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On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved expansive mental health benefits parity bill, which would make it illegal for employer-provided health plans to impose annual limits on the number of visits or days to treat mental maladies if other medical conditions weren’t subject to the same limits. Such a prohibition is contained in… Continue reading House Committee Approves an Expanded Mental Health Benefits Parity Bill

On Thursday Zurich-based Swiss Reinsurance Co. at the Clinton Global Initiative 2007 held in New York announced the launching of its Climate Adaptation Development Programme, designed to develop a financial risk transfer market against weather risks in emerging countries. The Swiss Re program during the first phase will provide financial protection against drought conditions for… Continue reading Swiss Re Launches Climate Change Program

The world’s number one provider of insurance and reinsurance brokerage and global risk management services, Aon, and Arup, the global multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm, announced today announced a strategic alliance that brings to the marketplace an unprecedented pre- and post-loss consulting service that offers clients an independent, global catastrophic risk management solution.    … Continue reading Aon and Arup Announce Strategic Alliance

In related housing news, today KB Home, the country’s No. 5 home builder, posted a loss on write-downs for land values, with revenue falling 32 percent, reflecting the increasing supply of homes and tighter standards in the mortgage market that kept potential buyers on the sidelines. The U.S. housing market has been in a steep… Continue reading KB Home Posts Loss; Says No Sign of Housing Market Stabilizing Soon

The American Insurance Association (AIA) will testify about the usefulness of catastrophe models to insurers during a hearing Sept. 28 as part of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) meeting in Washington, D.C. “We are urging state regulators to allow insurers to use the best available tools to manage natural catastrophe risks,” said Eric… Continue reading AIA to Focus on Catastrophe and Reinsurance Issues During NAIC Meeting

A bill co-sponsored and introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) will require distributors of certain imported consumer and food products to demonstrate that they have the financial ability to cover risks associated with recalls and product safety.    Under the Food and Product Responsibility Act, a manufacturer would have to… Continue reading Bill Introduced to Show Product Recall Coverage

A bill approved by the Financial Services Committee would allow states to get federal assistance selling catastrophe bonds to fund earthquake or hurricane recovery.    A national program to help issue the bonds, the Homeowners’ Defense Act, would spread the potential expense of disasters among investors who face losing their entire investment in a natural… Continue reading House Panel Approves Measure to Allow Sale of Cat Bonds by States

Scheduled to speak today and tomorrow on Capital Hill, executives of Moody’s Investors Service, owned by Moody Corp, and McGraw-Hill Cos.’ Standard & Poor will be addressing publicly for the first time their decision to downgrade hundreds of mortgage-bond ratings over the summer, a move some feel came a little too late and helped exacerbate… Continue reading Moody and S&P to Address Ratings Role in Mortgage Market

On Tuesday night, the House approved a $35 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), ignoring a veto threat by President Bush. The vote was a solid 265 to 159. But while the Senate is expected to pass the compromise bill later this week and then send it on to Bush, threat… Continue reading House Continues to Ignore Threat of SCHIP Veto

The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 10.7 percent to $32.6 billion in first-half 2007 from $29.4 billion in first-half 2006. Fueled by the industry’s net income, policyholders’ surplus — insurers’ net worth measured according to Statutory Accounting Principles — increased $26.5 billion to $512.8 billion at June 30, 2007, from $486.2… Continue reading P/C Carriers’ Net Income Rose, Profitability Slips, During First Quarter 07