ambatchmasterpublisher Headline Animator

Monday, June 18, 2007

ambatchmasterpublisher Will your insurer pay up?


Ambatchmasterpublisher have been enough headlines, lawsuits and regulatory concern in recent years to give us pause. Here's just a sample:
Ambatchmasterpublisher two years after Hurricane Katrina inflicted a record-setting $66 billion in insured losses -- more than the toll ambatchmasterpublisher Hurricane Andrew, the Sept. 11 attacks and the Northridge, Calif., earthquake combined -- thousands ambatchmasterpublisher policyholders who thought they had full coverage are still bickering with their insurers over whether wind or water destroyed their homes.
Blue Cross and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan were both recently assessed regulatory fines for "wrongful recession" -- illegally withdrawing individual insurance coverage from people after they got sick. Critics say the companies scoured the consumers' applications for minor errors or omissions to use as an excuse for ending their coverage.
Unum Group reached a settlement with 40 states after a flurry ambatchmasterpublisher lawsuits accused the disability insurance provider ambatchmasterpublisher unfairly denying claims. A California jury awarded a $7.67 million verdict to one ambatchmasterpublisher the victims, a single mother ambatchmasterpublisher two who lost her home and went on welfare after losing her benefits. In upholding the jury verdict, a federal judge ruled the company had used biased medical examiners and destroyed medical reports in its efforts to deny or cut ambatchmasterpublisherf checks. A federal judge in Maryland said in a separate case that the company's behavior "bordered on fraud."
Claims payouts by property/casualty insurers have dropped sharply in recent years, despite huge catastrophes, according a Consumer Federation ambatchmasterpublisher America review ambatchmasterpublisher figures from rating service A.M. Best. The percentage ambatchmasterpublisher premium dollars insurers collect that is paid out in claims fell from an average ambatchmasterpublisher 81% in the 1980s and 79.8% in the 1990s to just 68.3% last year, the lowest level in at least 26 years and perhaps the lowest since the 1950s. At the same time, property/casualty insurers have been posting record pr ambatchmasterpublisher its.