Insurance Blog

Good news and bad news on flood insurance this week. The good news: The House overwhelmingly approved a bill that would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program for five whole years. The bad news: It would bump the annual rate increase limit from 10 percent to 20 percent. House passage of the Flood Insurance Reform

Talk about irony: It is entirely conceivable that we will look back on the Great Recession as the good old days – of homeowners insurance rates, that is. Despite a passing nod to the recession that saw a rare 3.8 percent decrease in national average premiums to $791 in 2008, homeowners insurance rate averages rose to

If you’ve ever purchased life insurance, you’ve probably had that fleeting thought cross your mind: What if they don’t pay up? After all, it’s not like you’ll be in any position to do much about it. Well, it seems that life insurers sometimes don’t pay up. And now a lynch mob of state attorneys general wants

President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act cleared another legal hurdle Wednesday with the help of a deciding vote from an unlikely ally — a Republican judge. The three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled 2-1 in favor of health care reform’s individual mandate provision that will require all Americans to

Recent data breaches at America’s most secure fortresses, from the U.S. Senate and Lockheed Martin to Citigroup and Google, have sparked renewed corporate interest in “cyberinsurance.” But you may need a hacker to decode these new cyber policies. Insurance Journal reports that a rash of recent headline-making hacks, including the breach of 100 million Sony

Now that the 2012 presidential election is underway, great bloviating will surely follow on which hot-button issue will ultimately move the electorate.  My vote? Forget Afghanistan, forget bin Laden, forget health care reform – once again, it’s the economy, stupid! Lest we have any doubts about the continued grievous state of suspended animation on Main

How rough have the recent natural disasters been on insurance companies? So rough that they could trigger a climb in homeowners insurance rates not seen since the aftermath of 9/11. According to a report by Marsh & McLennan reinsurance brokerage, global catastrophes during the past 16 months have cost insurers $100 billion. The losses have

If you smoke, you may soon choke on the cost of your health insurance. Why? Because those of us who don’t smoke are sick and tired of paying for your habit — and thanks to health care reform, soon we may no longer have to. It’s estimated that each employee who smokes may cost their employer

I recently bowed out of a home purchase because of what I couldn’t see as opposed to what I could. A previous owner had installed a new roof over a portion of the old one, leaving no room for an inspector to peer between the two. When active termites were discovered in an adjoining exterior

It seems federal investigators are so fed up with corporate Medicare and Medicaid fraud that they now plan to prosecute the well-heeled executives of the offending companies. I love the sheer righteousness of this move, but I’m afraid it’s going to wind up another costly snipe hunt. With Medicare’s solvency ticking down like an expiring