There’s a strange contradiction about insurance. It’s an annoying burden every month when the time to pay the premium comes around but, if the worst should happen, it’s a wonderful thing to have had that insurance policy in place. With the family budgets really tight as the recession shows little sign of going away, the [...]

There are times when you get an overview and then it hits you, “Somethings just don’t add up.” Well, you remember Wellpoint, don’t you? This is the friendly company that, around January or February, announced it was going to increase premium rates by up to 39% in a number of states around the Union. President [...]

This February, the Department of Health and Human Resources has issued a report identifying an alarming trend for insurance companies to seek premium rate increases. This is not limited to one or two states. This is not limited to one or two percentage increases in the rates. This is all the leading insurance companies asking [...]

The market for insurance in the US is somewhat very different from the other world. In most every other line of business, companies are allowed to compete with each other across state lines. This helps to keep pricing to lower levels and the quality of the product to higher levels and protect the consumer. But [...]

The easiest thing to say in the world right now is that some US states are suffering more than others in the recession. The national media rightly focus on the headline figures showing the total numbers of unemployed, the foreclosure rate, and so on. This can be somewhat deceiving because it hides the fact that [...]