Swan hints at inquiry into state disaster insurance

THE government may set up an inquiry to examine whether states should be forced to take out commercial insurance for natural disasters, as it seeks to secure the final vote to pass its $1.8 billion flood levy.

 

South Australian independent Nick Xenophon, who is now the pivotal figure, wants to relieve the burden that disasters place on the taxpayer.

 

The government already has sufficient lower house crossbench support for the levy, after concessions last week collectively worth $150 million over the budget period. It has the backing of the Greens and Family First's Steve Fielding in the Senate.
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Treasurer Wayne Swan hinted at an inquiry when he told Channel Ten there was a ''legitimate question'' being raised about what the states had done on insurance. ''It is probably timely for us to evaluate all of those questions, to have a good hard look at them to see what the implications are for the future.''

 

Senator Xenophon said the ''big picture'' was why the flood levy and spending cuts were needed. ''It's because the government of Queensland failed to take out appropriate insurance,'' he told Channel Nine.

 

He said that if he supported the levy, ''I want to make sure this is the last time Australian taxpayers have to pay a disaster levy''.

 

Senator Xenophon said Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales all had forms of natural disaster insurance; Queensland, the territories and Tasmania did not. ''There ought to be a system where the states have a huge disincentive if they don't take out natural disaster insurance … Now is the time to fix this.''

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Health insurance becomes portable

If you are not satisfied with the services of your health insurer, don't feel frustrated. Thanks to Health Insurance Portability, you would be able to switch to another health insurer from July 1 st onwards, without having to lose any of the benefits that your current health insurer provides.

 

Why Health Insurance Portability?
IRDA in its new regulation says "Persons shifting from one region to other regions are many times put to disadvantage due to lack of insurers' office providing necessary policy servicing at the new location. Further, employees shifting from one organization to another organization many times lose health insurance cover due to lack of portability of the health insurance policies. It is essential to protect the policyholders against discontinuity and consequential loss of Pre Existing Diseases (PED) cover by making the health insurance plans portable across the insurance companies." The portability will ensure that the policyholder is not tied to one single insurer throughout his life for fear of losing the cover of PED. It will be implemented from 1 st July, this year. This means that come July, you can switch to any health insurer of your choice whenever you want. Almost all health insurance companies have a defined "waiting period" of 30 days before you start getting cover for the pre-existing diseases. In the current scenario if you change your health insurer you need to again spend the "waiting period" with the new insurer. Policyholders who have chronic illnesses like cataract, hysterectomy etc often face a waiting period of 2 to 3 years. You would be able to "carry forward" the credit gained for pre-existing conditions in terms of waiting period you enjoyed with previous insurance company, as per the new portability guidelines. For example if under a previous policy, the condition was excluded from coverage for two years and under a new plan with a different insurer the exclusion period for the same condition is three years, the new health insurance policy can only exclude the condition from coverage for one extra year

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Closed-End Insurance Fund to Raise Money

A closed-end version of Securis I Fund, a hedge fund focused on insurance risks, will start a public fundraising for long-term capital this week, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the plans.

 

Securis wants to raise between 100 million pounds ($162 million) and 200 million pounds, the newspaper said.

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BA Health Insurance gets new office building

Sunyani (B/A), Feb. 21, GNA - The National Health Insurance Authorit= y (NHIA) transferred GH¢82,858,317.43 to Brong-Ahafo Region for the payment= of claims by service providers in 2009/2010, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye Marfo, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister has said.

 

He said in 2009 an amount of GH¢29,802,164.24 was also transferred t= o the scheme in the region, representing 88.38 per cent more than the GH¢15,820,016.30 provided in 2008. Mr Nyamekye Marfo was speaking in Sunyani at the sod-cutting ceremony to commence the construction of a one-storey regional office for the NHIA. He stressed that the project was another commitment of the Government to improve the work of the Authority to enable it to serve the people better. Contracts have been awarded for the construction of offices for the other nine regional schemes, he added. The Regional Minister appealed to the management of the Scheme to reciprocate the efforts of the Government by improving their services to beneficiaries. He asked service providers to also improve the delivery of accessible and quality health-care to the people and advised them against falsificatio= n of claims and to ensure the timely submission of claims to facilitate the prompt release of funds. Mr Nyamekye Marfo expressed the hope that quality work would be done b= y the construction firm, Yanator Ghana Limited, a Wa-based building company t= o achieve value for money.

 

Mr Foster Agyei Korang, Regional Manager of the Authority, gave assurance the consultants and the contractor would use quality materials to execute the project within the expected duration of completion. He disclosed that the project would cost about GH¢650,000.

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Health insurance window closing for California kids

Congress and California stepped up to the plate in a big way last year for children with pre-existing health conditions.

 

Parents who don't qualify for Healthy Families or Medi-Cal must now do their part. They have until March 1 to sign up their children for health insurance programs before the open enrollment period closes. It would be a travesty for parents to ignore this golden opportunity so many fought so hard to achieve.

 

Failure to sign up means parents can't take advantage of any insurance price break until their child's next birthday.

 

The federal government last year initiated reforms forbidding health insurers to deny coverage to children with chronic conditions, such as asthma or diabetes. California's Legislature took that one step further by forcing insurers to offer premiums that are no more than double the rate of covering healthy children.

 

If health insurers had any doubt about California's commitment to insuring children, Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Feuer's AB 2244 made the state's position perfectly clear. The legislation, signed last fall by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, bans health insurers from selling policies to anyone for five years if they refuse to sell policies for children.

 

An estimated 500,000 California children have pre-existing conditions, although many have some form of coverage through their parents' insurance policies. It's unclear how many of the remaining uninsured children in California
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have yet to take advantage of this option. Advocates in Silicon Valley fear the number may be high, and even one is too many.

 

Children who have health insurance see doctors far more often than those who are uninsured. It's an established fact that children who do not have coverage are:

 

# 3 times more likely to have gone without needed medications.

 

# 5 times more likely to use an emergency room in place of a regular place of care.

 

# 10 times more likely to not have a pediatrician who serves as their regular family physician.

 

Children who don't get help for routine problems often wind up at places like Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where the cost of care -- too often paid by taxpayers -- is thousands of dollars higher than a routine doctor visit.

 

The California Center for Public Health Advocacy reports that one out of every three school children in the state is overweight. Three out of every four overweight children become overweight adults, and the cost of treating the obese in California in 2010 is already estimated at $28 billion. The expense will only grow as the state's overweight children grow into adulthood.

 

The other worrisome and costly health concern for children is asthma. California kids missed nearly 2 million days of school last year because of asthma-related issues.

 

Parents who care about their children's education also must do everything they can to provide regular health care.

 

The two are related: Healthy children are more alert and comfortable in school and nearly always will outperform kids who come to school sick or in pain.

 

Besides, doesn't every child deserve basic health care? This is the time for parents to step up and get them registered -- and for community health advocates to keep up the good work of spreading the word.

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