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Conseco Phasing Out Health Insurance Policies Sixteen States, Including Oklahoma, Affected INDIANAPOLIS, 2:59 p.m. CDT August 8, 2001 -- Conseco Inc. plans to phase out about half of its major medical health insurance policies, which could affect as many as 80,000 clients in 16 states, including Oklahoma.

The company told The Indianapolis Star that the policies to be cut from Conseco Medical Insurance Co. have been unprofitable.

Company spokesman Mark Lubbers said Conseco has tried to peddle the Rockford, Ill.-based arm of the company but found no takers for CMIC as a unit.

Conseco still hopes to sell parts of CMIC in states where health insurance remains profitable, Lubbers said.

"Health insurance has become a much more stale business during the last six years. In order to make money, you have to do very high volume," he said. "In states that have kept up with medical inflation, we will continue to do business. It's in states where we don't have that kind of scale or face regulatory issues that we are closing our business."

The decision is not the first major cuts made since Chief Executive Gary Wendt began a cost-cutting campaign last year to bail Conseco out of $8.2 billion in debt.

The elimination of policies offered through its major brands -- Connecticut National Life Insurance, Washington National Insurance and Pioneer Life Insurance -- carries a $60 million pretax charge and $39 million after taxes, Lubbers said.

The first notification letters -- including 4,400 sent to Indiana residents -- were sent July 27, giving customers six to 12 months notice before policies begin to expire Feb. 1, 2002.

By Aug. 1, 2002, all of the affected policies will expire.

The states affected by the policy cuts are: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.

In addition, Lubbers said about half of CMIC's 621 employees in Illinois and Wisconsin will have their jobs eliminated.

CMIC has 448 workers at its Rockford headquarters; 72 at its underwriting and policy office in Whitewater, Wis.; 57 at its marketing office in Schaumburg, Ill.; and 44 in Chicago.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001