Tag Archives: insurance

Bail-Out for Insurers

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In the news:

“The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. was the first to disclose Thursday that it had been notified by the Treasury Department that it was eligible for $3.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Lincoln National Corp., which commonly goes by the name Lincoln Financial Group, said it has been initially approved for a $2.5 billion injection from TARP’s Capital Purchase Program.

Allstate Corp., Ameriprise Financial Inc., Principal Financial Group Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc. also are among insurers receiving preliminary investment approval, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams confirmed. He declined to disclose the amount of investment each company will receive.

The total capital injection into the six companies will be less than $22 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the situation…”

My Comment

22 billion might not seem like a lot, but insurers’ holdings have taken a big hit in recent months, it seems, and a cut in their ratings would have been likely once their assets fell below a certain level.

So you have government ownership of large parts of the housing market (which itself covers, in all its aspects some 30% of the economy), extensive government intervention in banking and insurance, government run trade, government run schools and colleges, government run social security and medicaid and medicare, and what does the left think the problem is? The free market!

Living Without Health Insurance

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I have a new piece at Lew Rockwell, with some tips for people who might be interested in doing without health insurance for a couple of years:

(Legal Disclaimer:

I am not a medical or legal expert and anything written in the article should not be construed as medical or legal advice.  Readers should consult their own physician and attorney before making a decision about their insurance or about self-medication.

I am not in anyway responsible for any harm or injury that might come to a reader as a result of reading this article or from following therapies mentioned in it.

Neither I nor any publisher of this piece on a website or in print form, is in any way liable for any injury or harm sustained from following any recommendation whatsoever  in this article (or any recommendation arising from it)  in this country, or any other, now, or in the future).

“I stopped carrying health insurance over five years ago for many reasons that I won’t get into here. It wasn’t a big decision, because I’d done without it for a couple of years when I was between jobs

In any case, when I had it, it was never much use. I was misdiagnosed on a couple of things and ended up having to treat myself. I got to resenting the way some doctors never really listened. I bridled at having my questions treated like the uninformed babble of a simpleton.

And since I had to pay most of the bill for “maintenance” items like vision and dentistry anyway, dropping insurance altogether seemed like the logical thing to do.

That doesn’t mean it will work for you, though. Especially if you have an on-going illness, be sure to do your own due diligence.

Still, if you’re a relatively healthy person, if you’re cash-strapped or need to pay off a debt, or if you want to strike out in a new direction on your own, you might find my tips useful in helping you go insurance-free for a couple of years.

Or even longer.

You’ll worry less about doing without those “bennies” you’ve got used to for so long. And the less worried you are over going it alone, the more you’ll be able to stand up to the big lie of modern life – that people need the government to survive.