Understanding Insurance Law 2008

This comprehensive Understanding treatise can be used as the course text or as a supplement to any insurance law casebook. Insurance Law is designed to make the substance of insurance law accessible to the student and to the general practitioner unfamiliar with the subject. The premise of this book's organization is that insurance law is best understood if its legal principles are arranged according to the various stages in the life of a contract. Part A considers the question, "What is insurance law?" Part B considers issues germane to the establishment of the contractual relationship between insurer and insured. Part C considers issues relevant to the performance of contractual obligations. Finally, Part D examines a few topics that defy easy categorization, including special problems in group insurance, special issues in automobile insurance, issues in reinsurance, and a new chapter on excess and umbrella coverage.

The Sixth Edition of Insurance Law is characterized by extensive updates that permeate the book. While adhering to the same format, each chapter incorporates recent developments that affect substantive insurance law. Some highlights include the following: The addition of text discussing the recent decision Golden Gate Restaurant Association v. City & County of San Francisco, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals upheld San Francisco's "play or pay" ordinance, which requires employers with employees covered by the ordinance to make "required health care expenditures to or on their behalf." The case has potentially far-reaching implications for ERISA preemption jurisprudence. Material on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. Addition of the 2009 California Supreme Court's decision Delgado v. Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club of Southern California which has the potential to significantly affect the scope of an insurer's duty to defend. Coverage of New York's 2008 amendment to Insurance Law Section 3420 which provides for a nuanced approach to the conventional notice-prejudice rule commonly used in most other states. More material on various aspects of the tripartite relationship. Throughout the new edition, the addition of cases is done in the context of the same format. Where cases are deleted, the substantive points are generally preserved in notes following cases.

Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.