Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Cavalcade of Risk #103 - Risk Management with the Stars Edition

Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #103. As the name indicates, this Carnival is about risk - e.g. insurance, health, financial, and other types. Thank you to all bloggers who made a submission to this Cavalcade. I enjoyed reading every one of the articles. While every post was a great submission, I only included those I judged primarily related to risk management.

To create a theme, I decided to make use of the previous Cavalcades of Risk hosted by My Wealth Builder: #19, #38, #64, #76, and #94. For this Cavalcade of Risk, I gave each returning blogger a score from one to five based on participation in previous editions hosted by My Wealth Builder. Thus, bloggers whose submissions were included in all five previous editions received five stars.

Five Stars

Only two blogs received a top score of five stars and both have submissions for this edition:

Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents Mysterious Insurance Tricks posted at InsureBlog, saying, "InsureBlog has the story of a risky business use of life insurance."

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Extra Insurance Coverage Through Credit Cards: Use Those Perks posted at The Digerati Life, saying, "Where you can get some extra insurance." In this case, the extra insurance doesn't cost extra :-)

Four Stars

For the two blogs with a four star designation, there was only one submission:

Jay Norris presents Colorado Ski Resorts and Health Care Reform at Colorado Health Insider with this excerpt, " This is just a guess, but I assume that many seasonal ski resort workers would still pick the ski resort job if they were given the option of having a seasonal job elsewhere that provided health insurance, versus having a seasonal job at a ski resort with no health insurance benefits. They are there specifically because they want to work on a ski mountain – they get a free ski pass, and can hit the slopes any time they aren’t working, which is what a lot of them do. "

Three Stars

Of the three blogs with three stars, there were two submissions:

Nancy Germond presents Disability in America Is Increasing posted at AllBusiness.com - Risk Management for the 21st Century. She offers some options that may help bring those on disability back to work.

Super Saver presents Stuff Happens at My Wealth Builder saying, " A couple recent incidents have made me realize how unpredictable life can be."

Two Stars

Among the six blogs with a two star score, there were three submissions:

FMF presents Free Money Finance: Five Things to Know about Permanent Life Insurance posted at Free Money Finance, saying, "Some important facts about permanent insurance." There is a difference between RICH and really, really RICH.

Wenchypoo presents Health Insurers Hedge Bets with Fast Food Stocks posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, asking, "Isn't this what that Goldman-Sachs guy did with the sub-prime derivatives, or Bernie Madoff did against his own supposed "shareholders"? Why don't WE ALL just go to the dark side for fun and profit? It's been said that a doctor a day keeps the apples way, and now I guess it's true. Health insurers seem to be "cornering the apple market" as it were. Thank God I can grow my own and not be part of this crap!" I guess good risk management may not necessarily be congruent with good public relations perceptions :-)

Jason Shafrin presents The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research on Health Care Spending at Healthcare Economist asking, "Will more comparative effectiveness research reduce spending? Perhaps not."

One Star

Out of 43 blogs with a one star score, there was only one submssion:

Jaan Sidorov presents Disease Management: A $2.3 Billion Industry That Speaks to the Wisdom of Markets at Disease Managment Care Blog reviewing an article on “disease management” and its role in reducing costs in health insurance. He says, "It appears the DM industry is alive and well and may be a good example of the debate between those who favor central scientific planning of insurance benefits and the messy way markets sort things out."

Future Stars

There were five newcomers to a Cavalcade of Risk hosted by My Wealth Builder:

Keith Morris presents Why Healthy and Young Need Health Insurance posted at LifeTuner, saying, "I have a friend in her early 30s who recently was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She did not have health insurance because she worked as a freelancer and could not afford it. In addition to an operation to remove the tumor, her future is filled with rehab and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills."

Joel Ohman presents What car insurance companies do not consider credit scores? posted at Car Insurance Comparison, saying, "When car insurance companies attempt to underwrite auto insurance policies without using credit scores, is it sustainable?"

Mike Piper presents Using Annuities to Protect Inheritance posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, "Can a single premium immediate annuity actually increase the amount you leave behind to your heirs?"

Consumer Boomer presents Questions to Ask Before You Buy Insurance posted at Consumer Boomer.

LivingInVol presents Let's play Russian Roulette! posted at Living in volatility, saying, "Russian roulette is a game only a maniac would play. But is there a price at which you would dare to play? Let's explore the idea..." After reading this, tonight's $252 million Powerball jackpot seems small :-)

That concludes this 103rd edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. The 104th edition will be hosted at Healthcare Economist. Please submit your blog article to the next edition of using the carnival submission form.

This is not financial or risk management advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2010 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

2 comments:

H G Stern said...

Super job, MWB!

And I esp like the participation-based rankings - great idea!

Thanks for hosting!!

Nancy Germond said...

I liked the ratings, too, except mine only got three of four :) I'll try harder next time!