AIG will sell American Life Insurance Co., with customers in more than 50 nations, to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion, the New York-based insurer said today. The deal came seven days after Prudential Plc, Britains biggest insurer, agreed to buy AIGs AIA Group Ltd. for $35.5 billion. In 2004, Greenberg said non-U.S. life insurance was among AIGs most valuable assets.
Foreign life insurance “is again one of the crown jewels,” he said at a conference. The business “simply could not be replicated” by competitors, he said. The - - - - >

Buffett has more than $4.5 billion invested in Munich Re and Swiss Reinsurance Co., choosing to put Berkshires cash in two companies that account for more than a third of the global market instead of using the money to compete against them. Had Buffett, as Berkshires chairman and chief executive officer, directed a part of that capital to his own underwriters, he could have pushed down the price of coverage, analysts said.
“This is a move to increase that exposure without disrupting the pricing,” said Craig Fehr - - - - >

AIG property-casualty businesses, contributing more than a third of the companys revenue, posted sales increases in three straight quarters last year after plunging 23 percent following the companys near-death experience in September 2008. Life insurance and retirement-products sales, AIGs other main operations, rose for the first time since the bailout in the three months ended September 2009.
“There are clear signs that AIG has pulled out of what could have been a death spiral,” said David Havens, managing director in credit trading at Nomura Securities International Inc. - - - - >

Brokers Marsh & McLennan Cos., Aon Corp. and Willis Group Holdings Plc won approval to again accept so-called contingent commissions from insurers, removing the Spitzer-era ban on the fees paid in placing policies, the New York Insurance Department said on Feb. 16. The middlemen are already paid by insurance buyers.
“The contingent commissions created inherent conflicts and tensions that led to improper practices that we were trying to eliminate,” Spitzer said yesterday in a phone interview. “It was part of a larger reform effort to protect consumers - - - - >

But the rhetoric from both sides distorts the reality.
Its true that hikes like the one by WellPoint Inc. apply only to people who buy individual insurance and are unlikely to spread to the majority of Americans covered through their employers. But such hikes also hit a huge number of Americans who mostly went unmentioned in the furor - the 46 million with no insurance at all.
Thats because for most people who dont get insurance through their jobs and do not qualify for government assistance, the only option is buying individual policies like the ones in WellPoints Anthem Blue Cross plan, - - - - >

Anthems planned rate hike, which the state estimates would affect about 700,000 customers, averaged 25 percent and would have been as high as 39 percent for some.
Anthem Blue Cross of California, based in Thousand Oaks, agreed to postpone the increase from March 1 until May 1 so California could have outside experts review the companys complex and detailed plan filing, including data on the medical costs it expects to incur.
The California Department of Insurance had been working with Anthem since mid-November to get more information about the increase, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said. He wanted to have experts comb through - - - - >

For their car insurers, game day means peril.
“There are definitely more accidents,” said Rick J. Lindsey, chief executive officer at Prime Insurance Co., based in Salt Lake City. “The jump in claims is directly related to the jump in deliveries.”
The National Football League championship on Feb. 7 could attract 100 million viewers, according to CBS, the television network carrying the game. Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest sales day for the largest - - - - >

The Senate took up a $636 billion defense-spending measure that includes $128 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. That and Republican delays — such as insisting that each amendment be read word for word — mean work may not resume on health care until the weekend. And the votes needed for passage arent yet assured, said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.
“Members have expressed concern, indecision,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, adding that talks with the chief party holdout, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, continue. - - - - >

Sen. Ben Nelson, who has collected hundreds of clocks, is the Democrat making everybody wait for the answer to the burning Washington question: Will he be the last vote that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gets to advance President Barack Obamas health care remake?
Maybe, Nelson says - if Reid can find a way to put tougher abortion restrictions in the bill and satisfy the legions of anti-abortion Nebraskans. Challenging his party is a role the moderate Nelson has played many times, most notably when he supported then-President George W. Bushs tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
Now his ultimatum has produced - - - - >

Seniors now on Medicare pay an average of $4,400 a year of their own money for supplemental insurance, premiums, prescription copays, and deductibles for inpatient care and doctor visits.
Thats even after taxpayers pick up most of the cost of covering the elderly. Under one scenario Democrats are considering, people age 55 to 64 would have to pay full freight to join Medicare. Private insurance plans could well be a better deal for them.
“Its more complicated than just saying, Open Medicare up to people 55-64,” said health economist Marilyn Moon, co-author of a 1999 proposal to expand the program. “In theory, - - - - >