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The InsureMe A/V Crew

And remember, InsureMe helps you find the Right Insurance.

Get your head in the gutter
Clean gutters prevent ice dams. Ice dams cause water to enter your house—never a good thing. While you’re cleaning, make sure your gutters are working properly—i.e., directing water away from your house. And remember: While you’re cleaning, use good ladder technique.

Duct, duct, duct…
A large percentage of the heat traveling through the ducts in our homes never reaches its final destination—the vents that channel heat to living rooms, bedrooms, etc. Because of cracks and poor insulation, a lot of heat is wasted warming places that don’t need warming, like the spaces between your walls and the outdoors. By giving your ducts some attention, you stand to save money and stay warm and toasty this winter.

Consider having a professional inspect your heating system’s ducts, filter, heat exchanger, pilot light and thermostat at the beginning of winter.

This MSN article suggests vacuuming ducts every few years—your lungs will thank you.

Check your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, and fire extinguishers
I don’t think I need to go into specifics about these. Make sure that (a) you have all of these items, and (b) that they are in good working condition.

To avoid being the victim of a holiday crime, just take a few simple precautions.

- When you go out, leave some lights or the television on so your house looks occupied.
- If you go out of town, splurge on automatic light timers, and ask the neighbors to pick up your mail and newspaper.
- Don’t advertise your holiday swag. Wait until garbage day to set your boxes on the curb.

The holiday season is also a good time to reassess your home insurance needs, namely theft endorsements and floaters for all those new, pricey possessions. If you give or receive jewelry, computer gadgets or fine art, you should probably discuss additional coverage with your insurer. An endorsement to your homeowners’ policy allows you to set a higher amount of coverage on certain personal items covered under your current home policy.

A personal articles floater covers purchases, like jewelry, for their full value, based on a receipt or appraisal. If you are storing expensive items in your car while shopping and they are stolen, they won’t be covered under your auto insurance. However, if you have adequate homeowners’ insurance with the appropriate add-ons, you may be reimbursed for a portion of the cost.

The lull after the holiday season is also a good time to update your home inventory. Ward off post-holiday blues by compiling a list of your new stuff. Don’t forget to keep receipts and to record as much information as possible. To simplify the process, download free, home inventory software from the Insurance Information Institute.

This new data was presented at the America's Geophysical Union fall meeting, which is currently underway in San Francisco, according to IJ. The NCAR indicated that the arctic ice is no longer being replenished in the winter months, not to the extent necessary to keep the "historic balance."

While an NCAR bulletin reported that the trend is likely to accelerate and create ice-free summers in the Arctic by 2040, the bulletin also stated that while some noticeable changes have already occurred, new data "suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far." The study's lead author, Marika Holland, called the changes "surprisingly rapid."

We've reported about the correlation between global warming and insurance rates before. While some climate experts have attributed global warming to the increase in hurricane severity in recent years, the new NCAR study shows us that folks on coasts may have more to worry about that increased home insurance costs.

An earlier NCAR study (2005) found that by the year 2100, Arctic summers may be "as warm as they were nearly 130,000 years ago, when sea levels eventually rose up to 20 feet higher than today." For low-lying cities, including metropolises like New York, Tokyo and London, the effects would be disastrous.

The silver lining? The NCAR report concluded that society can still minimize the impacts of Arctic melting ice.

Quick links:

The full Insurance Journal report

The NCAR study and information

Previous InsureMe post on global warming and insurance

First the low-down on trans fat: It’s terrible for you. According to Wikipedia, eating it tempts coronary heart disease. It’s also associated with obesity, diabetes and liver dysfunction.

Citing the American Journal of Public Health, the Wikipedia entry on trans fat claims the substance is responsible for 30,000 deaths annually in the U.S.

The problem, though, is age-old: What’s bad for you also tastes great. Will New York’s fries and cookies taste as good after the ban? Perhaps not, although many maintain that trans fat isn’t as crucial to flavor as many think. (Read a great article in today’s New York Times about how chefs are coping with the new regulation.)

Trans fat occurs in some food naturally, but most of the trans fat we consume is the result on an artificial process called partial hydrogenation. Because of the economics of production and, ironically, the erroneous belief that the trans fats of margarine were healthier that the saturated ones of butter, fast food companies incorporated trans fat into their recipes in the 1960.

Knowledge of the health hazards has many fast food operations scrambling to alter their frying techniques, however. In 2003, the FDA decided to require food manufactures to come clean about their use of the stuff. New York City joins Denmark in imposing a blanket ban on the use of trans fat.

With the exception of their New York restaurants, McDonald’s (it’s weird to call McDonald’s restaurant, isn’t it?) hasn’t been able to kick the trans fat habit. They say removing the lethal substance would "jeopardize the iconic nature of [their] french fry.”

I suspect, though, that their fries will retain their iconic nature in the trans-fat-free Big Apple.

Links from this week's video:

The Future of Florida Home Insurance Still an Unknown

STOLI on the Rocks

400 Pennies

Specialty Drugs Drive Up Health Insurance Premiums

According to a recent article by the Associated Press (published by the Insurance Journal, here), specialty drugs accounted for 19 percent—about $40 billion—of pharmaceutical spending last year. Express Scripts, a company that manages prescription programs, estimates that by 2009, that $40 billion figure will inflate to $90 billion, as new drugs and treatments emerge.

Specialty drugs: Biotechnology treatments involving genetic engineering, unique treatments for rare diseases, cancer medications that have to be administered in medical facilities and other high-cost treatments.

Matthew Connell, the senior director of pharmacy services for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mass., told the Boston Globe, "The specialty drug slice of the pie is growing fast. It's only about half of one percent of all pharmacy [prescriptions], but it accounts for as much as 13 percent of pharmacy costs."

According to the AP, insurance companies, have, in the past, cited the rising costs of prescription drugs, higher costs from doctors and imaging technology for the increase in health insurance premiums. This is the first time they've included specialty drugs into the contributing factors.

Insures are trying to hold down the cost of health insurance premiums by taking efforts to control the use and cost of specialty drugs, reports the AP. Such efforts include requiring physicians to obtain permission before prescribing specialty drugs and barring the prescription and use of drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Read the full AP report courtesy of the Insurance Journal here.

The Insurance Information Institute (III) attributes the rate reduction to several factors—a more competitive marketplace, safer cars and drivers, some inventive fraud-fighting tactics and more accurate underwriting.

To those of you who have bemoaned credit-based insurance scoring, it is one of the reasons we’re seeing the price of auto insurance drop. Using credit to determine the price an individual will pay for insurance has its pitfalls, but overall has given insurers a more precise way to determine premiums.

So keep a clean credit history. Pay credit card balances completely, pay bills on time and don’t open too many cards or accounts at once. Credit-based scoring is here to stay, so work within the system to raise your score.

Although it’s only .05 percent, some tweaks to your coverage could reduce the cost further. III recommends raising your deductibles and reducing your coverage. It sounds a bit counterintuitive coming from an insurance resource. However, if you can cover your losses in the event of an accident without sacrificing your financial well-being, raising deductibles and reducing coverage can shrink your premium price between 15 and 20 percent.

For more information about ways to save on auto insurance, check out our resource center or III.

These types of life insurance transactions, called stranger-oriented life insurance, or STOLI, has in the past been a way for policyholders to receive payment for life insurance policies they no longer need. The problem, notes a recent press release from the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA), comes when financial companies seek out people who are insurable but have short life expectancies and who agree ahead of time to sell their policies for a fee.

These kinds of transactions have been around since the 1990s, say the NOLHGA, traced back to AIDS patients who had life insurance policies but wanted access to cash funds while they were living.

A third party paid the insured person a portion of the face value of the policy, knowing that an AIDS diagnosis at that time meant an early death. The buyer paid the premiums and collected the benefit when the person died.

The ACLI President and CEO Frank Keating called STOLI arrangements "contrived transactions which circumvent the intent of state insurable interest laws." Other industry critics of STOLI say the arrangements do nothing to protect the insured's family or estate. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) also says STOLI undermines the basic premise of life insurance: that a policy's beneficiary has a "legitimate, insurable interest" in the policyholder's good health.

The challenge for the life and health industry lies in trying to simultaneously prohibit STOLI while not obstructing consumer rights and legitimate life settlements. In 2007, expect to see NAIC working with individual state insurance departments to adopt changes in the aforementioned model law.

Read more about STOLI issues courtesy of the NOLHGA and the Insurance News Network here and here, respectively.

Many Florida homeowners have seen their rates triple in the last few years. And despite the fact that this was a relatively uneventful hurricane season, many have lost home insurance coverage or seen yet another price hike.

Previous inaction had many Floridians up in arms, but Gov. elect Charlie Crist has some semblance of a plan to solve the issues that have been plaguing Florida homeowners for several years.

One of the possible solutions is to model home insurance after other types of insurance, like auto. If a homeowner wishes to choose a higher deductible or forego certain coverage, they may. However, while those changes might make home insurance more affordable, high deductibles and a lack of coverage could have dire consequences when another hurricane strikes.

Another of Crist’s proposed tweaks is the addition of safety credits. If a homeowner has safeguarded their home, Crist says they should be eligible for rate reductions, similar to the way a safe driver pays lower car insurance premiums. However, some oppose state-mandated credits as too much state involvement.

But promising is the optimism Crist has been expressing since he was elected governor nearly a month ago. And those that decried politicians’ previous unresponsiveness can take care knowing that at the very least lawmakers are now addressing the issue in a special session.

Read the article.

Links to this week's video:

Home Winterization Series, Part One: Tips for Preventing Frozen Pipes

Lack of Jockey Insurance Threatens Montana Tracks

Home Winterization Series, Part Two: Staying Warm and Saving Money

Metal Health Insurance

This morning I woke to find a layer of ice on the inside of every window in my house. I opened the front door to find a thoroughly frosted storm door. Again, the frozen water was on the inside. The thermometer read 8 degrees.

While no house is totally impervious to cold weather, mine isn’t even putting up a good fight. The thin, single-pane windows may as well be open. Cracks under doors welcome cold air and let warm air escape. The house is hemorrhaging heat.

Needless to say, I’ve got home winterization on the brain (and some work ahead of me). What about you? Is your house ready for winter?

Winterization is important on a number of levels. The two most basic reasons to fortify your house against cold temps and frozen water are to prevent damage and save money.

According to a figure from the Earthworks Group quoted in MSN Real Estate, “the average American home has leaks that amount to a nine-square-foot hole in the wall.”

Not only does this mean we’re paying to heat the outdoors (a costly effort), we’re also exposing pipes to freezing cold air and letting in moisture.

What to do? The answer is simple...kind of:

Plug leaks

1. Add insulation to thin areas
2. Replace or add storm windows and doors
3. Caulk or spray foam into outside cracks and openings
4. Install gaskets on outside outlets
5. Add weather stripping
6. Remove your AC unit
7. Make sure your dryer vent is free of lint and able to close
8. Seal heating ducts
9. Close curtains and shades at night
10. Clean south-facing windows to maximize solar gain

This list looks overwhelming, I know. If there is one thing, however, that will go the farthest in preventing cold air from infiltrating your abode, it’s storm windows and doors. They will reduce the heat loss from these sources by half.

These sources were crucial in putting together the leak list and offer other helpful winterization tips:

The Home Depot
MSN
About.com

Stay tuned for more tips. Next up: gutters and ducts.

Cutting health-care costs has become something of a national obsession. And rightly so, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the United States spent almost 1.7 trillion on health care in 2003, accounting for 15.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Government agencies and insurance companies have concocted several strategies to stall rising costs—HSAs, consumer-driven health care and Medicaid cuts—which is why recent efforts by some states to widen insurance coverage is receiving push back from businesses and insurance companies.

Recently, the mental health insurance bill or mental health parity has been the unlikely star in the Ohio and New Jersey senates. The measure would provide equal health-care coverage for some mental illnesses, which goes against the trend of cutting health-insurance benefits in an effort to cut costs. But it seems the pendulum is swinging away from cost-costing maneuvers, at least on this particular point, as more people are speaking out for the issue.

According to an AP story (made available today on InsuranceJournal.com), a national company that insured Montana's jockeys (and no, I'm not talking about underpants) has dropped coverage on all four of the state's race tracks. The Montana tracks were just four of 19 tracks in the U.S. that lost jockey coverage, said Scot Meader who is the director of the Missoula County Fairgrounds in Montana.

The news has been made especially bittersweet as Montana's governor recently included $350,000 in the state's two-year budget for horse racing.

Even if another insurer stepped in to insure the jockeys, chances are the policy premiums would be much too steep. According to the AP, Meader received one quote from a California insurer who put premiums as high as $8,000 to $10,000 per day, compared with $2,000 per race day for this year. Accident deductibles have also jumped, which hits the Missoula track in a soft spot as they've had "quite a few jockey injuries and claims in the past five years."

Horse racing has been approved for 2006 reports the AP, but the state has yet to make a formal decision about the 2007 racing season; the Missoula County Fair Commission has asked Meader to try and secure another jockey insurance provider.

For now, the four Montana tracks will work together to find a jockey insurance provider. In the meantime, the future of Montana horse racing will hang in the balance. Buck Smith, who is chairman of the fair commission, told the AP that come January, "If we've exhausted every possibility for jockey insurance and there is none, there is no decision to be made."

Race lovers can check out the full story courtesy of IJ, here. (And yes, our statistician Peter D. moonlights as a jockey.)

]]> http://www.insuremeblog.com/insurance/2006/11/lack_of_jockey_insurance_threa.html http://www.insuremeblog.com/insurance/2006/11/lack_of_jockey_insurance_threa.html State-Related Insurance News Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:00:52 -0700