January 17, 2009-Bismarck Tribune
01-17-2009: news-state
Commissioner revokes license
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm says he’s revoked the license of Bruce Hager, a Fargo insurance agent who pleaded guilty to selling unregistered securities and acting as an unregistered securities agent.
Hamm says Hager is barred from selling, soliciting or negotiating insurance in North Dakota.
He said Hager at first protested the action and asked for a hearing, but later agreed to the revocation and a $1,000 fine.
January 10, 2009-Minot Daily News
Health insurance poses problem for unemployed
By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer, jschramm@minodailynews.com
Laid-off workers who try to maintain health insurance through a former employer’s health plan likely will find that premiums eat up most of their unemployment checks, according to new research released Friday by Families USA, a national organization for health-care consumers.
The organization’s report shows that, on a national basis, average COBRA premiums for family coverage consume about 84 percent of average unemployment insurance benefits. In North Dakota, the figure is 77 percent for a family and 29 percent for the worker alone.
COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1985. It provides that employees who lose their jobs can buy into their employers’ health plans for 18 months or sometimes longer. They must pay the full premium, plus a 2 percent administration fee.
“Affording COBRA when somebody is unemployed is a very difficult thing,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA., Washington, D.C. “COBRA health coverage is great in theory and lousy in reality for the vast majority of workers who are laid off.”
In 41 states, monthly COBRA family premiums consume 75 percent or more of average, monthly unemployment benefits. Nine states have COBRA premiums that exceed the average unemployment benefit, led by Alaska, where premiums are 130 percent of benefits.
In 17 states and the District of Columbia, premiums are more than one-third of unemployment benefits for the worker alone.
“I don’t want to call the program a failure because there are a significant number of people who are eligible for COBRA, and even though the vast majority of people eligible for it cannot afford to participate, for those who do participate, it serves as a lifeline,” Pollack said.
Information from Spencer Research, which conducted studies through 2006, showed 18 to 26 percent of eligible workers used COBRA.
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said his office received a call about a month ago from a laid-off worker concerned about health coverage. That employee resolved the issue before the department needed to step in.
Options for laid-off workers besides COBRA include purchasing individual coverage or if pre-existing conditions make that difficult, they can apply to the Comprehensive Health Association of North Dakota. CHAND was set up to provide insurance for high-risk individuals but it since was opened to assist people between jobs, Hamm said. Premiums are capped at 135 percent of the typical premium charge in North Dakota for similar coverage.
Workers who are struggling to afford health insurance after losing a job can contact the insurance department or check out its Web site for information, Hamm said.
He said about 8 percent of North Dakotans don’t have health insurance, which is about half the national average. North Dakota’s November 2008 unemployment rate was 3.3 percent, up only slightly compared to 3 percent in November 2007.
Unemployment nationally is at a 15-year high at 7.2 percent.
An additional 3.6 million people joined the ranks of the unemployed from the time the recession began in 2007 through December 2008, Pollack said.
“For every 1 percent of increase in the number of people who are unemployed, there’s an increase of 1.1 percent in the number of people who are uninsured,” Pollack said. “It has a significant impact on their dependents, who often receive their coverage as the result of the employment of the key breadwinner in the family.”
Families USA supports either premium subsidies to help laid-off workers afford health coverage or an extension of Medicaid for these workers.
Pollack said stimulus legislation proposed by President-elect Barack Obama contains those benefits. The proposal would have the federal government pick up the full Medicaid cost for unemployed workers rather than place that burden on states, many of which already are struggling with Medicaid bills.
January 4, 2009-Bismarck Tribune
01-04-2009: news-state
Survey shows N.D. lawmakers back youth driver laws
By DALE WETZEL
Associated Press WriterNorth Dakota lawmakers strongly support toughening state laws that govern teenage drivers, and many favor raising the state’s 14-year-old minimum driving age, an Associated Press survey shows.
Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm, state Rep. Ed Gruchalla, D-Fargo, and a group that includes Fargo pediatrician Ron Miller and officials from North Dakota State University’s Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute have been working on legislation to restrict what young people may do behind the wheel.
It is likely to include a ban on late-night driving and on cell phone and text-messaging by teenage drivers, and restrictions on the number and age of passengers a young driver may transport, participants in the talks say.
Hamm and Gruchalla, who is a former North Dakota highway patrolman, say they hope a consensus proposal will have a better chance of winning approval in the North Dakota Legislature, which begins its regular session Tuesday. Both men had planned to introduce their own bills.
“We all firmly believe that a graduated driver’s license concept is a good idea for North Dakota,” Hamm said. “It would move us much closer, in terms of regulating youth driving, to where the rest of the country is.”
In a pre-session survey, The Associated Press asked North Dakota lawmakers what they believed North Dakota’s minimum driving age should be.
Another question asked lawmakers whether they backed a prohibition on cell-phone use by 14- and 15-year-old drivers and a daily driving curfew for them starting at 11 p.m. and ending at 5 a.m.
In the North Dakota Senate, 29 of the 38 senators who responded to the AP survey said they favored the cell-phone ban and driving curfew for 14- and 15-year-old drivers. Seven said they disagreed and two were undecided.
Among House members, 53 of the 80 representatives who replied to the survey said they supported the driving curfew and cell-phone restrictions. Twenty did not, and seven listed themselves as undecided.
The Legislature has 47 senators and 94 representatives.
On the question about North Dakota’s minimum driving age, 21 senators said they favored keeping it at 14, while 14 senators favored raising it to 15 or 16. Three were undecided or supported another option, the AP survey showed.
Among the 80 House members who replied, 33 supported the 14-year-old minimum age, while 40 backed raising it to 15 or 16. Seven were undecided or backed another option.
North Dakota law now allows 14-year-olds to drive with an instructional permit when accompanied by an adult who has at least three years’ driving experience.
Once a 14-year-old driver has had a permit for six months and has completed driver’s education training, he or she may drive a parent or guardian’s vehicle without a supervisor. Once the driver turns 16, he or she may drive any vehicle unaccompanied.
Among the restrictions being discussed are bans on late-night driving and cell-phone use by 14- and 15-year-old drivers; requiring 14-year-olds to have an instructional permit for one year instead of six months; restricting the number of passengers a young driver may carry; and allowing young drivers to drive only to and from school or work.
In a report published last year, North Dakota’s Department of Transportation said drivers 17 years old and younger accounted for 21 percent of the state’s fatal crashes between 2001 and 2007, and 26 percent of the accidents.
Hamm and Gruchalla said any legislation will include a farm and ranch exemption that will allow 14- and 15-year-olds to drive unaccompanied while doing agricultural work.
Gruchalla said his ideal measure would require a North Dakotan to be at least 16 years old to drive. Political realities dictate otherwise, he said.
“I disagree with the farm exemption. I think it should be 16, period,” Gruchalla said. “However, (the legislation) won’t pass if we don’t have a farm exemption, and it affects a small percentage of the number of drivers in the first place.”