| Cato Daily Dispatch for April 30, 2007
(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.) Expensive Lesson for Maine as Health Plan Stalls White House Courts Sen. Kyl to Back Immigration Bill Congress Pecks Away at CEO Pay Expensive Lesson for Maine as Health Plan Stalls "When Maine became the first state in years to enact a law intended to provide universal health care, one of its goals was to cover the estimated 130,000 residents who had no insurance by 2009, starting with 31,000 of them by the end of 2005, the program's first year,"The New York Times reports. "So far, it has not come close to that goal. Only 18,800 people have signed up for the state's coverage and many of them already had insurance." "Everyone agrees that far too many Americans lack health insurance.
ABI welcomes moves to improve insurance regulation
Moves by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to change regulation on the selling of certain types of insurance have been welcomed.According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the decision to apply the same regulations to life, income protection and critical illness insurance as other forms of cover could improve access to insurance for millions of people.Director of general insurance and health for ABI Nick Starling said: "This positive move by the FSA will benefit many customers, especially older people."He added that the need to take out life insurance cover is becoming increasingly important as people live longer and rising house prices cause mortgage payments to be spread over a greater period of time.Last month, the ABI announced details of a taskforce aimed at helping older tourists gain better access to travel insurance.The insurance body suggested that despite travel insurance cover being "widely available", older people often struggle getting the right policy to suit their needs.© Adfero Ltd .
DSM Features Lower Operating Profit Caused by Negative Impact of ...
30/04/07 DSM announced that its first quarter sales rose 4% to 2.14 billion euro. EBIT, however, fell 6% to 192 million euro. In a statement, DSM attributes lower operating profit in part to much lower average currency exchange rates; the phasing-out of some contracts related to the acquisition of Roche Vitamins had a negative effect of less than EUR 10 million. DSM Nutritional Products saw its sales volumes in animal and human nutrition/health grow compared to Q1 2006. DSM Nutritional Products operating profit declined as a result of lower margins and the strongly negative impact of the US dollar, the company said. The operating profit was also negatively affected by reduced output at the Dalry site (Vitamin C, UK), which has continued into the second quarter due to a fire in a transformer, added DSM.
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