Premiums continue to rise.
Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums continued to grow at double-digit rates in 2004, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual employer health benefits survey. Premiums increased an average of 11%, less than last year's increase of nearly 14%. What has not changed much is the contribution paid by workers. About...

Insurance companies warn global warming will cost $70 billion annually. (Environmental Intelligence).
Natural disasters in 2002 may cost more than $70 billion, according to Germany-based Munich Re, one of the world's largest insurance companies. Company experts attending UN talks on climate change in New Delhi, India, in October 2002, attributed the vast majority of the damages to climate change. As of...

Premiums continue to rise.
Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums continued to grow at double-digit rates in 2004, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual employer health benefits survey. Premiums rose an average of 11%, less than last year's increase of nearly 14%. About 80% of workers with single coverage and 90% of workers with...

NEW OFFSHORE PLATFORM MODEL INTRODUCED AT LONDON SEMINAR.
Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, has hosted a seminar in London introducing the new RMS U.S. Offshore Platform model. Over 90 members of the insurance, reinsurance, and weather brokering industry attended at the London Underwriting Centre. The new...

Is the insurance cycle responsible for rising malpractice premiums? (Pro & Con).
YES Medical malpractice claims have held steady yet insurance premiums have skyrocketed. This pattern can be attributed to the cyclical nature of the commercial insurance business. We are in the midst of a classic "hard" insurance cycle. The first such crisis, which was particularly acute in the...

Chronic disease medication use in managed care and indemnity insurance plans.
There is substantial concern that incentives embedded in managed care (MC) will result in compromised quality of care (Druss et al. 2000). By shifting financial risk to the providers of care, the fear is that services may be withheld or delayed for economic reasons. The use of medications in...

Grocery workers in striking range.
Byline: Register-Guard and News Service Reports A labor union representing Southern California supermarket workers urged members to vote for a strike against Kroger Co., Albertson's Inc. and Safeway Inc. after contract talks broke down late Sunday night. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union asked...

Life insurance premium income seen growing 16.7%.
Byline: LEE C. CHIPONGIAN The Insurance Commission expects life insurers total premium income this year to grow by 16.7 percent to P40.441 billion from its 2002 estimate premium production of P34.652 billion. The commission have yet to release last years industry figures, however documents obtained...

Standard Insurance ups net operating profit to P144 M.
Standard Insurance, an affiliate of Security Bank and the leading motor car insurance in the country, has shown a remarkable improvement in its operations when its operating profit after tax increased to P144 million in year 2001 against P5.7 million the previous year. The high operating profit was the...

Health spending skyrockets. (Policy & Practice).
Health care spending shot up to $1.3 trillion in 2000, the fastest growth in more than a decade, according to a report from the National Health Statistics Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Health Affairs 21[1]:172-81, 2002). Hospitals drove the growth in spending, mainly because hospital...