Insurance

Researchers hailed the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that bans the patenting of human DNA, saying it would expand access to genetic testing for disease at lower cost to patients. In a unanimous decision, the justices said Myriad Genetics did not have exclusive rights to the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes that are linked to significantly greater risk for breast cancer and thus should not be the only company allowed to test for it. "Myriad did not create anything," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for his fellow justices.

I work for a mid-size firm Baltimore, and our health insurance costs will rise only modestly in 2013. However, in talking to friends at local companies, their health insurers are raising rates exorbitantly in anticipation of the state health exchanges that will be established next year. To give the devil his due, former President Richard Nixon talked about a national health care plan, Mitt Romney implemented one in Massachusetts in 2006, and President Barack Obama has been instrumental in getting a plan started nationwide for 2014.

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

Thirteen insurers have submitted plans to offer health insurance on the state exchange, or marketplace where individuals can buy insurance under health care reform, that begins open enrollment in October. The plans must still be certified by the state. Officials with the state Maryland Health Benefit Exchange announced the insurers Monday.  Health reform requires that everyone carry insurance through an employer, a government-sponsored plan such as Medicare or statewide exchanges.

At a time when physicians and policymakers alike are being asked to reduce health care costs without sacrificing quality care, it's crucial that we unleash the enormous potential for savings that could come from exciting new advances in health information technology. There's no better example of the revolution under way in medical care than electronic medical records and electronic prescribing systems, which not only allow doctors to generate prescriptions and orders electronically and transmit them directly, but provide instant access to drug reference information and a patient's complete medical history.

William E. Chambers III, a retired insurance manager who later worked in home improvement sales, died of colon cancer March 27 at the Dove House Hospice. The Westminster resident was 68. Born in Easton and raised in Federalsburg, he earned an economics degree from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, in 1963. He served in the Army Reserve for several years after graduating from college. He worked in downtown Baltimore for the old U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Co. He later held posts in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill, N.J., and Lutherville for insurance companies, including Prudential and Aetna.

The recent op-ed "Insurance bill would be a disaster for Maryland" (May 19) was wrong on its facts. The authors recklessly ignore the reality of America's vulnerability to catastrophe and glossed over the fact that the current system forces taxpayers in Maryland to bailout victims of catastrophes in other parts of the nation. Indeed, following Hurricane Katrina, more than $26 billion of taxpayer funds were siphoned from the federal coffers to pay for uninsured and underinsured properties.

The O'Malley administration will introduce legislation in the coming General Assembly that would create the exchanges where people will buy affordable insurance under health care reform. The Board of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, a group convened to plan and implement the exchanges, released recommendations Tuesday for how they would work. While the board outlined a setup for the exchanges, it put off a decision on how to fund the exchanges until next year. The federal government provides money to run the exchanges during the first year of reform in 2014, but states are responsible after that.

Ralph S. Tyler III, Maryland's insurance commissioner and a former Baltimore city solicitor, announced Wednesday he is leaving state government for a federal post as chief counsel at the Food and Drug Administration. "It was not an easy decision, but the opportunity at the FDA is certainly exciting," said Tyler, who said he brought a sharper focus to consumer protection during his tenure as insurance commissioner. "It includes the opportunity to go back to being principally a lawyer, which is how I spent my professional life, and it is what I enjoy."

After a political duel that pitted trial lawyers against insurance companies, the legislature moved Wednesday to increase the minimum amount of insurance vehicle owners must carry, changing the requirements for the first time in 38 years and making higher premiums likely for as many as 200,000 Marylanders . The Senate voted 27-20 to send the measure raising liability insurance limits to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has signaled that he will...

On May 2, Harford Mutual Insurance renewed its commitment to ending cancer by donating $5,000 to the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life of Central Harford County. Harford Mutual Insurance is a long-time supporter of Harford County Relay For Life and in addition to being a corporate sponsor, several employees participate in the Relay as a team. This year's Central Harford Relay will be held on Saturday, June 1 at Bel Air High School. More information on the Relay and Harford Mutual's support is available at http://www.relayforlife.org/CentralHarfordMD.

Edward H. "Ham" Welbourn Jr., a retired insurance executive and World War II veteran, died April 29 of complications from dementia at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 98. The son of Edward H. Welbourn, who owned Rennous Kleinle Brush Manufacturers in Catonsville, and Emma Dawson Welbourn, a homemaker, Edward Hambleton Welbourn was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. After graduating in 1934 from the Gilman School, Mr. Welbourn enrolled at Haverford College, where he was a government major and earned a bachelor's degree in 1938.

Jerry Bailey can look back on a Hall of Fame jockey career that featured 5,892 victories but also the searing memory of 17 fractures, including a broken back, jaw and collarbone, and several busted ribs. Yet Bailey considers himself lucky. He never sustained an injury that kept him off the track more than several months. And unlike many jockeys, he could afford disability insurance designed to fill the gap between what riders need after life-altering accidents and what they receive from racetrack policies.

Richard F. Ober, a retired lawyer and insurance company executive who enjoyed sailing the Chesapeake Bay, died April 13 from vascular disease at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 98. The son of a lawyer and a homemaker, Richard Francis Ober was born in Baltimore and raised on St. George's Road in Roland Park. After graduating from Gilman School in 1933, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1937 from Princeton University and his law degree in 1939 from Harvard Law School.

A Linthicum firm is among several orthotics and prosthetics companies that will offer victims of the Boston Marathon bombing artificial limbs at no charge if their insurance doesn't cover all or some of the costs of the devices. Dankmeyer Inc., founded by an amputee who lost a leg in a childhood skating accident, joined with other firms Tuesday in announcing the Coalition to Walk and Run Again. The companies have agreed not to charge victims who provide a doctor's note proving they don't have insurance to cover the devices, which cost $8,000 to $60,000.

What kind of a novel, communistic idea is it to allow sick people with pre-existing conditions to have health insurance ("Care First proposes 25 percent rate jump," April 25)? Previously, sick people and people with pre-existing conditions were not even allowed to buy coverage, which kept costs down and profits up. Health care in the U.S. costs at least double what it costs in any other country in the world. There are several reasons for this, but one of them is not that the U.S. has better care.

While legislation calling for the creation of exchanges where the uninsured can easily shop for health coverage has been stalled in Congress and isn't expected this year in the Maryland General Assembly, insurance agents and brokers are girding for the debate. Major insurance trade groups in Maryland say the state doesn't need a new program, like the one Massachusetts created ahead of federal reform to help provide universal coverage there. Maryland's private sector is equipped to inform and absorb the state's uninsured on its own, according to a report to be released today by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors of Maryland and the Maryland Association of Health Underwriters.

Old Mutual announced Friday that it is selling its Baltimore-based life insurance operation to a private equity firm for $350 million, far less than what it paid nine years ago. The company bought the division — part of the former U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Corp. — from the St. Paul Cos. in 2001 for $635 million. Old Mutual is trying to improve its balance sheet and reduce its "risk profile," and is selling to an affiliate of New York-based Harbinger Capital Partners LLC. The life insurance operation employs 163 in Baltimore.

Blaming the cost to implement health care reform, the state's largest health insurer has proposed eye-popping rate increases to state regulators for individuals and small businesses. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield wants to raise rates an average of 25 percent on those who buy coverage individually. Chet Burrell, the insurer's CEO, said the increase was needed to cover the cost of more sick people who will be joining the insurance rolls under health care reform. People with pre-existing conditions were denied coverage prior to health care reform, keeping insurance costs down.