| Q4 2006 Affirmative Insurance Holdings Inc. Earnings Conference ...
OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Affirmative Insurance Holdings 2006 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Latisha, and I will be your coordinator for today. [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. At this time, I will turn the presentation over to Mr. Mark Pape, Chief Financial Officer. Please proceed, sir. MARK PAPE, CFO & EVP, AFFIRMATIVE INSURANCE HOLDINGS INC.: Thank you, Latisha. Good morning, and welcome to the 2006 year-end earnings conference call for Affirmative Insurance Holdings. As Latisha said, I'm Mark Pape, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. With me on the call today are Kevin Callahan, our CEO and Chairman; Sean McPadden, Executive Vice President and the President of our Insurance Company; and Joe Fisher, our General Counsel.
Rx Discount Card for the Uninsured
When it comes to prescription drugs, Americans without health insurance are disadvantaged twice over. First, they lack the insurance coverage to pay for the drugs. As a result, adults without insurance are half as likely to get the benefits of prescription drugs as insured adults, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Second, they pay higher prices than anyone else. The uninsured pay 18 percent to 25 percent more for all prescription drugs on average than the insured. They do not get the group discounts that health insurance plans get when they negotiate with drug companies. The best long-term solution for the uninsured is to make certain that everyone has health care coverage. A near-term approach is for states to negotiate group discounts on behalf of the uninsured. In such a scenario, the uninsured get access to the discounts by enrolling and using a discount card at participating pharmacies and mail order services.
News in brief
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) said it has completed the sale of wholly-owned unit MAS Hotels & Boutiques Sdn Bhd to Kingdom Langkawi BV for RM435mil. Earlier, the company said a portion of the cash consideration was conditional upon, among others, Malaysia Airlines procuring a transfer to MAS Hotels & Boutiques of part of a piece of land known as Mangrove Land. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, it said the transfer of Mangrove Land was still pending compliance of certain conditions. AFX-Asia KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has publicly reprimanded Talam Corp Bhd for breaches of the listing requirements. Bursa said yesterday a fine of RM11,250 was also imposed on Talam for failing to submit the company's quarterly report for the financial period ended July 31, 2006, on or before Sept 30, 2006. It added that Talam was required to engage its external auditors to carry out a limited review on the company's next four quarterly results prior to their announcements. KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia said it had reprimanded and imposed a RM2,000 fine on Kumpulan Europlus Bhd after the company failed to submit its interim earnings and annual reports within the required timeframe. In a notice, Bursa said Kumpulan Europlus failed to furnish the company's first quarter to April 2006 financial report by June 30, 2006. The company only furnished the first quarter report to Bursa on Aug 3, 2006, it said, adding that the company provided its fiscal 2006 annual report on Aug 2, after the July 31, 2006 deadline.
State: Insurance practices harm minorities
A Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) report contends the insurance industry's use of occupation and education for the underwriting and rating of auto insurance policies unintentionally harms minorities and low-income individuals in determining auto insurance premiums and insurance eligibility. While the practice is legal, it creates unintended effects that the government may find unacceptable, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said. In 2003, the Legislature passed a law severely limiting the use of credit scoring in insurance underwriting. .
Clerical error causes flood of pain for couple
VERNON TWP. -- On a good day, when the leaves are off the trees and the conditions are right, Alan and Barbara Edgeworth can see a short stretch of the Shiawassee River from their home near Durand. But the river is no threat to their property on higher ground on Geeck Road. It certainly isn't in a flood zone, the Edgeworths say. Yet now, after 23 years there, they are being forced to pay for flood insurance -- because of an apparent clerical error they haven't been able to rectify. And it's left them feeling like they're up a creek without a paddle. "There are five houses one way, six houses the other way and three across the street stretched out over a ways," Barbara Edgeworth said. "I am the only one (deemed to be on a flood plain)." .
Despite competition, snowbirds choosing to make Florida home
FORT LAUDERDALE -- It started with vacations. Vacations stretched into winters. Lured by the warm weather, Harold and Belle Neuhut were snowbirds for 10 years, traveling between South Florida and their home on Long Island, N.Y.
Finally, tired of juggling two homes, the couple five years ago decided to live full time in their lakefront condo in Pembroke Pines.
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Report Finds Fault With Health Insurance
THURSDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) -- Having health insurance is no guarantee that an illness or injury won't leave you in dire financial straits, a new report contends. "Our interviews found that health insurance did not fulfill its primary purpose," study author Carol Pryor, a senior policy analyst at the Boston-based Access Project, said during a teleconference. "When people got sick, insurance did not protect them from overwhelming financial losses or allow them to access needed care." "The only thing worse than being uninsured is paying to be uninsured," Joseph Ditre, executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care, said during the teleconference. "And that's what high-deductible plans are doing." The report, The Illusion of Coverage: How Health Insurance Fails People When They Get Sick, was issued Thursday by the Access Project and Brandeis University.
'Supercomputer' offers hope for Parkinson's sufferers (27.03.07)
Scientists in the US believe they have made a breakthrough that could offer hope to people suffering from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Using the 'supercomputer' at the University of California in San Diego, a model has been developed for the process of aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein. Alpha-synuclein can lead to the formation of harmful ring-like or pore-like structures in human membranes found in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's patients. The study, published in the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) journal, suggested that the model could be used to help identify and block production of this protein. "This is one of the first studies to use supercomputers to model how alpha-synuclein complexes damage the cells, and how that could be blocked," said Eliezer Masliah, professor of neurosciences and pathology at the University of California in San Diego.
E-mail trumps mail for California auto club
Auto club California State Automobile Association, the AAA chapter that represents Utah, Nevada and Northern California, found that e-mail beats mail when it comes to communicating with its members. To promote its new Magellan GPS system the first retail product available on its Web site at www.csaa.com CSAA sent out 2,700 e-mails and 40,000 mail pieces. The e-mail directed members to the e-commerce site and the direct mail led recipients to a call center. After both mailings, 69 orders were placed through e-mail and 48 sales came through direct mail. The reason why it was successful is that these 2,700 members came to our site and signed up to hear specific information about this product, said Bao Pham, senior e-mail marketing manager at the CSAA, San Francisco.
Professor creates tool for mortgage seekers
Homeowners and homebuyers who have been in the dark about how mortgages work have a new tool to help them decide what loan is best for them -- the Mortgage Payment Index. The quarterly index, created by Susan Wachter, a real estate professor at the Wharton School in Pennsylvania working with Genworth Financial, gives consumers information about current trends in mortgages. Wachter recently answered some questions about the origin of the index and how it can be used. QWhy did you develop this index? A "The mortgage meltdown (shows) the consumer is missing a lot of information in weighing decisions about mortgages," said Wachter, who notes that one-third of borrowers don't even know the terms of their loan. "They are not given complete information of what the different kinds of mortgages are.
Top docs see cuts as politics
The surgeons general of the Army, Navy and Air Force have criticized defense officials for imposing $650 million in "efficiency wedges" on their medical budgets, which will not produce real efficiencies but will only mean cuts in on-base medical services. The feud between the medical officers and Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of defense for force readiness and personnel, got its first public airing at a February meeting of the Task Force on the Future of Military Healthcare. It intensified March 27 before the House armed services subcommittee on personnel. To illustrate the effect of a $343 million cut to Navy medicine, Vice Adm. Donald Arthur said it was comparable to closing a large family practice hospital at Camp Lejeune, N.C., or at the naval base in Pensacola, Fla.
Phillip Wasserman Announces Life Insurance College and University ...
SARASOTA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--April 8, 2007--Phillip Wasserman, a recognized authority and sought after author and speaker on life insurance and annuities, has announced a new program and subsidiary to allow colleges and universities to fund and endow athletic and educational financial needs through the use of life insurance. Universities and colleges are looking at funds raised from this type of program to -- Build new athletic facilities
-- Fund athletic scholarships and more
-- Settle debt
-- Endow academic chairs
-- Fund academic research
-- Build new facilities "Oklahoma State University and Liberty University are two great institutions which have recently employed this strategy to help raise and endow tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars for their great schools through the use of life insurance from wealth retired benefactors and boosters.
Female computer game fans 'less likely than men to have car accidents'
Female drivers are less likely to need to claim on their women's car insurance after playing a computer game compared with their male counterparts, a study has shown.Research conducted by psychologists has found that male computer racing game fans are more likely to be involved in real-life road accidents than women.The experts from Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University worked with more than 200 people during the study, which highlighted that female drivers - who often benefit from cheap women's car insurance deals - took fewer risks in traffic situations after playing a game.Writing in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the American Psychological Association, the researchers said: "Practitioners in the field of road safety should bear in mind the possibility that racing games indeed make road traffic less safe, not least because game players are mostly young adults, acknowledged as the highest accident-rate group."However, it may be wise for females wishing to keep their women's car insurance intact to avoid playing computer games before driving their cars, as the researchers add that racing games could lead to unsafe driving.An earlier study by BSM found that females may be more likely to risk a women's car insurance claim after playing a racing game, with respondents stating that they would be more likely to drive at speed in real life.Kwik-Fit Insurance was named the cheapest women's car insurance provider in the UK by research conducted last year.© Adfero Ltd
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Medicaid expansion fails
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Senate Republicans defeated an attempt yesterday to restore government health-care coverage to tens of thousands of low-income parents who were cut from Missouris Medicaid rolls two years ago. The vote came as senators debated a proposed Medicaid overhaul that would change the programs name and the way health care is delivered but would leave unchanged most of the 2005 cuts. Since its peak of just more than 1 million enrollees two years ago, Missouris Medicaid rolls have dropped to about 825,000 people - largely a result of stepped-up eligibility checks and harder-to-meet income qualifications. Democratic Sen. Victor Callahan of Independence sought to restore Medicaid coverage to an estimated 37,000 parents whose incomes are well below the poverty level.
IDP Calls For Solution To Health Insurance Issues
The Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) held a demonstration on Friday to protest the governments failing health insurance scheme and high living costs. We held the protest to bring the governments attention to the living conditions and complaints of the people. The government should not be proud of a record of having attended all the SAARC summits, but rather a record in attaining love and satisfaction from the people, Mohamed Hassan Manik, Vice President, said. IDP called on the government to start giving back medical allowances to employees, which were cancelled in readiness for the introduction of a new system. The new plan has now stalled and around 35,000 civil servants are currently without health cover due to a dispute between the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and Finance Ministry on one side, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Social Security on the other.
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