Anyone see the new Nationwide add with Dale Earnhardt where they say Nationwide reports to its customers not Wall Street.
Is that a sign of OWS movement?
Anyone see the new Nationwide add with Dale Earnhardt where they say Nationwide reports to its customers not Wall Street.
Is that a sign of OWS movement?
http://www.nationwide.com/about-us/crowd-ad.jsp
The ad was out long before the unwashed started protesting. Nationwide’s image has always been one of trying to sound like the small business around the corner who is there to provide you great service.
Your’re right, it came out in March. I guess they were ahead of their time dumping on Wall Street.
Anyone see the new Nationwide add with Dale Earnhardt where they say Nationwide reports to its customers not Wall Street.
Is that a sign of OWS movement?
http://www.nationwide.com/about-us/crowd-ad.jsp
It means that Nationwide is a mutual insurance company, not a stock insurance company. It is owned by its policyholders, not by shareholders in stock (who may or may not hold insurance policies there).
This is a common form of ownership among insurance companies, including some of the giants like New York Life, Mass Mutual, and USAA. It has been around for decades.
Anyone see the new Nationwide add with Dale Earnhardt where they say Nationwide reports to its customers not Wall Street.
Is that a sign of OWS movement?
http://www.nationwide.com/about-us/crowd-ad.jsp]
It means that we are special and not driven by an insatiable desire for profit.
Oh wait, we are, but we want you to think we aren’t. But we want profit to put into reserves and to drive executive bonuses not to return to shareholders.
But yeah, it just means NW is a mutual company.
hmmm…the message of the AD just doesn’t ADD up to me 
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t means that Nationwide is a mutual insurance company, not a stock insurance company. It is owned by its policyholders, not by shareholders in stock (who may or may not hold insurance policies there).
The insurance version of “Employee owned”?
~Matt
What happens in a mutual company when the premiums are less than the claims; do they go back to policyholders for the deficit year and assess them? Then, are the years following the assessment year readjusted to reflect this change in data used for actuarial projections?
Now, imagine a healthcare mutual company.
What happens in a mutual company when the premiums are less than the claims; do they go back to policyholders for the deficit year and assess them? Then, are the years following the assessment year readjusted to reflect this change in data used for actuarial projections?
Now, imagine a healthcare mutual company.
That is why insurance companies are required to have capital reserves. If you run out of reserves to pay (or in reality, fall too low) you will no longer be in business.
Which is why the credit default swaps were effectively sold as insurance but never called or classified as insurance. They did not have the capital reserves to back them up.
Are there any healthcare mutuals?
Are self insured (for health) employers required to have the same capital as bona-fide insurance companies?
The OWS movement resonates with a lot of people, employed and unemployed. This is good marketing.
Are there any healthcare mutuals?
Are self insured (for health) employers required to have the same capital as bona-fide insurance companies?
My knowledge of health insurance companies pretty much ends with the fact that I think they all suck and want us all to die before they have to pay a claim. 
We do property, auto, and commercial. I don’t even know enough about the operation of health insurance companies to be dangerous.
I don’t believe it is. When Wachovia had to be bought out by Wells Fargo due to it’s problems with the mortgage market (basically F’n Wachovia was writing mortgages with their eyes closed", I immediately didn’t like the service and policies of Wells Fargo. I switched over to USAA and couldn’t be happier. Better service even without a local brick and mortar branch and nearly zero fees. Plus, they weren’t involved in helping to screw the economy up. They were advertising this fact way before the goofy OWS movement.
Are self insured (for health) employers required to have the same capital as bona-fide insurance companies?
There are some major companies that are “Self health insured”. No idea how they work it legally. Seems, under the current system, they would have to follow some regulation that forces them to have some amount of “Cash reserve” on hand in relationship to number of employees and risk.
~Matt
When I was working on tugs, there was one gawdawful company I worked for briefly that was self health insured. One of the mates had fallen out of favor with the office, so they refused to pay for his wife’s appendectomy.
Are self insured (for health) employers required to have the same capital as bona-fide insurance companies?
There are some major companies that are “Self health insured”. No idea how they work it legally. Seems, under the current system, they would have to follow some regulation that forces them to have some amount of “Cash reserve” on hand in relationship to number of employees and risk.
~Matt
You get to the same place by acquiring re-insurance. Most big employers that are self-covering pay a premium to some third-party to put a floor under their liabilities. The larger the group, the more predictable their claim experience should be, but few companies would be willing to backstop all health care liabilities for their employees.
Re-insurance is probably more common in large-scale property and casualty coverage than in health coverage. No matter how spectacularly expensive some health care options can be, they are still relatively predictable compared to, say, underwriting one of the world’s largest office complexes against terrorism.
When I was working on tugs, there was one gawdawful company I worked for briefly that was self health insured. One of the mates had fallen out of favor with the office, so they refused to pay for his wife’s appendectomy.
Actually, I think that would be illegal. I believe ERISA covers self-funded health plans and would come down pretty heavily on a company that refused to pay legitimate claims.
The company I work for is self insured. I have a BCBS card that works just like anyone else’s. There are probably many of my co-workers that have no idea we are self insured, the claims process works the same under both systems (at least for our plan). We do have stop loss insurance to cover any one individual’s claims (above $150K, for example) and also the total amount of claims that can be incurred by the entire plan (like $5MM) in any given year. Our plan covers about 1000 employees and their families, and I think that we can offer better health coverage at a reasonable cost via the self-funded plan than could be provided if we actually purchased coverage.
I suspect there is some kind of bonding that we have to provide to our carrier, but I am not sure of its magnitude.