If there is one thing scarier than the recent economic meltdown, it is a Congress and White House controlled by one party, with veto-proof power to enact laws that can do, well, just about anything they want them to do.

Consider this: House Democrats are actually floating the idea of dismantling the current private pension fund known as the 401(k)  and replacing it with a new, federal retirement plan. And with possible control of both branches of government, it could happen. Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal’s Carl Bialik recently analyzed online life expectancy calculators, based largely on the projections each gave for the life expectancy of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, or, put another way, the chances that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will become president during his term (if he wins election Nov. 4).

The numbers varied by as much as a decade, with 14 years for McCain being the longest projected lifespan for the Arizona senator, who is now 72 years old. Bialik in his Numbers column describes the errors and fallacies of each mainstream life expectancy calculator.
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According to a great column by Anna Wilde Mathews in the Wall Street Journal, Americans overall will fare slightly better under health care changes proposed by Sen. John McCain than they will those of Sen. Barack Obama. Read the rest of this entry »

Frankly, I am unsure about whose plans to implement changes to health care will benefit or harm my business; Sen. Barack Obama’s call for mandated coverage or Sen. John McCain’s proposal for individual health insurance tax credits. Both have their merits, and many — including myself — are mulling over which would be best for their own business and the industry as a whole.

But I do know one thing for certain: In the final debate between the two presidential candidates, Obama looked directly into the camera and told Americans a big, bald-faced lie. Read the rest of this entry »

In these difficult times, where everyone is struggling to make sense and make money in the floundering economy, a little humor in the form of the 20 most unusual names of pets for whom their owners paid insurance is the perfect antidote.

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Two videos on YouTube should be required viewing for anyone who honestly thinks a single-payer (universal) health care system is better than the private sector when it comes to health care. Both are a few years old, but their impact is not diminished.

The first one (titled “A Short Course in Brain Surgery”) is about five minutes long and is anecdotal, but speaks volumes.

The second one is about 25 minutes and shows what Canadians really think about their country’s form of socialized medicine.

An interesting footnote to the first video deals with a medical care broker — an interesting industry that has cropped up in Canada, where brokers actually search in other countries for basic medical care that Canadians cannot obtain in their own country. The medical care broker is worried that if the U.S. adopts single-payer health, he will have no where to send Canadians for quality and timely health care.

The fine folks leading American International Group seem to have failed miserably at understanding the financial markets - and now, public sentiment.

This week company officials were rightly taken to task by Congress for holding an expensive retreat in California, to the tune of $440,000, including $23,000 in spa treatments, at a posh resort. AIG officials, with the ink still wet on the $85 billion loan from the government, said the trip was for independent insurance agents for one of its subsidiaries, not its financial service executives. Read the rest of this entry »

So the annual Life Insurance Awareness Month ended with a bang Tuesday with news that actor Heath Ledger’s life insurance company, ReliaStar Life Insurance, is being sued in Los Angeles for not paying $10 million in benefits to his 2-year-old daughter Matilda Rose.

It seems the insurance company thinks the 28-year-old Australian actor found dead in his New York apartment in January may have committed suicide or lied on paperwork, either of which, of course, would mean no payout. Authorities ruled his death accidental from an overdose of painkillers and other medicines.

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