Insurance news: antitrust exemption vote, hurricane worries in FL, and jail time in a major staged-accident scam

Bloomberg is reporting on the House committee vote to end the antitrust exemption for insurers.

In a related story, Portfolio.com has a backgrounder on the exemption, saying that the idea is picking up steam.

The Associated Press reports that large employers who self-fund their workers' health coverage "are lobbying hard to keep the status quo and be shielded from costly new regulations and requirements in the final health measure currently being negotiated behind closed doors by Obama's top aides and leading Democrats." How many workers are in such plans? Some 70 million, according to the AP.

Out of Florida comes an interesting TransWorldNews story about a major homeowner's carrier not renewing more than 60,000 Florida policies as part of a "bold risk-management strategy." Among the apparent concerns of local insurers: potentially huge losses from major hurricanes.

And a bit farther afield, Reuters reports from London on a British man who staged nearly 100 car crashes in a scam totalling nearly $3 million in claims. Nearby office workers grew suspicious about the many crashes taking place in a nearby roundabout. The man was sentenced to more than 4 years in prison.