Insurelane Insurance Blog

A woman, Latisha Francis, in Murfreesboro, Arkansas was in shock when she arrived home to find a cow looking at her from her front door. Three cows had waltzed into her home one day after being spooked by her dogs. The cows left the house in shambles by ruining furniture, leaving manure and making a mess throughout the entire household.

According to the Dallas News, the county sheriff and two high school teachers had to help remove the cows from the house. The cow who was already peaking out of the front door left with little hesitation. But another of the cows had to be pulled out of the house on a rug from the master bedroom and the final bovine needed to be led out of the living room.

Unfortunately for Latisha Francis, the homeowners insurance policy she has does not cover intruding cows. The damage caused by the cows will have to be covered out-of-pocket.

Intruding cows is a highly unlikely and unforeseen event. However, it may be more affordable for Latisha to pay for the ruined furniture and clean the mess herself. Her homeowners insurance premiums could have been raised if her insurance policy would have covered the claim, which would result in higher insurance costs every month.

Many homeowners can keep low premiums by avoiding small claims and making adjustments to households on their own.

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Matilda Gabin, a woman in Massachusetts wanted a new car. Instead of simply saving money and purchasing one at the dealership she decided she would commit fraud. Last October Matilda tried to involve her husband in the scheme and asked him to get rid of the car so she could file a stolen car report. After he refused and then separated from her, Matilda found someone else to complete the task.

According to The Eagle-Tribune, Matilda’s husband became afraid that he could get in trouble for fraud and the fake insurance claim so he called the insurance company and then the police.

After investigating the fraud auto insurance claim, the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts found out that Matilda had committed other mischievous plots for acquiring money.

Matilda had also been committing identity theft and forgery. She was working under her sister’s name so she could collect unemployment in her name. She also didn’t pay insurance premiums for three years by using fake addresses and a post office box.

Cases like these are why committees to fight insurance fraud exist and should possibly be expanded. The Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts started investigating insurance claims in 2003 and have filed 420 cases since then.

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Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular days for engagements and as couples start making wedding plans they should seriously consider wedding insurance. Weddings can get rather expensive and it is important to cover an event that could have so many unexpected circumstances.

Travelers Companies, Inc. say that 62 percent of their wedding insurance claims in 2009 were because of vendor and venue problems. Usually the problem was a result of a vendor going out of business; flowers went undelivered, caterers and DJs didn’t show up to receptions much to the dismay of many couples.

Last year the number of businesses that went bankrupt more than doubled. And as the economy continues to remain in the current state, anyone hiring a vendor should consider getting insurance to protect that special day.

Wedding insurance will cover lost deposits, cancellations due to weather, lost or damaged photographs, wedding attire, travel delays, broken gifts and host liability concerns. This will protect any couple’s investment in a business or vendor while covering uncontrollable events. Wedding insurance helps protect couples finances, not increase them.

So this Valentine’s Day don’t just get the ring, also purchase the insurance coverage.

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Car insurers always expect an increase in the number of claims filed the week following the Super Bowl. The increase can be attributed to alcohol consumption and more notably, pizza.

Pizzerias will see as much as a 50 percent increase in total sales resulting in an increased need for pizza delivery. With the greater amount of pizza being delivered, there is a greater chance of accidents.

According to Business Week, pizza delivery is the ninth-most dangerous work sector. In 2008 there were 22.8 fatalities out of every 100,000 full-time workers which is excluding part-time delivery workers.

Many auto insurers will not insure pizza delivery drivers under personal auto insurance policies. Pizzerias can purchase a commercial policy to cover the drivers with some auto insurers but very few will cover the occupation.

Pizza deliverers not only have to make fast deliveries but also face a couple other elements, weather and booze. When the weather is bad, people are more likely to call for delivery. Also many people attend Super Bowl parties and do not watch what they drink. About 50 percent of fatalities on Super Bowl Sunday in 2008 involved alcohol which sends a chilling warning to any pizza deliverer to be watchful.

Super Bowl Sunday is a joyous occasion for any football fan but many need to be careful and reminded to make sure they have enough insurance coverage in case of an accident.

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After the recent devastation in Haiti, many are wondering if Americans have the insurance protection they need in case of an earthquake.

Although some believe that an earthquake is the last natural disaster to cause catastrophe in their area, earthquakes can occur anywhere there are folding faults. According to the College of Charleston, South Carolina was hit by an earthquake that ranged from 6.9 to 7.3 on the Richter scale in 1986, which is as large as the earthquake that just hit Haiti last week. Proving that earthquakes can happen all over the United States and not just in California.

California is one state where earthquakes are viewed as a regular occurrence and causes little apprehension to most residents. Yet only 12 percent of Californians have earthquake insurance in addition to their homeowners policy. Earthquake insurance acts like flood insurance and is not covered by a homeowners policy but can be purchased in addition.

Residents can obtain quake insurance through the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) which is a state-sponsored program that sells the insurance through commercial insurance companies. The San Francisco Gate says that the CEA handles 70 percent of quake insurance policies and that the CEA publicly admits that even with the additional insurance, homeowners could experience “substantial uninsured loss” from an earthquake.

Why are Californians not purchasing or dropping their quake polices?

Residents with a current policy from the CEA pay an average premium of $707. This is quite expensive for the poor economic times and when people think there is little return in the investment. Even with the policy, people may not be qualified for returns if damage does not exceed 15 percent on the home’s value.

Compared to Hurricane Katrina, which paid around 53 percent of losses to residents and businesses; after a major earthquake in California, residents would only receive 6 to 10 percent of losses and businesses would see 15 to 20 percent. Making it hard for Californians to justify the expensive premiums and little return.

The CEA has realized the problems with its policies and is currently trying to pass legislation to decrease premiums and make the earthquake insurance more accessible and affordable.

The measures that are being taken by the CEA are critical to spreading coverage across the state. In many cases, people in neighborhoods without the insurance, cannot afford to repair the damage often leaving their homes in shambles. The vacancy of homes in a neighborhood increases other homeowner’s premiums in addition to making the neighborhood less attractive to potential buyers complicating many matters in purchasing a home in California.

Earthquake insurance coverage needs to be extended to more California property owners. No homeowner is exempt from possible disaster and should have considerable homeowner insurance policies to cover unforeseen events.

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Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was rocked by the biggest earthquake it has seen in 200 years this past week. The amount of property damage has yet to be accessed but it is estimated to cost hundreds of millions. The number of deaths is reported to range in the tens of thousands.

With 80 percent of the population under the poverty level, insurance is rarely purchased by Haitian citizens. Haitians spend $20 million on all types of insurance and $10 million comes from auto insurance premiums. That means the vast majority of a country with almost 10 million people have no insurance of any kind.

Haiti will receive funds from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility which could pay the Haitian government up to $8 million according to an article, “Caribbean Insurance Pool to Pay Haiti Quake Claim” by BusinessInsurance.com, but it will almost definitely not be enough for this natural disaster. The Haitian government purchased the disaster insurance plan in 2007 for just $385,500 and shares it with other Caribbean countries.

Among the tens of thousands to have died or were injured, very few likely had any health, home, or life insurance. In addition, damage to the water and electrical systems were catastrophic and the total damage will take years to repair.

It will be extremely hard for Haiti to rebuild itself considering the amount of devastation and the lack of insurance coverage. It’s truly an epic tragedy that will strike more than once for far too many.

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Labor unions have been strong supporters of the Democratic Party in the past, but that could change in the upcoming elections due to one provision in the current health reform bills.

Labor unions are appalled at the thought of a “Cadillac Tax” on high-value health insurance policies which will likely hit many labor-sponsored individual health insurance plans. This tax would also hurt union members who have negotiated lower wages for better health insurance polices through their employer-based coverage.

Union leaders met with President Obama on Monday to discuss making changes to the current legislation to lower the number of union members who would be included in this new tax. According to the labor unions, if the Senate bill is passed as it is, it will affect 1 in 4 members.

The tax in question would levy a 40 percent charge on health plans costing more than $8,500 per year for individuals and $23,000 for families. Alternatively, the House proposed a plan on taxing individuals who make over $500,000 a year and $1 million for couples.

Unions predict that the Senate tax will hit the middle and working-class families the hardest and therefore prefer the House tax plan.

As a way to put pressure on Democrats and President Obama, union leaders have vowed to vote in the upcoming elections, which would take way votes and funding for Democratic candidates.

In addition to labor union opposition, federal and postal employees recently sent a letter to congressional leaders expressing their discontent with the Senate-tax plan. The letter, signed by nine million members, writes in concern that the tax will hit Federal Employees Health Benefits Program enrollees and make federal and postal employment less attractive.

The accumulating coalition against the Senate tax plan will make it difficult to pass and makes the House tax plan look more attractive among Democrats.

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A recent Auto Insurance Report shows that New Jersey auto insurance companies have been losing money since 2003. Auto insurance companies across the country have been stuck in aggressive price wars over the past few years which has led to rates that are too low to sustain a solvent business. This report suggests that New Jersey drivers may soon see higher auto insurance rates.

The auto insurance industry is going to make price changes across the country to balance their profits, and will likely increase the amount of money drivers spend on insurance. Many experts blame the poor economy for the low profit margins, and have seen drivers purchasing cheaper policies and investing less to save money.

Also the reports say that increases in health care spending have increased costs for auto insurance companies and were causing these companies to spend more on health care then they have in the past. However, the New Jersey Supreme Court just passed an insurer’s bid to pay lower medical bills for personal injury costs, which will help keep insurers prices from increasing too high.

Another reason coverage is so expensive in New Jersey, insurance experts say, is because people purchase more expensive cars and have more financial assets than in other states.

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After Senator Joe Lieberman stirred the Democratic Party this week, vowing not to vote for the bill if the Medicare buy-in plan was included, the Democrats have decided to drop the public option plan. Many Liberals are upset over the absence of a public option, but many lawmakers think Liberals will still vote for the plan to continue the momentum of the bill.

Obama has continued to urge the momentum by scheduling meetings with Democrats and making public statements. He warns Americans to not believe what the press and paid advertisements are saying about the health care bill and that if the Senate knew what they were voting on, they would vote for it. This explains why many Senators have expressed frustration not knowing all of the details inside the bill. Obama even expressed that without the bill, America will go bankrupt.

Many of the key issues that have risen throughout the health care debate are not receiving enough votes to pass. The drug amendment that would have allowed imported prescription drugs from Canada and Western Europe causing prices of prescription drugs to decrease was not passed. In the past, this amendment controversially received support from Democrats and Obama; however, the Obama administration struck a deal with the pharmaceutical industry to support the health care reform and changed lawmakers’ votes.

Many lawmakers and Obama are still optimistic that the bill will be passed by Christmas and will force the Senate to vote on remaining issues of the bill within the next few days.

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The Medicare buy-in plan announced last week is the new alternative public option plan that is currently arousing more debate among Democrats as well as losing Democrat votes. This new plan comes from a compromise that surfaced last week from Senate Democrats changing their federal health insurance plan that would compete with private insurance companies.

The Medicare buy-in plan would allow people between the age of 55 to 64, purchase health insurance from private nonprofit plans. This age group is often left without insurance when they are dropped from their employers plans. However, these plans have would create large premiums and also pay health care providers less for their services, causing louder outcries from the health care provider industry.

Many liberals are in support of the plan but that negates the support of Democrats who will not vote on this plan along with Republicans. Right now Senate lawmakers are awaiting the estimated costs of the new plan from the Congressional Budget Office and these costs will sway many lawmakers on the fence.

This compromise does little to ease opposition to the federal health insurance plan, and has increased fear of the single-payer plan among the debating Senators.

Now, it looks like the idea might be abandoned altogether.

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On the agenda for the Senate health care debate today is the highly controversial “public plan.” In the original Senate bill, the public plan offered is government ran and would compete against private insurers. According to the bill, this would drive down costs of health care. There has been much opposition to the government-run public health insurance plan in the Senate and among many Democrats. It has been one of the hot issues that Senator Reid has had to consider changing to get his 60 votes to pass the bill.

Senator Reid wants a decision soon and has considered a compromise to gain the votes. Under this compromise, the public plan would be run by private insurers and not the government. Big insurance companies would be sell the plan that would be monitored closely by the government. The Office of Personnel Management, which currently handles federal employees health insurance plans, would monitor the private insurance companies and making sure the private insurance companies were not making a profit off of the public plan.

Many Senators are not wild over the new plan, but see it as a huge improvement and may consider voting for it.

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As the Senate continues to debate the health care bill, new amendments are reaching the floor to improve the legislation. The Senate just recently opposed an amendment proposed by Senator John McCain while approving an amendment from Senator Barbara Mikulski.

Senator McCain’s amendment opposed financial cutbacks to the current Medicare system and would have eliminated the primary source of funding of the current Senate bill. Currently the Senate bill is proposing to cut the Medicare’s funding by $500 billion, but guarantees that the cuts will not affect benefits for seniors. If Senator McCain’s amendment had been passed, the health care debate would have been stalled for weeks, making the Financial Committee go back to the drawing board.

Senator Mikulski’s amendment was approved, which will require health policies to cover additional preventive health care services for women. This amendment includes mammograms and seems to be a reaction to the recent national outcry over a federal advisory council recommending that mammograms are not necessary until the age of 50.

More amendments will continue to be presented as the health care debate unfolds, hoping to alter votes one way or the other.

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The Senate is voting on the motion to proceed for Senator Reid’s health care bill this Saturday. Reid’s plan is estimated to cost under $900 billion and is over 2,000 pages long.

Many worry that Reid will not have 60 votes needed to bring the bill to the floor. There are still a few Democrats that have not made up their mind or are against the bill entirely. Yet, some speculate that the Democrats will at least pass the bill to open discussion and draft a new bill. If Reid does not get his 60 votes, then health care reform will be delayed even longer.

There are still many issues with the bill that have been present for months. Anti-abortion lawmakers do not think the language in the bill is clear enough and needs to be more explicit. Other Senators are worried about immigrants’ coverage in the bill. Many Senators have commented on Reid’s efforts to gain their votes, but still see problems with many of these controversial issues since the very beginning of the health care debate.

As it stands now, Senator Reid will have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to get his 60 votes.

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The CBO announced its estimate for Senator Reid’s health care plan at $849 billion and that the plan would cut the federal budget deficit by $127 billion in 10 years. Both of these numbers meet President Obama’s standards of having a health care plan that costs $900 billion and that the plan also won’t add to the federal deficit.

Senator Reid hopes to have the Senate vote on the bill by Saturday and said, “Tonight begins the last leg of this journey.” Yet it is not so obvious that the process of health care reform is even close to being on the last leg of the journey.

In the Senate, many Republicans are completely against Reid’s plan and even the Democrats themselves are split over many issues. Senators are still strongly divided on whether they should include a government-run public health insurance option, how to pay for the reform, taxation, and other controversial issues like abortion. Also, if debate over the bill goes into next year, the Congressional elections may play a big part in how lawmakers vote, which is why Senator Reid and President Obama are trying to deliver a plan as soon as possible.

However, if the Senate votes in favor of the bill, the Senate will then rewrite the bill. The CBO will have to give another estimate to the cost of the reform. Then the Senate and the House will work out a compromise and combine their versions of the bill. Once that is all done, President Obama can sign the bill into law.

Really, only when the Senate and the House start combining their bills should it be considered the “last leg of the journey.” But we still have a long way to go.

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New reports have emerged showing that the House health care bill may not provide what politicians are promising. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a report this past Friday saying that the approved House bill would raise the costs of health care by $289 billion over the next ten years.

Its findings show that the House health care bill would not curb the growth of health care spending but actually increase it.

Many lawmakers are relieved this report was released before the House voted on the bill, believing it would deter some politicians from voting for the bill. They point out the report is evidence that one of the major goals of the health care reform will not be reached by the House’s bill.

The CMS also foresees problems with the $500 billion cut from future Medicare spending that’s a part of the House bill. This cut would greatly reduce benefits and could doom the health care program for senior citizens altogether, warns the CMS. The bill could make health care services for senior citizens so costly for hospitals and nursing homes that providers may stop taking Medicare patients at all.

The CMS also believes the provisions of the bill will put added strain on already understaffed health care providers. Passage of the bill could increase the demands for services, force providers to charge more, or take patients with better-paying private insurance over insurance provided by the government.

According to the CMS, the House bill falls way short on the government’s promises of bringing health care reform in many ways.

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