Cost-sharing for emergency care and unfavorable clinical events: findings from the safety and financial ramifications of ED copayments study.
Patients in the United States are paying more for their health care, in part through additional or higher copayments. This increased cost-sharing could improve efficiency if patients reduce unnecessary use of resources, but also could result in worse health if patients avoid necessary care (Phelps 1992; Rubin and Mendelson...

Prognosis for the uninsured: state lawmakers are still trying to do something about the millions of Americas without health care coverage, but the solution remains elusive.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This is the second in a series on the health care policy issues faced by state lawmakers. Next month the magazine looks at telemedicine. The number of Americans without health insurance is staggering: nearly 46 million when the Census Bureau last counted in...

Insurance premiums continue rise.
Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums rose 7.7% in 2006, outpacing wages and inflation, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The annual survey of employer health benefits found that family health coverage costs an average of $11,480 annually, with workers contributing...

Generali Pilipinas sees strong insurance growth.
Generali Pilipinas Insurance Company, Inc. sees significant growth in the multi-billion peso insurance industry this year as it inched its way to the No. 9 slot among the ranking of Life Insurance Companies, according to Premium Income, in the country as of December 31, 2005, a significant improvement from...

P/$ rate closes at P50.735 to $ 1.
The peso rate closed higher at P50.735 to the US dollar yesterday at the Philippine Dealing System of the Bankers Association of the Philippines from P50.795 the previous day. The weighted average rate appreciated to P50.755 from P50.81. Total volume amounted to $479.5 million. Aug. coco oil...

Outsmarting the cycle.
The first halt" of 2005 will go down in the record books as the most profitable six months ever in the industry. Who would have thank it! Insurance execs did what they pledged to do three years ago, in the wake of the disastrous soft market of the 1990s....

Swiss Re Reviews Catastrophe Losses.
Catastrophes claimed 17,000 lives and cost the global insurance industry $11 billion in 2000, down more than half from 1999, according to preliminary Swiss Re estimates. In 1999, 105,000 lives were lost; insurance industry losses totaled $31 billion. Of the $11 billion paid out by insurance companies...

Study: P/C Business Is Still Overcapitalized.
The property/casualty insurance industry as a whole is overcapitalized by 20 percent to 30 percent. This is the finding of a new study by New York based ERisk, a provider of enterprise risk management solutions, and Newark, Calif.-based Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a provider of solutions to manage natural...

INSURANCE ONLINE.
The annual alternative market symposium known as the Producer's Forum had very nearly become a fixture at its Philadelphia hotel venue, but this month the event moves full-throttle into the digital age. On May 30 and 31, this year's forum becomes the Producer's Forum Online (www.producrsforum.com), a fully Web-based...

Peso closes at P55.85.
The peso closed all time low at P55.85 to the US dollar yesterday at the Philippine Dealing System of the Bankers Association of the Philippines from P55.75 last Friday. The weighted average rate depreciated to P55.803 from P55.729. Total volume amounted to $91.5 million. LU power firm...