Things move pretty quickly on the Insurance Blog. There is the potential that you may have missed something that you would have liked to read. The Insurance Blog Week in Review is designed to give you a quick view of everything that was added there this week. It is an easy way to catch up!
Americans With Health Insurance are Less Likely to Smoke
A Gallup poll finds that Americans who have health insurance coverage are more likely to have healthier habits and are less likely to smoke than are Americans who don’t have health insurance. But, why is this so?
Health Insurer Pays Adults to Lose Weight
Kaiser Permanente has started a “Weigh and Win” program for any adult who lives in Colorado.
The Insurance Podcast Roundup for the week went up on January 2, 2012.
Insurer Plans to Drop Coverage for Elderly Couple
An insurer in Oklahoma decided to drop coverage for an elderly couple. The husband has cancer. However, it wasn’t the couple’s health insurance company that was dropping them.
Medicare is Going to Change
Like it or not, there will be changes to the Medicare program. This blog describes why that is so.
Allstate Guarantees Satisfaction
Allstate insurance has started a “Claims Satisfaction Guarantee” program that will give unsatisfied customers a credit to their premiums. The offer is only good on claims the company chose to pay out on.
Insurance Issues for Twins Born in Different Years
A pair of twins was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota right as the year was changing from 2011 to 2012. The twins were born in different years. I speculate as to how this could affect their parent’s insurance.
Doctors Asked to Consider Cost-Effectiveness of Care
New guidelines from the American College of Physicians recommends that doctors consider cost-effectiveness when they decide how to treat their patients. This is a new concept.
Insurer Sues Google Over Content of Search Results
American Income Life Insurance Company, in Alabama, has sued Google. The insurer has noticed that when you google the name of their company, two of the links that appear on the first page of the search results are unflattering ones. They want Google to move those links.
California Insures Thousands With Preexisting Conditions
The state of California received $761 million in federal funding to use for their state’s preexisting condition program. This has allowed more than 6,000 people who have preexisting conditions to be able to afford health insurance.
Obama Administration Lawyers Defend Individual Mandate
Lawyers representing the Obama administration argued before the Supreme Court that the individual mandate is necessary in order to break a cycle of cost shifting that results in an increase in the cost of health insurance. They also argued that what I call “the broccoli argument” is irrelevant.
Social Media Websites Might Start Selling Insurance
Would you buy an insurance policy from Facebook or Twitter?
What to Expect From Health Care Reform in 2012 Here is a quick list of changes that you can expect to happen with health reform this year.
Gaps in Health Insurance Coverage Halt Preventative Care
A study done by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research finds that one cannot “catch up” on preventative health care when you are able to afford insurance again. This is especially problematic for diabetics.
Image by Gordon Joly on Flickr