Category Archives: Insurance Information

Report: Congress Should Focus on Curtailing Medical Errors, Not Patients’ Rights

Written On March 9, 2010 By Bob Kraft

According to an update of the National Practitioner Data Bank released recently, fewer medical malpractice payments were made on behalf of doctors in 2009 than any other year on record. This contradicts claims by some that medical malpractice litigation is to blame for rising health care costs. Last year was the fifth consecutive year the [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Medical Malpractice, Tort Reform

Insurance Rates Not Accelerated by Toyota Recall

Written On February 15, 2010 By Bob Kraft

With the big auto recalls from Toyota, Honda, and other companies in the news recently, people are wondering how the recalls or defective parts might affect their insurance coverage. The ABC News Web site had a good article about the questions consumers are asking of their insurance carriers. Here are a few excerpts:
Many drivers of [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

Insurance “Oversight” in Texas — FAIL

Written On January 12, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Sadly, this is what passes for insurance oversight by the Texas state government: Farmers Insurance raised their homeowners coverage rates by 10% last June without permission from the state, which under our “fair and balanced” laws they are allowed to do. At the time, the State Insurance Commissioner called the rate hike “excessive and unfairly [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Government, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Texas Homeowners’ Insurance Rates Drop to Number Two

Written On December 31, 2009 By Bob Kraft

That headline is misleading, because homeowner insurance rates for Texans have actually risen, again, as always. The tiny sliver of good news for us is that Florida homeowner rates have risen even further than Texas, so we have temporarily lost our long-held position as the state with the highest insurance rates in the nation. I [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

26 Percent of Vehicles in Dallas County Are Uninsured

Written On December 10, 2009 By Bob Kraft

According to the Dallas Morning News, more than one in four vehicles in Dallas County are uninsured, the highest percentage in any of the state’s large urban counties. Despite efforts over the years to encourage or force Texas drivers to maintain liability insurance, the percentage of uninsured drivers has remained relatively constant.
This is a continuing [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

Texas Drivers Pay High Auto Insurance Premiums

Written On December 3, 2009 By Bob Kraft

As reported in the Dallas Morning News, Texas drivers pay some of the highest auto insurance premiums in the nation — just as we do for homeowners insurance. In my opinion, this is because the regulatory agencies are totally controlled by the insurance companies, and have been for years. Republican Rick Perry is the longest-serving [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

AMA Report Card Ranks Health Insurance Companies

Written On July 22, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The AMA has issued its 2009 Health Insurer Report Card, which measures the nation’s eight largest health insurers on claim denials, timeliness, accuracy and transparency. For more information than you could ever want on this subject, you can visit the AMA Web site. Fortunately, the Dallas Morning News has summarized the findings for us:

Doctors frustrated [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Insurance Premiums Rise Due To Stock Market Losses

Written On April 20, 2009 By Bob Kraft

USAToday has an article today about the increases in auto, life and home insurance premiums, brought on by loss of insurance company investment returns. Normally, when there is a downturn in the stock market and insurance companies bring in less revenue, they start talking about tort reform, and blaming their decrease in profits on trial [...]

Posted in Insurance Information

Stimulus Bill Gives COBRA a Boost

Written On March 23, 2009 By Bob Kraft

As reported in the Dallas Morning News, a
little-noticed provision of the stimulus bill signed last month by
President Barack Obama may give the growing ranks of unemployed workers
some relief with their medical bills. COBRA is the federal law that gives laid-off employees the right to continue their health insurance for 18 months, but at their own [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Information

Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Overturns Homeowner Insurance Ruling Against State Farm

Written On March 13, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (3/13, Mowbray) reports, "A Port Sulfur couple whose home vanished in Hurricane Katrina won't be able to collect penalties, bad faith and attorneys fees from State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal overturned the finding that the state's largest insurer acted in bad faith in [...]

Posted in Insurance Information

Texans Still Pay Highest Insurance Rates for Homeowner Policies

Written On March 3, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Texas homeowners
still have the dubious distinction of paying the highest insurance
rates in the nation – despite measures designed to lower rates and much
worse weather losses in other states.
The Dallas Morning News reports today that the homeowner insurance situation is not improving in Texas. Please read the entire article. Here is a very brief excerpt:
A [...]

Posted in Insurance Information

Dead Peasant Insurance Policies Draw Litigation

Written On February 25, 2009 By Bob Kraft

In a blog on the Wall Street Journal website (2/24) Ashby Jones wrote that "dead peasant" insurance policies are "spawning a good deal of litigation." Jones said, "The point of 'dead peasant' policies seems to be this: Companies contribute money to the policies, which then can be used to pay for a variety of company [...]

Posted in Insurance Information

Homeowners Pay Higher Insurance Premiums, Yet Many Policies Limited

Written On February 18, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Dallas Morning News has run an excellent series about Texas, a State of Neglect. This series has chronicled the state's failure to regulate various businesses, and the potential relationship between Lack of regulation and big political contributions from those businesses. The last of the series deals with homeowners insurance. Texans are paying more money [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

UnitedHealth To Pay $400 Million To Settle Manipulation Allegations

Written On January 16, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Bloomberg News
(1/15, Goldstein, Freifeld) reported, "UnitedHealth Group Inc., the
biggest U.S. health insurer, said it will spend $400 million to settle
allegations it has manipulated payments to doctors and patients for the
last 15 years." UnitedHealth "agreed to put $350 million into a
class-action restitution fund to pay physicians and policyholders for
services provided by out-of-network providers, the company said [...]

Posted in Government, Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Dallas Finally Starts Towing Uninsured Vehicles

Written On January 5, 2009 By Bob Kraft

As reported in the Dallas Morning News, the City of Dallas has begun in earnest with the new policy of towing the vehicles of uninsured motorists. I hope the word spreads quickly and greatly reduces the number of drivers who don’t carry the mandatory auto liability coverage. This would be a great benefit to our [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

Dallas Drivers, If You Don’t Have Insurance, Your Car May Get Towed After A Traffic Stop

Written On December 30, 2008 By Bob Kraft

I’ve written many times about the problems Texas has with uninsured motorists. More than 25% of Texas drivers have no auto insurance, even though it’s required by state law. Finally, beginning January 1, 2009, the Dallas police will start towing cars driven by people with no insurance. This new policy will disproportionately affect poor people, [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

Featured Link – HelpInsure.com

Written On December 29, 2008 By Bob Kraft

Texans have had the highest homeowner insurance rates in the country for years. And with our Republican government’s pro-business priorities, that probably won’t change anytime soon. But at least the State now offers a Web site where consumers can compare insurance rates for homeowner and automobile protection. The site is HelpInsure.com, and this is the [...]

Posted in Featured Link, Government, Insurance Information

Featured Link – Tricks of the Trade: How Insurance Companies Deny, Delay, Confuse and Refuse

Written On November 18, 2008 By Bob Kraft

The American Association for Justice has published an interesting and helpful article titled Tricks of the Trade: How Insurance Companies Deny, Delay, Confuse and Refuse. The topics include:
Denying Claims Delaying Until Death Confusing Consumers Discriminating by Credit Score Abandoning the Sick Canceling for a Call

Here is the summary — What you can do about [...]

Posted in Featured Link, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Older Or Disabled Clients Have Health Care Insurance Options

Written On October 7, 2008 By Bob Kraft

Many of our older or disabled clients become understandably confused by their health care insurance choices. One company that offers help in this area is Informed Choice. They offer side-by-side comparisons between your health policy and others
available.
If you’ve been on disability for more than 24 months, you might have more health care options than you [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Disability, Insurance Information, Social Security Disability

Uninsured Texas Drivers Warned Of Expanded Verification Program

Written On October 6, 2008 By Bob Kraft

I’ve written before about the Texas pilot program to finally begin enforcing the state’s mandatory auto liability insurance coverage requirement. This program is now being rolled out statewide after a long test run in Austin. Here are some details from an article in the Dallas Morning News:
The program relies on a
database containing the names [...]

Posted in Government, Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News