Barry V Goldstein & Associates, LLC

08/13/2024

Saw this article today. Remember to be kind to your broker, they work hard to find you the right insurance and have no control over pricing.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/auto-insurance-premiums-revving-up-again-could-surge-22-year-end?fbclid=IwY2xjawEnT8RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHaFN1XIiNqqoNnldQRXz45F8elVch53iOkiXbmVCPysZW8DcRSW4xSHNZw_aem_-Z_Y0Wjhm-C0B6Q_M0UrCg

A new report from Insurify shows the average U.S. rate for full auto insurance jumped to $2,329 in the first half of 2024, a 15% increase from last year.

07/11/2023

I have been asked quite a bit about the increase in auto rates. Here is an article that will provide some insight into this year's increases.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2023/05/12/720495.htm #

In 2022, the U.S. private auto insurance industry reported its worst underwriting results in over two decades, according to a S&P Global Market

02/09/2021

Perhaps some relief for our live venues... not from the city itself, but they will help operators in trying to secure Grants from the Federal Govt.

Curtains Up NYC, a program to provide application assistance to live-performance venues, organizations and workers applying for federal relief.

The Federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVO), also known as Save Our Stages, includes $15 billion for grants of up to $10 million to qualified live venue operators and promoters, performing arts organizations, theatrical producers, talent representatives, movie theater operators, and non-profit museums with auditoriums.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announces the launch of Curtains Up NYC

11/16/2018

Did not realize today, 11/16/18, is National Fast Food Day -- If you happen to have an insurance need for your fast food risk, give me a call. We have a fantastic program for fast food restaurants.

Friday November 16th is National Fast Food Day. While arguably a little too close for comfort to Thanksgiving for us all, the day—like most other made up holidays—comes with a pretty healthy amount of freebies that are worth taking advantage of.

12/05/2017

CVS Health has agreed to acquire Aetna for $69 Billion.

The deal would combine CVS’s pharmacy and clinic business with a giant insurance company. The combination could lead to lower prices — or fewer choices — for consumers.

06/08/2017

NYS has released the summary of requested 2018 rate actions. Here is a quick look at some downstate carriers:
Small Group - Oxford +11.4%, Care Connect +19.3%, Aetna +14.2%, Healthfirst +10%, Oscar -3.2%. Empire's rate request is still under evaluation.
Individual - Affinity +23.5%, Care Connect +29.7%, Fidelis +8.5%, Oscar +11.1%.

05/11/2017

The risk corridors portion of the ACA is what allowed carriers (especially the Co-ops) to keep their rates low for those purchasing Individual Health Policies. Without this, as we started to see this year, rates will increase exponentially. Apparently the risk corridors portion of the ACA was not an agreement to pay but just an idea of how the program could work. Things like this, along with kicking the penalty aspects down the road, are what is causing the ACA to fall apart.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday asked for permission from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to file an amicus brief urging it to ...

12/14/2016

Individual Market - Carrier Submission Deadlines as follows:
All On-Exchange business must be submitted to the carrier by 12/15 for processing. There are no exceptions made as this is administered by CMS.
New York Off-Exchange Deadlines:
CareConnect (North Shore LIJ): December 23rd.
Oscar Insurance - December 31st.

09/07/2016

Please keep in mind as we approach the end of the year,
New York is one of only 4 states currently viewing companies with 51-100 employees as small groups.
That means, beginning Jan 1 2017, those companies will be required to offer health coverage that is compliant with the ACA's small group minimum essential coverage requirements.
If your company is under 100 employees and self insured, you will no longer be allowed to do so and will need to select a new community rated plan. Please feel free to contact us for any help you may need securing a new insurance plan.

08/31/2016

New York 2017 rate increases have been approved by the NYDFS. You can find information on the approved increases here: http://www.dfs.ny.gov/about/press/pr1608051.htm.
NYS sees the approved weighted average increase of 16.6% as a win since they whittled it down from the 17.3% that was requested.
Oxford & Wellcare will be exiting the individual marketplace.
United Healthcare may be exiting also if they do not accept a trimmed down increase of 28% from the 45.5% requested.
I thought this was interesting, of the 2.8 million people who enrolled for coverage through the exchange, over 1.9 million were on Medicaid. Less than 10% of the 2.8M actually are enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan.
18-34 year olds who were very active in pushing for this legislation accounted for only 28% of the QHP enrollment - far short of the 40% the administration claimed it needed to keep the Exchanges stable.

Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo today announced the 2017 health insurance rates for New York individual and small group markets, including rates for the NY State of Health, New York’s official health plan marketplace. Using sound actuarial principles and taking into account the need...

07/06/2016

Another Co-op, this one in Connecticut, closing down at the end of 2016.

The state Insurance Department has placed HealthyCT under an immediate order of supervision and said policy holders will be covered through the end of the current policy, but members will need to choose...

05/18/2016

Oscar Health Corp has filed their 2017 rate proposal with NYS, premium increases on their individual plans by 8-30%. Reasons given for higher premiums: medical costs have gone up, government programs that helped cover their costs are ending, and members needed more care than they expected.

Oscar recently closed a $400M funding round led by Fidelity, and included Google Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lakestar, Khosla Ventures, China’s Ping An and Thrive Capital (which is run by Oscar founder Josh Kushner). In 2015 they were projected to have $750M in revenue but $120M loss for the year. They are expanding into 3-4 more states hoping that it will help to trim the cost of access to healthcare networks such as Magnacare here in New York.