CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A federal jury in New Jersey has found a California man guilty of selling bogus liability insurance policies.
The jury returned its verdict Tuesday against 62-year-old Ronald Allen of North Hollywood, Calif., following a seven-day trial in Camden.
Prosecutors say Allen conspired with Houston-based insurance agent Gilbert Morgan to sell commercial liability policies to bar and nightclub owners around the country, including in New Jersey.
The policies were issued by a fictitious company created by Allen and never paid any claims.
Prosecutors say the men collected nearly $700,000 in premiums.
Allen faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison. View Full Article »
CAMDEN, N.J.
A federal jury in New Jersey has found a California man guilty of selling bogus liability insurance policies.
The jury returned its verdict Tuesday against 62-year-old Ronald Allen of North Hollywood, Calif., following a seven-day trial in Camden.
Prosecutors say Allen conspired with Houston-based insurance agent Gilbert Morgan to sell commercial liability policies to bar and nightclub owners around the country, including in New Jersey.
The policies were issued by a fictitious company created by Allen and never paid any claims.
Prosecutors say the men collected nearly $700,000 in premiums.
Allen faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison. Morgan pleaded guilty in September 2008 and is awaiting sentencing.
Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Hazel heads the panel, which urged the state to move quickly to create a Virginia-run marketplace where individuals and small businesses could shop for insurance, find ways to boost the number of doctors practicing in the state and create an “innovation center” to test ways to improve care for people with chronic diseases.
Virginia also should consider requiring Medicaid recipients to pay more for some medical services, expand telemedicine efforts and find ways to foster a team-based approach to medical care that could give more authority to nurses and other health professionals, the panel said.
The report comes amid uncertainty nationwide over the fate of the federal law, as courts weigh its constitutionality and Republicans in Congress and many statehouses fight it. View Full Article »
The California Department of Insurance on Tuesday announced approval of a $72 million rate reduction for Mercury Insurance auto policyholders.
Mercury currently insures nearly 2 million California vehicles.
Under the new rates, which go into effect today, CDI said Mercury auto policyholders and new customers in California will save an average of about $36 per vehicle. Some premiums will decrease by as much as 10 percent.
– Mark Glover
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. View Full Article »
Legal attacks on the insurance mandate in the new health care law are “troubling” and could have devastating consequences if they succeed, according to an op-ed by Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
Writing in the Washington Post, Holder and Sebelius say they are confident the law will be upheld on appeal. But they warn about problems ahead if they are wrong. “These attacks are wrong on the law, and if allowed to succeed, they would have devastating consequences for everyone with health insurance,” they write.
Requiring everyone to carry health insurance if they can afford it takes the burden off of people presently insured, whose premiums help cover health care for the uninsured, they say. View Full Article »
Dear Harry: We’re in our late 50s, and until now never thought seriously about long-term care insurance. My wife’s sister, who is now 71, has a rather rare chronic condition that makes it impossible for her to live with her daughter or us. Fortunately, she has LTC insurance that gives her the opportunity to live in a decent facility with little outside help to cover the cost. View Full Article »
Then President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to this law, O’Brien is getting treatment through a temporary program that provides affordable coverage to people who’ve been shut out of the insurance market because of a preexisting condition. Even better, she knows that in 2014 insurers will be banned from discriminating against her or any American with preexisting conditions.
View Full Article »
Instead of “bending the curve,” Obamacare broke the law. View Full Article »
Declaring a core part of the new healthcare law unconstitutional, a federal judge in Virginia has launched President Obama’s signature domestic achievement into a gantlet of conservative-leaning courts that will almost certainly conclude at the Supreme Court just as the 2012 election is cresting.
In the first such decision since Obama signed the law in March, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson ruled Monday that Congress had overstepped its power in requiring Americans to get health insurance by 2014.
The Obama administration is expected to appeal the decision.
“It is acknowledged by all that we expect this case to end in the Supreme Court,” Virginia Atty. Gen. View Full Article »
Then President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to this law, O’Brien is getting treatment through a temporary program that provides affordable coverage to people who’ve been shut out of the insurance market because of a preexisting condition. Even better, she knows that in 2014 insurers will be banned from discriminating against her or any American with preexisting conditions.
View Full Article »
