Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.insur From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: insur Thu, Feb 27 1992 Date: Thu, 27 Feb 92 06:04:26 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: Insurance USA TODAY Update Feb. 27, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network HEALTH-CARE CRISIS IS DEEP: The USA's health-care system fails to serve more than one person in six - and not just because they can't get insurance, says a study out Thursday. "Health insurance is vital, but it alone doesn't do the job," says Daniel Hawkins Jr. of the National Association of Community Health Centers, which authored the study. (For more, see special Study package below.) JUDGE SAYS ALLSTATE SHOULD LOWER RATES: A New Jersey judge ruled Wednesday that the Allstate Insurance Co., which claims it has lost millions by insuring New Jersey drivers, should lower its auto insurance rates by about 2%. The finding of Administrative Law Judge Robert Miller dealt a blow to Allstate, which sought an 18.7% increase. Allstate insures 490,000 cars, or 15% of the New Jersey market. SUSPENSION OF BENEFITS BARRED: A federal judge issued an order Wednesday barring administrators of the United Mine Workers union's two troubled trust funds from suspending health care benefits to 120,000 beneficiaries. The judge issued the temporary restraining order in response to a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of retirees and other beneficiaries in the 1950 and 1974 UMW funds. FUNDS MAY BE BAILED OUT: UMW'S two funds have a $100 million deficit because of a drop in contributing companies in the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, which helped create the funds in the 1940s. U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has proposed legislation that would impose an industrywide tax to bail out the funds. A&A RESTRUCTURES: Alexander & Alexander Services Inc., New York, says it will reorganize its insurance brokerage operations to more effectively serve the insurance and risk management needs of clients. The plan, which includes closing or consolidating 10 of its 210 offices, is expected to cost $48 million, or $1.18 a share after taxes. COURT VOIDS COVENANTS: A federal district court in Atlanta has affirmed a prior ruling by a state court that some covenants in A.L. Williams Corp. contracts were unenforceable and invalid under Georgia law. The court upheld voiding of the covenants, which prohibited agents from replacing policies of Massachusetts Indemnity Life Insurance Co., recruiting ALW agents and disclosing confidential information. PROFESSOR DENIES LINK TO WEISS: A Georgia State University insurance professor who heads the insurance research center there has denied a newspaper report that he helped develop a computer rating model used by Weiss Research, a small Florida-based firm that began rating insurance companies in 1989. His denial contradicts a Jan. 6 feature article on Weiss Research in the New York Times. GEICO GETS BOOST: A stock split gave insurance company GEICO a boost Wednesday. GEICO climbed 10 points to $219 after it proposed a 5-for-1 stock split. GEICO also announced that it increased its dividend 32% on a pre-split basis. J-P SHAREHOLDERS TO VOTE IN MAY: Jefferson-Pilot Corp., Greensboro, N.C., recently announced that it has received a proposal from a shareholder group for inclusion in the company's 1992 proxy materials. The proposal seeks to establish new qualifications of independence for members of J-P's board of directors. Shareholders will vote on the proposal at the company's annual meeting in May. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON STUDY: COVERED PEOPLE NEGLECTED: A new study questions health-care reformers who focus on the 35 million Americans without insurance, rather than the larger number without adequate care. About 43 million people, 17% of the U.S. population, are not getting adequate health care, the report says. Most have no health insurance at all. But at least 8 million are covered by Medicare or Medicaid and still can't get adequate care. URBAN DWELLERS AT RISK: Patients covered by Medicare who can't get adequate care live in communities with high health risks, especially urban slums, the report says. Also found: They can't find doctors to take Medicare or Medicaid; and there aren't enough primary-care doctors, especially in poor communities. MILLIONS ARE UNDERSERVED: Hospitals and clinics don't do enough to break barriers of language, culture, poverty and ignorance. About 51 million people are either medically underserved or a risk, says the study. Of those underserved, 33% are children, 25% are disabled or seniors and 20% are women of childbearing age. (End of package.) Insurance Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 08:0002270000D0227 INTE- R D Irish-girl-can-get-abortion........... A D0227 This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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