Clearing the Spindle

“Western & Southern agrees to buy Gerber Life Insurance“

The deal, valued at a little over $1.5 Billion is interesting if only because one doesn’t think of old-line, steady-ship W&S as particularly “hungry” for expansion. Gerber Life, of course, is famous for it’s $1 premium juvie life insurance plans.

■ Next is a very thoughtful piece from our friend Michael Bertaut, who crunched some numbers regarding plans that “carve out” prescription drug coverage, rather than have that benefit administered by the health insurance carrier. Regardless of the idea’s other merits, it appears that any cost savings are quickly eaten up by other claims:

“In the short term, some of our companies are saving money on the drug portion of their health plan by moving it to another vendor. But, we’ve found that over time, breaking off this important part of real-time health information has caused medical costs in these same groups to spike.”

One step forward….

■ And finally, via our friend Joe Kristan, we learn that Cash for Clunker Co-Op’s is still going strong. Turns out that, even though the Republican Congress quickly cut off funding for Co-Op cost-sharing arrangements, the judiciary has other plans:

“The bottom line was that the government did have an obligation to pay Montana Health Co-op cost sharing reimbursements for 2017.”

In short, pony up funds that were never actually allocated.

Seems legit.