MetLife Cracks Top 5 of World’s Largest Insurers

MetLife moved up the ranking of the world’s largest insurers, making it and American International Group the only U.S. insurers in the top five, based on assets, according to a new ranking in BestWeek U.S./Canada. By premiums, UnitedHealth Group was the only U.S. insurer to rank among the top five. Overseas insurers continued to dominate [...]

State Farm to Raise Michigan Auto Insurance Rates

Some State Farm customers in Michigan will see their auto insurance premiums rise in early 2012, with the company announcing Friday it will raise overall private vehicle rates an average of 2.1 percent as of Jan. 23. The cost of limited property damage, collision and comprehensive coverages will increase for some policyholders and decrease for [...]

Catastrophes Took Big Bite Out of Insurers’ 2011 Profits

U.S. property and casualty insurance providers made a combined $8 billion in profits during the first nine months of 2011, a 70 percent dip from the $27.1 billion in net, after-tax income brought in during the same period last year, with industry experts blaming the decline largely on underwriting losses caused by natural disasters. Net [...]

New Law Gives Pa. Expanded Rate Authority for Small Employer Health Policies

A new law signed  by Governor Tom Corbett will give the Pennsylvania Insurance Department greater authority to review and disapprove rate increases in the small group market. “The signing of Act 133 is the first step toward restoring our rate authority and reclaiming control over the regulation of Pennsylvania’s health insurance marketplace from the federal [...]

Affordable Care Act Sunshine Rule Increases Transparency in Health Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration) issued the following news release: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS ) announced today a proposed rule that will increase public awareness of financial relationships between drug and device manufacturers and certain health care [...]

U.S. Health Insurance, Managed Care Sector Remains Stable

Fitch Ratings announced that its outlook for the U.S. health insurance and managed care sector remains stable. Over the next 12 – 24 months, Fitch expects the sector’s earnings and interest coverage to remain strong and balance sheet and liquidity metrics to approximate current levels. As a result, most health insurance and managed care companies’ [...]

Illinois Bans An Unlicensed Insurer Selling Bogus Health Plans

The Illinois Department of Insurance has issued a cease and desist order banning an unlicensed insurer from issuing any more fraudulent health insurance policies. The unauthorized insurer operates under the name ReAssurance Health Inc., ReAssurance Health Insurance or ReAssurance Health Insurance Group, and sold numerous bogus health insurance policies to people in Illinois, as well [...]

RIMS: Federal Insurance Office Should Play Larger Regulatory Role

The Federal Insurance Office has begun fielding comments on what its role should be, including a call from the Risk Management Society for a larger federal role in insurance regulation. The comments from industry trade organizations come as the FIO works to compile a comprehensive report on the insurance industry as required under the Dodd-Frank [...]

Florida Group’s Report Quantifies Extent of No-Fault Problems

A working group appointed by Florida officials to assess what insurers say are problems with the state’s no-fault auto insurance system has delivered a report blaming unscrupulous billing and overcharging by policyholders, medical practitioners and attorneys, among other issues. “In the last two years, the no-fault system has been stressed to a point that is [...]

Progressive Insurance Fined For Providing False Credit-Scoring Info

Massachusetts regulators have fined Progressive Direct Insurance $125,000 for wrongly telling thousands of consumers that the company had used their credit histories as a factor in setting their premiums, despite the fact that the practice is prohibited in the state. The state Division of Insurance announced this week that a settlement had been reached with [...]

Allstate to Drop Some Arkansans Who Don’t Bundle Policies

Allstate will not renew the homeowner policies of about 4,000 Arkansas customers if they do not also buy auto coverage from the company, officials have confirmed. An Allstate spokeswoman said the move—which comes on the heels of similar nonrenewals in North Carolina—is an effort to manage overall risk in the state’s property coverage market. “Nonrenewing [...]

Property & Casualty Insurers Lost $38.6 Billion Year To Date

Natural disasters during the first nine months of 2011 cost property and casualty insurance providers an estimated $38.6 billion in pretax, total net losses—nearly double the total for all of last year—according to a new analysis by A.M. Best. The credit rating agency says the greatest losses for property casualty insurers, which include homeowner and car [...]