Welcome to the "Mostly Insurance" Edition of the Cavalcade of Risk

I'm not kidding here--all but about three or four submissions (that I kept) were about insurance (specifically life insurance), so it's going to be an INSURANCE and NON-INSURANCE kind of carnival, because I like to keep things simple.

Could it be that someone is trying to send a message? :)

Okay--here we go. Got coffee? Got snacks? Been to the bathroom? Oh well---too late now.

INSURANCE
Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents shows us (with charts and graphs, mind you) How Much is Term Life insurance if You Use Tobacco, and boy, this alone should cause many to quit on the spot! Many would probably quit retroactively if they could. Jeff says, "I always assumed that life insurance for tobacco users was more expensive than those that don’t use it, but I never realized how much more."

My mother caught me smoking when I was 12. HER smoking cessation campaign was the scrap end of a 2 X 4 applied to my ass. Now I see she was really doing me a favor!

Boomer of Boomer & Echo sends us Understanding Life Insurance: Part 1 and adds, "Life insurance is a must for anyone with family responsibilities and little personal wealth." Will there be a Part II? I hope so.

Our favorite Hank Stern of Insureblog takes us back to STOLI Revisited (and no, it doesn't involve cheap Russsian vodka). "It's not often that investment risk and insurance risk overlap, but my post on Stranger Owned Life Insurance covers both bases."

Michael of The Dough Roller (one of my fans) has A Few Quick Ways to Lower Life Insurance Premiums. He adds, "Life insurance is a great way to protect your family and we have a few ways to lower your premiums tomorrow." I'm going to include this entry into my own carnival--Frugal Feast--because this is something MY readers can use!

Tred Eyerly of Insurance Law Hawaii warns us about how Excess Policy Incorporated Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause, Eliminating Coverage (hey guys--is this known as "insurance stacking"? Wenchypoo wants to know.), and explains, "this case demonstrates the importance of considering the language of both the primary and excess policies when faced with a catastrophic event."

Note to Tred: I know you're writing for other insurance professionals, but on my blog, you have potential customers (also known as the consumer class) reading this too--about 250 daily (globally, although most are Americans), and the Cavs are the biggest "hit" hit here (for at least a month afterward--people seem to love my archives!). We don't always understand industry lingo, so please break it down a little. :)

P.S.--Enjoy the First Family while you've got them over there! If I didn't get snowed in, I'd have stowed away in Sasha's suitcase.

Nancy Germond of AllBusiness.com (my kind of lady--all business) says that Middle Market Insurance Buyers Should Set High Expectations, and says, "if you are a middle market insurance buyer, you probably spend more money each year on premiums than you do on legal fees, and a great deal less time with your agent than you do your attorney. Your insurance agent should be a trusted advisor just like your CPA or lawyer, not just someone who, once a year, manages your renewal process. If you aren’t receiving true, value-added benefits you can quantify from your broker, then perhaps when another agent calls, it is time to say, “I’d love to meet you."

Consumerati translation: the above article refers to business insurance--if you don't own a business, move on. If you think you might own one some day, please read.

NOT LIFE INSURANCE, BUT STILL INSURANCE

James at Car Insurance Comparison asks What Companies Offer Cheap Insurance to Military Personnel? As a former navy wife, two come immediately to mind: GEICO and USAA (or at least they're the ones most marketed to military families). I imagine anybody would offer the discount if you asked for it, and can prove you're in the military, but that's just me--asking for discounts wherever I go (even the bathroom).

The beauty of GEICO is that even though we're now a civil service family, we still get to keep our coverage (just not the deep active duty discount--but it's still cheaper than anything else out there).

James adds: "It's too bad that many in the military simply don't realize all of the potential discounts and cheaper insurance rates available to them." That's because the officers all tell the young bucks that the insurance is available only for officers (meaning you had to hit a certain income level)--or at least that's what we were told repeatedly. When Hubby made E-5, we looked into it, and switched.

This next entry could be filed under "legal" or "politics", but I'm filing it under "health insurance" because it has to do with the Health Care Reform act. Jaan Sidorov of Disease Care Management Blog sends us a wonderful article (complete with flow chart) of Why Appeals on the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act Will Not Be Fast-Tracked to the Supreme Court--basically, a lot of foot-dragging will be involved, even though they have the General Welfare clause on their side. In reality, though, I have to concede that HCR may be the only way to handle the incoming tidal wave of boomer seniors that are going to overwhelm the Medicare system, much like the unemployed have overwhelmed the Medicaid system.

I'm just mad that I have to help pay for it when I do something completely different to preserve my health.

Talk about screwing health insurers through marketing, this little ditty from the Notwithstanding Blog shows us how Model Marketing (and new Hampshire's $4300 cheek swabs) does just that--guilts us into becoming bone marrow donor registrants through a cheek swab, then bills our health insurance exorbitant sums for the honor! I've never NEVER seen a CSI episode where they swabbed a cheek, then billed the suspect.

Since when is New Hampshire so desperate for bone marrow that it has to set up it's own registry? Oh wait--I know: Referring back to F-I-L's motorcycle safety admin days, New Hampshire has no helmet laws, or many other laws, so personal protection there is probably pretty lax. No safety, more personal injuries and deaths, and pretty soon, no more leukemia!

I imagine New Hampshire is just moving beyond mere organ donation.

Jason Shafrin of Healthcare Economist presents Home Health Case Mix, and no, it isn't a crunchy snack. It has to do with how Medicare adjusts home health payments based on patient case mix.

Okay, now for the two NON-INSURANCE posts:

This entry from Scott Wright of Streetwise Security Zone talks about the Stuxnet Worm and Industrial Risk: Stuxnet worm provides a glimpse into the future of industrial quality control and risk management. My hubby is an engineer, and even HE could see the damage done to Siemens controller systems (and it helps that he has a friend who used to work for them).

You run the risk of this type of thing any time you have computers and equipment interfacing with each other. Just thank God Stuxnet wasn't aimed at the medical equipment community!

As it is, Id like to thank whoever invented Stuxnet--because of him (them?), Iran will never have an active nuke plant until they completely replace all their systems with new parts. It looks as if the 12th Imam won't be returning in Ahmedhinijad's lifetime.

Scott comments: "The Stuxnet worm hails a new era in targeted malware that manufacturers and even federal authorities need to be concerned with. This worm was found to be infecting Siemens industrial Programmable Logic Controllers in Iran - with the chilling intent of sabotaging critical modules in industrial control systems. The potential for injecting large-scale flaws in manufactured equipment raises some scary prospects for future news headlines. The complexity and innovative features of this malware raise the stakes an order of magnitude in terms of damage to an organization, a nation or large groups of people. This article identifies some of the potential risks from this new approach to using malicious software, and provides some guidelines for hardening manufacturing processes and systems to resist this type of attack."

The next one could be aimed for our electrical grid--you know the so-called "smart grid." I'm switching to gas. My paranoid neurotic brain asks "why do you think there's been such a push to get us all on solar?" But then, you could just carpet bomb solar farms and windmills (no hackers needed), so where's the energy security?

And lastly, Tax Debt Help warns is about Other Tax Scams IRS Warning Taxpayers About. It seems like every year, the IRS comes out with it's "dirty dozen" list of tax scams, but there are others that don't make that magic list--you should still know about them.

That concludes this edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. I now hand the torch off to Health Business Blog. Have a happy and safe New Year, and if you happen to have a spare snow blower, send it my way! :)