Live Insurance News

Homeowners insurance is running from Californian wildfires

November 2, 2015November 1, 2015 G. Turner

As the brush fires and blazes moved ahead, insurers started to step back from providing coverage. Near the start of October, homeowners insurance companies found themselves covering the majority of the almost 5,000 claims that were made as a result of two wildfires that occurred in September in Northern California and agreed both to provide the policyholders with a larger amount of time in which to document their claims and to boost the speed of the payments. That said, following one of the worst wildfire seasons in the state, the…

Federal health insurance exchange opened for previews yesterday

October 26, 2015October 25, 2015 G. Turner

Over the weekend, the marketplace website opened its doors for window shoppers to have a look. Consumers living in the 38 states that are served by the federal health insurance exchange are now able to have an advance look at how the website works and what it will have to offer when the open enrollment period begins with the start of November. This will allow them to get a feel for the new site’s navigation and calculate what out of pocket costs would be. Officials from the Department of Health…

Insurance co-op in Oregon shutting down

October 19, 2015October 18, 2015 G. Turner

The state is losing a cooperative from its 2016 marketplace, as it has started a “wind down of business”. An Oregon insurance co-op is now stepping out of the state’s health plan market for next year as it has entered into a “wind down of business”, claiming that the recent announcement from the government that it will honor only 12.6 percent of the risk corridor payment of insurers is to blame. This withdrawal of the co-op will mean that there will be 15,000 members in the state without coverage. The…

Health insurance exchange website security gets a boost

October 12, 2015October 11, 2015 G. Turner

The Obama administration has responded to criticisms from civil liberties advocates with strengthened protection. Following criticism that the Obama administration has received from civil liberties advocates, it has now stated that it will be strengthening the security of its health insurance exchange website, just as a new open enrollment period is about to begin. The page will now feature a new “privacy manager” that will offer users additional control. According to a blog post by Kevin Counihan, the CEO of HealthCare.gov, the federal health insurance exchange website, the site will…

Loan insurance compensation deadline on the way in the UK

October 5, 2015October 4, 2015 G. Turner

British regulators are currently working on setting the date by which consumers must be paid. At the end of last week, British regulators announced that they would likely be starting to work on setting a deadline by which insurers would be required to compensate consumers who were improperly sold loan insurance products. It is expected that the refunds from this process will be costing the banking industry billions of dollars. The Financial Conduct Authority, which is the agency responsible for the oversight of the financial industry in Great Britain, has…