BY KEHED AMSTRONG THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 INSUREBLOG

#TooBigToFail, insurance-style - Blog Insurance

So this headline caught my attention:

MetLife in talks with MassMutual for premier client deal

Briefly, Met's looking at spinning off its US advisor force, which caters to "middle- to upper-income consumers, including small-to-medium sized company executives and small business owners."

Intriguing, yes, but (way) outside my wheelhouse, so I called on my resident guru of all things "advisorish" FoIB Jeff M:

"Hey Jeff, I have a feeling this is important, but I don’t really understand it. Help?"

As usual, he jumped right into the fray, explaining:

"A week or so ago, the Feds declared Met as "too big to fail" thereby telling them..."You need to sell some of your business 'cause if one of your business units fails, it will cause grave harm to the US economy." Therefore and henceforth, Met is talking with Mass about Mass buying Met's life business.

Clear?"

Crystal.
Of course, there's a shorter version, as well:

"Nice business ya got here, be a shame somethin' were to happen to it...."

Hmmm.

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BY KEHED AMSTRONG FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2016 INSUREBLOG

SvenCare© Failing - Blog Insurance

It's been a while since we checked in on the Swedish national health care scheme (most recently here). Despite the country's relative homogeneity (which, to be fair, has come under increasing challenge due to the influx of, um, refugees), the system has gone on overload, with increasingly long wait times and a corresponding decrease in actual health care delivery.

As a result, almost 10% of the population now owns private health insurance, -

Wait: you didn't know that countries with national health care schemes alsoharbor the deep, dark secret shame of private health insurance? Regular IB readers know -

which amounts to almost half a million folks. And what does such a policy provide? Well, for one thing,much shorter wait times, which translates to faster return-to-work times, so it's win-win for those hard-working Swedes.

[Hat Tip: Co-blogger Mike F]

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BY KEHED AMSTRONG MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 INSUREBLOG

What Single Payer looks like - Blog Insurance

Words fail:

Tucson News Now

[Hat Tip: RedState]

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BY KEHED AMSTRONG FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2016 INSUREBLOG

Suing for The Slush Fund - Blog Insurance

The Federal Government is being sued by an entity that was entirely funded by...the Federal Government.

Yes, you read that correctly. According to the Portland Tribune Oregon Co-op Health Republic has filed a $5 Billion dollar class action lawsuit on behalf of all of the insurers who didn't receive funding from the Risk Corridor program. The lawsuit was filed on February 24th in federal claims court against the United States of America, acting through HHS and CMS. In the lawsuit Health Republic of Oregon claims that for 2014 and 2015 they are owed roughly $22 million dollars in Risk Corridor payments.

The Risk Corridor program was designed to fund insurance companies who lost money on Obamacare policies with money from insurance companies who were profitable on Obamacare policies. The Obama administration assured companies that the program would be deficit neutral, but guess what happened? Essentially nobody was profitable. (shocked face) Instead of companies receiving $2.7 Billion in payments they will only receive $362 Million - a shortfall of over $2.5 Billion. While the language in Obamacare isn't clear, it was assumed that if there was a short fall that HHS would simply authorize the fund to be paid out. This changed when Republicans in Congress inserted language in the budget bill that required the program to be deficit neutral - exactly how the Obama administration had portrayed the program.

In it's previous life Health Republic is the artist formerly known as the Freelancers Union. The head of Freelancers was none other than Obama favorite Sara Horowitz. (ed note: good gracious how manytimes have we documented this relationship) What makes this lawsuit "special" is how this company was started in the first place.

Health Republic is an insurance cooperative. Health insurance cooperatives were created by Obamacare to compete against traditional insurance companies. They were promoted as more affordable non-profit insurance companies that would save consumers on premiums. They were fully financed by revenues generated through the (un)Affordable Care Act with low/no interest loans.

Freelancers/Health Republic received three loans for their three entities - Health Republic of New Jersey, Health Republic of New York, and Health Republic of Oregon. In total they received $435 million dollars to start up and sell insurance in their respective states. Now, only two years into Obamacare and both New York and Oregon have gone belly up. Oregon burned through their $61 million - plus premiums - and only had 15,000 members at the end of their run in 2015.

Now they want their money - more appropriately, taxpayer money - to help bail them out. Knowing the DOJ and the Obama Administration they will find a way to make it happen.

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BY KEHED AMSTRONG FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2016 INSUREBLOG

SvenCare© Failing - Blog Insurance

It's been a while since we checked in on the Swedish national health care scheme (most recently here). Despite the country's relative homogeneity (which, to be fair, has come under increasing challenge due to the influx of, um, refugees), the system has gone on overload, with increasingly long wait times and a corresponding decrease in actual health care delivery.

As a result, almost 10% of the population now owns private health insurance, -

Wait: you didn't know that countries with national health care schemes alsoharbor the deep, dark secret shame of private health insurance? Regular IB readers know -

which amounts to almost half a million folks. And what does such a policy provide? Well, for one thing,much shorter wait times, which translates to faster return-to-work times, so it's win-win for those hard-working Swedes.

[Hat Tip: Co-blogger Mike F]

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from InsureBlog http://ift.tt/1R7RHJY SvenCare© Failing - Blog Insurance

BY KEHED AMSTRONG MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 INSUREBLOG

What Single Payer looks like - Blog Insurance

Words fail:

Tucson News Now

[Hat Tip: RedState]

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BY KEHED AMSTRONG MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016 INSUREBLOG

Aetna joins the parade - Blog Insurance

Aetna, and its Coventry affiliate, becomes the next major player to cry "no mas" on new business. In email this morning:

"We will not pay commissions for sales with coverage effective dates after March 1, 2016, and continuing through December 31, 2016 effective dates.  This applies to on- and off-exchange business."

Again, this is unquestionably a sound business (from their point of view): the fewer agents writing business (because let's face it: no one wants to work for free) the fewer new policies, and thus fewer claims.

Why is this important? Well, because the carriers are finding that off-Open Season enrollees tend togenerate more (and more expensive) claims, and are more likely to drop coverage. What better way to tamp down on this abuse than by drastically curtailing the opportunity for it?

Gee, who coulda seen that coming?

Oh, yeah.

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