With Obamacare state exchanges opening in less than a week, the law’s benefits and flaws are coming under a huge amount of media scrutiny.

On October 1st, every state in the U.S. will open an online health insurance marketplace. For states that have opted to run their own insurance exchange (rather than letting the federal government set it up), the challenge now is informing residents about how to use these new marketplaces. Americans who already have insurance probably don't need to know the ins and outs of online exchanges,…

In a move that has caught agents and brokers off guard, Nordic Healthcare, a provider of international health insurance, has announced that it will cease sales of new individual policies in all but its core markets.  This means that, with immediate effect, Nordic will no longer be issuing new IPMI policies anywhere in the world except Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam. The announcement…

Published July 25, 2012

A report released on Monday by the Healthcare Reform Office in China announced that the 3 year plan to improve some of the fundamental parts of China’s healthcare system completed its objectives on schedule. The Chinese Central Government spent almost US$71 billion between 2009 and 2011 in efforts to improve healthcare services to the public, build primary care…

On October 15^th 2011, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security put in place new regulations which required foreign employees working in China to contribute to the country's Social Insurance System. The regulations stated that foreign employees would have to register after employment and start paying towards five types of insurance policies, including basic pension insurance,…

The Allianz Group has a rich history dating back to 1890 and prides itself on being able to offer solutions in insurance, banking and asset management areas. Insurance wise, Allianz thrives in Europe and has especially excelled itself in the German market. 2012 has started off in a positive direction for the company and CEO Michael Diekmann sees this trend continuing for the rest of the year. On May…

Chinese insurance companies will need to raise more than CNY110 billion(US$17 billion) of fresh external funding to support their industry's further growth and development over the next three years, according to credit analysts from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. Although the credit outlook for China's life and property insurers will remain stable to positive, the ratings agency expects the industry…

New figures released this week by the Vietnamese government shows that, despite an economic slowdown, the Southeast Asian country's insurance market grew by 20 percent cumulatively in the first half of the year. The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance's Insurance Supervisory Authority reported that total insurance premiums in the first half of 2011 reached VND17.4 trillion (US$826.8 million). Non-life…

New data released this week by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) confirms what many industry analysts have already noted; that the Chinese market is fast becoming one of the most lucrative in the world and will continue to present distinct business opportunities. According to the latest CIRC figures, the total premium income reported by Chinese insurance companies' surpassed CNY 805.66…

A new report published by worldwide insurance rating and information agency A.M Best Co predicts substantial change will occur within the Vietnamese insurance industry as the country's regulatory framework evolves, allowing the market to open up further for foreign companies to share their capital and technical expertise. In the special report, titled "Vietnam's Insurance Market Awakening to Further…