Voters Could See Conflicting Insurance Measures on Nov. Ballot

Californians could wind up voting on competing auto insurance proposals in November if a proposed initiative backed by a consumer group gets enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. At issue in both is whether insurers should be able to give discounts or surcharges based on whether a driver was uninsured in the past [...]

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tenn. Health and Wellness ‘Store’ May Provide Free Services

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee is looking into opening a retail “store” in the Nashville area that may focus on offering free health and wellness services and it won’t be selling health insurance, at least at first. The store would be part of Blue Cross’s effort to prepare for the new market created by [...]

Consumers Union Urges Blue Shield of California to Withdraw Rate Hike

Consumers Union called on Blue Shield of California to drop its plan to hike premiums on some of its customers beginning March 1. Blue Shield announced late last year that it intends to raise premiums an average of 14.8 percent or up to an average of $979 per year for almost 56,000 individual and family [...]

Google Tentatively Approved to Fund Benefit Risks Through Captive

The U.S. Labor Department has tentatively approved Google Inc. to fund several employee benefit risks through its Hawaii-based captive insurance company. Google filed its application to make the move in November. A department spokesman said the application has been approved, pending a more detailed plan for how the benefit risks will be funded. The application, [...]

MetLife Acquires Luxury Apartment Tower in Chicago

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) announced that it has, through a subsidiary, purchased EnV, a luxury multifamily property located in Chicago’sRiver North neighborhood. The company purchased the property from LYND Development Partners, the original builder of the tower. “EnV is an excellent fit for MetLife’s real estate equity strategy of acquiring core properties in top-tier markets,” [...]

Study Highlights How Economy Has Pushed Some Insurers Over Edge

Property/casualty financial impairments continued their upward trend, increasing to 28 in 2011 from 21 in 2010, according to a newly released A.M. Best Special Report, Property/Casualty and Life/Health Impairment Review featured in this week’s BestWeek U.S./Canada. The impairments of the past two years reflect the troubled U.S. economy and, in particular, the troubled real estate [...]

U.S. Employees’ Confidence in Retirement Improves

Confidence, satisfaction among younger workers and those with defined benefit pension plans rebounded sharply in past two years U.S. employees’ confidence in their ability to retire comfortably continued to rebound from post-recession lows last year. However, despite growing satisfaction with their financial situation and fewer employees reporting significant declines in retirement savings, many employees remain [...]

Walker Turning Down $37M For Health Care

Wisconsin will turn down $37 million from the federal government that had been awarded to help implement health care exchanges under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday. Walker announced in December that Wisconsin would not pursue implementing the exchange until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of [...]

Florida Lawmakers Introduce Set of Car Insurance Reform Bills

Florida lawmakers kicked off the new legislative session by introducing a flurry of bills aimed at reining in the dishonest claims and billing they say are running the state’s no-fault auto insurance system into the ground. The four pieces of legislation introduced this week—two in the state House and two in the Senate—call for similar [...]

California Continuous-Coverage Proposal to Get Statewide Vote

Residents of California will get a second chance to vote on a ballot measure that would allow car insurance companies in the state to give continuous-coverage discounts to policyholders regardless of who their previous insurer was. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that backers of the initiative have collected enough petition signatures to qualify [...]

Montana Regulators Make It Easier for Consumers to File Complaints

Montana regulators have introduced an online form for consumer complaints about insurance after 2011 saw a 27 percent increase in funds recovered for policyholders as a result of wrongfully denied claims and improperly issued policies. The state Commissioner of Securities and Insurance (CSI) recouped $4.7 million on behalf of consumers of auto, home and other [...]

Oklahoma Lawmaker Proposes Ban on Texting While Driving

A bill introduced to the Oklahoma Legislature would ban texting while driving in the Sooner State and attach relatively hefty fines for violations of the ban. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Jerry Ellis at the end of 2011, would also make sending text messages while driving a moving violation, a fact that has the potential to [...]