A View from the Press Box

I can’t believe Bill Bailey is gone. In my 28 years covering the insurance business, I don’t recall anyone with more energy, enthusiasm and good humor (often bitingly self-deprecating) when it came to defending all the good this industry does for society–particularly when clients have their lives devastated by natural disasters. Yet gone Bill is, having passed away at 68 after a bout with cancer. This “master of disaster,” as I used to teasingly greet him, will certainly be missed by an industry that needs all the warriors it can find to defend its beleaguered reputation.

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The sad truth about the current debate over healthcare is that it has little to do with real reform while there is little informed debate going on, says NU Associate Editor Mark Ruquet, after attending a local town hall meeting this week. (more…)

If you really want to get comprehensive health care reform in this country, force all members of Congress to shop for individual coverage for themselves and their families. You’d see legislation in no time! (more…)

Now that the public option is pretty much dead and buried, how in the world is President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress going to get coverage for the 47 million or so without health insurance? Why not mandate that each state create an assigned risk plan? (more…)

Alex Sink has a good shot of becoming the next governor of Florida, and I am not just saying that because she gave National Underwriter in general, and me in particular, a nice compliment in her speech yesterday in Orlando at the Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference, where NU puts on the National Trends program. (more…)

Terry Fleming’s got guts. Standing before a ballroom filled with attorneys and insurance pros, the vice president of the Risk and Insurance Management Society suggested that to get lawyers out of the system, we should establish a nationwide law governing workers’ compensation, administered by the states. (more…)

There is one glaring blind spot among those debating how best to reform the health care system. It’s my personal pet peeve–the fact that doctors don’t have to accept the same insurance plans as the hospitals in which they work. (more…)

I never expected Maurice Greenberg to give an inch when it came time to battle charges involving accounting fraud while he was heading up AIG. Yet not only did Hank settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he ended up having to do a little damage control after the SEC objected to his rhetorical shrug of the shoulders in characterizing the meaning of the deal to him personally. (more…)

What are the most interesting, challenging and unusual exposures you’ve ever come across as an underwriter, agent or broker? Contact NU’s Phil Gusman today at pgusman@nuco.com to share your war stories for one of our most popular editions of the year–published Sept. 7. (more…)

Critics of single-payer health insurance systems insist we will all end up like those poor souls in Canada, France, Great Britain, etc.–waiting endlessly for critical tests or procedures, being abandoned if we’re too old and sick for the government to care, and other warnings about the perils of rationing. If this is true, answer me this: Given that these are all vital democracies, why haven’t the voters revolted and put into power politicians who will restore a superior private health insurance system? Certainly the politicians here are scared out of their wits making any changes to our current system–which rations care by leaving tens of millions uninsured or underinsured. Don’t those same political dynamics come into play in other countries, or is this just a red herring–a scare tactic meant to discourage formation of a public plan option? I eargerly await your views.