Category: Insurance
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A Free-Lunch No-Brainer: Pay-As-You-Drive Insurance
by James A. Bacon Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) automobile insurance bases premiums on the number of miles the customer drives. It stands to reason: the less you drive, the less likely you are to be involved in a traffic accident. As it also happens, the less you drive, the less you contribute to traffic congestion. Thus, it…
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West Virginia’s Lessons on Fracking
By Peter Galuszka Tap water is now drinkable for most of the 300,000 residents in the environs of Charleston, the capital of Virginia’s sister state to the west, but the mess has ample warnings for future problems notably fracking for natural gas. The national newspapers are filled with interesting pieces this morning about the problems…
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Journalism’s Death Is Greatly Exaggerated
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in Business and Economy, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka “Investigative reporting, R.I.P. In-depth reporting is dead. If not dead, it’s comatose. Reeling from declining revenue and eroding profit margins, print media enterprises continue to lay off staff and shrink column inches.” Err, maybe not. James A. Bacon Jr., meet Rachel Maddow. The quote comes from advertised “sponsorships” in which an outside…
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Where the Poor Are
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka With expanding Medicaid about to become a major issue with the incoming Terry McAuliffe administration, it is curious to see exactly where the poor people in Virginia live. An intriguing New York Times interactive graph provides clues and allows one to draw some rather disturbing conclusions. The single worst pocket of poverty…
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Expand Free Clinics, Not Medicaid
by James A. Bacon So, what’s the alternative to expanding Virginia’s Medicaid program? Let an estimated 400,000 Virginians continue without health insurance? That option was workable in the past because the federal government gave financial aid to hospitals to help offset some of the cost of providing health care to indigent patients. But the Affordable…
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Behind a Massey Energy Lawsuit Settlement
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Money in politics, Politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka It might have otherwise gone unnoticed, but Bristol-based Alpha Natural Resources, one of the country’s largest coal companies, has agreed to settle a leftover securities fraud lawsuit for $265 million involving Massey Energy Co., the notorious, formerly Richmond-based firm that Alpha bought in 2011. The settlement with the Pension Reserves Investment Management…
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Woman on the Spot: Jacqueline Cunningham
by James A. Bacon President Barack Obama threw the health insurance industry for a loop yesterday when he declared that insurers can extend by a year those policies that they had canceled for failing to meet the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Here in Virginia that puts an obscure government official — Commissioner of…
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Yes, Virginia, There Are Alternatives to Obamacare
by James A. Bacon The Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) is arguably the worst legislative train wreck foisted upon the United States in the country’s 237-year history — ranking right up there in the scale of self-inflicted disasters with the invasion of Iraq for non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. So far, it looks like Obamacare,…
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Is Obamacare Stifling Insurance Competition in Virginia?
by James A. Bacon Sooner or later, we keep hearing, the technology malfunctions in Obamacare will get worked out and we’ll get to see what the program really offers the American people. The Heritage Foundation has issued a research report arguing that, when the dust settles, the picture won’t be pretty: Half the United States population…
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Thank God It’s Over: Seven Election Takeaways
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, LGBQT, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The awful Virginia gubernatorial contest is over. Utter disaster has been averted with the defeat of strident rightwinger Kenneth Cuccinelli. Here are seven takeaways from Election Day: 1. Winner Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, now gets to deal with a contentious General Assembly where the GOP maintains firm control on the House of…
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Sunday Morning Coming Down
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Planning, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka With apologies to Kris Kristofferson, this Sunday morning presents a grab bag of interesting morning newspaper stories and positions. To wit: GiftGate Update, Getting the Stories Straight: According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, Star Scientific boss Jonnie R. Williams Sr. told federal prosecutors he insisted on meeting personally with his then-buddy Gov.…
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Virginia’s Medicaid Travesty
By Peter Galuszka Some things never seem to change in the South and in Virginia, namely the idea among conservatives that the poor, notably African-Americans, are not worthy of help. Such is the predicament faced Virginia and other states that have not expanded the federal Medicaid program to help the poor with health insurance just…
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Will They or Won’t They?
The talking heads on cable news were asking two big questions this morning: Will partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., push the nation into default and, somewhat less urgently, how many people will sign up for Obamacare? I’ve got nothing to contribute to the first question — there is no predicting the actions of crazy people.…
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Yikes! Driverless Cars in Blacksburg.
As usual, technology is evolving more rapidly than the ability of pundits, bureaucrats and politicians to absorb the implications — especially in the realm of transportation. Two more cases in point: Googleburg. Google is now testing its self-driving car on the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Smart Road in Blacksburg. Reports the Roanoke Times: The technology…
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Bubbas and Barbarians
Forget symphonies, ballets and gaudy performing arts centers. If you’re looking for an indicator of how civilized people are, observe how they drive. You can tell much about peoples’ manners and impulse control by their behavior on the road. Do motorists courteously wait their turn as alternating cars merge into a single lane… or do…