Mass. health plan has national appeal

WASHINGTON - Key players in the debate over how to provide healthcare coverage for the nation's 47 million uninsured say they view Massachusetts' landmark 2006 law as an important model for what Washington could do and how to get it done.
"To those who say these challenges can't be met, I say, 'Look at Massachusetts,' " said Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Healthcare leader

Massachusetts achieved near-universal coverage by investing heavily in patching the holes in the existing system, where most people get coverage through work - something economist Jonathan Gruber of MIT calls "incremental universalism." This centrist approach rejects both the liberal vision of a Canadian-style Medicare-for-all system and the conservative preference to move to a deregulated market where people buy policies on their own with the help of tax credits.

"The architecture of the Massachusetts plan is very similar to the architecture of what everyone is talking about, which is essentially building on the existing system and not throwing it out," said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy group based in Menlo Park, Cal.

With a new administration and Congress gearing up to push a major initiative to expand insurance access for the first time since the Clinton administration's spectacular failure in 1994, Washington policymakers are eager to avoid making the same political mistakes. Massachusetts leaders made sure that people who liked their coverage could keep it, and they built consensus among a web of healthcare interests to create a new safety net for the uninsured.

"What Massachusetts demonstrates is, it can be done," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, which represents the views of large corporations on health care. "It's really important because people have talked about what we might do for years and years and years. This shows it can work, and for the most part, it can be highly functional."

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a leader on health care in the Senate who also helped create the state law, cited new figures released yesterday showing that 97.4 percent of Massachusetts residents now have insurance, compared with 90 percent when the law was passed in 2006.

"To those who say these challenges can't be met, I say, 'Look at Massachusetts,' " he said in a statement.

Source:http://www.boston.com/news

Prudential unit to bid for AIG Japan units -sources

A Japanese unit of Prudential Financial Inc plans to bid for two Japanese life insurers put up for sale by American International Group Inc, people familiar with the matter said.
Saved from bankruptcy by a U.S. government bailout that has now ballooned to about $152 billion, AIG is looking to raise cash by shedding assets globally.

AIG's push to sell assets was underscored by comments from chief executive Edward Liddy to the Wall Street Journal. Liddy said in an interview that AIG will try to renegotiate the terms of its rescue package if it can sell off assets to repay the government.

The insurer has said it will sell its three Japanese life insurance businesses -- Alico Japan, AIG Edison Life Insurance Co and AIG Star Life Insurance Co.
Prudential unit Gibraltar Life Insurance Co will bid for AIG Edison and AIG Star, three sources told Reuters. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because the bidding process is not public.

The sale could fetch several hundred billion yen, the Nikkei business daily has reported.
Spokespeople for Prudential Financial and AIG in Tokyo declined to comment.
Although its population is shrinking, Japan is still seen as a growth market by some overseas financial firms.

Thanks to a culture of frugality, Japanese household savings are now estimated at a staggering $16 trillion. The desire to tap that pool has brought in big overseas financial firms such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc.

Insurers have also been drawn by the country's rapidly ageing population. U.S. firm Aflac Inc has made an aggressive push in recent years, blanketing the country with advertisements for insurance products.

With insurance revenue of 407 billion yen ($4.37 billion), AIG Edison ranks No.22 in the Japanese industry. AIG Star ranks No.23 with revenue of 266 billion yen.
AIG has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs to advise it globally on asset sales, while Prudential is using Nomura Securities to help it weigh a bid for the AIG operations, sources said.

A deadline for the bidding has been set for Dec. 9, the sources said. It was not immediately clear whether Gibraltar was the sole bidder or other potential buyers were involved. ($1=93.14 Yen) (Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Yumiko Nishitani and Dave Dolan; Editing by Michael Watson)

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/