Insurance coverage

“ Let's at least pass meaningful insurance reform so that no American risks losing coverage for facing skyrocketing prices, that nobody loses their coverage because they face high prices or unavailable insurance when they change jobs or lose a job or a family member gets sick. ”

“ If you don’t have insurance, you will finally have access to quality coverage you can afford. If you do have coverage, you will benefit from more security and more stability when it comes to your insurance. If you move, lose your job, or change jobs, you will not have to worry about losing health coverage. And we will set up tough consumer protections that will hold insurance companies accountable and stop them from exploiting you with unfair practices. ”

“ If you don't require everybody to have insurance, if you don't require universal coverage, that means low-risk individuals, younger people, single people, aren't necessarily included in these insurance pools, which means that the pool has relatively more sick people. Higher risk insurance pools means that premiums go up for those that are currently insured. ”

“ When it becomes law, families will save on their premiums. Small businesses and Americans who don’t get any insurance today through their employers will no longer be forced to pay punishingly high rates to get coverage. ”

“ In the higher order of life insurances, the legislature has endeavoured to arrest the dangerous tendency of insuring beyond the interest, by providing, by statute 14 Geo. III., c. 48, that persons insuring the lives of others shall have an interest in such lives; and it is a principle of insurance law that where a risk paid for has not been run, the premiums shall be returned ”

“ And if any person or persons shall insure his or their buildings or goods, and shall cause the same to be described in the policy otherwise than as they really are, so as the same be charged as a lower premium than would otherwise be demanded, such insurance shall be of no force. ”

“ Such is the form of the contract, and such is its character. It has been contended that the payment of each premium is the consideration for insurance during the next following year,-as in fire policies. But the position is untenable. It often happens that the assured pays the entire premium in advance, or in five, ten, or twenty annual instalments. ”

“ Perhaps no modern commercial enterprise directly affects so many persons in all walks of life as does the insurance business. Insurance touches the home, the family, and the occupation or the business of almost every person in the United States. ”

“ In an ordinary life assurance or endowment assurance contract the policyholder has the knowledge that either he or his dependents are assured of the payment of a sum on the occurrence of an event that must happen. In the various forms of insurance, such as fire insurance, marine insurance, accident insurance or burglary insurance, the policyholder pays a premium in order to be insured against a contingency which, if he is an honest man, he hopes will never occur. ”

“ When the sum insured is large, a higher premium per cent. is demanded; and money, papers, pictures, gunpowder, and jewels, are excluded.—If an article be falsely described, in order that it may be insured at a lower premium, the policy is justly void. An insurance made on the same subject at different offices, must be specified by indorsement on the policy; and, in case of loss, the offices pay a sum in proportion ”

“ The assured assumes the risk of paying premiums during the life on which the insurance is taken, even though their aggregate amount should exceed the insurance money. He also takes the risk of the forfeiture of his policy if the premiums are not paid on the day they fall due. ”

“ Many policies also specify a sum to be paid for the loss or permanent damage of a member, as an eye, a hand or foot. Another extension of the personal accident policy is the addition of some form of health insurance, especially the grant of a weekly sum to the insured during incapacity for work caused by certain named diseases. Besides the ordinary joint stock companies which carry on this class of business with fixed premiums, many associations organize for insurance against personal injury by accident, relying upon the assessment of members to pay claims as they mature. ”

“ If the assured, by his voluntary act, increases the risk, and the fact is not known, the result is that he gets an insurance for which he has not paid.' And again: 'An increase of risk which is substantial, and which is continued for a considerable period of time, changes the basis upon which the contract of insurance rests ”

“ Probably the most common is the regular life, under which the insured pays certain fixed premiums throughout life, and the beneficiary receives the amount of the policy only upon the death of the insured. Life insurance policies in which the investment feature is prominent, are generally called endowment policies, and they require [Pg 439] the insured to pay a certain premium, annually, for a certain number of years. ”

“ Where the parties to a insurance contract agreed on the premium in consideration of certain risks, if such risks have ceased to exist during the period of insurance, the policyholder may demand that the premium be reduced for the future. ”

“ If fires destroy a million of dollars’ worth in property insured for its full value, and a million’s worth more in property insured for one-tenth of its value, the insurers will pay $1,000,000 upon the first group and more than $750,000 upon the second. But if all the insurance is taken at the same rate the insurers will have received premiums ten times as great on the former group as upon the latter. ”

“ In these circumstances you will no doubt be persuaded of the desirability of sending me the premium forthwith, in order to effect an insurance which has your Lessors' approval. It possible that the office you name would give you credit for so much of is the premium as is proportionate to the risk unexpired. ”

“ The statute fixes the premium which for life insurance must be based upon the American experience table of mortality, with additions for extra hazards, and with interest at three per cent, and with an addition for expenses and contingencies amounting to two dollars per year per thousand dollars of insurance and one-sixth of the value of the insurance distributed equally through the premium payments. ”

“ An employee may elect insurance under the policy by completing any form of pay roll deduction order approved by the employer. Each employee electing the insurance before becoming eligible will be insured automatically on the day he becomes eligible. On the effective date of the policy and on each annual renewal date an average annual premium rate will be established. The employer shall give the insurer notice of terminations of insurance and additions of employees becoming eligible. ”

“ Thus assessment insurance has gradually placed itself upon a higher and more scientific basis, until it has commended itself to the most intelligent and thoughtful, and in its wonderful growth outstripped its older and less popular rival, until its obligations to the families of the insured exceed those of level premium insurance to the amount of about two thousand millions of dollars. ”

“ Assessment insurance instructed by the experience of life companies, adjusts its plans and methods upon the natural basis of fact, and not the artificial one of supposition. It tabulates its rates according to the combined experience of all American companies, requiring the insured to pay a sum proportionate to the amount assured, and to his life expectancy. ”

“ The object for which insurance exists is to guard against certain accidents to which we are all liable, such as the destruction of property by fire, or the loss of future earnings by disablement or death. An agreement is entered into by which one party, known as the insurer or assurer, agrees to pay to another, called the insured or assured, a certain sum in the event of the particular event insured against happening.
The document which states the conditions of this agreement is called the policy, and the payment made on account of the insurance is known as the premium. ”

“ The preliminary arrangements for the amount and conditions of insurance are in a great majority of instances made by agents. It is always so where the insurance is effected out of the State where the company is incorporated and has its principal place of business. ”

“ In determining the liabilities upon its contracts of insurance of any insurance company other than life insurance, and the amount such company should hold as a reserve for reinsurance, he shall, for casualty insurance companies, charge one half of the premium on all annual policies written within one year, and on policies written for more than one year he shall charge one half of the current year's premiums, plus the whole of the premiums for subsequent years. ”

“ As before suggested, the annual premiums are not the consideration of assurance for the year in which they are severally paid, for they are equal in amount; whereas, the risk in the early years of life is much less than in the later. It is common knowledge, that the annual premiums are increased with the age of the person applying for insurance. According to approved tables, a person becoming insured at twenty-five is charged about twenty dollars annual premium on a policy of one thousand dollars, whilst a person at forty-five is charged about thirty-eight dollars. ”

“ The net value of the policy, when the premium becomes due, and is not paid, shall be computed * * * and after deducting from three-fourths of such net value, any notes or other evidence of indebtedness to the company, given on account of past premium payments on said policies, issued to the insured, which indebtedness shall be then canceled, the balance shall be taken as a net single premium for temporary insurance for the full amount written in the policy. ”

“ If the insuring public will learn to discriminate and place their risks in the best assessment companies, remembering that insurance in any good company must cost a reasonable amount, they need have no apprehension as to the result. ”

“ But, on the contrary, when the dividends have been anticipated, as in the note system, by giving a note for part of the premium, the policy-holder insuring in this way, although he may at first receive a larger policy than he has the ability to pay for in cash, may lose the chief benefit of life insurance. For should he become unable, either by age, disease, or loss of property, to continue the payment of his premiums, his policy must lapse, because there is no accumulation of profits to his credit on which it can be continued. ”

“ Let's face it, the health insurance system is rigged against ordinary families and small businesses. Insurance companies control it: They pick and choose whom they cover; they charge more if your business is too small ”

“ An insurer may, of course, assume the risk of such changes in the insured's health as may occur between the date of application and the date of the issuance of a policy. Where the parties contract exclusively on the basis of conditions as they existed at the date of the application, the failure of the insured to divulge any later known changes in health may well not affect the policy. Mutual Ben. Life Insurance Co. ”

“ Before the nation could be expected to come to a final decision with regard to the insurance premium {331} which it was prepared to pay, it would require to be fully informed upon a variety of subordinate points of much importance. ”

“ But the business is yet in its infancy. The field of life insurance is not nearly covered, and if it were, ten million persons will come to maturity during the next ten years, all of whom may be considered as candidates for insurance, and all the policies will have to be renewed in a short time. Insurance agents receive as commission from ten to twenty-five per cent. Some companies secure to their agents a regular percentage on the premium so long as the policies continue in force. If, therefore, an agent gets fifteen per cent. ”

“ Washington Insurance Co., 4 Cow. (N. Y.) 645, the rule was applied in a case where the agent was authorized to make insurances, 'provided the office shall recognize the rate of premium, and be otherwise satisfied with the risk.' It was held that the company was bound to issue a policy where the insurance was a proper one and the premium was paid or tendered, although before the premium was received at the home office the property was consumed by fire. ”

“ In this respect also, several societies grant policies of insurance for certain premiums: and, though our limits do not allow us minutely to specify the rules and rates of computation which different associations have adopted, yet we think it will be useful to exhibit a few particulars relative to the premiums paid by persons, who insure either their own lives, or those of others in which they have a certain interest. ”

“ There will thus be a "saving from loadings."
Every company, as has been said, shows these savings every year, though in varying degrees. Every company, that is, charges the policy-holder more than the actual insurance costs. ”

“ Respondent has not established an asset for future benefit. It has merely paid the premiums necessary to obtain insurance. It is true that premiums paid in 1963 may result in a reduction in premiums in later years. ”

“ Insurance Agency.—Insurance, both fire and life, is a mine of wealth, and has opened wondrously during the last few years. The present magnitude of the business is shown by the statement that there are $2,500,000,000 invested in life insurance in the United States, while the fire insurance agents last year wrote more than $16,000,000,000. There are seven men who have an aggregate of $7,000,000 on their lives. ”