpaid back taxes. If you can't find Daschle or Geithner, go after that guy in Columbus who fixes cars for a living.

He told me a funny story today. Someone called his repair shop to report that the battery had died on his remote key control and he couldn't get in his car. "Have you tried the key?" my son asked. It's funnier when he tells it.

Some of us need to move

The U.S. is divided into 3,100 counties. Of the top 30 counties that have received billions in disaster aid, 22 of them are either in Florida (13) or Oklahoma (9). Caddo County, Oklahoma has been declared a disaster area 13 times in the last decade, according to a story in USAToday yesterday. And it isn't just tornadoes, like you might think--that county has had a little of everything. If the rest of us are going to pay, either in taxes or insurance, for rebuilding after the hurricanes, brush fires, and flash flooding, then rich folk shouldn't be building their McMansions on hillsides in California or summer homes with coastal ocean and bay views, or on stilts with decks over river vistas in Ohio. Federal aid is a disincentive for insurance companies to insure, or for home owners to build in safer areas. I don't have a solution, and obviously our Congress doesn't either. They only talk about it when they aren't worrying about athletes on steroids, what Rush Limbaugh said, or alar on apples. But here's a thought.

When I'm 64

We're going to a "When I'm 64" party this week-end (Beatles song) for a married couple who are both turning 64 in the same week. Maybe eventually, insurance companies will be insuring your children under your policy to 64. Jim Raussen-R, Springdale, has launched HB 456 to cut Ohio's uninsured population--insurance companies will need to include "children" up to age 29 on family policies.

When I was 29, I had a master's degree, 2 children, had owned 3 houses and rented several apartments, had owned several cars, and paid my parents back for college loans. My health care was pay as you go. What parent insures a child through age 29, and why stop there? Why not 64? There are families who will always need to protect fragile members, but I think we already pay into social security and medicaid for that. This is one more income transfer from the low income worker to the higher income worker.

With Republicans like Mr. Raussen, who needs Democrats? Ohio faces a budget shortfall of $1.9 billion, and the "starting point" health care legislation he's proposing (it contains lots of other goodies) is estimated at $150-$500 million but who's counting? We know it will be much, much higher.

Here's a great line

Randall Bloomquist of WGST, Atlanta, reviews Graig Havighust's book, "Air Castle of the South," (U. of I. Press) in today's WSJ. It's about the rise and fall of WSM, an AM station in Nashville, which was created by National Life and Accident Insurance Company in 1925 to sell insurance to rural folk and ended up creating and spreading country music and the Nashville sound. I'll probably never read the book, but I loved this line:

"As history it is engaging but less than definitive. . . demanding that WSM [now owned by Gaylord Entertainment] live or die by the media economy's new rules feels a bit like asking your grandmother to work at Burger King to make ends meet."

3687

Let me spell it out for you

When the year end annual reports drop through the slot I'm always a bit surprised to find out what we own. I love those AFLAC commercials but didn't really know what it is, so was surprised to learn I own it (well, me and a lot of others). Now known by its acronym (and the duck), it used to be American Family Life Assurance Company. It's an insurance company to help workers meet their bills in times of crisis started by the Amos brothers, and I see there is an Amos who is Chairman and CEO.


Anyway, the report explains that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor to encourage companies to provide prospective information, but it has to have meaningful cautionary statements so that investors don't misunderstand that these are projections. So, the report lists the words to watch for in "forward looking statements." I think you'll find this helpful, in case you need to write something forward looking with no guarantees.

• expect
  
• anticipate
  
• believe
  
• goal
  
• objective
  
• may
  
• should
  
• estimate
  
• intends
  
• projects
  
• will
  
• assumes
  
• potential
  
• target

And then there is a long list of events to watch for which could screw up your forward looking words making results different than hoped for. I won't repeat all of them, but they include. . .

• legislative and regulatory developments
  
• changes in U.S. and/or Japanese tax laws or accounting requirements
  
• catastrophic events
  
• general economic conditions in the U.S. and Japan

There. CYA. Done.