Florida Auto Insurance

The personal injury protection clause in Florida automobile insurance is abused. Still, it's worth keeping, but reform is needed.

PIP, as the provision in policies is commonly known, provides up to $10,000 to cover medical costs, lost wages and death benefits for individuals injured in automotive accidents.

Auto insurance companies say letting PIP expire would allow them to sharply reduce premiums in Florida. However, PIP's demise would shift the burden of dealing with auto accident injuries onto hospital emergency rooms. And it's possible that health insurance companies, knowing they might end up having to cover injuries from car accidents, could start raising rates as well.

Tallahassee has talked a good game in terms of PIP reforms in the past, only to approve meek changes. The Legislature has to save PIP this year, but it must rescue it in a way that makes PIP worth saving.

Bush Not Giving Up on Health Insurance Tax Breaks

President George W. Bush is not giving up on offering tax breaks for those who buy health insurance.

Bush focused on health insurance after a recent government report projected that health care spending would double by the year 2016.

The president said that current policy discriminates against those who buy individual health insurance. They don't get the same tax advantages as those who buy health insurance through their employers.

Recently, a group of 10 senators -- five Republicans and five Democrats -- wrote the president and told him they agreed that current tax rules for health insurance disproportionately favor the rich while promoting inefficiency.

The president said he also wants to support governors who come up with innovative ways to help their residents get affordable health insurance coverage.

Under his proposal, states that put in place a basic health plan for all of their residents would get access to what he calls "affordable choice grants." The grant money would come from programs that now reimburse providers when they care for the indigent.

California Auto Insurance Suit

A California judge threw out a lawsuit that challenged rules requiring California auto insurance companies to base their rates primarily on drivers' records instead of where they live.

Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster granted a summary judgment, ruling that regulations were consistent with a rate-regulation initiative adopted by California voters in 1988.

Three insurance groups - the American Insurance Association, the Association of California Insurance Companies and the Personal Insurance Federation of California - sued, contending that a driver's residence is essential in determining risks and auto insurance costs.

Ken Gibson, a vice president of the American Insurance Association, predicted the new regulations would result in higher rates for some California residents

But consumer groups argued that the old rules could have penalized good drivers.

Health Insurance Agency Proposal

A new Washington state agency would control the individual health insurance market as well as small group health businesses under a measure proposed by a key Democratic lawmaker in the Washington state Legislature.

Eighteen House Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors, but the proposal has drawn stiff criticism from business interests and ranking Republicans.

Compare Washington Health Plans side-by-side and enroll online.

Auto Insurance Rates down in Ohio and Michigan

Automobile insurance rates should decrease and homeowners' insurance rates should level off this year in Ohio and Michigan, according to industry experts.

Analysts have examined some rate changes this year but have not compiled firm figures. Premiums dropped for auto insurance coverage and remained flat for homeowners in Ohio, with some carriers dropping their policies for dwellings. Experts cited competition, safer cars, fewer weather disasters, and crackdowns on fraud.

Several Toledo-area insurance agents said insurance rate trends are mirrored locally, but credit scores and other variables make it difficult to know for sure.

The 10 largest auto insurance carriers, by state market share, had rate decreases last year averaging 1.2 percent. At least one cut its rates by 13.3 percent. The statewide rates for carriers dropped 1.6 percent the year before, after years of increases.

The top 10 carriers of homeowner insurance in the state also had decreases, averaging 0.8 percent in 2006, for the first time in years. One cut rates by 4 percent.

Ohio auto insurance rates are 14th lowest among the states in 2004 (the latest data available), with annual premiums averaging $680. Nationally, the average is $838 nationally.

The state's homeowners had the seventh best rates in the country, averaging $523 a year, compared to $729 nationally.

Health Savings Accounts save money

If you were to spend every penny on health insurance out of your pocket, two things would happen. First, you'd be more interested in your medical treatment, questioning the cost and necessity for every procedure. And, second, you'd take better care of yourself, knowing that being overweight, or smoking, or not exercising is bound to be very costly to your own financial future, as additional health care is going to hit you in the pocketbook.

Health Savings Accounts let people keep the money they don't spend on medical care -- in an account that grows tax-deferred every year to pay for future medical expenses. And the money they do spend for medical expenses is paid out on a pre-tax basis.

The account is combined with a high-deductible health plan that costs less than traditional health insurance policies, but covers major medical expenses. Employers may use some of that savings to contribute to workers' HSAs.

In 2007, individuals can set aside a tax-deductible contribution to the HSA of up to $2,850, or $5,650 for a family.

Florida Auto Insurance

Four Florida Auto Insurance Companies have now stopped accepting new car insurance customers in Florida because of changes in state law and an emergency freeze on rate hikes and policy cancellations.

Auto-Owners Insurance Company will accept no new business in Florida, including not just home policies but personal auto insurance coverage as well.

State records show that the Michigan based insurance carrier already was cutting back its Florida business.

Minimum Health Insurance Requirements

The board charged with getting Health insurance Companies to come up with affordable health care plans will consider a proposal that would allow health insurers to offer health plans that don’t include prescription drug coverage.
The goal is to encourage health plans that offer solid health coverage and also affordable by anyone earning at least three times the poverty rate.

A key sticking point has been whether those healthcare plans should require drug coverage.
Health Insurers say drug coverage would drive up monthly premiumsand make the goals unattainable. Health care advocates say drug coverage should be a key part of any health insurance plan.

Another Health Insurance Plan

John Edwards has asserted that if elected president of the United States he would make health insurance available to all Americans and would support a tax increase on the wealthy to help pay for the expanded health coverage.

Edwards said he will present a health plan today that would extend health insurance to the 47 million uninsured Americans, would contain health insurance costs for the middle class, and encourage more competition among health insurance carriers.

Previewing his universal health care plan, Edwards said he would expand Medicaid -- -- and a federal health insurance plan for children, to make both more widely available.

To help play for the plan, Edward would "get rid of George Bush's tax cuts for people who make more than $200,000/year."

Universal Health Insurance

Private health insurance costs are out of control, New Jersey has joined a growing number of states - including Pennsylvania - that are hammering out plans for universal health insurance.

Gov. Jon Corzine and legislative leaders say that once they finish their property-tax overhaul, the issue will take center stage in Trenton. But as with tax reform, insuring the uninsured is a concept that is widely praised - and difficult to execute.

In preliminary proposals, all New Jersey residents would be required to have health insurance coverage - and could enroll in plans subsidized by the state.

The more than $1 billion price tag alone could be a deal breaker. But the costs of not overhauling the state's health-care system are much greater.

Separate legislation would be aimed at insuring around 600,000 residents who cannot afford private health insurance coverage but make too much to qualify for FamilyCare or Medicaid.