Latest Massachusetts Headlines
All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mass. Board to Review Health Care Plan Payment Proposals
Aug 18 2006 // Low-income residents would pay between $10 and $100 a month for health care under draft regulations set to be reviewed by the board overseeing the Massachusett’s sweeping new insurance law. Under the draft...
Mass. Largest Auto Insurer Dropped from High Risk Board
Aug 16 2006 // Massachusett’s largest, locally-based auto insurer, which has frequently locked horns with the Romney administration, has been dropped from the board that oversees how high-risk drivers are apportioned among...
Mass. Regulator Rules Auto Rates Must Be Set By State Again
Aug 14 2006 // As expected, Massachusetts officials have confirmed that the insurance commissioner, not competition, will set auto insurance rates for 2007. In a four-page decision handed down Aug. 10, Insurance Commissioner Julianne...
Mass. FAIR Plan Rate Increases Approved to Start Oct. 1
Aug 14 2006 //
Mass. Auto Insurers Seek 3.7% Rate Cut for 2007
Aug 11 2006 // For the second year in a row, Massachusetts auto insurers have filed for rate reduction. For 2007, the industry’s rating bureau is recommending rates be cut an average 3.7 percent. If approved, that would mean about...
Mass. Becomes 28th State to Join Interstate Compact
Aug 10 2006 // Massachusetts has become the 28th state to join a program designed to modernize state regulation of life insurance, annuity, disability and long term care products. Gov. Mitt Romney signed legislation into law today that...
Liability contracts could complicate Big Dig recovery efforts
Aug 7 2006 // The state’s ability to recover damages from the Big Dig’s overseer for the ceiling collapse that killed a passing motorist and closed nearby tunnels may be limited by project liability agreements signed by...
Vesta liquidation by Texas felt from Florida to Mass.
Aug 7 2006 // Some 70,000 Florida, 150,000 Texas, 5,200 Massachusetts and 11,000 New Jersey policyholders are among those affected by the liquidation of Vesta Fire Insurance Co. and its subsidiaries. Texas regulators placed the company...
Maryland Seeks Answers for Uninsured After Wal-Mart Law Nixed
Aug 6 2006 // With Maryland’s groundbreaking Wal-Mart health care bill declared invalid by a federal judge, state officials are re-examining their options for providing medical care to many of the almost 800,000 people who have no...
Mass. Fair Plan Refiles for 12.4% Home Rate Hike; 25% on Cape
Aug 2 2006 // The Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association (the Fair Plan) has submitted a rate recommendation revised downward slightly from what the state disapproved on June 30. For all homeowners forms, the residual...
GoodWorks Agency Lands Mass. Non-Profit Shaker Village Through HRH
Aug 1 2006 // GoodWorks Insurance, LLC announced that the first insurance client under its recently established insurance brokerage agreement with Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, Connecticut (HRH) was written on behalf of the Hancock Shaker...
Mass. Universal Health Plan Gets Green Light from Feds
Jul 31 2006 // The federal government has given its approval to a first-in-the-nation program in Massachusetts that will require everyone to carry health insurance. The state’s universal health insurance program will use a...
Mass. Teen Driving Bill Advances
Jul 30 2006 // Teens longing to get out on the open road would have to hang up their cell phones and log more hours in behind-the-wheel training before they would be able to get their drivers’ licenses, under a bill passed by the...
Commerce Net Earnings Down in 2d Quarter But Up for First Half
Jul 28 2006 // The Commerce Group, Inc. reported 2006 second quarter results showing net earnings were $58.6 million, or $0.86 per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $62.6 million or $0.92 per diluted share for 2005. Included in...
Mass. Fair Plan plays catch-up on reinsurance, rates
Jul 24 2006 // The biggest increases are in store for coastal Cape Cod, where the Fair Plan has become the leading property insurer rather than the insurer of last resort as intended. News Currents Last summer when the Massachusetts Fair...
Insurers Blocked in Deposing Abuse Victims in Western Mass.
Jul 24 2006 // A Superior Court judge in Springfield, Mass. has for now blocked more than 100 people who say they were molested by priests from having to tell lawyers about the abuse they say they endured. Judge John Agostini ruled...
Mass. Fair Plan to Refile Next Week
Jul 21 2006 // The Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association (the Fair Plan) will submit a request for new rates by the end of next week, just under the deadline. Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler...
Mass. Escapes Worst of Beryl
Jul 21 2006 // The National Hurricane Center discontinued its tropical storm warning for southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod early this morning as Tropical Storm Beryl weakened and moved north toward Nova Scotia. The storm passed...
Contractor Fined in Mass. Building Collapse
Jul 21 2006 // Federal workplace safety regulators have fined a demolition contractor more than $164,000 for alleged safety violations, including numerous violations at a building collapse in Holyoke, Mass. that killed one worker and...
Plymouth Rock Adds Tow Service for Mass. Auto Insureds
Jul 21 2006 // Boston-based auto insurer Plymouth Rock has introuduced a new service for customers whose vehicles are unable to be driven after an accident. Known as “Tow And Go”, the service provides accident-related towing...
