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[阅读小分队] 【Native Speaker每日综合训练—44系列】【44-19】经管 Insurance

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发表于 2014-11-21 16:28:28 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
内容:neverland1021编辑: wensd1111

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Part I: SpeakerT
hey Paid How Much? How Negotiated Deals Hide Health Care's Cost
They paid how much?How negotiated deals hide health care's cost

Source: NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/11/15/364064088/they-paid-how-much-how-negotiated-deals-hide-health-cares-cost

[Rephrase 1, 3:52]

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 楼主| 发表于 2014-11-21 16:28:29 | 显示全部楼层
Part II: Speed



3 questions to ask your insurance agent
Consumer Reports November 10, 2014 5:15 PM

[Time 2]
When do you need to review your insurance coverage? As often as once a year. As you acquire, improve, or sell property, as your family size grows and shrinks, as your financial situation changes—all of those life situations can prompt a need for more or less insurance.

It's a good opportunity to take stock, and refamiliarize yourself with your coverage. A recent survey from Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America found that more than 60 percent of respondents were either not familiar or only somewhat familiar with the details of their home owners insurance policies, and 40 percent said they weren’t confident that their coverage was appropriate and adequate for their needs. That’s a lot of anxiety to have about what for most people is their largest asset.

Here are three key questions to ask of your insurance agent or the representatives of the companies that cover you.

Flood maps may have shifted and weather patterns evolved since you last updated your insurance. You’ve probably made home improvements that you’d want to see compensated in the event of damage. “You should go over your policy whenever it is up for renewal,” which means annually, said Jeanne Salvatore, spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute. Similarly, any major lifestyle change, such as getting married, adding a new room to the house, purchasing new furniture, or having an elderly parent move in—“all that should trigger a call,” Salvatore said. Basically, you need enough insurance to rebuild your home if it’s destroyed or made unlivable, to replace or repurchase your personal possessions, to provide adequate living expenses until you can move back in, and to protect your assets in the event that an accident happens in your home and you’re sued.
[291 words]

[Time 3]
Get all the answers on homeowners, auto, and other coverages through Consumer Reports' Insurance Center.

Not having some specialty coverage could cost you dearly. For example, most homeowners’ policies cover damage from rain and wind in a hurricane, but as many unhappy survivors of Superstorm Sandy discovered, they don’t reimburse you for flood damage, which you have to buy separately. Earthquake damage is also covered separately or as an endorsement to your current home-owners policy.

Another area in which homeowners insurance might come up short is liability protection. An umbrella policy, as the name suggests, extends further protection from lawsuits resulting from an injury in your home or on your property (that includes your vacation home, car, and boat). “An additional $1 million of coverage costs between $150 and $200 per year, whereas if someone sues you and you lose, you have to empty your bank account to pay the damage,” said Steven Spiro, principal of the Excelsior Group, an insurance agency in Valley Stream, N.Y.

About two-thirds of Americans lack disability insurance, despite a survey finding that more than three-quarters said they would suffer great or moderate financial hardship if they didn’t work for three months because of injury or illness. Social Security disability benefits only cover total disability that has lasted or is expected to last at least a year; they do not apply to partial or short-term disability. “If you have others who -depend on your income, disability insurance makes the difference between survival and despair,” Steven Weisbart, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, said.
[259 words]

Source: Yahoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-questions-ask-insurance-agent-221500647.html


Is Your Life Insurance Worthless?
Credit.com By AJ Smith| November 13, 2014 7:00 AM

[Time 4]
Everyone will tell you about the importance of having life insurance, but life insurance is only valuable when you understand it. Knowing why you need life insurance and comparing policies to find the right one for you is only the beginning. It is just as important to read the fine print, find the exclusions and discover the loopholes that could render life insurance worthless.


Lying

The most common mistake people make when it comes to life insurance is being dishonest to get a lower rate. The law in all 50 states includes something called a contestable period, the first two years of coverage where an insurance company can cancel your policy and deny your claim if they find out you lied on your application. This could be about the year, month or even day of your birth as well as health conditions. It usually doesn't even matter if the way you died has nothing to do with the lie you used. Be assured, insurance companies will thoroughly investigate any claim made before paying out. It's a good idea to always tell the truth … especially on your insurance application.
[189 words]

[Time 5]

Suicide & Illegal or Dangerous Activities

There are several other technicalities that can render your life insurance policy useless. Usually, the suicide clause specifies that a company does not need to pay out death benefits for anyone who brings about their own death during the first two years of coverage. (It is assumed a suicide more than two years after insurance was purchased or increased was not planned at the time of purchase.) Some companies refund your beneficiaries the premium payments you made until the time of your death.

Across the board, dying while participating in illegal activity usually voids your coverage. In addition to illegal, companies often specify activities they consider "dangerous" that they will not pay out for (think extreme sports). It's important to read the contract carefully in case you plan to partake in the activities a company may deem unsafe.

Do You Really Need It?

So there are many reasons you might need life insurance but if you don't, paying for it can be a waste. While you will likely get a lower rate the earlier you purchase life insurance, it's important to look at your entire financial picture before you jump in. Why do you need to be covered? Do you have a mortgage you would like to pay off in case you died? Do you have children or nieces and nephews who depend on you financially? Do you have parents or siblings who rely on you financially to get by? These questions (and more) can help you determine if there is a reason to pay premiums and just how much life insurance you need.
[270 words]

Source: Yahoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-time-advantage-end-insurance-150000206.html


Now is Time to Take Advantage of End of the Year Insurance Benefits, Says Brentwood Dentist
Cool Springs Laser Dentistry
GlobeNewswire | Nov. 16, 2014

BRENTWOOD, Tenn., Nov. 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The dental care team at Cool Springs Laser Dentistry is reminding patients to take advantage of their end of the year insurance benefits. Dental insurance benefits do not roll over from year to year; consequently, patients who delay procedures may end up paying more the next year for care because they will max out their benefits and get stuck footing the bill for out-of-pocket expenses. Spreading procedures out over a six-month period that overlaps two different years is one way to minimize out-of-pocket expenses and keep care affordable.

Cool Springs Laser Dentistry announced that the dental practice is offering a free "insurance check" to help patients better maximize their best dental insurance benefits before the year is over. This insurance checkup is designed to minimize costs associated with routine checkups and basic dental care, such as cavity filings, as well as more advanced procedures like root canals.

"Patients who do not take advantage of their yearly allowance may end up paying more out of pocket next year for necessary work," cautioned Dr. Rice. "Many dental insurance plans cap the amount of dental benefits that are available each year. Failing to maximize these benefits in any given year is the equivalent to leaving money on the table. Our dental insurance check-up is a complementary service to help patients better understand the benefits that are currently available to them."

For patients who require more expensive procedures, one option is to spread these procedures out between two different years. For example, an appointment in November followed by one in January may help defer costs by preventing benefits from being maxed out. Patients should speak with their insurance company about specific dental benefits questions.
[288 words]

[The rest]
Cool Springs Laser Dentistry is currently affiliated with the following networks: Care PPO, Delta Dental Premier, and the Dental Health Alliance. Cool Spring Laser Dentistry can also file as an out of network provider at no additional cost to patients. Additionally, the practice also offers financing and payment plans.

"We understand that even the cost of basic care can be prohibitive for some of our patients," said Dr. Rice. "This is why we work closely with insurance companies to ensure that everyone can afford the care that they deserve."

The practice also makes it a point to inform all patients of the exact cost for treatment before each procedure is conducted so patients do not experience "sticker shock" when they receive a bill.

"Pricing transparency and quality, affordable care are hallmarks of our practice," said Dr. Rice.

Cool Springs Dentistry provides routine dental examinations along with laser dentistry, pediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry, and cosmetic dentistry.
[155 words]

Source: Yahoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-time-advantage-end-insurance-150000206.html

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 楼主| 发表于 2014-11-21 16:28:30 | 显示全部楼层
Part III: Obstacle
0

Life journey: Winning in the life-insurance market

The US life-insurance industry, in aggregate, has lost ground for 25 years. Yet a market worth tens of billions of dollars awaits companies able to seize the opportunity.
March 2014 | byVivek Agrawal, Guillaume de Gantès, and Peter Walker

[Paraphrase 7]

The US life-insurance industry, as a group, has returned less than its cost of equity since 1985. That year, life insurers represented about 40 percent of the financial-services industry in market capitalization; today, that’s down to 25 percent. Life insurers have lost ground to banks, asset managers, and brokerage firms, and we believe the principal cause was the decision by many life insurers to move beyond products where they enjoyed a distinct competitive advantage—such as products where they manage poolable risk—to businesses where they do not. Ironically, this search for higher returns resulted in just the opposite: while riskier investment strategies boosted profits when markets cooperated, economic downturns more than erased those gains.

Yet not all life insurers have struggled. Despite the overall deterioration in the industry’s performance during the past decade, our research revealed a stunning spread in value creation among the 30 largest life insurers in the US market. Those in the top quintile increased in value by about 10 percent annually, while those in the bottom quintile declined in value by about 3 percent—creating a 400 percent difference in adjusted book-value growth over the past decade. So what do the winners do differently? Do they have a more attractive product mix? Execute better within product lines? Achieve higher investment returns?

Several years ago, McKinsey launched “Life Journey,” a long-term effort to develop fact-based answers to these questions. We analyzed publicly available data for the life-insurance industry since 1985 and for the top 30 life insurers since 2000, and we interviewed dozens of industry analysts and executives. What we found is that the performance gap has been driven primarily by superior execution skills in managing liability risk, rather than from managing asset-based investment performance or product mix.

While many factors have contributed to the performance differential in managing liability risk among the top 30 insurers, none has been more important than skill in managing poolable risk—a risk type that has delivered close to three-quarters of the industry’s profits using less than half its capital. This is striking given how little mindshare and resources life insurers are investing in risk-skill innovation. Another interesting insight from this inquiry is the limited role portfolio mix has played in explaining the spread in performance (only 25 percent difference between best and worst performance). Execution within a line of business was the leading driver of the spread in performance (45 percent), followed by investment performance (30 percent). Group lines and accident- and health-insurance products have significantly outperformed individual lines on value creation. Individual annuities have soaked up more than a third of industry capital and have created less than 20 percent of value. Career distribution has created significantly more value than third-party channels. Scale has not mattered.

Our research suggests that during the next decade, outperformers will focus on four areas: building core risk and capital-management capabilities, including recognizing differences in cost of capital by line; using analytics to build competitive advantages in distribution; unlocking value in the in-force book; and leveraging customer insights to find growth in high-opportunity segments, such as managing retirement risk for baby boomers, serving the risk needs of the middle market, and capturing high-growth opportunities in emerging markets.

Finding new growth

The life-insurance industry, still recovering from the meltdown of 2008, will have to cope with a challenging macroeconomic and regulatory environment marked by high volatility, low interest rates, and slow economic growth. Yet there is a silver lining: new opportunities. The shift of financial responsibility from governments and employers to individuals, strong growth in developing markets, and an aging population not prepared for retirement will all offer profitable growth potential for life companies that can navigate the risks.

As economic pressures force employers and state and federal governments to cut back on benefits and eligibility, millions of Americans are unprepared for medical crises or retirement. Agent-based distribution has moved toward the affluent and mass affluent, leaving middle-market consumers underinsured. Simply returning penetration of this market—which comprises 63 million households with an annual household income of between $25,000 and $100,000—to 2004 levels could raise annual revenue by $20 billion. Based on typical margins of 5 percent, this could lead to an increase in the industry profit pool of a billion dollars annually. Life insurers can play a major role in helping people meet their retirement needs, and the flow of funds will be unprecedented as the population ages. But capitalizing on this opportunity will challenge life insurers in several ways.

First, many consumers in the middle market simply do not have the resources to fund their retirement needs; life insurers will need to focus on those in a position to invest in retirement products. Meanwhile, many consumers are looking for comprehensive retirement plans that reflect their family, employment, and real-estate status and aspirations—issues that require much more than insurance products. The third challenge is that products that deal with critical-illness exposures, end-of-life care, and longevity risks are difficult to understand, suggesting that the sales process needs to begin with consumer education.

In their search for growth, many carriers are also looking overseas to developing markets, where economies are expanding and life-insurance penetration is low. Research suggests that developing countries will account for more than 80 percent of global growth in the life market in the next decade. Yet there are hurdles to penetrating this market, including regulation, a scarcity of management talent, and different consumer mind-sets and behaviors. Still, some companies are building strong positions that drive growth, profit, and valuations through acquisitions, joint ventures, and long-term development from the ground up.

Four opportunities

In short, while the new growth opportunities are substantial, companies must tailor products and distribution to meet the unique needs of consumers and deal with challenging macroeconomic and regulatory environments. We recommend that life-insurance companies focus on four areas:

Improving risk and capital-management skills. Companies with the discipline to focus on value rather than volume growth will make better decisions. They will need to set clear parameters for risk appetite and establish robust metrics to manage capital and govern risk. Winners will also build more flexibility into product design and pricing to make fewer long-term guarantees and share risks with their customers.

Using data analytics to expand distribution capabilities and lower distribution costs. Insurers looking for stronger margins will need to control costs, of course, which will lead to discussions about distribution, the single biggest source of cost today—and the biggest constraint on growth. There are many ways to improve distribution performance, from using deep analytics to identify leads and marketing opportunities to tailoring service offerings to agents based on their needs, as well as increasing the adoption of financial planning and building product-expert, wholesaler, and sales teams to drive agent performance.

Leveraging the in-force book and existing customer relationships. The in-force book—policies life insurers have already sold to their customers and are now collecting revenue from and paying claims on—accounts for the lion’s share of profits, revenue, and operating costs, yet senior management focuses most of its attention on new business. To unlock the hidden value of the in-force book, carriers must capitalize on pricing, fee, and asset-allocation flexibility; pursue cross-selling and customer-behavior-management techniques; and improve operational efficiency.

Pursuing the middle market and developing markets. To achieve profitable growth, carriers need to continue serving their core affluent markets while looking to less conventional sources of growth. While the life-insurance industry has been a major player in the retirement space, both as a manufacturer of individual retirement products and as an administrator and asset manager of defined-contribution and defined-benefit plans, asset managers and securities firms have been the big winners. To strengthen its position in this enormous and growing market, the life-insurance industry needs to help retirees understand the products that will cover the most important risks—ones that life insurers are uniquely positioned to address, such as death during peak earning years, end-of-life illness, and outliving assets. This will entail revamping advisory capabilities to a fee-based model that offers an all-encompassing approach to financial planning.

Differences in the performance of life insurers are driven primarily by risk skills and the ability to manage liabilities, none among them more important than poolable risk. Charting a course and setting the sails will be comparatively easy. As with all strategies, the challenge is in the execution: winners will be those companies able to best weather the inevitable storms while continuing toward their ultimate goals.
[1408 words]

Source: Mckinsey
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/financial_services/life_journey_winning_in_the_life_insurance_market

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 楼主| 发表于 2014-11-21 16:32:58 | 显示全部楼层
有一段时间没有跟读帖子了,大家不要像我这样。每天练习,进步点滴;积小成大,可为大树。
发表于 2014-11-22 01:21:38 | 显示全部楼层
1:34, 185w/m
1:35, 164w/m
1:06, 172w/m
1:32, 180w/m
1:53, 153w/m
9:48, 143w/m
发表于 2014-11-22 07:02:45 | 显示全部楼层
Speaker
Figuring out what health care actually costs is hard
People always know what cost them but they don't know the cost of results
1st hospital 2nd patients 3rd insurance company
Different people may be charged for different prices,which are paid by insurance secretly and which our patients cannot figure out.

Obstacle 5'51''
Life insurance marker has suffered a overall downturn but there is a big difference between the performance of top companies and that of bottom companies,which is caused by the superior execution skills in managing liability risk.
Many factors contribute to this gap of laibility risk management:
Analysis of potential growth of life insurance.-->4 opportunities
发表于 2014-11-22 08:28:42 | 显示全部楼层
Thanks for sharing! Quite interesting!
02:13-> It's necessary to review the insurance once a year or in case of changes.
01:32-> significant to have some special insurance, like the flood insurance, liability protection and disability insurance.
01:12-> lying can render the insurance useless
01:30-> Suicide and illegal activities can also make insurance useless;
            Think clearly before jump in the insurance.
02:14-> People can minimize the dental expense by using of the insurance that overlaps two years
08:55-> Differences between companies with good performance and poor performance.
            The change of policy, and the need in developing countries and retirement group bring new opportunities to insurance companies.
            Four areas that companies can focus on.
发表于 2014-11-22 10:14:58 | 显示全部楼层
Speaker的音频和文稿不完全吻合

Time2+3
Insurance is important to every American, but according to a survey, a lot of people anxious about their insurance. So the author provides 3 ways to know insurance better:
1.when u update insurance, flood maps shifted.
2.get all answers through Consumer Insurance Center.
3.people should buy special insurances separately, such as flood insurance, liability protection and disability insurance.

Time4+5
Tips to know life insurance better:
1.do not lying to lower rate, insurance companies will do investments.
2.dangerous activities like suicide will get the pay until death.
3.few questions for u to make sure that u really need the life insurance.

Obstacle
Life Insurance industry-->low
survey: gap in managing liability risk
  -factors: limited role portfolio mix
  -sugg: focus on 4 areas
Find new growth:
  -invest retirement products
  -comprehensive retirement plans
  -begin with consumer edu
  -stay domestic market
4 opportunities:
  -increase risk+skills(capital-management)
  -data analytics-->distribute capabilities+lower distribution costs
  -leveraging the in-force book+consumer relationship
  -pursuing middle market+developing market
Challenge: winner(beat storm+reach goals)  
发表于 2014-11-22 10:17:02 | 显示全部楼层
1:40
2:17
1:25
1:41
2:15
1:20
发表于 2014-11-22 11:37:58 | 显示全部楼层
prb: life-insurance industry in the U.S. has lost ground, but not all life companies suffer the same situation.
reasons: McK "Life Journey", managing liability risk
1 manage poolable risks
2 limited role portfolio mix matters
suggestions+challenges:
1 finding new growth:
focus on middle-market consumers--! no resources to fund; demand for comprehensive retirement plans; difficulties in sales
overseas developing markets
2 four opportunities:

silver lining(不幸或失望中的)一线希望;乌云周围的白光
weather  v.经受住(风吹雨打)
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