| Health insurance on the upswing in UAE
Dubai: Health insurance in the UAE is finally witnessing a long-awaited growth spurt thanks to landmark legislative changes. It is now compulsory that non-Emiratis in the UAE have private health insurance, provided by their employers. Some experts in the industry expect this new legislation will increase Dubai premiums to Dh1.5 billion and Dh4 billion across the whole country. If this is achieved, it would represent a sweeping 40 per cent increase within the market. A spokesman for Axa-Gulf Insurance said, "Last year, we saw Dubai's health insurance sector increase 70 per cent because a lot of companies are preparing for this legislation to come into effect. Development is also driving insurance as when you take out a mortgage, you have to take out life insurance too." With the increasing traffic on the roads and rising accidents, it is not surprising that motor insurance makes up a large part of the total insurance premiums.
THE NEW MOM & POP
YEARS ago, Amy Miceli left her home state of Nebraska for the offbeat Northern California life and took a job at a flower shop in Humboldt County. Her boss offered no health insurance, but she did provide massages for employees once a month. And there were other benefits, she discovered, when the boss' son, Kevin, arrived for a visit. "I met him, and that was it," says Amy, 39. "We decided we're going to spend the rest of our lives together." Today, "16 years and three kids later," the Micelis spend not only their domestic lives together, but their working lives, as well. The couple own and operate Ciao for Now, a homey cafe and catering service in the East Village, where Kevin, a gregarious Staten Island native who's worked as a Fulton Market fishmonger and a machete-wielding harvester on wildflower farms, greets regulars by name from behind the counter, while Amy, a former preschool teacher, plans the menu and arranges orders from a nearby office.
Insurance company sued over contract
A Brentwood life insurance company is being sued by a California consulting firm that alleges it was never paid despite finding a buyer in 2005. Continental Life Insurance Co. of Brentwood owes Robert Tookey Associates Inc. $725,000, according to the breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in federal court. Tookey Associates maintains that it wasn't paid after Genworth Financial and Continental Life Insurance reached a deal in May 2005, according to the suit. .
|
