Financial News on Insurance

An increasingly challenged industry due to climate change and global heating, and an aging global population. Wikipedia: Insurance, KukaXoco: Insurance stock charts

• In first half of 2025, the financial cost of weather catastrophes escalated at record pace, [as global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels worsens weather catastrophes]. The environment-hating Trump's administration stopped updating a database tracking the costs of the s worst disasters. A group of scientists has revived it.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 October 2025

• More and more workers are using GLP-1 weight loss drugs. It is costing their employers a fortune. More than 36 million people with job-based insurance have a body mass index that would medically qualify them for a GLP-1 drug.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 22 October 2025

• Ever increasing insurance costs for home and auto insurance bring back talk of price caps. Increasingly, insurers in both Republican and Democratic states are being told to cap prices as lawmakers come under pressure from voters.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 October 2025

• Higher Obamacare prices become public in a dozen states. Consumers are facing greater costs for their 2026 Affordable Care Act health coverage as Congress continues to debate whether to extend subsidies that help people afford their premiums. Filings from insurance companies show that prices for plans are rising by an average of 18 percent nationwide next year. [But for Repubicans in Congress to extend health subsidies for the non-rich, it would have to give less subsidies to the rich.]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 October 2025

• Republicans, 17 years into Obamacare - the Affordable [Health] Care Act, lie that they have a health care plan. They don't, just promises and supposeds.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 17 October 2025

• Extending the subsidies for the non-rich for the Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare') which expire in November - the controversial political issue at the heart of the government shutdown - Republicans oppose, Democrats support, but the Congressional districts most impacted (where insurance could go up 100%) are Republican
  - Zero Hedge, 16 October 2025

• The [Christian Bible Belt] southern states in the USA have the highest levels of adults who can't afford healthcare
  - Zero Hedge, 10 October 2025

• Drug rehabilitation businesses lure in patients for their insurance money - and then leave them on the street. Operators promise high-end treatment, help addicts sign up for insurance then pile on charges for little in return, say former patients and insurers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2025

• Regulators are investigating the accounting practices of MassMutual. The SEC is focused on how the insurer accounts for income on billions of dollars of loans.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2025

• The governor of California signs a new law to reduce the role of private equity in healthcare. The law lets the state punish buyout shops that interfere in healthcare decisions at medical practices they own.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2025

• OpenAI and Anthropic are considering using investor funds to settle potential claims from multibillion-dollar lawsuits, as insurers balk at providing comprehensive coverage for the risks/crimes [KM: that are making rich AI companies richer]
  - Financial Times, 08 October 2025

• [To have more money to make rich people richer, Christian] Republicans added work requirements to qualify for Medicaid for the "blessed meek" poor. A study shows that such requirements do not boost employment - [the pretend goal to paper off the intended result of being able to spend less money on Medicaid]
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 October 2025

• Why insurance companies are taking your money to the Cayman Islands. Some offshore jurisdictions do not require insurers to hold as much extra capital in case investments turn sour.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 October 2025

• The Republican party to Generation Z people: pay double for health insurance, or go without
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 October 2025

• Tesla has been hit with an enforcement action by California's Department of Insurance for routinely denying or delaying customer insurance claims ("egregious delays in responding to policyholder claims in all steps") despite years of warnings from the state regulator. The insurance is offered in conjunction with State National Insurance. In July, the company was hit with a proposed class action lawsuit over allegations that the company purposely delayed and minimized claim payouts.
  - TechCrunch, 04 October 2025

• Chubb Insurance (based in Zurich) has the most progressive diversity and equality initiatives in the insurance industry, and the most progressive renewable energy policies (for example, refusing to underwrite new coal-fired plants or companies deriving over 30% of revenue from coal mining or energy production).
  - Zero Hedge, 03 October 2025

• Sea level rise could put more than 100 million buildings across the Global South at risk of regular flooding if fossil fuel emissions are not curbed quickly, decreasing their value and making them harder to insure
  - Phys.org, 03 October 2025

• In July this year, the Mexican government did something no other government had ever done. It used a corporate debt tool to reduce the massive debt pile of state-owned energy major Pemex. Now, others are using this as a template for their struggling state entities. In July, the government of México issued $12 billion worth of something called P-Caps (much used by insurance companies). Normally used in corporate circles, P-Caps, or pre-capitalized securities, allow a borrower access to debt funding in case of need but without being included in its balance sheet. The securities sit in a trust to keep them separate from the company's liabilities and avoid having them affect its credit rating.
  - OilPrice.com, 01 October 2025

• Affordable Care Act premiums will rise 114% if enhanced subsidies expire. The enhancced subsidies - or, enhanced premium tax credits - make health insurance premiums cheaper for 22 million ACA enrollees.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 30 September 2025

• Get ready for higher health insurance premiums next year. Employers say they are facing the biggest increase in health costs in more than a decade - almost 9 percent on average.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 September 2025

• Why Obamacare bills may double next year. Extensive subsidies that reduce premium costs for millions are set to expire, unless Congress extends them .
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 September 2025

• A diminished Social Security work force, and its non-rich customers, feel the strain . After this year's staffing cuts ordered by Trump, some non-rich people wait for hours, others sail through. But overburdened field office workers carry the weight.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 September 2025

• Tesla insurance rates have been increasing and putting electric vehicle enthusiasts in challenging financial positions. Because of that, some drivers are trading in their Teslas for other EV brands.
  - The CoolDown, 13 September 2025

• Health insurance costs for businesses to rise by most in 15 years. Insurers say that the rising premiums are driven by growing healthcare costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 September 2025

• Nearly 60% of Americans now keep their cars longer to manage rising interest rates, insurance premiums, and fuel prices
  - Zero Hedge, 29 August 2025

• People in Florida may be paying $10 billion more for utilities by 2030, the largest increase in the history of the USA. Florida Power & Light says the $10 billion is needed to pay for new solar and battery storage facilities and to ensure a more reliable power grid. But critics observe that this helps the rich get richer at the expense of poor people, since "about 50 cents of every consumer dollar paid for base rate tariff electric service goes for shareholder return and associated federal income taxes"
  - Moneywise, 22 August 2025

• Extreme weather events are driving up both global food prices and home insurance rates as more frequent catastrophic climate events increase the risk of loss
  - Futurism, 22 August 2025

• Research reveals why more US homeowners are at risk of losing insurance: "Insuring properties is a gamble for home insurance companies, and it is increasingly not worth the risk."
  - The Cool Down, 22 August 2025

• Alarming report warns of worsening crisis that could destabilize US insurance system: "Losses are on the rise." "The probability of extreme weather is changing."
  - The Cool Down, 22 August 2025

• Elon Musk's Tesla's poorly designed, low-selling Cybertruck is such a mess that insurance companies are refusing to provide car insurance for the vehicles
  - Futurism, 20 August 2025

• Liberal California passes a law that gives interest on insurance payouts to homeowners, payouts held in escrow accounts at banks that currently keep all of the interest for a non-risk service.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 19 August 2025

• Don't worry about Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is still a buy.
  - Barron's, 16 August 2025

• Shares of UnitedHealth rise more than 10% at the open, the day after Buffett announced that Berkshire Hathaway had increased its holdings in UnitedHealth Group stock
  - Investopedia, 14 August 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reveals a new purchase of shares of the beleagured insurance company, UnitedHealth
  - Comcast's CNBC, 14 August 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reveals a new purchase of shares of the beleagured insurance company, UnitedHealth
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 August 2025

• Do you need to own a house? Many older people in the USA decide they do not. Rising property tax, insurance and home-repair costs are prompting some people 55 and older to consider renting.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2025

• $4,700,000 - Liberty Mutual will pay $4.7 million to settle a criminal probe in the USA involving its subsidiary in Bharat
  - Thomson's Reuters, 11 August 2025

• Why young americans dread turning 26: the chaos of obtaining health insurance (when they lose family health care under the Affordable Care Act). Young adults without jobs that provide insurance find that their options are limited and expensive. The problem is about to get worse. Buying cheap subpar insurance that leaves them with insurmountable debt following a medical crisis.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 August 2025

• Some insurance professionals fear the world is fast approaching temperature levels - global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels sold by the socialist energy industry - where professional risk managers will no longer be able to offer cover for financial services. Top insurers fear the climate crisis and global heating could soon outpace industry solutions, effectively threatening to make entire regions around the world uninsurable.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 08 August 2025

• $100,000,000 - Prudential Financial reached a $100 million settlement to resolve Federal Trade Commission civil charges that its Assurance IQ unit misled consumers into buying healthcare plans that did not provide the promised coverage. None of the white executives are sentenced to time in jail.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 06 August 2025

• $45,000,000 - MediaAlpha to pay a settlement of $45 million for joining Prudential Financial in misleading consumers about healthcare services and bombarding them with robocalls
  - Fox News, 06 August 2025

• UnitedHealthcare said in its second quarter earnings call that it plans to drop Medicare Advantage plans that currently serve over 600,000 users, becoming the latest health insurer to announce a scaling back of this magnitude. "It is bad for a healthcare plan's business when people use healthcare from a plan that offers ... healthcare coverage." [Yeah, it interferes with making the rich richer.]
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 06 August 2025

• UnitedHealth grew to be a leviathan. Then came the backlash. The conglomerate was viewed as one of the most successful companies in America, but patients are enraged at lousy service, and rich investors have lost faith in its business model to make them richer.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 August 2025

• Why the catastrophe bond market is growing, reaching sales of $17.7 billion in 2024. The growth of the catastrophe bond market has also called into question their ability to cover climate disaster damage. Bonds that pay out to fund disaster aid may seem like a bad investment in a time of increasingly extreme weather events. But that has not been the case. This is because there has not been much payout for aid even when severe disasters occur.
  - The Week, 04 August 2025

• Meet the new power brokers of credit markets. Morgan Stanley: "... life insurance companies have transitioned from conservative allocators of public bonds to dynamic participants in the broader credit ecosystem ..."
  - Zero Hedge (locked), 03 August 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reports a 4% drop in operating earnings in Q2 of 2025 due to less earnings with its insurance businesses and due to currency fluctuations
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 August 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reports a 4% drop in operating earnings in Q2 of 2025
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 02 August 2025

• The healthcare tab for retirees keeps growing. Retirees might spend more than $172,000 on healthcare, Fidelity estimates.
  - Barron's, 02 August 2025

• UnitedHealth says 2025 earnings will be worse than expected as high medical costs hurt profits
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 July 2025

• Health insurance companies in the USA have a problem - customers are making more claims on their policies. Their earnings (and stock prices) are dropping in response.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 28 July 2025

• A tiny company is vouching for risky insurers in hurricane country. As major home insurers flee storm-ravaged markets, Demotech's ratings enable smaller ones to step in. A string of failures has left homeowners without compensation.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 July 2025

• UnitedHealth aims to reassure investors as profits plunge, and the Justice Department nvestigates its Medicare business. Its stock prices is down 50% in the last two months.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 July 2025

• Health insurance premiums in 2026 could see the largest increase in 5 years. Enhanced 'Obamacare' insurance premium tax credits will expire at the end of 2025, resulting in an average increase of more than 75 percent in out-of-pocket premium payments. "This is expected to cause healthier enrollees to drop their coverage and create a sicker risk pool."
  - Zero Hedge, 26 July 2025

• Health services/insurance company Centene reports a surprise quarterly loss, in yet another disappointment for investors in the sector that has suffered a series of setbacks due to rising costs in government-backed insurance plans
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 July 2025

• What happens to an annuity when an insurance company fails? Protection is not at the federal level, but the state level, and many states provide $250,000 in present value of annuity benefits, including cash surrender and withdrawal values.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 July 2025

• Insurance marketplace Accelerant and backers raise $724 million in an IPO in the USA
  - Thomson's Reuters, 23 July 2025

• More miserable summer weather? Thank fossil fuel pollution - along with other factors - that has turned summers into months of mounting peril, punctuated by relentless heat waves, rampant wildfires and catastrophic flooding. Flash floods? Too much water in the air due to global heating. As Trump undermines environmental protection, if you voted for him, enjoy paying more for insurance.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 20 July 2025

• Climate catastrophes (wildfires, floods, storm damage), due to global heating from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating a "new market reality" for insurance companies, with insurance losses in 2025 expected to rise about $100 billion
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 July 2025

• Climate catastrophes (wildfires, floods, storm damage), due to global heating from the burning of fossil fuels, is creating a "new market reality" for insurance companies, with insurance losses in 2025 expected to rise about $100 billion
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 July 2025

• Health insurance companies in the USA are denying more claims for medications
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 July 2025

• Health insurance companies offering insurance under the Affordadble Care Act ('Obamacare') propose the biggest increases in premiums since 2018, due to the end of subsidies (which Christian Republicans refused to extend, so they would have more money to give to the rich), and Trump's taxes/tariffs in imported medical products used to treat the sick
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 18 July 2025

• Health insurance companies offering insurance under the Affordadble Care Act ('Obamacare') propose the biggest increases in premiums since 2018, due to the end of subsidies (which Christian Republicans refused to extend, so they would have more money to give to the rich), and Trump's taxes/tariffs in imported medical products used to treat the sick
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 July 2025

• ACA health insurance will cost the average person 75% more next year, according to one analysis
  - NPR, 18 July 2025

• Millions of people in Zhōngguó continue to quit the national health insurance scheme, because of rising costs of the insurance, incomes that are not growing, and distrust of the insurance system
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 July 2025

• To have more money to make the rich richer, Trump is imposing a 3.5% tax on money poor people in the USA send back to their families in other countries (a 'remittance tax'), starting in January. This will greatly hurt families in the Phillipines.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post (locked), 15 July 2025

• The Christian Camp Mystic in Texas repeatedly convinced FEMA officials to remove some of their Christian buildings from FEMA's 100-year flood map, so it didn't have to spend as much money on flood insurance. On July 4th, floods sweep through the camp and killed 27 campers and counselors. One safety expert: "It is a mystery to me why [these Christians] were not taking proactive steps to move structures away from the risk, let alone challenging what seems like a very reasonable map that shows these structures were in the 100-year flood zone." No mystery, money is more important than the safety of people.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 July 2025

• How 1.5 million could lose their health insurance under Trump's new tax/spending law which mostly makes the rich richer
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 July 2025

• Prosecutors question doctors about UnitedHealth's Medicare billing practices. Justice Department prosecutors recently interviewed former employees about company practices that increase federal payments.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 July 2025

• Profits at health insurance companies are declining due to increase costs on providing medical care
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 July 2025

• Insurance companies in the USA are refusing to sell insurance for homes in high-risk climate zones because the losses from extreme weather events (caused by global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels) makes such policies unprofitable to sell. Without insurance, would-be home owners cannot obtain mortgages from banks and other lenders. Yet the environment-hating Trump is eliminating funding for emergency services and weather monitoring, eliminate funding for renewable energy, to give more tax credits to the fossil fuel companies that are the root cause of the destructive extreme weather.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 July 2025

• Government relief and insurance programs require significant reform to be equipped to handle a future of increasingly intense and costly climate events due to global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2025

• Athora Holding, owned by Apollo Global Management, buys an insurer in the United Kingdom, Pension Insurance, for $7.8 billion, to bolster Athora's insurance activities in Europe
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 July 2025

• Republican Christian controlled Texas has the most number of people without health insurance, while liberal Democrat Massachusetts has the most number of people with health insurance
  - Zero Hedge, 03 July 2025

• Shares of Centene, a large health insurance company in the USA, crash 40% after it withdrew its 2025 guidance, citing new data from an independent actuarial firm that revealed weaker-than-expected trends in its Affordable Care Act marketplaces and mounting Medicaid costs
  - Zero Hedge, 02 July 2025

• Costs of home insurance are increasing in most states of the USA, an average of 8% for the whole country (according to Insurify), with some states having larger increases (such as California at 21% and Louisiana at 28%)
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2025

• Only 51% of people in the USA have life insurance
  - CNBC Select, 01 July 2025

• One in three drivers in the USA do not have sufficient levels of car insurance
  - Comcast's CNBC, 01 July 2025

• USA Census data analyzed by Harvard University shows that a third of all USA households, whether they are buying or renting, spend more than the recommended one third of their income on housing and utilities and therefore qualify as cost-burdened.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 June 2025

• 1 In 3 Americans are spending less on insurance in order to be able to buy food to survive. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans (24%) said that they have reduced coverage for a home or car to save money, and 29% reported downgrading or canceling at least one type of insurance over the past year.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 June 2025

• $44,000,000,000 - Lawmakers seek to close a loophole in the Veterans Administration that allows private medicare insurance companies to grift billions of dollars from taxpayers. A Wall Street Journal investigation found the federal government paid insurers an estimated $44 billion from 2018 through 2021 to cover veterans in Medicare Advantage plans who were also getting healthcare through the Veterans Administration.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 June 2025

• Incompetent highly-paid management at insurance giant Aflac allows cybercriminals to hack into Aflac's computer systems, potentially stealing Social Security numbers, insurance claims and health information
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 June 2025

• Insurance companies are "under siege" by a notorious hacking group. Scattered Spider, which is suspected to be behind data breaches at Marks & Spencer, Victoria's Secret and other retailers, appears to be setting its sights on insurance companies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 June 2025

• To make the rich richer and poor poorer, health care cuts in the Christian Republican proposed tax/spending law could add up to $22,800 in medical debt for some poorer families. Overall, to make the rich richer, millions of Americans will lose health care coverage from the government, pushing up medical debts to non-rich people by $50 billion.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 June 2025

• Rabobank: even if Iran does not close the Straight of Hormuz, insurance costs will soar pushing oil prices higher
  - Zero Hedge, 23 June 2025

• Health plans under major insurers in the USA said they have voluntarily agreed to speed up and reduce prior authorizations - a process that is often a major pain point for patients and providers for getting and providing care
  - Comcast's CNBC, 23 June 2025

• Lifespan models of life insurance companies are being rendered obsolete by GLP-1-like weight loss drugs, which are helping people live longer. If someone has a life insurance policy assuming a death-age before using the drugs, the life insurance company could lose money in the long-term caring for the longer-living person.
  - GLP1 Digest, 22 June 2025

• High costs have ended the USA's love affair with cars. Cars now cost a fortune in repairs, insurance and shocking expensive replacement parts.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2025

• Health insurers to promise changes to pre-approval process that caused complaints. Major insurers will pledge to smooth and speed "prior authorization", in a new industry initiative.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 June 2025

• A brain surgeon's clash with UnitedHealthcare shows the hardball tactics of the insurance company. A subsidiary offered no-interest loans to help doctors after a massive hack of a subsidiary of UnitedHealth had to halt all reimbursements. But in January 2025, the subsidiary suddenly demanded the surgeon repay all of the remaining balance in full in five days. The surgeon dug into the UnitedHealthcare claims and was shocked to find the insurer had drawn up reimbursement checks payable to her practice and then deposited those checks into its own bank account.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 June 2025

• An investment division of Prudential lends $500 million in private credit to Affirm for three years. Nonbank lenders like Affirm are cultivating stables of large financing partners to ensure they have sufficient capital to lend, even when public debt markets freeze up.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 June 2025

• "It has been on the market 157 days ... only four people have looked at it". Sellers of housing in Florida struggle in once-booming destination: "An effing mess". Sellers blame insurance hikes, high mortgage rates, and hurricane damage as dealbreakers.
  - Benzinga, 19 June 2025

• Insurance companies want businesses to "wake up" to the costs of extreme heat caused by global heating due to the burning of fossil fuels. The market for extreme heat insurance is only likely to increase as risk modelers for insurers and lending institutions offer clients the ability to see heat impacts on properties or types of businesses.
  - Bloomberg, 18 June 2025

• The California Department of Insurance (CDI) has launched an investigation into State Farm General's handling of claims following the Eaton and Palisades Fires in January. The state will investigate State Farm's alleged constant reassignment of adjusters, a lack of continuity between company representatives and consumers, differing results on similar claims, poor record-keeping, and information-sharing between claims personnel.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 June 2025

• Hedge funds are facing pushback in California as their bets tied to insurance claims stemming from the Los Angeles wildfires are attacked as unethical. The transactions in focus are tied to so-called subrogation claims, which hedge funds, private equity firms and other alternative investment managers have been buying from insurers over the past few months. Subrogation kicks in if a third party such as a utility is suspected of being responsible for losses covered by insurers.
  - Bloomberg, 08 June 2025

• Berkshire Hathaway wannabes are coming. We sized up the contenders. These financial companies are seeking to replicate Warren Buffett's formula as he prepares to retire. Some have been big winners.
  - Barron's, 07 June 2025

• How extreme weather is increasing the cost of your auto insurance. Insured losses due juse to hailstones have increased fivefold in the USA, costing an estimated $10 billion annually. Research has linked climate change to larger hailstones, which can produce deeper and bigger dents. As the incidence and severity of hailstorms, hurricanes, flooding, and tornadoes increase due to global heating, insurance providers field more claims and face higher repair costs. These outcomes often prompt premium increases, particularly in areas prone to severe weather.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 06 June 2025

• Humana to support more regulations on billing practices for Medicare Advantage. The changes would limit how insurers add patient diagnoses that trigger lucrative extra profits.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 June 2025

• Replacing Buffett's insurance mastermind is Berkshire Hathaway's next succession mystery. Who should take over for Ajit Jain - the brains behind Berkshire's insurance powerhouse - when he is ready to step down? Berkshire watchers have some ideas.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 June 2025

• How Trump's regulatory rollbacks are increasing costs for people in the USA. A new DOGE tally claims/lies that eliminating rules on credit card fees, appliance standards and health insurance "saves the American people" money. Data show the opposite - that the claims of Musk's DOGE are "thou shalt not" lies as prices increase.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 June 2025

• Sweden will increase reviews on the insurance carried by foreign ships as worries rise about Rossiya and its "shadow fleet" of aging ships
  - Associated Press, 31 May 2025

• Who should consider getting flood insurance? These days, almost everyone. Inland areas have suffered severe flooding in recent years, experts note. And standard homeowner policies do not cover flood damage.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 31 May 2025

• Could Taiwan derail Trump's 'big beautiful' plan for the housing market in the USA? The life insurance industry in Taiwan is a major buyer of USA Treasury Bonds.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 May 2025

• Discounts, new products, and better insurance are part of an effort by Hong Kong to aid the elderly. Senior official leading new working group notes spending by people aged 60 and above reached about HK$342 billion in 2024, accounting for 11 per cent of the GDP.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 May 2025

• Yields on super-long government bonds in Nihon fall sharply after Reuters reported that the finance ministry of Nihon might issue fewer of these bonds.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 26 May 2025

• Republican's big for-the-rich proposed tax law scared bond markets. That is bad economic news if you are not rich. Investors are worried that Trump and the GOP are acting in ways that will both lower growth and raise interest rates, a toxic combination.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 26 May 2025

• Four of the biggest life insurers in Nihon (Meiji Yasuda Life
  - Bloomberg, 26 May 2025

• Four of the biggest life insurers in Nihon (Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance, Sumitomo Life Insurance, Dai-Ichi Life Holdings, Nippon Life Insurance) reported about $60 billion of combined unrealized losses on their domestic bond holdings for the latest fiscal year, underscoring the risks they face as interest rates climb. For now, they are not overly concerned.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 May 2025

• Annuities are hot sellers during volatile markets. The most popular annuities protect against all or some losses, while offering either fixed yields or returns linked to a stock market index.
  - Barron's, 23 May 2025

• How UnitedHealthcare became the 'face' of the health insurance frustrations in the USA. The company and other insurers have faced backlash from patients who say they were denied necessary care, providers who say they are buried in red tape and lawmakers who say they are alarmed by its vast influence.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 May 2025

• Senator Josh Hawley blasts Allstate CEO for earning $26 million in 2024 - while the company cannot "afford" to pay out insurance claims
  - Moneywise, 21 May 2025

• A medical diagnosis at the severity of a 'death sentence', and the wrenching realities of life insurance. Accelerated-death benefits that provide cash before a person dies are common features of policies these days, but actually getting a payout can be tough.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2025

• Swiss Re beats profit expectations, despite lower revenue. The reinsurer reported a larger-than-expected increase in net profit as it absorbed the impact of the wildfires that ravaged California in January.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2025

• Your insurance company may be using a drone to spy on your property from the air
  - HuffPost, 15 May 2025

• Weather forecasters say that the USA is facing worst tornado season in more than a decade. Severe weather in 2024 resulted in the second-highest number of tornadoes since record-keeping began in 1950.
  - The Independent, 15 May 2025

• UnitedHealth Group, one of the biggest companies in the USA, is imploding. Its CEO just resigned, abandoned providing financial guidance, and is under criminal investigation. In one month, United Health stock has decline $288 billion - half of its market capitalization.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 14 May 2025

• Why UnitedHealth's troubles may be more isolated than investors think. Surging medical costs and regulatory changes hit UnitedHealth, but rivals such as Humana and CVS look better positioned.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 May 2025

• UNH shares are plunging after hours (down 6% and back below $300 for the first time since September 2020) following a report from The Wall Street Journal that, according to people familiar with the matter, the DOJ is investigating UnitedHealth Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud related to its Medicare Advantage business.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 May 2025

• UNH shares are plunging after hours (down 6% and back below $300 for the first time since September 2020) following a report from The Wall Street Journal that, according to people familiar with the matter, the DOJ is investigating UnitedHealth Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud related to its Medicare Advantage business.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 May 2025

• State Farm has been approved for an emergency 17% rate increase on homeowner insurance policies in California, part of an effort to shore up the largest insurer in California, after the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area
  - Bloomberg, 13 May 2025

• Two reinsurance companies in Deutschland, Munich Re and Hannover Re, lost a combined $1.9 billion due to wildfires in Los Angeles in January 2025
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 May 2025

• The national mortgage debt of the USA tops $12.6 trillion amid rising interest rates and housing costs such as insurance
  - Zero Hedge, 12 May 2025

• Zurich Insurance posts increase in premiums after growth across divisions. The insurer's gross written premiums for its property and casualty division rose 5% supported by rate increases, profitability in its commercial line and better margins in retail.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 May 2025

• Car insurance rates were ready to decline. Then Trump's taxes/tariffs came along. Tariffs on autos and auto parts present what insurers say is a risk of inflation to their claims costs. Insurers have slowed requests to regulators for rate decreases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 May 2025

• Apollo-backed Aspen Insurance is valued at $3 billion as shares jump in a return to the New York Stock Exchange
  - Thomson's Reuters, 08 May 2025

• Homeowners across climate-change-denying Texas are feeling the financial squeeze as insurance premiums skyrocket, and extreme weather is a major driver. Homeowners reeling as staggering new cost sweeps across thousands of zip codes in Texas. More destructive storms, rising construction costs, and loose state oversight are all causing insurance premiums to rise.
  - The Cool Down, 08 May 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway's Geico insurance company cites massive firings of people (from 50,000 to 20,000 people, and technology upgrades, as reasons for its financial recovery
  - Zero Hedge, 06 May 2025

• The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - government-sponsored businesses - may foment another financial crisis. They now back more than 60% of new mortgages, versus roughly 45% before the meltdown in 2008.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 May 2025

• Homeowners insurance has risen over 50% in these states: Utah, Illinois, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. The most expensive states to insure your home are Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Nebraska.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 April 2025

• The world's first-ever ETF based on catastrophe bonds has failed to get the seed capital it expected after launching on the eve of the Trump's tax/tariff trade war. The Brookmont Catastrophic Bond ETF is suffering from market turmoil.
  - Bloomberg, 25 April 2025

• ~$5,000,000,000 - In September 2024, the New York Times publishes an article describing how Acadia Healthcare allegedly profits from illegally confining patients against their will in its psychiatric hospitals - to maximize insurance payouts. The article leads to multiple federal agencies investigating the allegations. A shareholder lawsuit has been filed. Since September 2024, the $5 billion of the shareholder's market valuation has been destroyed.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 April 2025

• Why condo owners in Florida are so desperate to sell. Insurance increases, special assessments and limited financing options have sharply elevated costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 April 2025

• Why condo owners in Florida are so desperate to sell. Large increases in insurance premiums, unexpected repair assessments and restrictive lending practices have turned the dream of coastal living into a costly burden for many, particularly in older buildings.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 22 April 2025

• The Medicaid profits of big hospital chains are a 'juicy' target for Republican politicans who want to reduce the federal budget. Republicans looking for cost savings could sink profits at Universal Health Services, others.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 April 2025

• The family home: from shelter to a financial asset to a financial liability (due to deflation of asset bubbles and higher maintenance costs such as insurance)
  - Zero Hedge, 20 April 2025

• Be on the alert for these insurance scams
  - Zero Hedge, 15 April 2025

• Trump's taxes/tariffs on automobiles and their parts are still on -- and would raise the cost of just owning a car. Higher repair and insurance bills are expected to hit people sticking with their current automobiles.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2025

• Insurance companies and healthcare providers are teaming up to fight Medicaid cuts. Trump and Republicans are seeking billions in savings from the insurance program for low-income people to pay for tax cuts for the rich (who can easily afford healthcare).
  - Axel Springer's Politico, 0 April 2025

• State Farm pleads for emergency insurance premium rate hikes on homeowner policies in California. The company argues it needs the additional funds to boost capital and avert an increasingly dire financial situation following the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. State Farm General has about 20% of the homeowners market in California with nearly 3 million policies.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 April 2025

• Janus Henderson signs deal to manage $45 billion of the assets of insurer Guardian Life. Guardian Life will seed new initiatives and receive warrants to buy Janus stock.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 April 2025

• Allianz, one of the world's top insurers, warns that climate change and global heating, due to burning of fossil fuels, could destroy capitalism, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. Without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.
  - The Guardian, 03 April 2025

• The public insurance safety-net system in California that lost a million-dollar check. Customers of the state-chartered Fair Plan face problems including canceled policies, refusals to treat toxins from smoke and dire customer service.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 01 April 2025

• $1,600,000,000 - GWG Holdings filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection nearly three years ago, and now distressed investors who bought $1.6 billion in so-called GWG L bonds have been offered $50.5 million in a settlement proposal made Friday. For several years before its bankruptcy, about 40 broker-dealers sold customers close to $1.6 billion in GWG L bonds, so-called because they were backed by life settlements. The bonds were sold in $1,000 units.
  - Investment News, 11 March 2025

• Get a monthly check in retirement without a pension. There are drawbacks. Target-date funds with annuities provide regular income and more protection from market crashes. But fees and check amount can vary.
  - Barron's, 29 March 2025

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a $346 billion debt problem that his administration wants help for from the households of Bharat. A record $346 billion of sovereign bonds are due over the next five years, a result of pandemic-era borrowing and Modi's infrastructure-spending binge. To tackle the burden, the Reserve Bank of Bharat and the government are swapping maturing debt with longer-dated notes. These refinancing debt auctions are gaining momentum thanks to an increasingly influential player: households. Households have been pouring money into insurers, which in turn are buying heaps of long-dated sovereign bonds.
  - Bloomberg, 25 March 2025

• ] Private credit is the hottest asset class on Wall Street, but investors face hefty income taxes. High-net-worth investors are increasingly taking out insurance policies that invest the premiums in a diversified portfolio of funds. These private placement insurance strategies, better known as PPVA and PPLI, can save investors tens of millions in taxes.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 March 2025

• How hospitals inflate the giant health-care bills of the USA. Non-profit institutions are no help. American hospitals primarily operate a "fee-for-service" model, where insurers pay for each test or treatment, regardless of its necessity. That encourages them to boost their revenue by delivering as many services as possible. The USA's government has for years been seeking to shift these incentives, including by aiming to move all beneficiaries of Medicare, the federal health-care programme for the elderly, to "value-based care" arrangements that reward hospitals and clinics for meeting various targets. But as of 2023, 70% of payments to providers still followed the traditional approach.
  - Economist, 20 March 2025

• An insurer taps its financial-adviser network to sell private-market funds. Lincoln Financial is teaming up with Bain Capital and Partners Group to launch two new funds aimed at everyday investors.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2025

• State Farm gets 'provisional' approval in California for a 22% increase in premiums for insurance policies on homes and buildings for owners, and 15% for renters
  - Zero Hedge, 17 March 2025

• A secret mortgage blacklist is leaving homeowners stuck with unsellable condos. Fewer homes can get Fannie Mae-backed mortgages, a response to Surfside condo collapse and insurance crunch.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025

• The insurance company Allianz, based in Deutschland, is selling its 26% stake in two joint ventures with Bajaj Finserv, based in Bharat, to the Bajaj Group for about $2.8 billion
  - Thomson's Reuters, 17 March 2025

• In the insurance crisis in the US, hail hits harder than hurricanes and fires. Home insurers are dropping policyholders and raising premiums as the costs of repairing storm damage rises.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holding company raised its holdings in five trading houses in Nihon - Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo - by more than 1 percentage point each, to stakes ranging from 8.5% to 9.8%, according to a regulatory filing
  - Comcast's CNBC, 17 March 2025

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holding company raised its holdings in five trading houses in Nihon - Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo - by more than 1 percentage point each, to stakes ranging from 8.5% to 9.8%, according to a regulatory filing
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 March 2025

• Not just condo prices: the entire housing market in Florida is softening, especially along the southwest coast. Prices are falling and inventory is rising in much of Florida. The turning market comes as migration to the Sunshine State slows, and a combination of hurricane fears, rising insurance and tax bills, and a steady supply of new construction has given buyers more leverage.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 5 March 2025

• Generali operating profit rises on higher premiums for its insurance policies. Assicurazioni Generali said its operating profit rose on the performance of all its units over 2024 gross written premiums that increased more than expected.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 March 2025

• Los Angeles has big plans to rebuild after the wildfires. Good luck obtaining insurance. Displaced residents seek a speedy return to their homes in the Pacific Palisades, but the largest insurer in California says, "Writing new policies does not make any sense at this time."
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2025

• Haden Kirkpatrick, a State Farm executive, has been fired after he was secretly recorded alleging that the insurance company hiked rates for California homeowners reeling from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 12 March 2025

• It is a surprisingly good time to be in the property insurance business. Insurers, despite inflation and recent disasters, are reporting strong results thanks to pricing and coverage adjustments.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 March 2025

• Dan McCrum, a Financial Times reporter who broke open the Wirecard scandal in Europe, is starting to ask critical questions of another company. This time it is Canada's Brookfield, an investment manager with nearly $1 trillion in assets. He notes that the company sells property to itself, potentially inflating earnings, and has recycled $2.8 billion into its real estate arm, obscuring financial health. Its insurers hold $7.7 billion in affiliated assets, including loans to Brookfield's businesses and a stake in a music royalty firm -- which the report indicates is unusual for an insurer. Property valuations remain high despite market declines. Critics, including Veritas Investment Research's Dimitry Khmelnitsky, argue Brookfield is using its insurance businesses to offload assets at inflated prices during a challenging market.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 March 2025

• Trump is about to make your insurance bill more expensive. Trump's every action, from tax/tariff threats to targeting immigrant workers, is setting off actuarial alarm bells in the insurance industry.
  - Comcast's MSNBC, 05 March 2025

• Munich Re estimates $1.26 billion hit in claims from wildfires in California. The estimated burden for its property-casualty reinsurance and its Global Specialty Insurance division was subject to a high degree of uncertainty due to the complexity of the losses, it said.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 27 February 2025

• Wildfires in California hit hard State Farm insurance company. But State Farm was already struggling financially.
  - Barron's, 22 February 2025

• Zurich Insurance expects that the wildfires in California will lead to $200 million in pretax losses for the group, which reported better-than-expected results for 2024
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 February 2025

• [VIDEO]: "It is 2025 and insurance just keeps getting worse" - a doctor's video goes viral. Dr. Elisabeth Potter went viral after posting a video detailing an experience with a health insurer that she says had never happened before. The video resonated widely and doctors like her feel so frustrated with the health insurance industry.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 19 February 2025

• High-cost sickle cell gene therapies push insurers and Medicaid programs to find new payment models so that the financial burden of the treatments is spread beyond just one state or one company.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 18 February 2025

• California rejects the request for an increase of 22% in home insurance rates/premiums sought by State Farm insurance company. The insurer said the rate increase is needed to prevent further depletion of capital that may affect its credit rating and harm mortgage customers.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 February 2025

• Move over Florida, as retirees are making new plans as climate change and global heating raises housing costs. Extreme weather and soaring insurance costs have many retirees rethinking where to live. What to know if you are in a climate danger zone.
  - Barron's, 15 February 2025

• FAIR Plan, the state-owned home insurance plan of last resort in California, designed for people who cannot get coverage on the private market, does not have enough money to pay claims from the Los Angeles wildfires and is getting an infusion of cash from regular insurers. State regulators said Tuesday that they will allow the program, known as the FAIR Plan, to collect $1 billion from private insurance companies doing business in California to pay its claims. That is likely to drive up insurance costs for homeowners across the state.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 February 2025

• FAIR Plan, the state-owned home insurance plan of last resort in California, designed for people who cannot get coverage on the private market, does not have enough money to pay claims from the Los Angeles wildfires and is getting an infusion of cash from regular insurers. State regulators said Tuesday that they will allow the program, known as the FAIR Plan, to collect $1 billion from private insurance companies doing business in California to pay its claims. That is likely to drive up insurance costs for homeowners across the state.
  - Axel Springer's Politico, 3 February 2025

• Health insurance companies deny 850 million claims a year. The few customers who appeal often win. Patients who contest denials face a daunting process, but many are successful.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 February 2025

• Why Trump's taxes/tariffs will make automobile insurance even more expensive. Costlier cars or auto parts can increase claims costs, which take time to filter through to car-insurance rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 February 2025

• Insurance company Travelers estimates it will lose $1.7 billion on catastrophic losses from wildfires in California
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 February 2025

• The growing crisis in the insurance industry may make it hard to get a mortgage in parts of the country in the coming decades, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday, noting that banks and insurance companies have been pulling out of coastal and fire-prone areas they deem too high risk.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 1 February 2025

• Gold tops $2900 as Zhōngguó pushes insurance companies into precious metals. "In the past, insurance companies lack options for mid- and long-term assets with stable yields."
  - Charts and Parts - substack, 10 February 2025

• A pilot program in Zhōngguó that allows insurers to buy gold for the first time could free up billions of dollars of investment in the metal, adding further impetus to a record-setting rally. Prices hit a fresh peak. Ten insurance companies will be able to invest as much as 1% of their assets in bullion, in a program that became effective last Friday. That would translate into a potential 200 billion yuan ($27.4 billion) of funds.
  - Bloomberg, 10 February 2025

• State Farm insurance company was all in on business in California - until it pulled out before the recent wildfires. The insurer aggressively grew in Los Angeles, despite getting overweight on fire risk, but decided to cut thousands of policies last year, adding to the home-insurance crisis in California.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 February 2025

• Allstate Insurance says it will pay out $1.1 billion in insurance claims caused by the wildfires that swept through Southern California in January. While the expected payout is significant, Allstate said Wednesday it was able to limit its losses partly by pulling back from the California market.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 February 2025

• $1,610,000,000+ - An Arizona couple (Alexandra Gehrke, 39, and Jeffrey King, 46) pled guilty to causing over $1.2 billion in Medicare fraud for expensive, medically unnecessary wound grafts. In their plea agreements, Gehrke and King agreed to pay over $600 million each in restitution, totaling over $1.2 billion, the DOJ said. They also agreed to forfeit over $410 million in funds they obtained from the fraud.
  - AZ Central, 05 February 2025

• That giant sucking sound? It is climate change and global heating erasing $1.5 trillion of the value of homes in the USA, especially in climate-change denying states. Rising home-insurance costs and more homeowners spurning some risky neighborhoods will drive these declines.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 February 2025

• The wildfires in Los Angeles burned thousands of homes. Insurance companies predict these risks. What made the wildfires devastating was their path through the Palisades, where home values hover around $3.4 million and aging structures were tightly packed in a recognized high-risk fire zone.
  - Barron's, 01 February 2025

• Shares of Cigna Group fall as much as 11% after the health insurer reported cost pressures from surprisingly high catastrophic medical claims that are likely to persist
  - Bloomberg, 30 January 2025

• The CEO of Chubb says that the insurance company had its best year in history. Chubb had reduced its exposure by 50% in the areas where wildfires occurred. He said he expects the industry is in a period of sustained inflation -- and so rates are rising just to stay steady, which may not affect margin improvement.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 29 January 2025

• Insurance companies are financing oil and natural gas -- even as climate change is pummeling their bottom line. Insurers have long been aware of the risk of climate change, and yet in the USA, the insurance companies have done little to help mitigate the causes of climate change and global heating.
  - Fast Company, 29 January 2025

• Homeowners' associations are struggling to find master insurance policies, forcing fees higher for residents. Insurers are boosting premiums or exiting the business, citing rising losses from extreme weather and aging buildings. The steep premium hikes usually end up passed on to individual owners in the form of higher monthly dues.
  - Apollo Global's Yahoo Finance, 6 January 2025

• Doctors in the USA are accusing health insurance giants of causing deadly delays in approvals of vital medical procedures and care -- and putting profits ahead of the health of their patients. "These delays [when a denial is appealed] are a death sentence, and the only reason the insurance companies do that is to maximize their profits. A doctor said he often sees patients coming into the intensive care unit for preventable illnesses caused by health insurance company denials, such as refusing to cover required medication, like insulin, or an inhaler for asthma.
  - The Guardian, 26 January 2025

• Los Angeles is on fire, forcing the municipal bond market to wake to the risks of climate change and global heating
  - Barron's, 25 January 2025

• For the second year in a row, insurance rates for homeowners increase by over 10%, and not just in California. In six states, rates increased by more than 20%.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 January 2025

• Zhōngguó announced plans on Thursday to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state-owned insurers into shares as part of the government's latest efforts to support a struggling stock market in Zhōngguó.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 23 January 2025

• The world is getting riskier. Reckless Americans do not want to pay for their poor decisions. Insurance is one of finance's great gifts to mankind. California is a microcosm of what happens when it breaks down - either households face potential ruin, or the public is handed a financial time bomb.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 January 2025

• We have to stop underwriting people who move to, and build in, climate danger zones
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 January 2025

• How the wildfires could reshape mortgage lending in California. If the insurance industry stops writing policies for California homes, it will ultimately hit the mortgage industry.
  - Barron's, 18 January 2025

• How the wildfires in California could lead to higher insurance costs for the rest of the country. Premiums have been rising sharply in recent years. The L.A. disaster will make matters worse.
  - Barron's, 18 January 2025

• A large chunk of the cost of rebuilding after the Los Angeles wildfires is likely to shift to insurance customers throughout the state, under a little-noticed rule change last year by the insurance regulator of California that applies to large wildfires
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 January 2025

• Is the catalyst for the next financial crisis ... homeowners insurance? Millions of Americans are thus left with much of their net worth tied up in houses that are prohibitively expensive to insure - if insurance is available at any price - and are therefore unsellable.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 January 2025

• Wildfires in Los Angeles are expected to cause over $250 billion in losses due to damaged properties. At the end of last week, AccuWeather estimated total economic damages to be around $150 billion, while analysts from other desks expected insured losses north of $20 billion. The analysts noted, "That is a significant volume of insured losses, but it also suggests the majority of economic losses are uninsured."
  - Zero Hedge, 15 January 2025

• Economic toll of the wildfires in Los Angeles goes far beyond that of destroyed homes
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025

• Many of the most destructive wildfires in California were caused by electric power lines
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025

• More people in the USA than ever are living in wildfire areas. Los Angeles is no exception. Fierce winds and droughts set the conditions for the wildfires in Los Angeles, but the reckless, profiteering growth of housing in fire-prone areas also played a major role.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 January 2025

• The state of Texas sues Allstate for secretly tracking drivers through apps, using data to raise rates. Texas says Allstate also profited by selling the data to other insurers.
  - Zero Hedge, 13 January 2025

• The state of Texas sues Allstate for secretly tracking drivers through apps, using data to raise rates. Texas says Allstate also profited by selling the data to other insurers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 January 2025

• Wildfires in California have caused billions of dollars in losses. Why insurance stocks have a brighter future. The insurance industry has been thriving as climate change increases the demand for coverage.
  - Barron's, 12 January 2025

• Wildfire and extreme weather are big concerns for buyers of homes. Real estate listings websites like Zillow size up a home's likelihood of flood, fire, and wind damage. That could affect prices.
  - Barron's, 12 January 2025

• As a climate scientist, I knew that it was time to leave Los Angeles. For those who have lost everything in climate disasters, the apocalypse has already arrived. And as the planet gets hotter, climate disasters will get more frequent and more intense. The cost of these fires will be immense, and they will affect the insurance industry and the housing market.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 January 2025

• Shares of Mercury General, whose insurance organization is mostly centered in California, crashed 35% in premarket trading. About 80% of its premiums of $4.6 billion in 2024 were derived from the state, making it one of the most exposed insurers to the LA County fire.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025

• California imposes 1-year moratorium on insurance policy cancellations in areas ravaged by wildfires
  - Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025

• How climate change and global heating is supercharging disasters. Extreme weather events - deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricances - are the consequences of a warming planet.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 January 2025

• 10 people are dead, and 10,000 structures burned, as the wildfires in Los Angeles continue to burn with little control. The resulting destruction of properties could exceed $150 billion.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 January 2025

• Insurance stocks dive as loss estimates double from fires in southern California: Allstate dropped 5%, Traveller's dropped 2%, Chubb dropped 3%. Power company Edison International drop 10% on Wednesdaty. Pacific Gas & Electric dropped over 10%.
  - Investor's Business Daily, 10 January 2025

• Texas surgeon Elisabeth Potter was flabbergasted by a recent exchange she had had with a UnitedHealthcare representative who called her when she was in the middle of a breast reconstruction operation to ask if the patient's overnight stay was necessary. The doctor was interrupted in the middle of surgery.
  - Futurism, 09 January 2025

• Damage from wildfires in Los Angeles likely to be costliest blaze in the history of the USA. Insured losses from the disaster could be more than $20 billion, or even higher if the fires spread further.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025

• California was already in home-insurance crisis before the recent infernosin Los Angeles. Industry officials warn of widespread economic damage on par with some of the biggest fire disasters in recent memory.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025

• The home insurance market in California is in a financial crisis. The solution will cost homeowners a 'ton' of money. Between 2020 and 2022, insurance companies declined to renew 2.8 million homeowner policies in the state. Insurers in California have been refusing to write new policies in areas they consider to be at high risk for wildfires, which is a large percentage of the state.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 09 January 2025

• Infernal chaos: the wildfires in Los Angeles spread to Hollywood Hills, with 2000 buildings destroyed and over 130,000 people evacuated. In total, over 17,000 acres have been burned and over 2000 building structures destroyed.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2025

• Wildfires in California threaten insurers already struggling financially from climate shocks due to global heating. Companies started reducing their business in California as earlier fires made it harder to earn a profit. Experts warn that the exodus could grow. It is hard enough for companies to make money on their own policies. But if the state's FAIR Plan (a public last-resort for homeowners who can't find insurance from private companies, with policies that are more expensive and provide less coverage) runs out of money, California can force the private insurance companies to help pay for damages, giving these companies additional reasons to leave the state.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 January 2025

• "A hellscape in all directions": the devastating fires that ignited crisis and chaos in Los Angeles. Fires are burning one of the most iconic swaths of America, upending lives and destroying property.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025

• The Santa Ana winds driving the wildfires in Los Angeles. Devastating fires in the Los Angeles region are driven by Santa Ana winds blowing from California and Nevada's interior deserts to the Pacific Ocean.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025

• A report of the now-Democratic controlled Senate blasts the harmful role of private equity in healthcare. A U.S. Senate committee accused private-equity healthcare investors of choosing profits over patient care, adding a prominent voice to those claiming Wall Street is putting the medical system at risk.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2025

• Fires in California expose a $1 trillion hole in home insurance availability in the USA. Homeowners in increasingly risky areas cannot obtain adequate coverage as insurers flee the state to avoid losses. Pacific Palisades, where over 1000 buildings have been destroyed, has $6 billion in coverage with the State's FAIR insurance system. Even a fraction of that amount would exceed the capabilities of FAIR, which at last report had about $700 million in cash. Additional damage can be passed on to private insurers, which would pass those costs immediately to their less-risky customers.
  - Bloomberg, 08 January 2025

• Sixth Street strikes deal to manage $13 billion of the assets of an insurance company. Northwestern Mutual intends to take a small minority stake in the investment firm.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 January 2025

• $133,000,000 - Marks & Spencer is making a huge insurance claim after management allowed a cyber attack to expose sensitive customer data, seeking up to 100 million pounds ($133 million) through its cyber insurance policy.
  - Finimize, 31 December 2024

• The profits of socialism: how the 'army' of doctors owned by UnitedHealth Group helped it collect billions of extra dollars from Medicare. The biggest Medicare Advantage insurer presented physicians with checklists of potential dianoses to use BEFORE examining patients: "I did not think I was obese.", one suspicious patient told his doctor.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 December 2024

• UnitedHealth Group is expected to smash financial records this year amid a fraught environment at the company following the cold-blooded murder of the insurance division's CEO, Brian Thompson. Revenue ot the UnitedHealth Group was more than $299 billion through September -- which is a record high and up from $277 billion last year. Profits earned in part by denying over 30% of all claims. While the company is raking in billions, there have been concerns that UnitedHealth and other insurers could face rising medical costs while UnitedHealth is also dealing with complaints of burnout, low wages and a company system that rejects medical procedures that should be signed off on.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 30 December 2024

• Can the insurance industry survive global heating due to fossil fuel burning? In one scenario, vulnerable parts of the world become completely uninsurable, and economic and/or natural forces dismantle communities, as natural catastrophes cause more and more multi-billion payouts for insurance claims.
  - Anthropocene, 28 December 2024

• Because of attacks on ships in the Red Sea, transit through the Suez Canal has dropped 50%, causing severe problems for global commerce. Possible solutions include more use of private maritime security companies, and by insurance companies that reduce premiums to vessels that implement enhanced security measures.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 December 2024

• With medical costs soaring, how is the USA going to fund health care? It is going to be very difficult to reduce the deficit, when s own proposals would add to it and Democrats are screaming "Medicare for All".
  - Zero Hedge, 26 December 2024

• Aflac keeps eye on the insurance market in Nihon as others turn overseas for growth. The CEO says addressing youth demand in Nihon will be key to adapting to tough demographics and a higher-rate environment.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 December 2024

• Insurance and taxes now cost more than mortgages for many homeowners. Insurers have pushed big rate increases in premiums because of losses from natural disasters and rising costs to repair homes. Surging home values in recent years, meanwhile, have lifted property taxes for many homeowners.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 December 2024

• The health insurance industry in the USA is highly concentrated, with a single insurer having at least a 50% market share in 13 states in the USA. In markets dominated by a few insurers, healthcare costs and spending tend to be higher as insurers are less likely to reimburse hospitals for patient care. Last year, Blue Cross Blue Shield covered 86% of all enrollments in Alabama, making it the most concentrated health insurance market nationwide. In many ways, health insurers are becoming increasingly vertically integrated, which has also been shown to raise prices and reduce competition in healthcare systems.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 December 2024

• Canada is the world's best country for free or universal health care, followed by Iceland, South Korea, Singapore, the UK, Germany, Portugal and Norway.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 December 2024

• $120,000,000 - Independent Health Association of Buffalo, a western New York health insurance provider for seniors, and the CEO of its medical analytics arm have agreed to pay a total of up to $100 million to settle Justice Department allegations of fraudulent billing for health conditions that were exaggerated or did not exist. IHA will pay up to $98 million, while CEO Betsy Gaffney will pay $2 million, but will not go to jail because she is not poor and white.
  - KFF Health News, 20 December 2024

• I was a health insurance executive. What I saw made me quit. For example, marketing consultants created a term, 'soncumerism' to persuade employers and policymakers to shift hundreds and, in many cases, thousands of dollars in health care costs onto consumers before insurance coverage kicks in. Over 20 years working in health insurance, I saw the unrelenting pressure investors put on insurers to spend less paying out claims. Big insurers have bought physician practices, clinics and pharmacy middlemen, largely to increase their bottom lines. Families can be on the hook for up to $18,900 before their coverage kicks in. Insurers require prior authorization more aggressively.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 December 2024

• Why are people in the USA paying so much more for healthcare than they used to? National healthcare spending increased 7.5% year over year in 2023, much faster than in the year before.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 December 2024

• Because of large rich healthcare insurance companies, Minnesota has lost hundreds of pharmacies in a little over a decade, creating "pharmacy deserts" that are forcing people to travel a lot farther or rely on mail service to obtain their prescription medications.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 18 December 2024

• Trump criticizes "rich as hell" pharmacy benefits managers, accusing them of being responsible for raising drug prices
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 18 December 2024

• Insurers are deserting homeowners as climate shocks worsen. Without insurance, it is impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans cannot buy a home.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 December 2024

• Houthi attacks in the Red Sea (to protest Israel's attacks on Palestinians) turn back the clock for shipping, as costs (such as insurance) for shipping greatly increase. The transport route around the southern tip of Africa was once little used -- but freighters are now forced to take it and are charging higher rates.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 December 2024

• Stand Insurance, a new business, seeks to cover homes in areas other insurers are abandoning because of risks from natural disasters like wildfires and floods.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024

• Saga PLC and Ageas agree on sale of underwriting business, insurance partnership in $186 million deal. Saga agreed to sell its insurance underwriting business to Ageas and establish a 20-year partnership with the Belgian insurer, concluding the negotiations announced in October.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024

• Saga PLC and Ageas agree on sale of underwriting business, insurance partnership in $186 million deal. Saga agreed to sell its insurance underwriting business to Ageas and establish a 20-year partnership with the Belgian insurer, concluding the negotiations announced in October.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 December 2024

• Shares of health insurers operating pharmacy benefit managers fell on Monday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called them middlemen who drive up costs and said he plans to eliminate their role. Shares of CVS fell 5.35% to $46.73, Cigna slipped 2.6% to $274.63, while UnitedHealth was down 3.54% at $502.07 in afternoon trading.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 16 December 2024

• Allianz withdraws offer to acquire Income Insurance based in Singapore. The decision comes after public outcry and government scrutiny over the importance of balancing commercial interests with social responsibility.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 December 2024

• UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to critical treatment for kids with autism. It is part of a secret internal cost-cutting campaign that targets a growing financial burden for the company: the treatment of thousands of children with autism across the country. In internal reports, the company acknowledges that the therapy, called applied behavior analysis, is the "evidence-based gold standard treatment for those with medically necessary needs". But UnitedHealthcare's costs have climbed as the number of children diagnosed with autism has ballooned. So the company is limiting access to the treatment to protect its billions of dollars of profits.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 14 December 2024

• Most Americans say they have good health insurance, polls show. Many have encountered problems with their coverage, but the recent rage on social media is only part of the picture of the views of people in the USA on health care.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 December 2024

• Your home-insurance bill has only one way to go: up. Damage from hail is fueling a jump in insurance claims as more homes are built in disaster-prone areas.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 December 2024

• $100,000,000 - Johnson & Johnson accuses in a lawsuit a big health insurer of helping drain its drug copay funds. J&J claims Cigna units worked with SaveOn and caused J&J to pay more than $100 million in copay assistance than it would have otherwise.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 December 2024

• A family of a nine-year-old girl in Utah, born without her left arm, are told that a new prosthetic for the girl is "medically unnecessary" by their insurance company, Select Health
  - The Daily Mail, 13 December 2024

• Doctors say that dealing with health insurance companies is only getting worse. Medical providers say they are frustrated by the aggravation and expense of convincing insurance companies to pay for the care of their patients.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 December 2024

• How health insurance companies undermine the patient-doctor relationship by not making it easy to know which medical treatments are covered by health insurance. Some patients will refuse treatment in a hospital until they can verify coverage, which threatens their lives in the delay. When some patients can't a drug that their insurance won't cover, some doctors prescribe an alternative, even if it was not the best available option. When doctors cannot give a straight or accurate answer, patients may lose faith in them.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 December 2024

• Shares of healthcare stocks fall nearly 5% as politicians and patients push for changes to their greedy business mdoels. The declining stocks include UnitedHealth Group, Cigna and CVS Health. "Pharmacy benefits managers have manipulated the market to enrich themselves -- hiking up drug costs, cheating employers, and driving small pharmacies out of business."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 December 2024

• Politicians in Washington are proposing to force insurance companies to sell their pharmacies. Bipartisan proposed laws would force healthcare companies with pharmacy-benefit managers to divest their pharmacies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 December 2024

• Allianz narrows guidance range after profit beat. The insurance giant narrowed its outlook for the year to the upper end of its range after lower natural catastrophe claims drove third-quarter profits above expectations.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 December 2024

• A leaked video shows the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty, bragging about denying care to insured customers, and calling critics delusional who criticize the greed of the company.
  - Futurism, 10 December 2024

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which financially back most mortgages in the USA, know floods and fires are a growing problem due to global heating. But little action has been taken. As sea levels rise and natural disasters become more intense, due to global heating, homes in low-lying coastal areas or tinder-dry mountains are starting to lose value. Fannie and Freddie have reserve capital buffers, but large losses could force the government to intervene. The two organizations are slow to act because of concerns about raising housing costs when homeownership is already out of reach for many, especially for the low-income households that disproportionately live in areas of higher risk.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 December 2024

• Arthur J Gallagher said on Monday it would acquire insurance broker AssuredPartners in an all-cash deal worth $13.45 billion, as it looks to bolster its focus on property and casualty and employee benefits across the USA
  - Thomson's Reuters, 09 December 2024

• Trump's selection of the next Secretary of Energy is worrying. Fracking CEO Chris Wright points to positive changes produced by global heating, in contrast with what some oil giants say, and the huge economic damages being caused by global heating.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 December 2024

• Shares in the parent company of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson have plummeted, as his murder prompted renewed scrutiny of the industry and outrage over the state of US healthcare. UnitedHealth Group's stock fell 5 percent on Friday alone, bringing its weekly loss to 10 percent. That wiped roughly $56 billion from the market capitalization of the company.
  - Daily Beast, 08 December 2024

• Shares of UnitedHealthcare and other insurance companies continue to decline, after the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York City. Shares of UnitedHealth slid 5% on Friday to $549.62 after a 5% drop on Thursday. Rival insurers Elevance, Centene, CVS Health, and Cigna also fell between 1.5% and 3%. Those shares all lost ground on Thursday as well.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 December 2024

• Insured losses due to natural catastrophes to top $135 billion in 2024, according to the Swiss Re Institute. Global insured losses from natural catastrophes like hurricanes and floods are on track to exceed $135 billion in 2024, marking the fifth consecutive year with such losses surpassing a level of $100 billion.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 December 2024

• The spotlight is on health insurance companies. Patients are telling their stories of denied claims, bankruptcy and delayed care, enabled by the AI systems used by insurers. Insurers reject about 14% of all claims for treatment. Medical debt is the Number 1 cause of bankruptcy in the USA.
  - Yahoo News, 05 December 2024

• UnitedHealthcare accused of relying on AI algorithms to deny Medicare Advantage claims. [KM: More profits with AI to make the rich richer.]
  - Fox News, 05 December 2024

• No one knows how often health insurance companies use AI to deny claims. One website claims that the claim denial rate for UnitedHealthcare is 32%, the highest in the insurance industry. This is how the company has risen to a $500 billion valuation and earns tens of billions of dollars in profit.
  - Quartz, 05 December 2024

• 19 stories of people having their insurance claims being denied, and it is truly dystopian, thanks to AI and greed of the rich
  - BuzzFeed, 05 December 2024

• The health insurance CEO murdered in New York City had deployed an AI system to automatically deny benefits to sick people, AI misantropy at its worst. A lawsuit alleged that his insurance company, United Healthcare, used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors. The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate. Who murdered him? Such callous corporate behavior created "only about 50 million customers of the reigning medical monopoly in the USA might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO".
  - Futurism, 05 December 2024

• A torrent of anger for the health insurance industry follows the killing of the CEO of one of the largest insurers. The shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare executive in Manhattan has unleashed American's frustrations with an industry that often denies coverage and reimbursement for medical claims.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 December 2024

• Moderators at Reddit delete the r/medicine thread, after hundreds of doctors strongly criticize the murdeed UnitedHealthcare CEO. "When other human lives are deemed worthless [because of the AI progream], it is not surprising to have others view your life of no value as well.", wrote one doctor. The commenters overwhelmingly criticized the insurer's alleged denial of coverage to sick and dying Americans in order to juice profits. Another doctor wrote: "I cannot even guess how many person-years UHC has taken from patients and their families through denials. It has to be on the order of millions. His death won't make that better, but it is hard or me to sympathize when so many people have suffered because of his company."
  - The Daily Beast, 05 December 2024

• Messages on bullets used to kill UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson bear an eerie link to a book condemning insurance companies. The book, "Delay, Deny, Defund: why insurance companies don't pay claims and what you can do about it", had two of its title words, 'deny' and 'defend' appear on the bullets.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 05 December 2024

• UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was facing DOJ probe for insider trading when he was killed in targeted shooting in New York City
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 05 December 2024

• Insurance companies collected billions of dollars from Medicare for veterans who cost them almost nothing. Taxpayers paid for their care at the VA -- and for Medicare Advantage coverage that many did not use.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 December 2024

• $2,000,000 - Jay Jacobson, an 84-year-old man with dementia, jumped to death after three insurance brokers sold him $2 million worth of annuities that he would never be able to recoup, none with any death benefits. His widow is the three men, along with USAA Life Insurance Company, New York Life Insurance and Annuity, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Massachusetts Mutual Life.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 30 November 2024

• Zurich Insurance targets higher earnings growth. The insurer said it was targeting annual core earnings growth of more than 9% as part of its new three-year plan to 2027, after benefiting from a better-than-anticipated market.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 November 2024

• Social media users are mocking people who voted for Trump who reportedly wanted to get rid of Obamacare ("Trump is going to get rid of it"), but keep the Affordable Care Act ("We like that"), and later realized they needed both for their own health insurance - because the idiots didn't realize that they are the same thing.
  - Daily Mail, 22 November 2024

• Why a $4 billion settlement of fire insurance claims in Maui is tangled up in court. Insurers that paid claims say a deal unfairly keeps them from recouping their own losses. In the Lahaina settlement, the insurers are instead expected to seek repayment from the people and businesses they insured. A person who received a share of the $4 billion deal, for example, could have to pay a portion of that to the insurance company. The industry is balking at this idea, saying it upends a core piece of its business model. Insurers have turned to state and federal courts to try to block the deal, slowing it down and frustrating fire victims and Hawaii leaders. The insurers have also sold some of their claims to hedge funds that specialize in pursuing cases in bankruptcy court, bringing in another deep-pocketed group with an interest in resisting the settlement.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 18 November 2024

• Homeowners with spray foam insulation are struggling to sell or remortgage as some major lenders are rejecting properties with it fitted, the BBC has found. A quarter of the UK's biggest mortgage providers will not lend against homes with spray foam in the roof, our research suggests. Some mortgage firms are reluctant to deal with homes with spray foam insulation due to concerns over poor fitting leaving moisture trapped and roof timbers at risk of decay.
  - BBC, 17 November 2024

• The sickest patients are fleeing private Medicare plans, costing taxpayers billions. Medicare Advantage patients in the last year of life were far more likely to switch to traditional Medicare, shifting costs from insurers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 November 2024

• The next massive volcano eruption will cause climate chaos -- and most countries are not prepared. Volcanic activity will be experienced differently in a world suffering from global heating. If a massive volcano explosion happens in the next 5 years, the costs would be colossal. In an extreme scenario, the economic impacts would cost more than US$3.6 trillion in the first year and $1.2 trillion more over subsequent years, owing to the effects of extreme weather, reduced crop yields and food instability.
  - Nature, 12 November 2024

• $2,000,000,000 - Insurance magnate Greg Lindberg has pleaded guilty to a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme operated through a network of companies based in North Carolina, Bermuda, Malta, and elsewhere. Lindberg, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S. and one count of money laundering in connection with a scheme to defraud insurance regulators and policyholders lasting from 2016 through 2019, the Justice Department said in a statement.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 November 2024

• Florida now has 4 of the top 10 American cities where home prices are plummeting the most. However, in cities such as Miami, median list prices are still 50% higher than before the pandemic.
  - MoneyWise, 07 November 2024

• Shares of AstraZeneca fall over 8% after a report that dozens of AstraZeneca's senior executives in Zhōngguó could be implicated in the largest insurance fraud case in the pharma sector of Zhōngguó in years
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 November 2024

• Warren Buffett calls the top of the stock market: Berkshire Hathwaway sells 100 million shares of Apple as unprecedented selling spree (including selling of shares of Bank of America) boosts cash to record quarter trillion dollars
  - Zero Hedge, 02 November 2024

• Why nobody in the USA believes the "data": surging prices of everyday items are excluded from the CPI statistic. The CPI excludes several significant costs faced by households today - ranging from property taxes to soaring interest payments. Interest charges on rising consumer debt are largely absent from the CPI. The CPI doesn't include the cost of insuring the physical home - a critical oversight as climate-related risks drive premiums higher. Legal but selectively regulated goods, such as marijuana in some states, and gambling expenses remain unaccounted for.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 October 2024

• Condominium sales in Florida slow as sellers flood market following new law. Many buildings are starting to show significant wear and tear, while the finances set aside for maintenance - the reserves - are proving insufficient. Condo boards are left racing to meet higher state standards for budgeting, all while insurance premiums on these structures are skyrocketing.
  - Palm Beach Post, 28 October 2024

• People bought insurance for security in old age. They got a financial nightmare instead. People who bought long-term care policies decades ago face a wrenching dilemma: Pay much higher premiums or brace for crippling bills to cover their care in old age.
  - Barron's, 26 October 2024

• Munich Re net profit misses forecast due to hurricane losses. Munich Re's third-quarter net profit missed consensus forecasts due to hurricane losses but the company said it expected to beat its full-year target.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 October 2024

• 13% of real estate agents in California had a sales transaction canceled due to not finding insurance in 2024. As climate risks grow each year in California, insurance providers are increasingly leaving the state. Fewer providers to choose from can make premiums go up, adding costly expenses to home purchases.
  - SF Gate, 23 October 2024

• Scientists are mapping landslide risk in Alaska. But some homeowners do not want to know these risks because it could lower the values of their homes, especially for homes on hillsides prone to landslides. While separate insurance policies exist for floods and earthquakes, landslide coverage is even harder to afford and nearly impossible to find. Experts say that is largely because the risk is so difficult to predict and the marketplace of people requesting the insurance is so small.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 October 2024

• President Biden to propose that insurers to pay for over-the-counter birth control pills and condoms. The new rules under the Affordable Care Act would include emergency contraception, a newly approved nonprescription birth control pill, spermicides and condoms.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 October 2024

• Why do health insurers keep getting slammed with higher costs? Investors are fleeing the sector as health insurers are repeatedly surprised by rising healthcare costs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 October 2024

• Shares of Elevance Health fell more than 10% after earnings fell short of Wall Street projections in the latest sign of how medical expenses are squeezing insurers' government businesses. The company says rates it is paid under government program for low-income Americans fall short of what it needs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 October 2024

• Homeowners in Florida fear soaring insurance cost after hurricanes. Average homeowner premiums in Florida surged nearly 60% between 2019 and 2023.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 17 October 2024

• The Small Business Administration's disaster assistance loan program is out of money after hurricanes Helene and Milton struck parts of the United States, the agency has announced. Through its loan program, homeowners can receive up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence, while businesses and private nonprofit organizations can get up to $2 million to cover disaster-related physical damage and economic injuries that are not fully covered by insurance.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 October 2024

• The Small Business Administration's disaster assistance loan program is out of money after hurricanes Helene and Milton struck parts of the United States, the agency has announced. Through its loan program, homeowners can receive up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence, while businesses and private nonprofit organizations can get up to $2 million to cover disaster-related physical damage and economic injuries that are not fully covered by insurance.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 October 2024

• UnitedHealth Group provided a 2025 profit forecast below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, saying it expects pressure across its government-supported health insurance businesses, and its shares fell 9%.
  - Zero Hedge, 15 October 2024

• UnitedHealth Group provided a 2025 profit forecast below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, saying it expects pressure across its government-supported health insurance businesses, and its shares fell 9%.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2024

• Shares of UnitedHealth Group plunged, as medical costs continue to surge more than expected for health insurers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2024

• How climate disasters are making mobile homes a huge risk. Millions of Americans (6% of homes), many poor and vulnerable, live in mobile and manufactured homes. When catastrophe strikes, they are often on their own with less insurance.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 October 2024

• Healthcare premiums are soaring even as inflation eases. Back-to-back years of increases in premiums have added to the average cost of family coverage, reaching roughly $25,500 this year for employers and workers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2024

• Health costs and flat raises are set to squeeze paychecks. Insurance deductibles are on the rise as companies scale back how much they expect to pay workers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 October 2024

• $2,800,000,000 - Insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield has agreed to pay $2.8 billion to resolve antitrust class action claims by hospital systems, physicians and other health providers alleging they were underpaid for reimbursements, the plaintiffs said in an Alabama federal court filing on Monday.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 14 October 2024

• As hurricanes strike, insurance costs soar for commercial real estate. Struggling landlords and developers are seeking leeway on coverage from their lenders - mostly without success. The insurance brokerage Marsh McLennan estimated that premiums on commercial properties rose an average of 11 percent across the country last year but as much as 50 percent in storm-vulnerable places like the Gulf Coast and California. This year, premiums may have doubled in some of those places, the brokerage said. For apartment buildings, insurance costs now account for 8 percent of operating expenses, twice what they did about five years ago.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 October 2024

• Hurricanes amplify the insurance crisis in riskiest areas. After Helene and Milton (estimated damages are over $200 billion), some small Florida insurance companies risk bankruptcy. Larger insurance companies will be in the hot seat with lawmakers and consumer groups. Since 2021, nine property and casualty insurers have gone bankrupt in Florida. The socialist National Flood Insurance Program is $20 billion in debt.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 October 2024

• People moved to Florida for a slice of paradise. Now they are packing their bags. Hurricanes have driven up the cost - and headaches - of living in the Sunshine State. Some Floridians are reaching their breaking point.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 October 2024

• Stock prices of insurance companies aren't changing much as the losses are manageable from this season's hurricanes. Share prices of insurers bounced back when Hurricane Milton caused less damage than forecast. Here is how invest in these companies now.
  - Barron's, 11 October 2024

• Few states elect their insurance commissioners. But in North Carolina, a proposed 42 percent rate hike and Hurricane Helene have raised the stakes in the upcoming election.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 October 2024

• Analysts at Morningstar DBRS forecast insured losses from Milton in the range of $60-$100 billion if the hurricane directly hits the Tampa metro area. A $100 billion loss would put Milton on par with the 2005 storm called Katrina.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 October 2024

• Just how doomed is home insurance? Hurricanes like Milton and Helene are making it harder than ever to insure your home. Most banks will not offer a mortgage without homeowners insurance, and letting a policy lapse can lead to foreclosure. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a federal program that provides flood coverage to 4.7 million policyholders, is more than $20 billion in debt to the US Treasury accruing $1.7 million in interest daily. In September, Congress reauthorized the program for a few months. The next funding deadline is December 20, 2024. If authorization lapses, the NFIP would stop selling and renewing flood insurance for millions of people. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have come home to a breakup letter from their private insurers, canceling their coverage. Others cannot find any company that will protect their home, leaving expensive, state-run insurers of last resort as their only option. Some private insurance companies have entirely pulled out of states like California, Florida, and Louisiana.
  - Vox, 09 October 2024

• Hurricane Milton threatens to swamp Florida's troubled property-insurance market, potentially pushing prices higher and threatening coverage in a storm-prone region that already has the highest insurance costs in the nation. Some 41 Florida insurers have declared bankruptcy or otherwise failed since 2003, while only 37 have failed in the rest of the country over that time period.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 09 October 2024

• Investors who bought 'catastrophe' bonds are preparing for huge losses due to Hurricane Milton's direct path over heavily-populated Tampa, Florida
  - Bloomberg, 08 October 2024

• Property and casualty insurance stocks in the USA plummeted on Monday after Hurricane Milton intensified into a category 4 storm on its path towards Florida's western coast, marking yet another costly disaster for the industry to cover this year. The S&P Insurance Select Industry (.SPSIINS) index was last down 2.7% on Monday. Heritage Insurance (HRTG.N), which has a big footprint in the state, was last down 26%. Universal Insurance (UVE.N), and HCI Group (HCI.N), fell 15% and 16%, respectively. Sector bellwether Travelers Companies (TRV.N) was last down 3.5%, while Allstate (ALL.N) and Assurant (AIZ.N), declined 4% each.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 07 October 2024

• People in California will pay more for earthquake coverage in 2025, as the California Earthquake Authority - a not-for-profit organization funded by insurance companies and managed by the state - is raising rates by an average of 6.8 percent in January. Cited as reasons for the spike are inflation, higher construction costs, and the price of reinsurance - coverage that insurers purchase to help pay claims. About 10 percent of Californians carry insurance to cover damage.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 October 2024

• After Hurricane Helene, lawyers gear up for battles over who should pay. As storms intensify, so do the legal clashes with insurance companies, aid agencies and others over compensation, rebuilding and even scams.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 October 2024

• Research on hundreds of tropical storms finds that mortality keeps rising for more than a decade afterward. Looking at 501 tropical storms from 1930 to 2015, researchers found that the average tropical storm resulted in an additional 7,000 to 11,000 deaths over the 15 years that followed. Overall during the study period, tropical storms killed more people than automobile crashes, infectious diseases and combat for soldiers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 October 2024

• Shares of Humana plunge more than 10% after the health insurer warned that a steep drop in the federal government's quality ratings of its Medicare plans could hit its 2026 results.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 October 2024

• In a town in Florida ravaged by storms, homeowners all want to sell. Ballooning home insurance costs and the perennial threat of violent storms hit the Tampa Bay housing market hard.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• That luxury home comes with an ocean view -- and surging insurance costs. A lot of high-end real estate is in parts of the USA that have become hotbeds for climate disasters in recent years.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 October 2024

• We tried to buy less expensive car insurance, offline and online. It was pretty much impossible.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 October 2024

• Global-warming-aggravated Hurricane Helene to cause from $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage in southern states
  - Zero Hedge, 29 September 2024

• Sorry, your insurance bill probably is not coming down much. Here is why. Both presidential candidates have talked about the rising cost of insurance in the USA. But the factors that make cars and homes more expensive to insure are hard to control -- especially all at once.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 September 2024

• As Hurricane Helene powers through Florida this week, a lot of damage is being done. But insurance companies are better prepared this year to handle the claims over those losses, thanks to higher premiums, strong investment returns, and relatively benign recent weather. The average home-insurance rate in Florida increased 42% last year to over $6,000 a year. And thanks to the mild hurricane season last year, most of that money has turned into profits.
  - Barron's, 27 September 2024

• The two big insurers still betting on fossil fuels. Most companies have cut back on oil, gas and coal investments after big climate-related losses. But State Farm and Berkshire Hathaway's insurance companies increased theirs. Insurers have been pricing in the risks of events such as wildfires and passing the costs on to their customers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 September 2024

• A homeowner in Florida was dropped by his insurer over drone images of his roof, with no in-person human inspection. "Policyholders in Florida have no protection from any predatory, arbitrary or capricious decisions of insurance companies."
  - MoneyWise, 25 September 2024

• Looming insurance crisis threatens taxis and Uber vheicles in New York City. American Transit, the largest insurer of the city's for-hire vehicles, is insolvent. Its collapse could create a crisis that would take thousands of cars out of service.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 September 2024

• The price war in weight-loss drugs is here. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are offering discounts to encourage more insurance coverage of the medicines, which carry price tags of over $1,000 a month.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 September 2024

• Homes in the mountain towns of California are too risky for insurers, but residents want to remain in these danger zones. In the San Bernardino Mountains, another wildfire has forced residents to flee, the latest reminder that they must accept the risks of global heating (i.e., no insurance) if they want to remain.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 September 2024

• Why the expected interest rate cut by the Fed will not solve the housing wealth gap. With home prices near record highs and the cost of home insurance and property taxes rising, affordability remains an issue.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 September 2024

• Many people in California are losing the ability to buy insurance for their homes. Insurance carriers are canceling policies because of the difficulty of raising premiums and increased costs due to environmental damages
  - Zero Hedge, 15 September 2024

• Home sales in flood zones are booming. Here is why buyers take the risk. New Yorkers are spending billions on houses in flood-prone areas despite growing awareness of the effects of climate change.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 September 2024

• Berkshire Hathway's stock is so rich even Berkshire is buying less of its own stock. "If Warren Buffett is not buying his own stock, then why should we?"
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 September 2024

• How to be an insurance company in an increasingly chaotic economy. In 2022, U.S. property and casualty insurers reported an annual loss of $3.8 billion and $26.9 billion in 2023. nsurers have responded by sharply increasing the cost of car insurance and property insurance in the last few years. They have also dropped the customers who constitute the biggest potential outsize risks, such as thousands of homeowners in California with homes at risk of being affected by wildfires. Over eleven percent of all homeowners do not currently carry insurance.
  - Real Clear Markets, 08 September 2024

• Flooding is getting worse -- and fewer homeowners have insurance. Swaths of the USA that have never flooded before are now in danger of being swamped, but the risk is not covered by standard home-insurance policies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 September 2024

• Insurance company American Transit, the biggest insurer of taxes in New York City, lost $700 million in Q2 and is delaying payouts. One reason that its premiums may be too low, but raising them threatens the taxi industry already burdened by rising expenses and heavy debt from falling medallion values. Meanwhile, drivers protested outside City Hall against Uber and Lyft for reducing their access mid-shift to fight a minimum wage rule, cutting their earnings.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 September 2024

• Zepbound and other weight-loss drugs get more good news. But it is too soon to celebrate. Despite falling prices and other advances, questions remain over who will pay for the GLP-1 revolution.
  - Barron's, 31 August 2024

• Survey after survey continues to show that seniors absolutely love Medicare. Yet Medicare is socialized medicine. And, as we all know, only 'commies' like socialized medicine. Senior citizens are happier with their 'communist' Medicare than the rest of us are with our "freedom" insurance from private companies. Yet Republicans accuse the Democrats of communism and socialism for supporting universal Medicare, even when 79% of Republicans support Medicare.
  - BBC, 29 August 2024

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway hits $1 trillion in market value. The conglomerate joined a small club of companies that have crossed the mark.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 August 2024

• Developers and landlords of subsidized housing, who cannot raise rents or charge more for starter homes, say property insurance increases could put them out of business
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 August 2024

• The National Flood Insurance Program, a public insurance program sponsored by the federal government insures 4.7 million policyholders and protects more than $1.28 trillion in assets. Congress has until September 30 to reauthorize the NFIP. Without an extension, people are not going to be able to get a mortgage in any area that requires flood insurance, a man-made 'disaster'. If the NFIP experiences a lapse in its authority, it will not be able to issue new policies, including for people whose lenders require flood insurance or increase coverage on existing policies (including property owners looking to refinance existing mortgages). Sadly, there are very few private insurers that offer any type of flood insurance, in case Congress fails to do its job.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 August 2024

• Conflicting federal policies may force thousands of residents in flood-prone areas to pay more for flood insurance or be left unaware of danger posed by dams built upstream from their homes and worksites. To get the best discount on flood insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's points-based rating system requires communities to chart all the homes, businesses and critical facilities endangered by a potential dam failure and warn people of their risk. But that is difficult or even impossible in some communities, because other federal agencies restrict the release of such information for hundreds of dams that they own or regulate across the USA, citing security risks.
  - Associated Press, 24 August 2024

• This hurriance could cause huge amounts of damage that will need to be repaired, causing huge amounts of spending. That could make the Fed's job harder when it comes to reducing interest rates.
  - Barron's, 24 August 2024

• Swiss Re maintains target after profit beats expectations. The Zurich-based reinsurer made a net profit of $996 million for the second quarter and said its performance benefited from disciplined underwriting, low natural-catastrophe claims and strong investment income.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 August 2024

• Congress asks federal regulators about "troubling" health insurance tactics. Lawmakers are focusing on MultiPlan, a company that has helped insurers cut payments while sometimes leaving patients with large bills. The firm and the insurers can collect higher fees when payments to medical providers are lower, but patients can be stuck with large bills, the investigation found. At the same time, employers can be charged high fees -- in some cases paying insurers and MultiPlan more for processing a claim than the doctor gets for treating the patient.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 August 2024

• Fewer teenagers want to drive. It is changing how they spend. Young drivers point to high prices for cars and insurance, combined with other viable options, from public transportation to rides from Mom and Dad.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 August 2024

• The state of Texas sues General Motors over collection and selling of data on their customers' driving activities. The lawsuit accuses the automaker of tricking drivers into sharing detailed driving records that were then sold to insurance companies.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 August 2024

• Child care, rent, insurance: where inflation hits hardest now. Costs for child care, rent and car insurance are up. Inflation might be easing, but it does not feel that way.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 August 2024

• Habitat for Humanity helped them obtain homes. An insurance crisis may take their homes from these people. In New Orleans, low-income homeowners are at risk of losing houses built by the nonprofit as more (global heating) storms hit the city and property insurance prices soar.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 August 2024

• German insurance group Allianz on Thursday posted a better than expected 7.5% rise in second-quarter net profit and said it was on track to meet its full-year target
  - Zero Hedge, 08 August 2024

• The insurance industry is waging a legal war against new protections for retirement savers. The courtroom offensive appears likely to kill a yearslong effort to curb advice steering people toward products packed with hidden fees. A Labor Department rule is forecast to curb commissions on annuities sharply. The products are sold as a way to convert retirement savings including an IRA into an often-guaranteed income stream that can carry hefty charges.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 August 2024

• CVS Health slashed its full-year profit outlook and announced a new plan to cut $2 billion in costs over several years as higher medical costs continue to squeeze the company and the broader insurance industry in the USA.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 August 2024

• My insurance company spied on my house with a drone. Then the real nightmare began, after they cancelled my home insurnance policy. When homeowners are threatened with cancellation, they pick up the bill for repairs, even if repairs are unnecessary. If the Boston homeowner throws out a slate roof with 70 years of life left in it, the insurance company never knows it was wrong to remove it. It never updates the model to be less aggressive for similar homes.
  - Business Insider, 07 August 2024

• The top 100 companies in the world of insurance technology
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 August 2024

• More than 27 million people in the USA lack health insurance
  - Zero Hedge, 06 August 2024

• "I lost everything" - many residents of Sarasota, Florida, dealing with huge property damage during to rising floodwaters after Tropical Storm Debby, which dumped huge amounts of rain on northern Florida due to global heating of the oceans (which fuel storms), a global heating denied by the governor of Florida.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 August 2024

• The one-hour nurse visits that let insurers steal collect $15 billion from Medicare
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 August 2024

• Small businesses make hard choices as insurance costs surge. Some are raising prices. Others are adopting stricter screening for job candidates, adding workplace safety training and weighing changes to employee healthcare coverage.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 August 2024

• Insurance companies in the USA suffer the biggest losses in the 2000s due to the home insurance policies, losing $15 billion in underwriting losses in 2023
  - Thomson's Reuters, 28 July 2024

• The housing market in Florida is seeing "nightmare scenarios" as buyers cancel purchases due to affordability concerns. Borrowing costs also remain elevated, which has helped pushed buyers away from the market.
  - Business Insider, 26 July 2024

• An increase in uninsured drivers is pushing up costs for everyone else. The number of drivers without car insurance has risen since the start of the pandemic, increasing the burden on everyone from other motorists to tow truck drivers.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2024

• Medicare was a boon to insurers during the pandemic. Now, not so much. Insurers with a focus on Medicaid are seeing higher costs per member after millions of enrollees were forced out of the plans.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2024

• Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway's top insurance executive warned this year about the potential for massive losses from cyber insurance policies. The CrowdStrike-caused global IT outage will be a key test for cyber insurance underwriters, with Fitch Ratings expressing confidence that losses will not exceed $10 billion.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 July 2024

• By burning down buildings in controlled conditions in laboratories, insurers want to change how they are built. Property insurers are trying to force changes in construction standards that they say are necessary to protect against wildfires.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 July 2024

• Extreme heat is causing billions in damages that insurers will not cover. Heat waves have become more intense, stunting crops and leading to worker injuries.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 July 2024

• Insurance premiums for homes in the USA are wildly distorted. Climate change is driving rates higher, but not always in areas with the greatest risk. Higher premiums are being charged in states where regulators apply less scrutiny to requests for rate increases, compared with states where officials question the justifications offered by companies and try to keep rates low, the research shows.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 July 2024

• An increasingly popular form of insurance, 'parametric insurance', is helping farmers and others hit hard by extreme weather. A Luxembourg-based company working with a local Philippines-based insurer pays policyholders based solely on the amount of rainfall and wind speed in a defined area, as measured by satellites. The policies are designed to protect against flooding, drought and typhoons, as well as heat waves.
  - Associated Press, 12 July 2024

• Home insurance premiums are surging -- and states are allowing it. Industry denies 'bullying' tactics after getting approval for premium increases averaging 20% since last year.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• Insurers are braced for more early-season 'Hurricane Beryls'. Despite its early arrival, the storm hits an insurance market that has already raised the price of catastrophe coverage.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• $50,000,000,000 - Insurance companies effectively stole $50 billion from Medicare for diseases that no doctor treated. Questionable diagnoses of HIV and other maladies triggered extra Medicare Advantage payments. Bribing patients with cheap gift cards was part of the criminal activities.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 09 July 2024

• Property fraud allegations snowball as commercial real-estate values fall. A drop in values caused by higher interest rates and a rise in defaults exposes more schemes.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 July 2024

• The insurance industry says more lawsuits in the USA are ending with outsize damage awards against corporations. Lawyers for victims say the amounts are justified.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 July 2024

• Insurers warn standardizing cyber policies could limit future coverage. Despite a growing body of data, cyber risk still is not well understood, insurers say.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 June 2024

• The housing market in the USA is in deep trouble, with people unable to buy houses (prices, insurance, etc.) and those that want to sell finding it hard to buy a replacement home for the same reasons
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2024

• Insurance group Prudential plans a $2 billion share buyback program which will be completed no later than mid-2026
  - Thomson's Reuters, 23 June 2024

• Allstate Corporation on Thursday reported pretax catastrophe losses in May of about $1.4 billion. The Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer said 14 events contributed to nearly $1.5 billion in catastrophe losses for May, with 70% attributable to five wind and hail events mostly in the states of Texas, Colorado, and Illinois. A year ago Allstate recorded pretax catastrophe losses for May of about $885 million.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 June 2024

• Bloomberg spoke with two individuals familiar with the maritime insurance market. They said the price of covering a commercial vessel for transit has jumped from .3% to .4% of the ship's total value to .6%. In other words, a vessel worth $50 million must pay upwards of $300,000 of insurance for one sail.
  - Zero Hedge, 20 June 2024

• Some insurance companies in Zhōngguó have risk exposure in excess of 15 percent of shareholder's equity
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 June 2024

• Condominium owners in South Florida are dumping/selling their homes after getting slapped with six-figure special assessments to finance renovations due to stricter safety standards
  - MoneyWise, 15 June 2024

• That is a nice electric vehicle you have -- but can you afford to insure it? EVs are fast and full of technology. That makes them fun to drive -- but tougher to insure.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 June 2024

• Long-term care insurance rates are soaring. How one couple is coping. Insurers are hiking rates and cutting coverage as they grapple with higher costs. Policyholders face tough choices.
  - Barron's, 15 June 2024

• The price for owning a home is rising rapidly in the USA -- and we are not just talking about mortgage payments. Homeowners in the USA are now paying an average of $18,118 a year on property taxes, insurance for their homes, maintenance, energy and various other expenses linked to owning a home, according to a new Bankrate study. These expenses have risen 26% in the last four years.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 June 2024

• "Not Sustainable": high insurance costs threaten affordable housing. Homeowners in areas battered by climate disasters are facing dizzying insurance rate increases. But builders of housing for the homeless and other low-income families are also struggling.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 June 2024

• The percentages of Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans without insurance have all fallen, often by around half, since the Affordable Care Act took effect, easing disparities in coverage. Of course, the Affordable Care Act has been repeatedly attacked by Republicans.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 June 2024

• Annuities are soaring in popularity. There is hidden risk. Annuities from Advantage Capital's insurers promise savings akin to money markets and CDs. Why the investments are, in fact, rife with risk.
  - Barron's, 08 June 2024

• Evan Greenberg, the CEO of Chubb, on pricing risk, engaging Zhōngguó and welcoming Warren Buffett as an investor
  - Barron's, 08 June 2024

• The insurance market is flirting with natural disasters. Investors are again becoming attracted to catastrophe risk as what is expected to be a very active hurricane season begins.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 June 2024

• Unprecedented ocean temperatures make this hurricane season especially dangerous and destructive
  - USA Today, 02 June 2024

• Since 1980, there have been 383 extreme weather or climate disasters where the damages reached at least $1 billion. In total, these disasters have cost more than $2.7 trillion
  - Zero Hedge, 30 May 2024

• Home insurance is clobbering consumers. Yet it is barely counted in inflation statistics. Skyrocketing premiums are hitting homeowners hard, but they barely factor into common price measures. The biggest jumps occurred in Texas, Arizona and Utah - three leading climate-change-denying states run by Christians.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 May 2024

• Senators see possible conflicts of interest in health care pricing tools. MultiPlan, a data analytics firm, helps insurance companies collect big fees while leaving some patients with unpaid bills -- has been summoned to Washington to explain its business model.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 May 2024

• Reinsurance - the hidden driver of soaring home insurance costs. A looming round of reinsurance renewals could signal a slowdown in premium increases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 May 2024

• An extreme hurricane season in 2024 could trigger 'carrier revenge'. Shippers that assume they will be able to react to changing market conditions, in time, may find that carriers lack sympathy for their plight. In fact, carriers have been warning shippers that forcing significant rate concessions will be a mistake when the market flips in the favor of carriers.
  - Freight Waves, 24 May 2024

• Climate change and global heating is making it harder to obtain insurance for homes, with insurance companies cancelling the policies of hundreds of thousands of homeowners. In Florida, one in three residents dropped by their insurer have moved or are planning to move. The core of all this discontent is that insurers are struggling to stay afloat because the risks they have to protect against are mounting, driven in part by climate change. As average temperatures rise and disasters reach greater extremes, the magnitude of losses mounts, rendering parts of the US uninsurable. In some states, Christian Republican politicians whore themselves, accepting bribes to deny climate change.
  - Vox, 23 May 2024

• As climate change makes disasters more frequent and severe, the insurance industry is in tumult. Losses have been spreading beyond states that have been ravaged by hurricanes and wildfires, like Florida and California, and into places like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, trends are worsening.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 May 2024

• Insurance giant AIG has struck a deal to sell a stake in its majority-owned life-and-retirement arm Corebridge Financial to Nippon Life Insurance for $3.8 billion.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2024

• Nippon Life Insurance, the largest insurer in Nihon by asset size, is planning to invest more in foreign credit markets, looking to diversify its portfolio even as key domestic yields hover at decade highs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2024

• Aflac is buying a stake in a direct lender, getting a piece of the private credit boom. Aflac, an insurance giant, is paying about $100 million to acquire a 40% stake in Tree Line Capital Partners.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reveals its mystery stock: Chubb. The Omaha, Neb., company began building a secret stock position in the second half of 2023.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 May 2024

• What is behind the doctor-availability crisis in the USA? One main reason is the "corporatization of medicine", a medical insurance system that is a massive, costly, wasteful bureaucracy. The move from independent practice to medical group employee presents its own dilemma. Aside from increased patient loads, it has left doctors at the mercy of having to get prior approval from insurance companies to carry out a medical treatment or procedure.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 May 2024

• An insurer to make $350 million payout in the collapse of the harbor bridge in Baltimore. The check from Chubb would be the first large payout in what will likely be a yearslong wrangle over who bears the $1 billion-plus estimated cost of the bridge's collapse.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 May 2024

• $20,000,000,000 - Apollo Global Management has been entangled in a scandalous lawsuit and accused of acquiring illegal life insurance policies on senior citizens through a complex web of shell trusts. The company allegedly used an affiliate, Financial Credit Investment, to manage about a $20 billion portfolio of stranger-originated life insurance policies, effectively engaging in what the lawsuit claims: "In short, Apollo has been carrying out a widespread fraudulent human life wagering conspiracy designed to not only hide its involvement, but to create the false appearance that the policies it owns are somehow legitimate."
  - Zero Hedge, 30 April 2024

• $250,000,000 - Warren Buffett's real estate brokerage agrees to $250 million settlement. HomeServices of America, the largest residential real estate brokerage in the United States, will settle the claims brought by home sellers who said they were forced to pay inflated commissions, pending court approval.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 April 2024

• Warren Buffett or not, Berkshire Hathaway stock is built to last. Questions are swirling about succession, a possible dividend, even a breakup of the company. The case for buying the stock now.
  - Barron's, 27 April 2024

• Better-than-expected medical costs for insurers are putting pressure on hospital stocks
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 April 2024

• Automobile insurance rates are very high. Inflation is definitely a big part of the equation. Everything now costs more, including cars and car repairs, and insurance companies are passing those costs on to consumers. But people are also driving more dangerously.
  - Vox, 10 April 2024

• Who will pay for the Baltimore bridge collapse? Disputes over liability and the cost of insurance claims could take years for insurers to resolve and result in billions of dollars in payouts.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 April 2024

• Insurance companies have long blamed private-equity-owned hospitals and physician groups for exorbitant billing that drives up health care costs. But a tool backed by private equity is helping insurers make billions of dollars and shift costs to patients.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 08 April 2024

• Insurance companies spy on houses via aerial imagery from drones, seeking reasons to cancel coverage
  - Zero Hedge, 08 April 2024

• Insurance companies are using drones to check out roofs or to spot yard debris and undeclared trampolines
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 April 2024

• Blue Owl Capital, a fast-growing lending firm, pushes into insurance. Blue Owl is buying Kuvare Asset Management in a deal that will boost assets under management by $20 billion.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 April 2024

• Health insurance stocks tumbled Tuesday after regulators in the USA did not boost payments for private Medicare plans like the industry had come to expect. Humana Inc., the most exposed to Medicare among large insurance companies, fell as much as 11% at the New York market open to its lowest intraday price in almost four years. UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest US health insurer, dropped as much as 7.2%, while CVS Health Corp. declined as much as 7.1%. Centene Corp. fell as much as 5.5%, while Elevance Health Inc. tumbled as much as 3.1%.
  - Business Insider, 02 April 2024

• The climate change denying governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, raises alarm by call the state's self-insurance program, Citizens Insurance, "not solvent" as an 'explosive' hurricane season is predicted to cause great damage in Florida. The state has to self-insure becauses of its policies that don't allow insurance companies to set rational premiums for such insurance.
  - Benzinga, 02 April 2024

• The bridge collapse in Baltimore could fuel reinsurance pricing. The cost of insuring against extreme risks has been rising, and the complexity of covering the destruction in Baltimorey may further that.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 April 2024

• They grow your berries and peaches, but often lack one item: insurance. Farmers of fruits and vegetables say coverage has become unavailable or unaffordable as drought and floods increasingly threaten their crops.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 01 April 2024

• Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chair of insurance giant Llyod's of London, told CNBC that the payout from the Baltimore bridge collapse and its knock-on effects could be "the largest-ever marine insured loss". Morningstar DBRS analysts said in a Wednesday note that insured losses could total between $2 billion and $4 billion. Barclays puts the potential insurance claims between $1 billion and $3 billion.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 March 2024

• Richard Lara, the insurance commissionerof California, declares a "crisis" after State Farm, the largest home insurance provider in California, announced that it would discontinue coverage for tens of thousands of policies this summer. tate Farm announced on March 20 that it would cut 72,000 home and apartment policies in California because of inflation, regulatory costs and increasing risks from catastrophes.
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 23 March 2024

• Insurers report a rising number of damage claims due to hail. Inflation is driving up the cost of materials and labor to repair roofs and cars. Adding to the costs of insurers is increased development in areas affected by severe storms.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 March 2024

• Roughly two weeks after state regulators said they were collecting details on the homeowners/realestate businesses of insurance companies, to find out why homeowners insurance has become so expensive, key states may opt out, undermining the effort. Some of the states where homeowners face the greatest risks of damage from severe storms and where insurance markets are most turbulent -- such as Louisiana, Texas and Florida, where Republican politicans are paid/bribed to regularly ignore policies dealing with climate change -- are sharing limited data or none at all.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 March 2024

• General Motors has stopped sharing with data brokers, the data about the driving behavior of people who buy its cars
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 March 2024

• Medicare Advantage has financial problems. What it means for your health -- and wallet. Insurers may cut back on benefits as their profits get squeezed. Why a Medicare/Medigap plan could be a better deal for consumers.
  - Barron's, 23 March 2024

• Rossiya seized 400 foreign-owned jets. Then an epic insurance fight began. Insurers and owners are in a battle over who pays for planes stranded at the start of the Ukraine war.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2024

• Florida man sues General Motors and LexisNexis over sale of his Cadillac driving data. Romeo Chicco's auto insurance rate doubled because of information about his speeding, braking and acceleration, according to his complaint.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 March 2024

• Jerome Powell just revealed a hidden reason why inflation is staying high: The economy is increasingly uninsurable. Several types of insurance, including home and car insurance, have surged over the past few years, and it is hurting the Fed's effort to get interest rates down to its 2% target.
  - Jiaravanon's Fortune, 12 March 2024

• Automakers are sharing the driving behavior of consumers with insurance companies. LexisNexis, which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers, knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars, including when they sped, braked too hard or accelerated rapidly. The insurance companies use the data to increase the costs of the insurance they sell.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 March 2024

• Increases in auto insurance premiums hampers the inflation fight. Costlier vehicles and repairs are pushing premiums higher even as the increase in U.S. consumer prices is tapering overall.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 March 2024

• Warren Buffett is getting dragged into the real-estate commissions litigation. Plaintiffs are suing Berkshire Hathaway Energy, owner of one of the brokerage defendants, trying to collect on potentially billions in damages.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 March 2024

• Warren Buffett is getting dragged into the real-estate commissions litigation. Plaintiffs are suing Berkshire Hathaway Energy, owner of one of the brokerage defendants, trying to collect on potentially billions in damages.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 March 2024

• Recent standoffs between insurers and hospitals have grown so acrimonious that the sides are increasingly warning that patients could lose coverage of their doctors.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 March 2024

• $6,000,000 - Insurers for popular Orange County plastic surgeon 'Dr. Laguna' (Arian Mowlavi) have agreed to pay 36 of his patients a total of $6 million for botching their plastic surgeries.
  - NBC News, 29 February 2024

• Climate change is raising the already high wildfire risks of climate-change-denying Texas. The Smokehouse Creek fire is a sign of more to come. Property insurers in Texas are already raising the price of their policies, and withdrawing sales from some parts of the state. Homeowners in Texas saw their insurance rates increase 53.6 percent between 2019 and 2023.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 29 February 2024

• Berkshire Hathaway reports profit of $97 billion last year, a record. The conglomerate saw major gains in its insurance operations and in investment income. But revenues at its railroad and utility businesses declined from 2022.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 February 2024

• Are you 'bleeding' money on car insurance? So are insurers. Even as used-car prices fell in 2023, an eye-watering rise in premiums often t enough to offset higher costs for auto insurers. And it is not just happening in the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 February 2024

• Surging home insurance costs could force families to leave these 10 states - with Florida having the most expensive home insurance
  - Murdoch's Fox News, 24 February 2024

• Why car insurance rates are so high. The price of car insurance was up more than 20 percent over the same time last year, and up 38% since January 2020. Inflation is definitely a big part of the equation. Everything now costs more, including cars and car repairs, and insurance companies are passing those costs on to consumers.
  - Vox, 21 February 2024

• An insurance crisis leaves homeowners vulnerable (and with less insurance) in hurricane-prone (and Christian climate changing denying) Louisiana. Since the 2020 hurricanes, nine insurers became insolvent in the US state of Louisiana within a couple of years.
  - Al Jazeera, 21 February 2024

• Ride sharing company Uber is suing American Transit Insurance because it claims that the insurer is failing to honor its coverage on drivers in New York City who have been in accidents.
  - Zero Hedge, 21 February 2024

• As the costs of home insurance continue to increase, coverage is decreasing. Frequent natural disasters and high inflation have led insurers to raise premiums, and forced many customers to pare reduce their policies. Underinsurance is not a new problem, but it has become far more widespread and severe over the past three years, as rising inflation and climate change have created a highly volatile and unreliable insurance market and raised costs for homeowners.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 February 2024

• Until it was publicly mentioned at a Congressional hearing, an insurance company in the USA, American Club, was selling insurance to shadowy oil tankers carrying oil from Iran, in violations of sanctions of the government of the USA. It is unclear who the U.S. government considers primarily responsible for identifying suspicious tankers.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 February 2024

• How selling insurance became one of the worst jobs in California. Agents used to find good policies for clients easily. Now they struggle to get them any coverage at all.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 February 2024

• Insurance giant Swiss Re posts 580% jump in full-year profit, warns consumers about costs due to climate change and global heating
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 February 2024

• Climate change has hit home insurance. Is health insurance next? Insurers are adjusting to assessing climate risk as extreme heat and air pollution have been linked to a rise in hospitalizations.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2024

• Silicon Valley needs to accept that insurance is boring. Venture capitalists have too often backed flashy 'insurtech' startups with unworkable growth expectations.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2024

• AI cannot be used to deny health care coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified in a memo sent to all Medicare Advantage insurers.
  - Condé Nast's Ars Technica, 08 February 2024

• Insurers such as State Farm and Allstate are leaving fire- and flood-prone areas. Home values could take a hit.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 February 2024

• Automobile insurance rates soar at fastest pace since 1970s inflation spike. "It is the complexity of vehicles these days."
  - Zero Hedge, 26 January 2024

• Insurers earn huge profits as they force customers to pay soaring premiums. The shares of Travelers and Allstate have climbed to records after big rate increases.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 January 2024

• Shares of Humana plunge 10% on a dismal 2024 forecast, as insurers face soaring medical costs
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 January 2024

• Costs of ocean shipping soar after increased attacks on ships in the Red Sea
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 25 January 2024

• Blockades of ships in the Red Sea are causing "out of control" shipping rates; charters hits $100,000 per day
  - Zero Hedge, 25 January 2024

• The risks to global finance from private equity's insurance binge. Funding pensions with private assets holds but needs scrutiny. All of the three kings of private equity -- Apollo, Blackstone and KKR -- have bought insurers or taken minority stakes in them in exchange for managing their assets. Smaller firms are following suit. The insurers are not portfolio investments, destined to be sold for a profit. Instead they are prized for their vast balance-sheets, which are a new source of funding.
  - Economist, 25 January 2024

• Wall Street titans are betting big on insurers. What could go wrong? How private-markets giants are overhauling the financial system.
  - Economist, 25 January 2024

• Health insurers must streamline prior authorization decisions, in light of new rules from the Biden administration. Requires some health plans to provide more information on denials and the status of decisions.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 January 2024

• American car insurance is still far too cheap. As much as drivers may resent paying higher premiums, insurance covers only a small fraction of the costs inflicted in car crashes. Instead, health insurers, government and drivers involved in crashes shoulder the burden, and victims are rarely fully compensated. Insurance premiums are hard to raise, because it would make insurance cost more. And that is deeply unpopular, despite being the nature of affairs in other rich countries. Around one in eight American drivers is not covered, a far higher share than in other rich countries. Drivers are in the USA get away with this because of the subsidies of the government.
  - Economist, 18 January 2024

• Boeing sued by Alaska Air Passengers over 737 Max 9 door blowout. The lawsuit seeks class-action status and unspecified damages from Boeing.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 16 January 2024

• Buying home and auto insurance is becoming impossible
  - Zero Hedge, 14 January 2024

• The USA was hit by a record number of high-cost disasters in 2023. There were 28 storms, wildfires or other disasters that each cost at least one billion dollars in damages, a sign of the growing economic burden of climate change.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 January 2024

• Even Americans who have health insurance can't afford medical bills. The root cause is a broken health care system.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• Western importers are reporting a steep rise in ocean-shipping rates and weekslong delays as carriers divert ships from the Red Sea to avoid Houthi rebel attacks
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 January 2024

• The insurance market is healing. Higher prices and lower interest rates are drawing more capital into reinsurance, which can ultimately benefit home and auto policies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 January 2024

• Buying home and auto insurance is becoming impossible. Huge losses from national disasters have prompted the industry to jack up prices and pull back from some markets.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 January 2024

• As once-routine weather events become increasingly destructive, the rising cost of home-owners insurance threatens to further stall a national housing market that is already groaning under the weight of high interest rates, rising prices and surging construction expenses.
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 06 January 2024

• Most people still pick up prescriptions at their local drugstore. More and more insurance companies want to just mail medications -- and are working on their apps to make that happen.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 January 2024

• Property reinsurance rates in the USA rise by up to 50% on January 1
  - Thomson's Reuters, 02 January 2024