Or so it seems. And, if so, don't we need to know all about NAIC?
Why do we need to know all about the NAIC Board? Because, if the controls of design/compliance/actuarial policies, as clearly designated in the Baucus Plan, make it into a final Health (ahem...um) Reform Act,
The NAIC Board members will be making those decisions.
Who is the NAIC? The National Association of Insurance Compliance, with a main offices on Wall Street and in DC. Of course. Insurance is a darling of Wall Street and needs to be in the middle of the DC policymaking game.
NAIC is mentioned 24 times in the Baucus Plan.
NAIC details below the fold:
And, you can visit the NAIC Securities Valuation Office on Wall Street.
NAIC Securities
Valuation Office (SVO)
48 Wall Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10005-2906
http://www.naic.org/...
I'm not saying the NAIC doesn't have some highly qualified Board Members. It does. In fact, Therese M. Vaughan is brilliant. And she wields considerable influence in DC, on insurance compliance (that's gone well for us, right), and even internationally:
Currently, her NAIC efforts are focused on cross-sectoral issues and the NAIC’s Washington activities.
As Chair of the NAIC’s Government Affairs Task Force, she is responsible for NAIC liaison with other governmental groups, including the US Congress, federal and state banking regulators, the US Treasury, and state legislators.
She is the NAIC representative to the Subcommittee on Financial Conglomerates of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), and she represents the NAIC and IAIS on the Joint Forum, an international body of banking, insurance, and securities regulators.
http://www.iihof.org/...
You want to know Ms. Vaughan. She is more than likely going to design your ability to get the health care you need and oversee what you pay for it. She could even influence the insurers to lower our premiums and improve our insurance.
So far, I don't see how the NAIC has helped us very much, but maybe The NAIC will have a change of heart. Dare we Dream*
The NAIC, under the Baucus Plan, will outsource the actuarial responsibilities to private industry. Of course these actuarial firm(s) act on behalf of you and I (could I be more sarcastic?).
Actually, more than likely this actuarial firm will insure (no pun) the profitability of the insurers because:
Prior to joining Drake, she was a consultant in the risk management and casualty division of Tillinghast, A Towers Perin Company.
http://www.iihof.org/...
And Tillinghast
is the leading global actuarial consulting firm and the largest consulting employer of qualified casualty actuaries.[5] Actuarial consulting services include funding/pricing analysis, loss reserve and financial statement accruals, retention analysis, premium/cost-allocation models, product development, comparative cost benchmarking, and financial modeling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
And do become familiar with the term reinsurance. The word "reinsurance" is in the Baucus Plan 18 times!
Tillinghast et al is a consultant for reinsurance as well.
The following year in 1987, the firm was rebranded under the name Towers Perrin[4] by which it is still known. Today, Tillinghast, HR Services, and Reinsurance are the three businesses of Towers Perrin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Towers Perin is a Global Business, with offices in Atlanta, Georgia.
http://www.towersperrin.com/...
And what is reinsurance? Think Hedge:
The main use of any insurer that might practice reinsurance is to allow the company to assume greater individual risks than its size would otherwise allow, and to protect a company against losses. Reinsurance allows an insurance company to offer higher limits of protection to a policyholder than its own assets would allow. For example, if the principal insurance company can write only $10 million in limits on any given policy, it can reinsure (or cede) the amount of the limits in excess of $10 million.
Reinsurance’s highly refined uses in recent years include applications where reinsurance was used as part of a carefully planned hedge strategy.
And THAT went well, right? Remember AIG?
In short:
Reinsurers, in turn, provide insurance to insurance companies. The company requesting the cover is called the cedant and the reinsurer can be called the ceded, although the latter term is not in common use.
The Baucus Plan uses the word "Reinsurance" 18 times.
It uses the reference NAIC 24 times.
The word "actuarial" is used 39 times. It's the function that protects insurers' profits, in a real sense, so it's very important.
Draw your own conclusion; however, I believe the role of the NAIC in determining our health care outcome can't be over emphasized.
Here is a list of bio's on the present NAIC board of Directors:
Insurance Commissioner Roger A. Sevigny, NH (30 yr. Travelers Ins)
http://www.nh.gov/...
COMMISSIONER JANE L. CLINE, W. Virginia
http://www.wvinsurance.gov/...
Susan E. Voss, Commissioner, Iowa
http://www.iid.state.ia.us/...
Commissioner Kevin M. McCarty, Florida
http://www.floir.com/...
Therese M. Vaughan - Iowa (Former Actuarial Consultant)
http://www.iihof.org/...
Andrew Beal is the Attorney. Couldn't find a bio for Andrew.
As an aside, in case you missed this in the NY Times:
In case your mind isn't already boggled by this health care debate, pretend for a moment that health is just a commodity for trade on the international commodity markets. It would make sense to have Vaughn, with her Towers Perin international connection on top of our health care do over, right.
Oh geez. Well, I guess we don't even have to pretend anymore:
The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Wall Street is one SICK Addict!