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DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Sunday for reform of the insurance sector, where companies are increasingly withdrawing assistance against climate shocks. Lower-income countries and workers in nations most affected by climate change are struggling to access insurance to help protect them from economic shocks. "We need to rethink the insurance industry," Clinton said during a panel on women and climate resiliency. "Insurance companies are pulling out of so many places. They're not insuring homes. They're not insuring businesses."

DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Sunday for reform of the insurance sector, where companies are increasingly withdrawing assistance against climate shocks. Lower-income countries and workers in nations most affected by climate change are struggling to access insurance to help protect them from economic shocks. "We need to rethink the insurance industry," Clinton said during a panel on women and climate resiliency. "Insurance companies are pulling out of so many places. They're not insuring homes. They're not insuring businesses." Clinton earlier this year joined the Arsht-Rock Foundation Resilience Center as a global...

With a sweeping property insurance reform bill awaiting Gov. Rick Scott’s signature, supporters and opponents of the proposal continue to battle. Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who throughout the legislation session labeled the bill “anticonsumer” and fought many of its industry-friendly provisions, last week urged people to contact the Governor’s Office and tell him to veto the measure. “Quite simply, the bill on Gov. Scott’s desk is not designed to benefit you,” Fasano wrote. “It will instead increase your rates and increase insurance company profits.” The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America responded, calling Fasano’s efforts to get the...

Subway riders know the adage – The third rail is deadly –it carries the current that can kill you. Avoid the third rail. We are about to get that “third rail” for government-controlled healthcare. Then comes the death blow to your medical privacy, your freedom to choose medical treatment options, and your ability to control the cost of any private health insurance you may want to buy.

Spurred by heart-wrenching stories of sick people denied health coverage, the state of New York did what many of President Obama's critics say he should do now -- it passed a relatively simple law requiring insurers to accept all applicants. Other states have taken similar steps, making narrowly targeted changes instead of trying to overhaul their whole healthcare systems. But two decades later, New York's experience offers a cautionary tale: Making isolated changes to the complex medical insurance system can have unwelcome consequences. Premiums in New York are now the highest in the nation by some measures, with individual health...

Suicide by Drugs by Kathy Gibson Boatman Issue 140 - September 30, 2009 We watched the graduation caps and tassels fly up in the air and we applauded the graduate’s success with grins on our faces and a tremendous sense of relief. The tumultuous High School years came to a close with possession of that all-important document and foundation for adult life, the High School diploma. Our son is a young man who has struggled to find his niche in life and I recall a conversation with my close girlfriends and fellow moms as we returned home from a mom’s...

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wants levies on insurers to pay for Obamacare and fines for families who don't sign up. To keep Obamacare alive, Baucus has proposed a Rube Goldberg scheme of fees and fines on insurers and the uninsured designed to forcibly bring everyone into the loving and protective arms of the nanny state...

Reform: The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wants levies on insurers to pay for ObamaCare and fines for families who don't sign up. We can cut costs and expand coverage without sacrificing freedom.To keep ObamaCare alive, Montana Democrat Max Baucus has proposed a Rube Goldberg scheme of fees and fines on insurers and the uninsured designed to forcibly bring everyone into the loving and protective arms of the nanny state. To help finance his Plan B, Baucus would impose annual fees of $6 billion on health insurers, $4 billion on medical-device makers, $2.3 billion on drug manufacturers and $750...

PRESIDENT Obama has stopped talking about "health-care reform." The new poll-tested phrase of the day is "health-insurance reform." Specifically the president says he wants to protect people with "pre-existing conditions." He would require insurance companies to accept anyone who applies for coverage, regardless of their current health (a rule known as "guaranteed issue") and prohibit them from charging higher premiums to people who are sick (called "community rating"). But if that's what the president wants, he could already have a bill through Congress, with significant Republican support. In fact, even the insurance companies have agreed to it. But the 1,017-page...

Yesterday, Barack Obama was God. Today, he's fallen from grace, the magic gone, his health care reform dead. If you believed the first idiocy — and half the mainstream media did — you'll believe the second. Don't believe either. Conventional wisdom always makes straight-line projections. They are always wrong. Yes, Obama's aura has diminished, in part because of overweening overexposure. But by year's end he will emerge with something he can call health care reform. The Democrats in Congress will pass it because they must. Otherwise, they'll have slain their own savior in his first year in office. But that...

Unlike President Obama, and most members of Congress, I am actually reading House Resolution 3200. I am commenting on relevant sections (see below) and pulling out the text the American public should be most concerned with. There are some provisions that provide “consumer protections” some of which may be beneficial, but all of which either already exist or will necessarily increase insurance premiums (or bankrupt insurers in the case of controlled premiums). Just the Table of Contents is telling and contradictory. A recurring theme throughout the bill is a massive expansion of the Federal government which will be necessary just...

Earlier this week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacked Sen. Jim DeMint, saying, “Just this week, the Senator from South Carolina said we just need to ‘get out of the way and allow the market to work.’ In other words, he says, let’s do nothing.” Reid continued, “Allowing the market to work is code for letting the greedy insurance companies” continue to deny care to sick and elderly Americans. Reid of Course, is making up history as he goes along when he refers to “Greedy Insurance Companies,” In 2006 and 2007, Reid and Senator Barack Obama joined those “Greedy Insurance...