Archive for the ‘In The News’ Category
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Lipitor, which is used by patients to lower blood cholesterol, was the top-selling pharmaceutical brand in the world in 2008 with $12.4 billion in sales. Not only was it a top selling pharmaceutical, but consumers prescribed this medication paid very high co-pays. If one was on a high deductible health plan, then he/she certainly felt the hit at the pharmacy when picking up Lipitor.
Lipitor was set to lose it patent in June of 2011, but an agreement was made by Pfizer and Ranbaxy Laboratories that delayed the generic launch in the U.S. until November 30, 2011. On November 30, 2011 the generic drug for Lipitor called atorvastatin was released to the market.
What does this mean for consumers? They will now pay less for the popular medication that they have been taking. If you want to know specifics on how it will affect you and your insurance plan please give me a call and I would be happy to discuss this with you.
Mindy Payne, Benefits Advisor
Mindy@thebenefitsfirm.com
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Posted in General, Group Insurance, In The News, Individual Insurance | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
As Hurricane Irene bore down on the eastern seaboard this past week, residents began stashing emergency supplies, boarding up windows, and preparing for the worst. Thanks to meteorologists’ forewarnings, residents were able to prepare for the coming storm. Would investors have been wise to do the same? An analysis of stock market performance following recent natural disasters would argue no, showing that investors who “weathered the storm” typically suffered far less than their counterparts who were forced to evacuate their homes in the face of the event’s more real and potentially life-threatening devastation.
On Monday (August 29, 2011), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up approximately 250 points largely in response to the fact the Irene’s wrath was not as bad as was once speculated. Looking back at market performance following other recent natural disasters lends additional support to the argument that such events typically only affect stocks for a very short period of time, if at all. The earthquakes in Haiti reaped a devastating human toll, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and millions more displaced. However,
the market hardly flinched in response to the earthquake. The Dow was down about 30 points on the day of the quake and recovered the losses the following day. Some may argue that the markets failed to respond because Haiti’s undeveloped economy left American companies unexposed to the direct impacts of the devastation.
How does the market respond more local events, like Hurricane Katrina or 9/11? Or when the disaster hits a more developed (and consequently more intertwined) economy like Japan’s following the earthquakes and Fukishima nuclear reactor disasters of earlier this year? While Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, causing over $80 billion in property damage, the S&P 500 actually rallied for eight straight days following Katrina’s arrival in New Orleans, moving up 3% over the period. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were the saddest day in America’s history since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the New York Stock Exchange remained closed for the week following the tragedies at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. Once it reopened six days later, stocks went on a four day slide, with the S&P losing 11.6%. However, within a month of 9/11, the S&P had returned to its pre-disaster level.
The earthquake and tsunami that landed on Japanese shores in March and caused the nuclear emergency at the Fukijima power station put a heavy damper on one of the world’s largest economies for an extended period of time. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index, the rough equivalent of the American Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost nearly 17.5% in the three trading days following the disaster. While it still has not yet recovered to the level it was at on the day of the disaster, it has pared many of its losses (down approximately 3% over that period). Oddly, American markets actually rallied following the disaster. The S&P 500 was up on the day of the event, and continued to rally towards its 2011 high in late April. While events such as Hurricane Irene force residents in their wake to prepare for the worst or evacuate, evidence of market performance following other recent natural disasters both here and abroad show that investors would be wise to stick out the temporary destruction such events may cause to their investment portfolios.
Pat Hall, Financial Advisor
Posted in Blog, General, In The News, Investment, Retirement | No Comments »
Friday, March 25th, 2011
As a broker within the health insurance world one of the more common and often misunderstood terms that people tend to throw around is the issue of “pre-existing conditions”. People from both sides of the political spectrum have arguments for their side that are valid and correct. Often people leaning left will say that it is unfair to deny someone health care coverage for a “pre-existing condition”, that by doing this you are sentencing some people to a shorter life of pain and suffering, (OK fair enough). You will also often have people leaning to the right who will say if you do offer coverage to all people with pre-existing conditions that people will never purchase coverage until they absolutely need it (sign up in the hospital waiting room so to speak) which will make it impossible for insurance companies to not constantly lose money (it is pretty hard to argue with that as well). So then how do you reach a compromise where people are able to always enroll for health coverage and the Hospitals, Doctors, and Insurance Companies, don’t take a bath on every new case that they encounter.
The Affordable Care Act otherwise known as ObamaCare to critics obviously addresses this issue. The Law makes it a federal mandate that individual health insurance be available to everyone without exclusions for pre-existing conditions effective 2014 and immediately for children up to age 19 (Sounds like a good decision?). After this was disclosed many Insurance Executives got really nervous and a few families with children in need felt a little sense of relief.
The next action that was taken by Insurance Carriers that offer individual health insurance in Kentucky is they made an Executive Decision to completely stop selling child only policies altogether (all things considered probably a good decision for the Insurance Carrier?). Following this decision Kentucky’s Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark went to the Insurance Carriers and relayed that if they were going to sell individual health plans in Kentucky they had to come to a compromise regarding this Federal Mandate(Probably fair?).
Following this intervention by Commissioner Clark, it was decided that Insurance Carriers did have to offer these Child-Only policies and without exclusions for pre-existing conditions. The caveat was that the parents of the individuals would have to enroll during an annual open enrollment period not just whenever they needed coverage. Also the carrier could select a limited number of plans that would be sold.
I am not here to argue that this situation is perfect, however, I would argue that given the circumstances a reasonable compromise was reached within a reasonable amount of time.
So in closing an individual up until the age of 19 has guaranteed coverage in the state of Kentucky without exclusions for pre-existing conditions; but they can’t just sign up in the Hospital waiting room.
If you have any additional questions please contact Sharon Oswald or James D’Arcy at (502) 451-4560 or Sharon@thebenefitsfirm.com / James@thebenefitsfirm.com
Posted in Blog, Group Insurance, Health Reform, In The News | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Exxon Mobil has announced that they have re-opened each of its refineries that are located in Japan. The company has four such refineries in Japan. According to a press release their operations have been completely restored and “the units are running over and above their normal rates to meet the high demand for fuel.”
Exxon has also donated $1 million to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
Charlie Farnsley, Financial Advisor
Charlie@thebenefitsfirm.com
Posted in Blog, Events, General, In The News, Investment | No Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
It was announced this morning that Berkshire Hathaway will pay $9 billion in cash and about $700 million in net debt for the additive and industrial lubricant company Lubrizol. It has been rumored that Buffet may be eyeing this company for some time. If the deal goes through Berkshire will be paying close to 12 times estimated 2011 profits for Lubrizol.
Comments on Berkshire’s newest deal are welcome below…
Charlie Farnsley, Financial Advisor
Posted in In The News | No Comments »
