insurance

From our friends at FlexBank/Navia : ' The Internal Revenue Service released Notice 2020-29 and Notice 2020-33 dealing with cafeteria plan elections, grace periods for health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs) and increasing the $500 carryover amount for health FSAs .' It's kind of amazing the ripple effect CV-19 is having on different areas of the insurance business. From Business Interruption on the P&C side, to premium relief on the health side. And of course all the changes already happening on the financial side. For example, plans (employers) may: • Prospectively enroll employee or family member in employer sponsored health coverage without an event • Prospectively change to another health plan option of the same employer without an event But wait, there's more! They may also: • Prospectively enroll, increase, decrease, or revoke FSA elections for any reason. Employers may limit decrease/revoke to the reimbursement already provided Again, these are volun...

The last 4+ months have provided a fair amount of persuasive evidence that a fully-centralized “universal national health” scheme would be a fiasco in modern America. That’s because the people running it would be the same kinds of bureaucrats and political functionaries that we’ve witnessed running government agencies like CDC, and leading our large cities and even some of our largest States.  Unprepared, confused, slow to respond, and ultimately dictatorial. There is no reason to believe bureaucrats and politicians who run a national health scheme would perform or behave any differently.  Even the most rabid supporters of national health care must now deal with the implications of  declining public trust in big government.  Certainly the decline is not all because of coronavirus.  And certainly China or The World Health Organization did not help. But China and WHO are political and bureaucratic, after all.    Regardless, coronavirus required American ...

Note : I really couldn't care less about this, but I have made a strong commitment to break any so-called 'embargo' to which I have not previously and explicitly agreed. So: ' NEWS EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 6 AM CST Passing along the embargoed news that Babylon has invested in consumer health engagement company Higi, leading its series B funding. Full press release around the news pasted below .' Any interested folks are free to click through to read the no doubt sordid scintillating details. [Hat Tip: Kayleigh W] Original content copyright © InsureBlog

Our good friends at FlexBank/Navia sent along this helpful info for 2021 planning (hey, a head start can't hurt): The IRS just announced the 2021 maximum HSA contribution limits : Single Coverage  $3,600 Family Coverage  $7,200 By the way, those represent an increase of $50 over 2020 for singles, $100 for families. Not a fortune, to be sure, but something . As usual, there's a ' Catch Up ' provision for folks 55 and up: $1,000 per. In case you're wondering, that stayed the same from this year. Oh! I thought this was interesting: Special Rule” for Married Individuals Married individuals (same and/or opposite sex) who are both HSA-eligible individuals may divide their annual HSA contribution limit in any way they want, including allocating nothing to one spouse. Details here . Cool beans! Original content copyright © InsureBlog

Our good friend Chris Van B is helping to raise funds for the Artemis Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence , a really noble cause, especially with domestic violence apparently on the rise as a result of the lock-downs. The Artemis Center, in Dayton (OH) ' empowers survivors of domestic violence to make decisions and choices that will establish and maintain safety for themselves and their children. By working collaboratively with other community services, Artemis Center advocates are able to coordinate needed services .' This is especially necessary in these uncertain times, and one of Chris' vendors is offering to match contributions up to a total of $1,000. But the clock is running out on that offer. Please click here if you can spare a few dollars for a very worthy cause. Or, you you prefer to send a check, just drop us an email for details. By the way: Chris notes :  $36 could possibly buy a CASE - 24 (5 oz.) cans of tuna for Artemis. Wow! Thank you! Original ...

Given the current circumstances, it seems valuable to revisit a post we did a half-decade ago when Baltimore went up in flames. The question then, as now, was whether or not the property destruction would likely be covered under one's insurance. Of course, it gets a bit more nuanced, as coverage will differ slightly by locale and policy form. I reached out to FoIB (and P&C Guru) Bill M , who reminded me that a key distinction lies with the difference between terrorism (generally excluded) and civil unrest (generally covered). He also confirmed that coverage is likely under both homeowners and commercial lines policies. As he so often instructs us: look to the exclusions for the best answers. And with that out of the way, here's what we wrote in '15, and which applies today, as well: Homes, businesses and cars have been burned, looted and otherwise damaged, leaving owners wondering what, if any, insurance payments they can expect. The Insurance Information Institute ( ...