May 20–Student health insurance at the University of New Mexico could increase by up to 30 percent next school year.

The expansion in health insurance coverage mandated by President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act is causing a rise in premiums in most student insurance plans around the country, student health and counseling director Beverly Kloeppel said Friday. Affordable Care Act provisions that affect student health insurance plans take effect in August.

At UNM, the increase in cost has not been set because the school has not yet selected a vendor for its health insurance plan. However, colleges and universities nationwide have seen their student plans spike by anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent, Kloeppel said.

“I would say that it’s likely the university would experience similar (increases),” she said.

About 2,000 UNM students, including student employees such as graduate assistants, are covered by the school insurance program. The annual cost for a student plan at UNM is about $1,400, Kloeppel said.

“We tried to do some things to reduce costs, and, you know, they were successful, but we’re still going to experience considerable increases,” Kloeppel said.

One effort to contain costs was a partnership UNM formed with New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for a new health insurance vendor. The potential vendor would have a greater pool of students to insure, so it might be able to keep the premium increases lower, Kloeppel said.

Those new premium costs could be set as soon as next month, when Kloeppel expects to recommend a vendor to the board of regents. Regents have to approve the insurance plan.

Kloeppel said the rise in premiums could mean fewer students opt for UNM’s plan. However, the Affordable Care Act has increased the age limit for youths covered by their parents’ insurance to 26, she added, and that means many more students can stay insured by their parents’ employer.

Among the reasons for the growing premiums are significant increases in the amount of medical costs that insurers will be forced to cover. Next year, insurers can impose a limit of no less than $100,000 in costs they will cover. The year after, that amount will rise to $500,000 and the year after that there will be no annual limit, meaning insurance companies will be forced to cover all costs accrued by a student.

The ACA has also expanded coverage in other ways. Insurers now must cover “recommended preventive services,” such as wellness screenings, without any cost-sharing. They also must now provide access to contraceptives, also without cost-sharing.

Students are not the only ones who will be affected by changes imposed by the ACA. Insurance premiums for regular UNM employees, who are covered under a different program, will increase by 8.5 percent. UNM will also pay some of those costs, increasing the amount they pay by another 8.5 percent.

___

(c)2012 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.)

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Article source: http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=343192&type=newswires

Early adopters of electric vehicles have to dig deep into their wallets to make the purchase, but some are reaping unexpected savings on their insurance bills.

Insurance premiums vary widely based on driving history, local crime and vehicle theft rates, but experts said owners of vehicles such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf can generally expect a lower insurance premium.

“When you look at electric vehicle owners, you probably have a pretty careful bunch there,” said Jack Nerad, executive editorial editor and market analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “They’re probably pretty mature, and they’re not the young 20-something male who gets into the most fights and has the most car accidents.”

Although electric vehicles are likely to remain a niche segment of the auto industry for several years, insurers are starting to compete for EV policies.

Hartford Insurance announced in April that it would start offering a 5% discount to EV owners throughout the U.S. by the end of the year. The company described the offer as part of its commitment to encouraging environmental sustainability.

But experts said the insurer wouldn’t make the offer without believing that it is a smart financial bet.

“You can count on that,” said David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. “Right now it’s almost too early in the game to make that judgment, but they believe it, otherwise they wouldn’t be making that pitch.”

Rick Lipinskas, an Albany, N.Y., resident who bought a Volt in March 2011, said he’s paying about $1,000 per year for “more-than-minimum coverage plus collision and uninsured driver coverage” through New York Central Mutual.

“From talking with other Volt owners, we seem to be less hurried while driving,” Lipinskas said in an e-mail. “I tend to set the cruise control at the speed limit instead of 5 m.p.h. above as I did in my previous car, a 2007 Honda CR-V.”

The average insurance policy for a 2012 Volt owner who drives 15,000 miles annually is about $1,452 per year for the first five years, according to auto research site Ed-munds.com’s True Cost to Own estimates. That compares with about $2,024 for a conventional-engine 2012 Cadillac CTS, for example.

The Volt, which uses a battery to travel up to 35 miles on electricity before a small gasoline motor kicks in, starts at $39,145, while the CTS starts at about $35,915.

The average insurance policy for a 2012 Leaf owner is about $1,513 per year, while the average for a conventional-engine 2012 Nissan Maxima, for example, is $1,801, according to Edmunds. The pure-electric Leaf starts at $37,250, while the Maxima starts at $32,420.

To be sure, some electric vehicle owners are not reporting a discount. Phoenix-area resident Paul Cummings said his insurance premiums with State Farm rose $17 per month after he switched from a $44,000 Ford F-150 to a Volt.

Brittany Senary, a spokeswoman for insurer Progressive, said some drivers who switch to an electric vehicle might notice an uptick in their insurance premiums if the vehicle is more expensive than their previous ride.

“Because newer vehicles with more expensive technology and parts generally cost more to fix than older, less-complex cars, they’re generally more expensive to insure,” Senary said in an e-mail. “We don’t currently offer EV discounts because we cannot justify them based on our claims data.”

Nerad said some insurers may be unsure how to price their policies because of the expensive battery packs that are integrated into electric vehicles. Those batteries are rarely damaged in accidents because they’re enclosed in protective cages.

“What I’ve learned about insurance through the years is a lot of times you’re not looking at how safe the vehicle is but how safe the driver is,” Nerad said.

Doug Neal, executive director of the University of Michigan College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship, got a first-hand look at the electric-vehicle insurance business when he crashed his Chevy Volt a few months ago.

Another driver turned in front of Neal’s Volt in downtown Ann Arbor and slammed into his front bumper, causing minor damage.

“The only complexity was I couldn’t just take it to any repair shop,” he said. “I had it taken to one that knew how to work on an electric car. But they have a network of those.”

Neal said that when emergency responders arrived on the scene of his accident, they weren’t too worried about insurance.

“When people showed up, the police officer, the tow truck driver, they were all so excited about the car,” he said.

Contact Nathan Bomey: 313-223-4743 or nbomey@freepress.com

Article source: http://www.freep.com/article/20120520/BUSINESS01/205200444/Some-electric-vehicle-owners-find-savings-on-insurance?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

If the Board of Finance’s initial reaction to the idea of moving to self-insurance is any indication, the plan could be dead before it begins.

Board of Finance members said they reacted strongly to the idea of moving both Board of Education and town employees to a self-insurance plan for a variety of reasons. None of them spoke in favor of the idea, which is being studied by an ad-hoc committee formed by the Town Council.

“I’m not a person you can sell on self-insurance,” said Board of Finance member Tom White. “I think it’s Russian roulette.”

The ad-hoc committee was charged with investigating whether to join the state’s insurance pool, become self-insured or remain in its current situation with Anthem insurance. It asked the Town Council this week for permission to develop a road map for moving toward self-insurance. The permission was granted.

Windham has 700 employees receiving medical insurance. About 140 of them are employed by the town. The rest are employed by the Board of Education.

Lynne Ide, chairman of the Board of Finance, said the ad-hoc committee was compelled to study self-insurance because the Board of Education’s finance subcommittee voted to investigate that option further.

“That puts the town in a difficult position,” Ide said. “We sort of get pulled along with that unless we go our own way. That does present some issues for us.”

Board member David Hemenway said he believes the school board is acting inappropriately and is not willing to partner with the town in a positive way.

“I’m aghast that the Board of Education thinks it’s their decision of how they insure town employees,” Hemenway said. “It’s inappropriate and will not be tolerated.”

Board of Education member Nancy Tinker said she believes the concerns are a misunderstanding. Tinker said the subcommittee, which she heads, did not vote to move forward with self-insurance. The vote was based on the potential for saved dollars. The Board of Education members were then asked to share the board’s interest with the full ad-hoc committee.

Lockton Cos., the town’s insurance consultant, has done an analysis of the three insurance options and shows the biggest savings for the town comes through self-insurance. Lockton estimated the town would have saved about $4.3 million from July 2006 to April 30 of this year.

Board of Finance member Anna Crawford said she is concerned about employee privacy and the potential cost to the town should there be one or two catastrophic illnesses.

Board of Education Murphy Sewall said the self-insurance policy includes insurance limits on how much the town would have to pay for any single illness. He said he has no desire to move forward without a plan all parties involved can support.

“We won’t execute anything until the town would be ready to go,” Sewall said. “We intend to do this as a team.”

Article source: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/newsnow/x624592795/Windham-officials-worry-self-insurance-too-risky

Now that Erie Insurance Arena has an additional $3 million for its extensive makeover, the Erie County Convention Center Authority has resurrected plans to build and market 13 luxury suites at the downtown entertainment and sports venue.

Casey Wells, the authority’s executive director, said the fully furnished suites, which will be located on the revamped arena’s third level, are currently being pitched to local businesses.

Businesses would pay up to $35,000 a year for the suites, and sign five-year lease agreements, Wells said.

The suites, part of a $1.2 million “club level,” had been part of original design plans for extensive renovations at the former Tullio Arena, which is undergoing a $45 million renovation expected to be finished in the fall of 2013.

But they had to be cut from the project, along with other amenities, after two rounds of higher-than- expected construction bids.

Last week’s announcement that Erie Insurance Group agreed to pay $3 million over 10 years for naming rights to the arena means that the Convention Center Authority now has the cash to restore those amenities, including the suites.

Wells said there is interest in the suites, even though a consultant’s 2009 study told them few businesses, at that time, were willing to commit to a suite rental.

“I have a number of commitments for suites pending,” Wells said Wednesday. “I’m comfortable and optimistic that we will be able to lease all of them.

“They’ll provide a new revenue stream for the authority, and they are an attractive option for experiencing the arena,” Wells said. “And we’re not overreaching for the Erie market — other facilities might have 50 suites. We think we’re working with a number that’s marketable.”

The furnished suites would have room for 12 to 14 people and feature catered food and beverages, televisions and Internet access.

The suite rental fee would include tickets to all sporting events, concerts and other events at the arena, Wells said.

Erie Insurance’s naming rights deal gives the Fortune 500 company exclusive access to a suite, Wells said.

Roger Richards, chairman of the authority’s Strategic Planning Committee, said restoring suites and other amenities to the project ensures that Erie Insurance Arena will be a “first-class facility.”

Other features coming back to the project, that had been planned originally, include new ice and ice-making equipment for hockey, as well as a state-of-the-art video scoreboard expected to cost at least $1 million.

The arena work was significantly delayed after two rounds of higher-than-expected construction bids.

After the latest round of bids, opened in August, bidders voluntarily agreed to reduce their bids, cutting project costs to fit within the project’s construction budget of about $35 million.

Richards said the project was designed, with the bidders’ OK, to restore those amenities if the Convention Center Authority could come up with a way to fund them.

State government is providing $32 million for the $45 million arena renovations, which will create a multiuse entertainment complex, expand and improve interior space, and create a parklike atmosphere.

An additional $10 million comes from Erie County government through gambling revenue from Presque Isle Downs Casino.

KEVIN FLOWERS can be reached at 870-1693 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNflowers.

Article source: http://www.goerie.com/article/20120520/NEWS02/305199911/Erie-Insurance-Arena-suite-plan-back-on-track

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have seized a small bank in Alabama, bringing to 24 the number of U.S. banks that have failed so far this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it closed Alabama Trust Bank NA in Sylacauga.

The bank had about $51.6 million in assets and $45.1 million in deposits as of March 31.

Southern States Bank, based in Anniston, Ala., agreed to take over the deposits and essentially all the assets of the failed bank, which had one branch.

The FDIC estimates that failure of Alabama Trust Bank will cost the insurance fund $8.9 million.

The lender is the first FDIC-insured institution to fail this year in Alabama.

The pace of bank closures has slowed sharply after ballooning following the financial crisis in 2008. By this time last year, 40 banks had failed.

In 2010, regulators seized 157 banks, the most in any year since the savings and loan crisis two decades ago. Those failures cost the deposit insurance fund around $23 billion. The FDIC has said 2010 likely was the high-water mark for bank failures from the Great Recession. Last year, the 92 failures cost an estimated $7.9 billion.

In 2009, there were 140 bank failures that cost the insurance fund about $36 billion, a larger sum than in 2010 because the banks involved were bigger on average. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force; only three were closed in 2007.

From 2008 through 2011, bank failures cost the fund an estimated $88 billion. The FDIC expects failures from 2012 through 2016 to cost $12 billion.

The deposit insurance fund fell into the red in 2009. With failures slowing, the FDIC’s fund balance turned positive in the second quarter of last year.

By Dec. 31 it stood at $11.8 billion, about 50 percent higher than three months earlier, according to the FDIC.

Article source: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20120518_ap_fdicclosessmallbankinalabama.html

In both cases, state-run Citizens Property Insurance is demanding nearly $1,000 in additional premium annually from the homeowners as part of an aggressive effort to strip policyholders of discounts for hurricane-resistant home features such as storm shutters and reinforced roofs.

Without applying to state regulators for rate increases, state-run Citizens and many private insurers are substantially increasing premiums for tens of thousands of Florida homeowners through a controversial home reinspection effort that is roiling the property insurance market this year after a slow ramp-up.

Citizens alone is conducting 209,000 inspections in 2012 to verify that hurricane discounts were properly awarded. So far, policyholders are getting stuck with larger bills 62 percent of the time, according to data presented at a Citizens meeting last week. The average premium increase: $600 per year.

Overall, Citizens’ reinspections are creating a 23 percent rate jump for homeowners, even as the company is restricted to 10 percent annual increases through normal rate-setting.

As of April, Citizens had collected $108 million in additional premium revenue from reducing or eliminating hurricane discounts for roughly 108,000 customers over the last two years. Comparable figures for private insurers are not available.

The reinspection effort is unwinding a program begun in 2002 to reward homeowners with hurricane-resistant structures, and those who make improvements. The discounts, which every property insurer in Florida is required to provide, were doubled in 2007 to help lessen the impact of rising insurance rates and encourage homeowners to defend against future storms.

But private insurers balked, arguing that the discounts were too generous and that inspectors often distorted findings to help homeowners. State Farm cited them as a big reason for its decision to stop writing new Florida policies.

Responding to the insurance industry, state lawmakers made changes that are just now reaching their full impact on policyholders. The loss of discounts is putting more upward pressure on already-high premiums, straining homeowners’ budgets in a struggling economy and raising concerns that Florida’s aging housing stock will become more vulnerable to hurricanes if residents have fewer incentives to protect against storms.

Citizens — with more than 1.4 million policies it is Florida’s largest property insurer — has implemented one of the most aggressive reinspection programs. Every policy with more than $650 in credits is being reinspected in the first phase.

One Sarasota insurance agent said that two to three customers call daily complaining about the reinspections.

Back-door rate

Lyn Suter, an agent with Sarasota’s East County Insurance, acknowledges that some inspectors may have been too generous in awarding past discounts, but adds that Citizens and other insurers have swung too far in the opposite direction.

Suter finds it hard to believe more than 60 percent of the original inspections were flawed.

“Citizens comes out and says you’re not going to get the discount because you’re missing one nail on a strap, so of course the customer is unhappy,” Suter said. “They’re being very aggressive with it.”

A Broward County man who lost his hurricane discounts filed a class-action lawsuit against Citizens earlier this year. The homeowner’s attorney describes the reinspection program on the law firm’s website as a “scheme by Citizens to circumvent the cap on rate hikes.”

Bob Dodds, the Englewood resident, said he does not plan to join the suit, but is petitioning Citizens to review his case.

From 2000 to 2006, Dodds meticulously researched the best products to protect his home in a hurricane. He spent $12,000 on Bermuda shutters, reinforced skylights and a garage door braced with thick metal cross beams.

After learning about the discounts for hurricane protections, Dodds called his insurance agent in 2008 and was given the names of three inspectors. He picked the first on the list. The inspector submitted a report to Citizens and Dodds’ wind insurance dropped from $1,940 to $865 per year.

In September, Citizens sent a new inspector to Dodds’ home. Nearly every aspect of the original inspection was challenged. Dodds recently received a letter from Citizens saying his bill will more than double in August.

A retired high school industrial arts teacher who built his own home in upstate New York, Dodds is familiar with building materials and construction techniques. He agreed with some aspects of Citizens’ reinspection.

The first report gave him credit for roofing nails instead of the weaker staples that actually were used. There were other inaccuracies, but Dodds believes the Citizens report does not acknowledge all the improvements he has made over the years.

“I definitely didn’t get credit where credit was due,” he said.

Holzapfel, the Venice resident, is challenging his Citizens reinspection from October. The report resulted in a February letter notifying Holzapfel his windstorm premium would increase from $2,100 to $3,100 on a home near the beach with an insured value of $500,000.

Holzapfel has spent $45,000 on new windows, hurricane shutters, a wind-resistant garage door and other improvements over the last two years to protect his home in a storm.

But what really bothers him is the loss of a discount relating to his roof, which was replaced in January 2002. Citizens only gives discounts for roofs installed after Feb. 28, 2002.

He sent Citizens a letter from the roofing company president saying the roof meets all current building standards and would be installed exactly the same today.

“They strip the discount away and don’t give you a rationale other than a date,” Holzapfel said. The arbitrary cutoff “just doesn’t make any sense.”

Holzapfel said he would have installed the hurricane protections regardless of the discounts, but he believes the reinspections could deter others from retrofitting their homes. That fallout could range from fewer storm shutters sold to increased damage and more claims after a hurricane.

“If there’s no incentive to do that, think about our economy,” he said.

Getting what’s due

Insurance industry officials say the reinspections ensure that homeowners are not getting discounts for building features that will do nothing to protect a structure in a hurricane.

Sam Miller, a spokesman for the Florida Insurance Council, said there was a “huge error rate” among inspectors who gave out the original discounts.

“It turns out, for a variety of reasons, people are getting the discounts with no basis,” Miller said. “If someone does not qualify for a certain level of discounts, he or she never should have gotten them.”

Citizens spokeswoman Christine Ashburn noted the company still gives nearly $1 billion in hurricane discounts annually.

“It’s really important those folks who have the features get the credits, but if you don’t have the features that reduce the likelihood of risk, those credits are not owed to you,” Ashburn said.

The insurance industry successfully pushed legislation that requires better documentation of inspections, penalties for false information, more training for inspectors and independent verification by the insurer.

Ken Vanpelt conducts 20 to 30 wind mitigation inspections a month through his North Port company, Southwest Sun Home Inspections.

He said there were “a handful of inspectors who didn’t really care as long as they could make a buck,” but believes the reinspection programs have gone too far.

“I think they’re being harsh,” Vanpelt said. “I don’t think the error percentage could be that high. I think you have a lot of good inspectors out there doing a good job. Most of the guys I’ve met are honorable people.”

Dodds and his wife live off Social Security payments and his New York teacher’s pension.

Their total insurance cost will hit $4,105 — $342 a month — on a home with an insured value of $289,000 when their Citizens wind policy is renewed in August.

The couple are preparing to sell the home, in part because of the rising insurance costs. They and other Citizens customers have watched as the company has taken other steps in the past year to make the insurer less attractive in order to shed policies and reduce its overall liability, including cutting coverage of carports, sheds and other structures.

“What’s going to happen to the real estate market down here?” Dodds asked. “And that’s supposed to be No. 1 for the state’s economy?”

Article source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120519/ARTICLE/120519477/2055/NEWS?Title=Insurers-pulling-back-on-hurricane-discount

Health-care bills taking a swipe and President Obama’s health-care program passed the Missouri legislature this week. One allows employers to refuse health insurance for birth control; the other would let voters decide whether to allow the creation of a health-insurance exchange.

By

David A. Lieb, Associated Press /
May 19, 2012

In an annual tradition, Missouri House members toss papers after the closing gavel in Friday’s legislative session Friday in Jefferson City, Mo. Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature registered its discontent with President Obama’s health care policies by passing two bills that oppose aspects of the Obama program.

Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP

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Article source: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0519/Health-care-protest-bills-get-Missouri-OK

You have a choice of whether or not to live in a flood plain, and whether or not to buy a home or rent or lease, which is why flood insurance is optional. You really do not have a choice of whether or not to participate in the healthcare system, however: at some point, you’re going to, because you want to live. This is one reason why the individual mandate is valid, because the health insurance system will not work with millions of people going without coverage and consequently shrinking the risk pool, which inflates costs beyond any voluntary mechanism to control, which impacts commerce in general.

Article source: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/05/federal_flood_insurance_compar.html

Paying more and getting less is the new motto for homeowners stuck with state-run Citizens Property Insurance. Old and new customers alike are getting socked with rate hikes, higher deductibles, more exclusions…and no place else to turn for hurricane coverage.

“I was just so happy to get a renewal notice and not a cancellation notice, I didn’t really pay attention to the other stuff,” said Ira Goldstein, 55, of Delray Beach.

Goldstein’s private insurer dropped him in 2010, when his home developed problems with Chinese drywall. In two years with the state-run insurer of last resort, Goldstein’s premium has jumped from $1,667 to $2,106, a 26 percent increase.

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Meantime, Citizens no longer covers things like sheds, pools and screened-in porches.

Higher rates and diluted coverage are going to be recurring themes in coming years for Citizens policyholders, as company executives and state politicians try to shrink the customer base from its current 1.45 million. Citizens, which had only 1 million policies a few years ago, keeps growing as private insurers flee the state or go bankrupt.

The problem: Citizens is a virtual monopoly in many areas, including large swaths of South Florida, so there is no consumer choice. For many of the 337,000 Citizens customers in Broward and Palm Beach counties (myself included), there is no private insurance alternative. And if private insurers won’t come back until rates are allowed to climb to the stratosphere and Citizens bleeds us dry getting there, then a competitive market seems pretty meaningless.

When longtime Fort Lauderdale resident Sherry Friedlander got her Citizens policy renewal earlier this year, she balked at the $4,000 windstorm premium and $38,000 deductible.

“It means I have to pay $42,000 out of pocket before I see one dime after a storm,” said Friedlander, who lives east of Federal Highway. “I called my agent and asked who else is writing hurricane policies. He said, ‘Nobody.’

So she did something dramatic. She dropped her windstorm policy.

“A lot of my neighbors have done the same thing,” Friedlander said. “I’m not happy about it.”

Because she owns her home outright and doesn’t have a mortgage, she has the option of “going naked” when it comes to property insurance. But homeowners with mortgages are required to carry insurance by their lenders. If homeowners can’t find insurance on their own, exorbitant “lender-placed” insurance is imposed.

Property insurance rates might not be high enough to be “actuarially sound” for private insurers spooked by Hurricane Andrew and the freak 2004-2005 storm years, but they’re plenty high enough for homeowners battered by the housing meltdown, flat wages and high unemployment.

Digging through my own records was an eye-opener. When I bought my older home in Dania Beach in 2000, I paid a total of $1,493 for separate windstorm, fire/theft and flood insurance policies. With my latest policy renewals, including a 10 percent increase from Citizens, I’ll be paying just over $5,000 for property insurance this year.

I can only wonder, how much more actuarially sound can things get before we all go broke?

mmayo@tribune.com or 954-356-4508.

Article source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-citizens-mayocol-b052012-20120519,0,5194498.column

* The government will spend $387 million over two years to better link benefits to regional labour market conditions. The changes are part of a plan to remove the “disincentives” to accepting all available work while applying for or receiving EI benefits (including reducing the benefits clawback when working while on EI), and ensure that Canadians living in regions with similar unemployment rates receive similar benefits.

“We don’t want to have government programs that discourage people from engaging in the workforce at a time when we are going to need more and more people working in the country,” Flaherty said.

* Ottawa will encourage more seniors, youth, aboriginal people and persons with disabilities to work, and promises to give them the supports they need.

* The federal budget said some of the looming changes will “strengthen and clarify” what is required of claimants receiving EI benefits. The reforms will take into account “an individual’s past history with the EI program.”

* The changes are expected to target repeat claimants, including possibly forcing them to take lower-paying jobs than Canadians receiving EI for the first time.

Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley won’t confirm or deny the changes will slowly scale back benefits for repeat claimants, saying only that details will be released in the coming weeks.

“What I can assure you is (the new rules) are going to be fair and they’re going to be reasonable,” Finley said in an interview aired Saturday on CBC Radio’s The House. “We’re going to help (Canadians) find work, better, faster, but they’re going to have to make sure they are doing what they need to do to find a job.”

Employment Insurance basics:

Q: What is Employment Insurance?

A: It’s a federal program that provides workers who are involuntarily unemployed with financial compensation and some means of subsistence until other employment is found.

Q: Who pays for it?

A: The EI plan is financed by premiums collected from workers and employers. The accumulated funds cover both the benefits paid to unemployed Canadians and administrative costs. Workers pay EI premiums of $1.83 for every $100 of wages until the annual maximum salary of $45,900 has been reached. The maximum contribution amount is approximately $840.

Q: How long do you have to work to be eligible to collect EI?

A: In most cases, Canadians must have worked a minimum of 420 to 700 insurable hours prior to unemployment, depending on where you live in Canada and the unemployment rate in the region.

Q: How much can I receive?

A: The basic benefit rate is 55 per cent of your average insured earnings up to a maximum insurable amount of $45,900, meaning you can receive a maximum payment of $485 per week. Low-income families can receive a higher benefit rate.

Q: How long can Canadians receive EI benefits?

A: From 19 weeks up to a maximum of 45 weeks, again depending on the unemployment rate in your region and amount of insurable hours accumulated.

jfekete(at)postmedia.com

Twitter.com/jasonfekete

Article source: http://www.canada.com/Employment+Insurance+What+wrong+with+what+expect+from+coming+overhaul/6650329/story.html