Insure-and-Go: we're there for you until you need us
How's this for a ripoff? We've got travel insurance from Insure-and-Go, which covers (among other things), flight cancellations due to strikes. Last summer, we bought plane tickets from the UK to the...
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Parents who won't vaccinate their kids should pay higher insurance premiums
Writing on CNN, pediatrician Rahul K. Parikh suggests that parents who allow the irresponsible lies of publicity-mongers like Jenny McCarthy to scare them into not vaccinating their kids should have to...
View ArticleWhat it's like to be uninsured
When I was in second grade, I got health insurance for the first time. I remember my parents—with looks on their faces somewhere between proud and relieved—telling me that it was now totally okay to...
View ArticlePublicly funded birth control saves public money
A public investment of $235 million in helping the poorest women in America access birth control would save the public $1.32 billion, according to the Brookings Institution. Read the rest
View Article"How I lost my fear of Universal Health Care"
Worth a read: American blogger A Young Mom, who believed state-funded abortion was "a horrible thing," writes about how she changed her mind about Universal Health Care after realizing that affordable...
View ArticleMatt Fisher: Progressive Insurance is lying, they did too defend my sister's...
Yesterday, Mark posted Progressive Insurance's denial that it had represented the driver who killed one of its policy holders, in an effort to getting out of paying a claim. Now, Matt Fisher, the...
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On Romney, health care in America, and dying in your apartment
Recently, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney told members of the Columbus Dispatch editorial board, "We don't have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don't have...
View Article#InsurancePoll: Amanda Palmer wants to know about your experience with health...
Amanda Palmer was musing about the messed up state of US health insuranceso she took to Twitter, writing about it under the #InsurancePoll tag ("quick twitter poll. 1) COUNTRY?! 2) profession? 3)...
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American insurers charge reckless rich drivers less than safe poor drivers
The Consumer Federation of America did a mystery shopper review of several auto insurers and found that drivers with at-fault accidents paid lower premiums than drivers with spotless records --...
View ArticleWhy health insurance makes no sense
Two doctors have written a really fascinating analysis of the history and economics of health insurance that will make our current U.S. system seem even more ridonculous than it already did. Read the...
View ArticleUh-oh: Cox Cable's insurer won't back them in court against BMG Music
BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music. has been trying to enlist Cox Cable as an accomplice in a copyright trolling scheme, demanding that the company pass on copyright infringement notices that...
View ArticleSurvey of wealthy customers leads insurer to offer "troll insurance"
Chubb's new troll rider on its elite personal insurance package for its wealthiest customers now offers up to £50,000 to cover the cost of counselling, lost income, and professional anti-troll...
View ArticleHealth insurance must pay for exoskeletons
An independent review board has ordered an unspecified health insurer in the northeastern USA to reimburse a patient for a $69,500 exoskelton from Rewalk, whose products enable people with spinal cord...
View ArticleHome Depot might pay up to $0.34 in compensation for each of the 53 million...
In 2014, Home Depot disclosed a security breach of 53 million customer credit cards and 56 million email addresses. This week the company settled a class action lawsuit and agreed to pay as much as...
View ArticleThe Vulnerable 20 Group: coalition of 20 countries threatened by climate change
Reps from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu...
View Article18% of the world's cargo ships are sitting idle
In the aftermath of the 2008 crash, international shipping sank to record lows -- but container ship companies kept on building, turning out some of the biggest ships the seas have ever seen. Slack...
View ArticleWearing an activity tracker gives insurance companies the data they need to...
Many insurers offer breaks to people who wear activity trackers that gather data on them; as Cathy "Mathbabe" O'Neil points out, the allegedly "anonymized' data-collection is trivial to re-identify...
View ArticleEquifax was always dirty, it bills the US government for millions, and was...
Before Equifax changed its name in 1976 -- in the midst of a Congressional investigation and a national scandal -- it was the Retail Credit Company, founded in Atlanta in 1899. Retail Credit served as...
View ArticleIn an attempt to quantify stupendous risk, cyberinsurers ratchet up premiums,...
In some ways, there's never been a better time to be an insurer: every business wants cybersecurity insurance, and the market is willing to tolerate crazy annual premium hikes -- 30% a year for the...
View ArticleWhen your dental insurer sends you a "free" Internet of Shit toothbrush
Wolf Richter's dental insurer sent his family a free "smart" toothbrush that records how often and how well you brush, using a set of proprietary consumables to clean your teeth. Richter discovered...
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