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On Monday, the insurer announced that it would sell foreign life insurance business Alico to MetLife (MET, Fortune 500) for $15.5 billion. Last week, AIG said it reached an agreement to sell Asian life insurance giant AIA for $35.5 billion.

That’s $51 billion that AIG said will eventually be used to pay down its debt to the government. The two sales mark the most significant progress that AIG has made to-date in its efforts to repay its bailout, which is worth up to $182 billion.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — More than 1 million people could lose their jobless benefits and health insurance subsidy in March if Congress doesn’t act fast.

When it returns from the President’s Day recess on Monday, the Senate will have one week to extend the deadlines to apply for federal unemployment benefits and the COBRA health insurance subsidy. Currently, the jobless have until Feb. 28 to sign up.

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(Money Magazine) — Last month was open-enrollment season, and my wife and I got an unpleasant surprise. For 2010 we’re looking at an annual health-insurance premium that’s $1,600 higher than it is now, plus higher deductibles. Instead of flat co-pays, we’ll pay co-insurance, a share of the total costs. And this is with a plan provided by a Fortune 500 company that still spends big bucks on relatively generous benefits.

You may well be in the same boat. According to human-resources consultant Hewitt Associates, the average large-company employee will pay $4,023 in premiums and out-of-pocket costs next year — 10% more than in 2009 and more than three times the level in 2001.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Shares of AIG plunged nearly 15% Monday after an analyst hacked the insurance giant’ price target 40% in a research note on worries about the company’s loss reserves.

AIG (AIG, Fortune 500)’s stock fell 14.71% to $28.40, after trading at session low of $28.04. The shares finished down almost 50% off their 52 week-high of $55.90.

In a research note, Bernstein Research analyst Todd Bault told investors he cut AIG’s price target to $12 from $20 and said the insurer’s “loss reserves are significantly deficient again, much sooner than we would have forecast two years ago.”

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Some 5,000 patients suddenly found themselves without an ob/gyn last November when Dr. Tara Wah closed her practice in Tallahassee, Fla.

Wah, 55, informed her patients in a letter that she could “no longer afford to make ends meet.”

After 24 years, “I’m working longer hours than ever,” she wrote. “Insurance payments for patient care have stayed virtually the same for the last 15 years, while the cost of doing business, including health insurance, staff salaries and supplies have risen.”

The rising cost of malpractice insurance, particularly for her specialty, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

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WASHINGTON – The poverty rate among older Americans could be nearly twice as high as the traditional 10 percent level, according to a revision of a half-century-old formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations in the cost of living.

The National Academy of Science’s formula, which is gaining credibility with public officials including some in the Obama administration, would put the poverty rate for Americans 65 and over at 18.6 percent, or 6.8 million people, compared with 9.7 percent, or 3.6 million people, under the existing measure. The original government formula, created in 1955, doesn’t take account of rising costs of medical care and other factors.

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(Fortune Small Business) — Congressional efforts to revamp the country’s healthcare system have sparked a fierce debate within the small business community, pitting owners who believe that reform would curb rising healthcare costs against neighbors who fear higher taxes. All sides of the debate were on display this summer as legislators met with their constituents around the country.

“It’s going to cost me more money,” fretted Iowa entrepreneur Joe Butler at an August roundtable that Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, held in Polk City, Iowa.

Butler owns an engineering consulting firm and hopes to bring his contract workers on staff within the next few months. “Until it all gets settled and I know exactly what’s going to happen,” he said, “I’m just kind of taking it slow.”

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There’s no question about it: When you go to a doctor nowadays, you’re more likely to be diagnosed with something, and sent home with a prescription, than you were a generation ago. A much tougher question to answer is whether or not these new diagnoses, and new tests and treatments that come along with them, are actually worth all the money they cost you and/or your insurance company.

As Darshak Sanghavi points out in an interesting piece in Slate, there are certainly plenty of people who think that they aren’t.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The definition of “rich” may be going up should lawmakers choose to impose extra taxes on the wealthy to pay for health reform.

Three committees writing the lead House bill have called for an additional tax to be imposed on income above $280,000 for singles and $350,000 for married couples. The so-called surtax would run as high as 5.4% on income over $1 million.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., this week began pushing for the surtax to apply only to singles making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million.

President Obama also gave a nod to raising the threshold

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — AIG is expected to report its sixth quarterly loss after the market closes Thursday, but the loss could be much smaller than previous quarters and analysts say that could be an encouraging sign.

The insurer is also expected to say that it will not require additional taxpayer funds, according to a report on Bloomberg.com. It would be the first time since the original Sept. 16 rescue that AIG has not announced additional bailout funds when releasing quarterly results.

The company has borrowed roughly $130 billion of $182 billion in loans that the government has made available.

Full Story At money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Once a titan in the insurance world, AIG is a shadow of its former self, and experts say the company is likely doomed for failure.

That’s partly because AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) is slowly getting rid of its strong, moneymaking businesses as it attempts to pay back the roughly $130 billion it has borrowed on its $182 billion government bailout.

The company had to give up more than it had anticipated to pay back taxpayers because of the horrid credit environment, and analysts believe AIG may be giving up too much for it to survive on its own. Not that there was much choice.

Full Story At  msnbc.com

LONDON – Shipping your oil across the Gulf of Aden? Don’t forget your piracy insurance.

As a ragtag group of gunmen faced off for days against the U.S. Navy near the coast of Somalia before a cargo ship captain was freed Sunday, industry-watchers say shipping companies already smarting from the global downturn are forced to pony up extra cash for steeper premiums to cover multimillion dollar ransoms or take the long way around African continent in the hope of dodging hijackers.