Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Wednesday, Oct. 17

Click on a headline to read the complete story: 

 

White House Now Backs TRIA Extension

WASHINGTON—The Bush administration late yesterday effectively threw in the towel to its opposition to an extension of legislation providing federal support for insurers after catastrophic terror attacks.

 

Senate Panel to Release Compromise Terrorism Insurance Bill Today

Senate leaders have agreed on a bill to renew the federal terrorism reinsurance program, although without some of the added provisions and for not as long as the House of Representatives wants.

 

State to Allstate: Explain ‘runaway profits,’ soaring rates

Florida’s insurance regulators have subpoenaed the Allstate companies for a January hearing to explain why they want to boost premiums in the wake of record profits.

 

Texas:  Court upholds Allstate homeowner insurance increase

Allstate Insurance can continue to charge a 5.9 percent rate increase that it imposed on homeowner policies in August after a court threw out the state’s attempt to roll back the increase.

 

Post-Katrina strategy paying off for Allstate

When a series of killer hurricanes walloped the Gulf Coast in 2005, costing Allstate a record quarterly loss of $1.55 billion, the company tried to make sure its bottom line would never be hit so hard again.

 

Crist seeks insurance fix

Florida’s investigation into the insurance industry’s alleged conspiracy to keep home premiums high widened Tuesday to include Allstate.

 

Blanco takes Road Home plea to White House today

BATON ROUGE, La. – Gov. Kathleen Blanco takes her bid for federal aid to keep the Road Home hurricane aid program afloat to the White House today, amid a flurry of meetings in Washington.

 

Op-Ed:  Landmark legislation a lifesaver for Florida consumers

After Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature enacted insurance reform in January, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation projected that the average savings to homeowners would be 24 percent of the total policy premium for a typical homeowners’ insurance policy. I assisted in developing that calculation.

 

Radio ads target 3 Miami lawmakers

Democrats will begin running Spanish-language radio ads Wednesday criticizing Miami’s three Republican House members for siding with President Bush’s veto of a children’s health insurance bill.

 

New Prescription: Patient Advocates

TAMPA – Ever since his son came within days of having surgery that he didn’t need, Tampa employeebenefits consultant Rob Pariseau has been calling for a dose of prevention in health care – prevention of mistakes, not just disease.

 

Condo board complaints rise dramatically in 5 years

The number of complaints against condo boards has gone up dramatically in the past five years.

 

Let helpers help

When doctors and nurses are stopped from helping people in a disaster because they are from another state, that’s a disaster in itself.

 

N.H. commissioner weighs in on North Dakota insurance legislation

BISMARCK, N.D. –A national insurance group is looking into conflict-of-interest allegations against North Dakota’s former insurance commissioner for his role in writing a new law that restricts the resale of life insurance policies.

 

Chicago firm agrees to sell Katrina-ravaged Hyatt hotel

The Chicago-based owner of the hurricane-damaged Hyatt Regency New Orleans is expected to announce Wednesday that it has agreed to sell the shuttered hotel.

 

Car smashed? Insurers say, ‘Go here’

The Automobile Club of Southern California fired a manager in its collision repair section and began an internal investigation into the matter three weeks ago, another sign of the controversy that has enveloped the insurance industry’s directed repair programs.

 

21 guilty in crash scheme

The leader of a ring that scammed more than $1 million from insurance companies by staging accidents across North Texas has pleaded guilty in a Dallas federal court.

 

Munich Re to Buy US Insurer Midland

BERLIN Munich Re AG, one of the world’s biggest reinsurers, said Wednesday that it is buying The Midland Co., a U.S. specialist insurer, for about $1.3 billion in a deal aimed at expanding its reach in the United States.

 

Insurance Revenues For Banks Up 1%

Bank holding companies’ insurance revenues increased 1 percent for the first half of this year, a trade group reported.