Reading with your morning coffee...

U.S. Losing Ground on Preventable Deaths: The Washington Post's Ceci Connolly reports on a new study:

Although the United States now spends $2.4 trillion a year on medical care -- vastly more per capita than comparable countries -- the nation ranks near the bottom on premature deaths caused by illnesses such as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers and pneumonia, according to research by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund published in the journal Health Affairs.

  White House lobbies for Public Plan in Final Bill (Seattle Times)
Democrats Try to Balance Cost and Coverage in Health Plan (also in the Seattle Times)

Health Insurance Exchanges: Will They Work? (NYT)
Counterpoint: How a Mandate Could Cost Employees Their Company Insurance (NYT)

What's Missing From Health Care Reform (Forbes)

Ohio warns of check scam...

Ohio's Department of Insurance is trying to spread the word about an international check scam that's issuing fake checks that seem to be from big-name insurance companies, including Nationwide.

Here's how it works: You get a letter with what looks like a $4,500 check from a reputable company. The letter congratulates you and says you've won $150,000 in a contest. You need only pay off the "non-resident government tax" to a British tax officer. You're told to cash the check and then wire most of the money to an address in the U.K. And to tell no one.

You can guess the rest. The wired money's gone, the bogus check doesn't cash, and of course there is no $150k waiting for you in some British shopping contest that you never entered.

Our investigators say that we haven't run into this one yet, but that it's just another variation on ever-popular "advance fee fraud," also known as the Nigerian scam, which in various forms dates back to at least the 1920s.

If you're looking for a smaller jackpot, however, punch your name into Washington state's unclaimed property site, run by the state's Department of Revenue. If you forgot an insurance deposit, last paycheck, utility deposit or bank safe deposit box, that's where all those things end up. The state-run site is legitimate. In fact, one of the biggest problems that the unclaimed property folks run into is trying to return money to skeptical residents who think it's some kind of scam.

(Never lived in Washington? Click here for other state's unclaimed property websites.)

What's the petition filed to liquidate Penn Treaty mean in Washington?

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department filed petitions on Oct. 2 to liquidate both Penn Treaty Network America and its subsidiary, American Network. Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario said that based on his office's analysis, the companies "do not have the ability to pay future claims without significant rate increases that would have to be requested and approved in all 50 states."


Together, the companies provide long-term care insurance to more than 120,000 policyholders in all states and the District of Columbia.

Washington state has about 3,700 Penn Treaty policyholders and no known American Network policyholders.

Ario's office says that if the court approves the petition, any active long-term care policies "will not be canceled, except by the policyholder" and will instead be transitioned to state guaranty funds, which cover policyholder claims up to coverage, which varies by state.
 
The details are spelled out in the liquidation petition memos (Here's Penn Treaty's, and here's American Network's). Penn Treaty's, for example, says that further efforts to rehabilitate the company's finances "would substantially increase the risk of loss to policyholders" and would, in fact, "be futile."
 
Here in Washington, we put up this web page to talk about the effects on Washington policyholders, how the liquidation process works, and what policyholders can do.

Why not to throw water on a cooking oil fire...

This video, which we noticed via State Farm's Twitter feed, illustrates pretty graphically why it's a very bad idea to try to put out a kitchen grease fire by throwing water on it.

The video recommends snuffing out a pan fire by soaking a wet towel, wringing it out, and then laying it on top of the pan. And this apparently works, as you'll see in the video. As State Farm noted, many firefighters recommend a simpler move: covering the burning pan with a lid.

The key lesson of the video, however is this: DO NOT THROW WATER on an oil fire.

Happy Fire Safety Week.

With large-value flood insurance scarce in the Green River Valley, OIC considers revisiting joint underwriting association legislation...

As businesses in the Green River Valley find it very hard indeed to find coverage above the $500,000 building/$500,000 contents maximum for federal flood insurance, our office is considering revisiting a proposal that would have given us broader powers to help.

In 2003, the insurance commissioner’s office asked the state Legislature for broader powers to create “joint underwriting associations” in cases where coverage effectively disappears. More than two dozen states have comprehensive JUA laws.

Here’s how they work: When coverage dries up, such laws allow the insurance commissioner to intervene and order insurers to band together to provide start-up financing and guarantee solvency for a joint underwriting association. The JUA then functions as a not-for-profit insurer of last resort. The coverage may be expensive, but at least it will be available. (Mostly, that is. Such associations can refuse to cover the very few applicants who present extraordinary risks.)

As things stand now, state law requires that the insurance commissioner get approval from the state legislature before establishing such an association. The 2003 legislation – House Bill 1582 – would have allowed the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to move ahead, under certain conditions, to directly order creation of such groups.

Insurers in 2003 opposed the bill, which died in committee. But with business owners struggling to find coverage in the Green River Valley and many millions of dollars in uninsured property in the potential flooding area, it may be time to revisit the issue.

(Note: I modified this post to clarify and describe a bit more about how JUAs work.)

Update on flood insurance problems in Green River Valley: A few companies reportedly selling coverage

Businesses below the weakened Howard Hanson dam, as we’ve written, are finding it difficult to find insurance above the federal flood insurance limits ($500k building, $500k contents). The Green River Valley area below the dam includes many businesses worth far more than that.


In such cases, we’ve been urging people to get the maximum federal coverage, then talk to their agents and brokers about so-called “surplus lines” coverage for the rest of the property value. But the Army Corps of Engineers has said it may have to spill extra water this rainy season to avoid stressing a weakened abutment adjacent to the dam. Not surprisingly, private flood coverage has largely dried up in the region as a result. Our office has also received reports of flood policies in the area being canceled recently.

A few brokers are reportedly still writing flood policies in the area, although it’s likely to be expensive. The Surplus Line Association of Washington is asking its members to notify the association of anyone with flood coverage available in the area, and has started listing the results on its website. There are two brokers listed on the website as I write this, just after 4 p.m. on Friday.

“This is an opportunity for the Surplus Lines Community to shine and help our region at a time when there is limited availability,” association manager Bob Hope wrote in an email to members Tuesday.

The uninsured in WA: excerpt from state House testimony

Barb Flye, senior health policy advisor to Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, testifed yesterday before the House Ways & Means committee. The topic: States' roles in health care reform. Here's a short excerpt that lays out the problem: the number of uninsured people in Washington state is on track to soon hit 1 million: