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 Wed, Mar 11 1992 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 05:46:04 EST Message-ID: 03-11 0000 DECISIONLINE: Insurance USA TODAY Update March 11, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network INSURERS USING GENETIC HISTORY: The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a measure that would prohibit insurance companies from considering genetic histories when deciding whether to sell policies. The Senate is holding hearings on it this month. Rep. Mike Fox, R-Hamilton, says about 20% of the insurance companies in the USA check genetic histories. (For more, see special Genetics package below.) MINERS RALLY TO SAVE PLAN: Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., exhorted more than a thousand retired and active mineworkers Tuesday to put pressure on his Senate colleagues to approve a plan to save the coal industry's health-care plan for retired miners and dependents. The miners want to replenish retirement funds by imposing a new tax on all producers. AON TO BUY INSURER: Aon Corporation Tuesday said that its subsidiary, Aon Specialty Group, has signed an agreement to acquire Media:Professional Insurance, Inc. of Kansas City, Missouri. M:PI, a provider of errors and omissions and other specialty liability insurance products to the media and service-oriented businesses, markets through a national network of brokers and agents. WARRANTECH HAS NEW ARRANGEMENT: Warrantech Corp. Tuesday said that it has entered into arrangements with two new insurance companies to provide coverage for service contracts administered by Warrantech's subsidiaries. The company's primary new insurance arrangement is with the Reliance Holdings Group. FARMERS INTRODUCES DISCOUNT: Farmers Insurance is offering a discount on homeowners and renters insurance to customers who also are insured with Farmers for auto insurance. The discount will provide a savings of up to 7% off of a customer's homeowner's premium if their auto insurance is also written by Farmers. HEALTH COVERAGE COSTS SURGE: The average annual employee contribution for health benefits is rising, according to an A. Foster Higgins & Co survey. In 1989, individual coverage cost $276. That increased to $372 in 1990 and $420 in 1992. Family coverage was $828 in 1989, $1,032 in 1990 and $1,212 in 1991. U.S. DEATH RATES FALLING: Newly compiled final figures by the Centers for Disease Control shows that, between 1979 and 1989, rates for six of the top 10 causes of death fell. Led by a continuing decline in strokes (33%), they included liver disease (26%), accidents (21%) and heart disease (21%). LAWYER CHARGED IN PROBE: In Baltimore, lawyer Nelson Kandel, 62, was charged Tuesday after a yearlong probe into false auto insurance claims. In a state investigation, many doctors and lawyers could face indictment in insurance fraud cases, state officials said. ASBESTOS TRIAL BEGINS: A long-delayed trial that consolidates 8,555 asbestos cases opened Tuesday in Baltimore. The trial opened to a packed courtroom of lawyers, clerks and jurors who will hear claims that workers were disabled by inhaling asbestos fibers on the job. Many of the plaintiffs are steel and shipyard workers or their survivors who are suing 13 companies for hundreds of millions in damages. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON GENETICS: WOMAN DENIED COVERAGE OVER GENES: Laws prohibiting insurance companies from looking into genetic histories would mean higher premiums across the board, says Jim Hetherington, a spokesman for American United Life of Indianapolis. The company rejected a woman for disability insurance coverage because her father had Huntington's disease, a degenerative nerve disorder that impairs movement and intellect. GROUP SAYS GENETICS NOT USED: Donald White, a spokesman for the Health Insurance Association of America in Washington, said none of the 300 commercial health insurance companies in the organization uses genetic tests to choose customers. "It doesn't matter whether the condition is genetic in nature. ... No one should be denied coverage," he said. GENETIC TESTS DETECT DISEASE: There are genetic tests to detect sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, hemophilia, Duchenne and myotonic muscular dystrophy and other diseases. Future tests could screen for high blood pressure, dyslexia, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Moreover, scientists know that many other diseases are hereditary and hope to come up with genetic screening tests. TESTS COULD INVADE PRIVACY: Congress is spending more than $3 billion on the 15-year Human Genome Project, an attempt to identify the more than 100,000 genes in the human body that could lead to treatments and cures for thousands of hereditary diseases. But scientists and others have raised fears that the information also could be used to deprive people of jobs and insurance, not to mention privacy. (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. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM