It's truly amazing how Congress spends its time some days. Today, the staff of Rep. Pal Kanjorski (D-PA) and Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) are hard at work trying to get September recognized as National Life Insurance Awareness Month.
Two questions come to mind when reading an email forward to OhMyGov! anonymously and included below for your reading displeasure: 1) What insurance company or association is the true sponsor of the resolution, and 2) Why waste time making an awareness month? If legislators find a lack of life insurance a serious problem plaguing the country, they should work to resolve the problem, not put forth empty, do-nothing gestures like this one. Or better yet, let the insurance companies market their own products!
SUPPORT NATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE
AWARENESS MONTH!
Dear Colleague:
We
are writing today to invite you to cosponsor legislation we introduced,
H. Res. 1392, recognizing the importance of life insurance to the
economic security of all Americans. More specifically, our resolution
recognizes September 2008 as National Life Insurance Awareness Month.
Recent studies have found that when an unexpected death occurs,
insufficient life insurance coverage can cause significant economic
hardship for the loved ones left behind. The lack of sufficient
coverage drives members of three-fourths of surviving families to work
additional jobs or longer hours, borrow money, prematurely withdraw
money from savings and investment accounts, and in many cases, move to
less desirable housing. Nearly 68 million Americans say they lack the
life insurance coverage needed to ensure a secure financial future for
their loved ones.
With so many Americans in a financially vulnerable situation today,
the life insurance industry has created a month-long public awareness
campaign aimed at encouraging the public to take stock of their life
insurance needs. Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM) is an
industry-wide effort coordinated by the nonprofit Life and Health
Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE). Joining LIFE each year in
this educational initiative are 90 life insurance companies and 14
trade associations, including the National Association of Insurance and
Financial Advisors (NAIFA). All share the same objective: to end the
unnecessary financial suffering that so often occurs when a loved one
dies.
It is our hope that National Life Insurance Awareness Month will
make Americans more aware of their life insurance needs, and motivate
them to seek information and tools that will help them better
understand life insurance. For its part, the life insurance industry
will conduct a wide array of programs in and around the month of
September. A priority of this year's campaign will be to reach women,
whose role in financial decision making is growing. By designating
September as Life Insurance Awareness Month, we hope to encourage all
consumers, including women, to take the actions necessary to achieve
financial security for their loved ones.
We hope that you will join us and support our resolution to
designate September 2008 as Life Insurance Awareness Month. If you
would like to cosponsor the resolution or if you should have questions,
please contact Anton Helmke (with Rep. Kanjorski) at 5-6511 or Nicole
Austin (with Rep. Biggert) at 5-3515.
