Power Pal

"Across the United States, if someone is injured in an auto accident, the chances are about one in seven that the at-fault driver is uninsured" - so says a 2006 article in the Insurance Journal. Why should you care? Because you could be involved in one of those accidents. I learned that the hard way today. I got hit by someone yesterday in a parking lot. At the scene they claimed to have auto-insurance and I jotted down their insurance and license info, but when I called their insurance company today to file a claim I discovered there policy had lapsed. Lucky for me the damage was minor. As it turns out, though, I shouldn't have been surprised that the driver was uninsured. In California, the rate of uninsured motorists is even more outrageous - one in four ! That's the second worst uninsured rate in the United States. That's sad. (And the lesson here - always always always call the police to file a report!) So how could the problem be this bad? I suppose this ...

I've read some articles lately about medical tourism and came across one today from BusinessWeek called " Outsourcing the Patients ". It talks about a really interesting trend of health insurers sending their policyholders overseas to get health care because the costs are so much cheaper. And we're not talking about some obscure insurers, the article refers to Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina for its example. These insurers are really concerned about rising health care costs in the U.S. It's what sent WellPoint's stock tumbling almost 30% this past week - an amazing loss in market value - because they had to make "revisions to our prior earnings guidance due to higher than expected medical costs". One of the biggest Blue affiliates with over 250 actuaries underestimating costs definitely spooks the market and speaks to how high costs really are. To put how high costs are in perspective, here's a summary from the BusinessWeek article co...

I'm not really a Michael Moore fan, but I do have to say that I enjoyed watching his movie SiCKO a few weeks ago. It's sensationalized, melodramatic, and uses his usually hyperbole. You laugh, sometimes you want to cry, your jaw drops repeatedly because of ridiculous juxtapositions, but it gets the basic point across - we have a problem here. And the movie does offer some really good background on the health-care industry and how it differs from those in other countries, particularly those in Europe. The basic question it raises is the following: in a developed economy, should health care be an entitlement? It's a pretty interesting policy question. The ultimate goal as a nation, as I'm sure no one would disagree, is to generate the best overal health for the citizens of a country as efficiently as possible with the least amount of cost. Sounds simple. But how do you do that? Do you rely on the free markets? Do you socialize health care? What system generates the best...