America’s healthcare debate: the fight of your life

In the past five months, President Obama and the Democrats have moved with startling speed and expanded the power of an already out-of-control federal government to heights only dreamed of by the likes of Franklin Roosevelt. Now they are coming after the Holy Grail for socialists – your healthcare. With this power, they will not only secure their absolute control over a massive sector of the economy, but will literally have the power of life and death over millions of Americans.

In order to convince Americans to surrender their liberty on such a massive scale, the collectivists are using the same tactics they have for decades. The method is to create or exploit a “crisis”, which will in turn justify the suspension of constitutional limitations on government. Since last fall, they have used an economic recession – an event which has occurred on average every 5- 1/2 years since 1945 - to manufacture a horrifying crisis requiring the unconstitutional nationalization of banks and automobile manufacturing companies, and an unprecedented increase in government spending.

Now they will stoke the fires of the bogus “healthcare crisis” to justify nationalizing the industry and take away your right to privately contract for your own health care needs. The issue of the high cost of health care has been referred to by socialists as a crisis since the Clinton administration tried to implement socialized medicine under the Hillary Care plan in 1993. What kind of “crisis” lasts for sixteen years?

The collectivists and world-savers told us during the election that there are 45 million Americans without health insurance, although that number seems to have jumped to more than 50 million now that the push is on for a government takeover. What they won’t tell you is that 43% of these uninsured “Americans” are not Americans at all – they are aliens of both legal and illegal status. People who simply do not work make up 26%, and people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, who generally do not see the need to pay for health insurance, constitute 29%. Nearly 8% are people in higher income ranges, many of whom may simply choose to pay out of pocket for their medical needs. While some of these groups overlap, it is clear that the actual number of uninsured Americans is less than half what we are told by our rulers in Washington.

They also won’t tell you that government is the reason healthcare costs so much. The government already lays out more than half of all the health care dollars spent in the United States. This money is doled out by an army of bureaucrats who have no incentive to identify fraud and who also have to be paid salaries and benefits at taxpayer expense. This government control of half the health care market results in a gross distortion of the marketplace and causes prices to rise.

Health insurance, on the other hand is not insurance in the traditional sense at all. “Insurance” traditionally means paying a relatively small amount of money to someone, who in turn promises to pay you a very large sum of money if an unlikely event were to happen. For example, you pay an insurer $500 a year for homeowner’s insurance, but in the unlikely event that your house burns down, he will pay you $250,000 to replace it. Traditional health insurance would work the same way, paying relatively small premiums to pay for an unlikely catastrophic illness. Instead we have developed, as a result of government meddling, a system of paying large premiums to an insurer who in turn pays for nearly all of our healthcare costs. Each of these payments has to wind their way through either a private bureaucracy or an incompetent government agency, greatly adding to the cost. Doctors who accept insurance have to hire a staff just to deal with the paperwork – so you have to pay him and his employees.

Life insurance can protect family's future

Fathers in the UK should take out life insurance to provide their families with protection if they suffer a critical illness or pass away, a financial services provider has advised.



Research by Legal & General (L&G) showed that just 63% of fathers have life insurance, 33% possess critical illness cover and 27% have income protection.

Alan Ferguson, protection marketing and channel development director at L&G, said: "Protection insurance can help provide peace of mind that a family could maintain its living standards if dad was critically ill or passed away.

"Given the economic backdrop, now could be a good time to consider how to protect your family against financial hardship."

The study showed that the value of a father to a household has increased since the company last undertook similar research in 2005.

Men now spend 53 hours a week on household chores and childcare compared with 34 hours four years ago, while the value of a dad to a family has increased from £12,738 to £23,000 a year.

Previous research from L&G showed that the value of a mother to a household has increased from £24,440 to £32,000 a year during the same period.

Korea Life Insurance aids disabled, elderly, kids

Korea Life Insurance’s social contributions are mainly funneled through the Sarangmoa Volunteer Group, which involves 25,000 executives and financial planners.

The organization connects more than 140 volunteer groups from across the country and seeks to form close relationships with organizations for the disabled and the elderly as well as with orphanages. The individual volunteer groups involved with the organization also help children through cultural events.

Local disaster support is another key area for Korea Life Insurance.



The company helps prepare guidelines for local volunteer groups to deliver emergency relief products after natural disasters such as the big fire in Yangyang, the flood in Yeongwol and heavy snow in the Gangwon region.

Korea Life Insurance’s executives are actively involved in philanthropy as well. Each executive participates in at least 20 hours of volunteer work each year, which is equal to at least 1 percent of their annual working hours. They also donate a portion of their salaries to good causes. Additionally, the company matches employee donations.

Korea Life Insurance even has a volunteer activity program for new employees, and it hosts a huge festival every October that allows volunteers to form bonds and exchange ideas and information.

In January of 2006, Korea Life Insurance established the Happy Friends Volunteer Group to help teenagers lead healthy lives, both physically and mentally. More than 400 students from 33 middle schools and high schools in 10 regions have participated in volunteer activities through the program.

The company actively promotes volunteer activities not only in Korea but also in countries across the world. Selected volunteer teams are given the chance to volunteer their time and efforts in places like Kenya, Cambodia, El Salvador, among other countries.

Reforming health care (Part V): Adjust insurance involvement

During the recent presidential campaign, one voice had a particularly ironic ring to it: John McCain, the GOP’s Chosen One, claimed "market forces" would solve the problem, ignoring the fact that "market forces" caused the mess in the first place. This man who’s received government-administered care all his life warned of the terrible consequences of allowing bureaucrats to control health care. With no worries about his own access to health care, McCain wants insurance company execs to continue denying care to people who need it while receiving fat bonuses for performing that odious task.

Market forces, indeed!

In the long run, the goal must be universal single-payer coverage. But as much as we want to kick those evil insurance companies out of the health-care picture, it won’t happen overnight. In the first place, it’s just not wise to tell an entire industry to simply fold up its tents and go away quietly. Such a move would create so much chaos that even the recent banking/auto scare would seem like an economic boom in comparison.

Instead, Congress should pass reforms that squeeze so much profit out of insurance involvement that companies voluntarily drop out of that part of the business. That would give them time to adjust their business models and move personnel to other departments, minimizing any resulting layoffs. Insurance businesses have a lot of irons in many different fires (pun definitely intended). They’ll find other ways to use the resources they now focus on the medical industry.

At the same time, Congress must establish a comprehensive government plan that is cheaper than private insurance. Such a policy would be so seductive that people will abandon insurance companies, hastening their decision to bail. You see, millions of people still believe private insurance is superior to government-administered care. That misconception is based on the fact that Medicare has so many holes that force beneficiaries to buy supplemental insurance to cover the gaps that were manufactured by meddling insurance lobbyists in the first place. Talk about a vicious circle!

It’ll take time to lure all those people away from tradition. But when that finally happens, for-profit medical insurance will be history--at last!

Besides the army of lobbyists and lawyers whose sole purpose is to prevent solutions to the health-care crisis, a series of anti-reform commercials is scaring people by citing rare problems from the U.K. But for every single occurrence elsewhere, there are thousands of cases of neglect resulting from bad policies on the part of U.S. insurance companies:

Insurance companies deny coverage of diagnostic tests, often leading to avoidable patient deaths.
Insurance companies deny coverage of medication and treatments, forcing patients to "just live with the pain."
Insurance companies deny effective treatments, calling them "experimental," often leading to avoidable deaths from treatable conditions.
Insurance companies require preapproval in emergency situations, hindering timely care and sometimes leading to avoidable deaths.
Then there are new-employee waiting periods and that infamous pre-existing condition clause. You know: when insurance companies deny medical care to people because they need medical care.
These and other policies are the reason Congress must set strong guidelines for insurance reform, including:

Abolish all waiting periods for coverage and restrictions on pre-existing conditions.
Patients can choose their own doctors and receive care at any accredited medical institution.
Insurance must pay for all preventive care, including regular physicals, vaccines, and diagnostic tests.
Insurance must pay for all necessary medical care, including pain medication and treatments.
All prescription medications must be covered, with no formularies allowed. Only equivalent generic brands can be substituted for a brand-name drug.
Insurance must fully cover so-called "mental" or "psychological" care, with no temporal or monetary limitations attached.
When a person becomes temporarily unemployed, their health insurance premiums would be paid by a government subsidy until they return to work.
If Congress can establish a truly effective government insurance program, in spite of all those lobbyists, then it won’t be too long before every American will be standing in line to get that superior single-payer coverage from Uncle Sam. It not only can happen, it must happen!

Rising life expectancy to help lower insurance premium

Life insurance premium rates are likely to drop over the next few months owing to longer life expectancy, with a new mortality and morbidity table expected to be in place by the fourth quarter of 2009 to replace the current one, which is of 1994-96 vintage.

The new rates will include the claim experience of individual companies and will be based on 2006-08 data.


The Mortality and Morbidity Investigating Centre, an affiliate of the Institute of Actuaries of India, plans to publish the mortality table by October. The institute has been working on the table for the last six months.


Data and statistics are currently being collected from various insurance companies though a handful of large players, including government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, are yet to submit data, said IAI President G N Agarwal.


With the risk perception falling, premium rates, which are based on mortality rates, are expected to fall as well. "Over the years, life expectancy has increased, mortality has come down drastically and this gives a room for the rates to drop," said Agarwal, who is the chief actuary of Future Generali India Life Insurance Company, a joint venture between the Future Group and Italy's [ Images ] Generali.


Agarwal said over the last 12 or 15 years, according to data available so far, mortality rates have come down by 25 to 30 per cent in the higher age brackets, which may translate into a reduction of 15 to 20 per cent in certain segments.


While the impact will be felt most on term covers, unit-linked insurance plans are also expected to see an impact, but only on the insurance component. In the case of endowment policies, the impact is likely to be on bonus payments on certain policies, since 8 to 9 per cent of the premium is linked to mortality rates.


"Term and savings-cum-life endowment (policies) are likely to see a reduction in premiums, while on the other side, rates on annuity products may go up. Insurers have already factored in the anticipated improvement in their mortality table," said SBI [ Get Quote ] Life Appointed Actuary Sanjeev Pujari.


The new tables are likely to provide data for various product categories and on the experience of individual insurers, since it would be based on the sex, age and geography, among other factors. At present, the tables only provide the mortality rate per thousand.


For instance, according to the Indian Assured Lives Mortality (1994-96), which has been in effect since January 2005, for people who are 40 years old, the probability of their death is 2.053 per 1,000. For 60 year olds, the probability is 13.073 per 1,000, which results in a higher premium.


The new table is expected to provide additional data by classifying customers into various segments on the basis of economic groups as well, making pricing according to their profile possible.


Pujari added that since the industry was opened in 2000-2001, private insurers have enough experience to contribute to the table.


"Some actuaries have been reducing premium rates for life covers over the last few years as life expectancy has increased. I don't expect the new table to reduce the premium rates drastically," said ICICI [ Get Quote ] Prudential Life Insurance Appointed Actuary Abhijit Chatterji.


However, actuaries said the new table would be predominantly based on LIC [ Get Quote ] data, since private insurers would not have rates for ages beyond a particular limit. Private sector insurance companies have a relatively younger client base and therefore have data for fewer age groups.


Once the tables are finalised, apart from the industry-wide data, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has also agreed to allow companies to decide the premium based on their experience, which would be based on their own tables.

Life, health insurers invest big in tobacco

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Major US, Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine said.

Wesley Boyd, the study's lead author, found that at least 4.4 billion dollars in insurance company funds are invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.

"Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people's health," said Boyd, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School.

"It's clear their top priority is making money, not safeguarding people's well-being," he wrote.

Tobacco is considered the leading cause of lung cancer and a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, pulmonary disease and cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, it is a contributing factor in 5.4 million deaths a year.

Researchers first revealed that health and life insurance companies had major investments in tobacco companies in 1995 in an article in the British medical journal Lancet.

"Although investing in tobacco while selling life or health insurance may seem self-defeating, insurance firms have figured out ways to profit from both," Boyd wrote.

"Insurers exclude smokers from coverage or, more commonly, charge them higher premiums. Insurers profit -- and smokers lose -- twice over."

According to the study, US insurer Prudential Financial Inc. has 264.3 million dollars invested among three US tobacco companies, including Reynolds America and Philip Morris.

Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial Inc., which sells life, disability and health insurance, has a stock portfolio with more than one billion dollars in two tobacco companies, including 890 million dollars in Philip Morris.

Prudential Plc, which sells health and disability insurance, has 1.38 billion dollars in two tobacco companies, including British American Tobacco.

The study also details the substantial tobacco investments of the US firms Northwestern Mutual and Massachusetts Mutual Life, and the Scottish firm Standard Life Plc.

More young people need to buy life insurance deals

Increasing numbers of young people need to make sure they have a life insurance policy in place, one insurer has claimed.

According to LifeSearch, a life insurance specialist, its figures for 2008 show 3% of the policies it sold during 2008 were for young people aged 25 and under.

The firm stated that young consumers could take out life insurance, critical illness and income protection, three policies which would be less expensive for young people because of their age and better health.

Matt Morris, a LifeSearch policy adviser, said more effort needs to be made to impress the importance of life insurance on younger people.

He stated: "Many younger people have debts, mortgages and families that need financial protection in the event of the main income provider being unable to work. Often they either buy no financial protection at all or rely on the internet to get the best deal."

Previous research from LifeSearch revealed that the price of life cover has fallen by as much as 40% during the past two years.