M.V Lee Badgett
Image by Center for American Progress
Photo By:
Ralph Alswang
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202-487-5025
PLEASE CREDIT PHOTO: Ralph Alswang
Employer-provided health insurance is the backbone of health coverage for American families, a system which is encouraged by exempting spousal and dependent health benefits from taxation. Nonetheless, even as many companies are realizing the importance of providing equal health benefits to all domestic partners, that coverage is taxed as income to the employee, creating an extra tax averaging ,069 per year. The employers who provide these benefits are also penalized, paying a total of million each year in payroll taxes on domestic partnership benefits. Although legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to remedy this problem (H.R. 1820, S. 1556), these equality taxes penalize same-sex and other domestic partnerships and inhibit businesses from adopting domestic partnership policies.
The Center for American Progress hosted a distinguished panel to discuss the implications of this unfair tax treatment. M. V. Lee Badgett introduced her new report, "Unequal Taxes on Equal Benefits: The Taxation of Domestic Partner Benefits," which presents original research on the extent of this inequality. The panel also discussed the broader economic implications of the extra tax on domestic partner benefits.
You may wonder why should you know your car insurance companies. One very good reason is that in the event of an accident you would be less likely to accept a false proof of insurance. How’s that possible?
A few months ago my car was hit while I was sitting at a stop sign waiting to turn left. The other driver coming from my right cut the corner before realizing there was a car there. Needless to say it was a head-on collision, but thankfully she was slowing to turn.When the time came to exchange insurance information, she handed me a letter on official letterhead that gave a policy number for auto insurance. The letterhead said “DriveTime”. I’d heard about DriveTime as being a place where one could easily get an auto loan. I never questioned the validity of the “proof” of insurance I was given.
I found out later, when I tried to file a claim for repairs with the other insurance company, that DriveTime insurance ONLY covers their car. It is a comprehensive coverage that protects DriveTime against any loss. However, it is up to the car buyer to obtain liability coverage from another source.
So before you get stuck with a “proof of insurance” that is no proof at all, glance at the list below just to get an idea of those real full-coverage auto insurance companies. These are American insurance companies with a strong regional and national presence.
* American National Insurance Company
* American Automobile Association
* AIG
* Allstate
* American Family Insurance
* American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual
* Amica
* Auto-Owners Insurance
* California Casualty Insurance
* CapitalOne
* Commerce Insurance Group
* COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services
* Cuna Mutual Group
* Electric Insurance Company
* Esurance
* Expatriate Insurance
* Farm Bureau Insurance
* Farmers Insurance
* Frankenmuth Mutual Insurance Company
* GAINSCO Auto Insurance
* GMAC Insurance
* Geico
* The General
* GuideOne
* Hanover Insurance
* The Hartford
* Hastings Mutual Insurance Company
* Haulers Insurance Company
* Infinity Auto Insurance Company
* Liberty Mutual
* Nationwide Insurance
* National Interstate
* Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
* Mutual of Enumclaw
* OneBeacon Insurance Group
* Pekin Insurance
* Pemco
*
intelligent
Definition of insurance = Transfer of Risk. Anyone who has someone who depends on their income needs to have this coverage. ~ Snowden
it sounds like a scam.
there are impersonators everywhere , it is easy to send someone a letter stating anything they want and to pretend. get proof of who they are. call your FA agencies and ask them if they sent anyone out. tell them what you told us. how they came into your house. ect…
if you don’t get a straight answer then go to your police department and ask them about this. I believe it is a couple people scamming.
I found out about a scam in my city this way. 3 men said my landlord told them to fix stuff in my apartment. but I wasn’t told anything of it. they were persistent and wanted to come in. I said no. my landlord wasn’t home at the time so I could call and ask them so after the men left I called the police on suspicion of them. and indeed they were robbers. they used the excuse of repair to get in to the home.
ps I own my own home now. and never was I asked to see inside my home for my insurance
I have a list of over 40 homes on my desk right now that the insurance company wants me to re-inspect within the next 60 days. Often, you never know when an insurance company is inspecting or re-inspecting your property, so, it’s not unusual for your friends or parents to have no idea this has been done. Sometimes, it’s as simple as a picture of the front and back of the house.
ALL insurance companies perform re-inspections. It’s a policyholders obligation to keep the home in the condition it was originally insured under and/or make repairs that are needed. They are looking for increases or changes in the risk. If the risk changes, they don’t have to keep you on their books.
Funny story: When I was about 16 (in the 1980′s) I was laying out in the sun at the side of my house (back then, we didn’t know the sun could kill us and make us old before our time) and I ran in the house when I saw a creepy old guy walking around our front yard. I called my mom at work, who called the police. Well, it was our insurance agent doing a re-inspection.