July 11, 2014
Health Science Post
India Post 33
www.indiapost.com
5 things to know on children's life insurance ATLANTA: Policies for children represent a small fraction of the life insurance market, but they made the news last week after a court hearing for a Georgia man accused of killing his young son by leaving him in a hot car. Testimony and court documents revealed that Justin Ross Harris and his wife had two life insurance policies for 22month-old Cooper Harris, one for $2,000 and one for $25,000. Prosecutors have portrayed the 33-yearold Harris as an unhappy husband who was exchanging nude photos with several women. Defense attorneys say the death was a tragic accident. Harris remains in jail charged with murder and child cruelty. The insurance policies were mentioned among numerous details from the evidence against Harris and weren't singled out by
prosecutors in their arguments. Still, the case has drawn attention to policies that families sometimes purchase for children. Here are five things to know about the children's life insurance market. HOW DO THE POLICIES FOR CHILDREN WORK? The policies are typically purchased by parents, grandparents or anyone directly related to the child, according to Steve Weisbart, chief economist for the InsurNew on the Carnival Freedom is Camp Ocean, a children's ance Information Institute. area for kids ages 2 to 11. Premiums paid into the policies vary according to the terms. Generally, the higher the death benefit - what's paid out to beneficiaries if the insured person dies - the greater the premium. Insurers require that anyone buying the policy have an ``insurable interest'' in the person covered, meaning the buyer wants the person covered to actually live. INSURERS ATTACH CONDITIONS TO THE DEATH BENEFIT. Insurers require WASHINGTON: Scientists, including Patients should not undergo therapies documentation of how a covered individual those of Indian-origin, have identified a if there's no likelihood of benefit," said Chen, new biomarker that predicts whether glio- the study's principal investigator. blastoma - the most common form of priTo pinpoint which patients were most mary brain cancer - will respond to chemo- likely respond to temozolomide, the retherapy. searchers studied microRNAs that control "Every patient diagnosed with glioblas- the expression of a protein called methyltoma is treated with a chemotherapy called guanine-methyl-transferase or MGMT. temozolomide. About 15 per cent of these This protein dampens the cancer-killing patients derive long-lasting benefit," said effect of temozolomide. Tumors with high Clark C Chen, vice-chairman of Academic levels of MGMT are associated with a poor response to temozolomide therapy. The scientists systematically tested every microRNA in the human genome to identify those that suppressed MGMT expression, with the expectation that high-levels of these microRNAs in the tumor would predict improved therapeutic response to temozolomide. "We showed that a signature of the MGMT-regulating microRNAs predicted temozolomide response in a cohort of glioblastoma patients," Chen said. "Validation of these results should lead to diagnostic tools to enable us to determine which patients will benefit most from temozolomide therapy," said Chen. In the study, the scientists also discovered that injection of the MGMTregulating microRNAs into glioblastoma cells increased tumor sensitivClark C. Chen, M.D., Ph.D., neurosurgeon, UC San ity to temozolomide treatment. Diego Health System Credit: UC San Diego School "These findings establish the founof Medicine dation for microRNAs-based therapies to increase the efficacy of Affairs, Division of Neurosurgery at the temozolomide in glioblastoma patients," University of California, San Diego School said lead author, Valya Ramakrishnan, of Medicine. postdoctoral researcher, UC San Diego "We need to identify which patients School of Medicine. benefit from temozolomide and which anThe other researchers involved in the other type of treatment. All therapies in- study include Deepa Kushwaha, Dipanjan volve risk and the possibility of side-ef- Chowdhury and Kimberly Ng of Danafects. Farber Cancer Institute. -PTI
Biomarker predicts effectiveness of brain cancer treatment
dies, and the policies will not pay out if the beneficiary is convicted of murdering the person covered. POLICIES CAN BE SAVINGS DEVICES. Life insurance policies typically have a cash value while the covered person is still living, with the amount based on premiums that have been paid over time. Often, a parent or grandparent buys a policy with the intention of giving the child the option later in life of using the policy as a cash source. POLICIES FOR CHILDREN ARE TYPICALLY FOR LOWER BENEFITS. Policies for adults, whether purchased individually or through employers, typically offer much higher death benefits than those purchased for children. Weisbart said a $5,000 to $10,000 policy is common, amounts that would help parents pay for a funeral. CHILD POLICIES ARE A SMALL SLICE OF THE OVERALL LIFE INSURANCE MARKET. Weisbart estimates that life insurance policies on children represent less than 1 percent of the overall life insurance market, both in terms of the number of polices and the dollar value. Etti Baranoff, associate professor of insurance at Virginia Commonwealth University, added, ``The nature of life insurance is to provide for economic security if the parent dies, not the other way around.'' -AP