A new state law designed to protect consumers from the risks of “reverse mortgages” mandates greater disclosure of fees charged by lenders but still permits them to penalize borrowers who pay off their loans early.

The allowance for prepayment penalties was described by supporters of the legislation as a compromise measure crafted in the wake of opposition by a national industry lobby group which a year ago scuttled efforts to approve similar legislation.

“Nobody wanted the prepayment penalties,” the state Department of Business Regulation’s director, A. Michael Marques, said yesterday, “[but] if the bill didn’t pass this year, the only one who benefits are the people who are trying to take advantage of the elderly.”

Reverse mortgages allow cash-strapped homeowners who are 62 or older and have paid off their houses to borrow against the equity. The loans do not come due until the borrower sells the house or dies.

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Most of the 191 laws approved by Iowa lawmakers and signed by Gov. Chet Culver this year will take effect Tuesday.

While small portions of some budget bills were vetoed by the governor, only two were vetoed in their entirety.

They included a law that would have given Iowa’s public employees the widest-reaching union rights in the nation. The other law would have allowed minors to emancipate themselves from parents.

Culver also vetoed a nearly $12,600 raise for himself as well as raises for other top elected officials set by lawmakers, saying that “it is wrong to say to the people of Iowa that you have to tighten your belts, but elected officials don’t.”

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Families with autistic children and their advocates praise the concept of a new state commission on autism but say it falls short of tackling real issues.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder signed a bill into law Monday in Springfield creating the Missouri Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders and an Office of Autism Services in the Department of Mental Health.

But advocates say it’s window dressing for the larger issue Republican leaders have declined to address: requiring health insurance companies to cover behavioral, speech and physical therapies for autism.

Most insurance companies classify autism as a pre-existing condition, according to parents of children who have the neurological disorder and the Burrell Autism Center in Springfield.

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Police say 13 people staged minor car accidents to get thousands of dollars’ worth of unnecessary medical treatment from four Bronx clinics.

The 13 people were arrested Tuesday on insurance fraud and grand larceny charges stemming from at least five wrecks. Two suspects are still at large.

Police say the ring targeted car insurance companies, taking advantage of a state law that entitles people involved in a crash to $50,000 worth of medical benefits.

Police say a ringleader would set up the accidents and pay about $500 to those involved in a crash. They would refuse treatment at the accident scene, then go to clinics for acupuncture, physical therapy and other medical care. Insurance companies footed the bill.

Police are investigating whether the clinics were in on the scam.

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Tinkering with auto insurance can be dangerous to drivers’ wallets, whether it’s done by the Legislature or, as it was on Tuesday, by the state Supreme Court. For decades, politicians reassured drivers that changes would make coverage more available and less expensive. They never did.

But after three decades of such nonsense, legislators in 2003 enacted meaningful reforms and, most important, adopted a hands-off approach. The result has been a competitive market that has seen the entrance or return of major companies to the state.

Now a Supreme Court decision threatens to muck it up again. To prevent that from happening, lawmakers ought to step in — soon — and fix a problem that four justices say exists.

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THE 350 PEOPLE who packed into the main conference room of the John F. Kennedy Library yesterday were in a good mood. They were about to hear a report that implementation of the Massachusetts health reform law had, in less than two years, cut the number of uninsured people of working age nearly in half. Then they got the bad news from House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, one of the progenitors of the law: “The third year . . . will be the most difficult.”

The law has resulted in health insurance coverage for 355,000 people, but it is costing more than expected, and it was mainly funded by two uncertain revenue sources: money that would otherwise go to hospitals to treat the uninsured, and a special waiver of federal Medicaid rules. The waiver, which freed up money to expand insurance coverage, expires in less than a month. A renewal seems likely, but it’s unclear how much money the state will receive.

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As gas prices continue to skyrocket, your car insurance rates could also increase beginning this fall.

In mid-May, Governor Sonny Perdue signed Senate Bill 276, a portion of which allows insurers to set their own rates without “prior approval” from the state insurance commissioner.

Opponents of the law say motorists’ rates could increase up to 20 percent.

“I think that’s a very realistic figure,” Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said. “What the dollar effect will be and how much the rates will go up, there’s really no way to tell. It could potentially become a very serious problem.”

Julie Pulliam, the public affairs director for the American Insurance Association’s Southeast division, said that in other states where similar legislation has passed, rates decreased.

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Consumer insurance law is in urgent need of reform, according to consumer groups, lawyers, brokers and most insurance firms responding to a consultation by the English and Scottish Law Commissions. The responses were published this week.

The Law Commissions’ provisional proposals for change received widespread support, though the Commissions, which exist to recommend law reform when it is needed, stressed that they have not yet formulated their final recommendations on consumer insurance law reform.

There were more than 100 responses to the consultation, which covered pre-contract disclosure of information, warranties and the role of the broker in both consumer and business insurance.

The paper proposed that consumers should no longer be under a duty to volunteer information to insurers when applying for insurance. They would only be required to answer honestly and with reasonable care any questions asked.

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Gov. Charlie Crist has signed new insurance legislation that extends a rate freeze for more than a million customers of state-backed Citizens Insurance.

However, Crist vetoed a part of the measure Wednesday that would have provided $250 million in incentives for private insurers willing to get into Florida’s dicey homeowners’ market.

The bill fixes the insurance measure passed in a January 2007 special session, but does little to take the risk off Florida citizens if a major hurricane strikes a heavily populated area.

The bill gives the state more authority over private companies, but residents with car insurance or homeowner policies would be assessed if a catastrophic storm hit Florida and the state was unable to meet its financial obligations.

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When Jenny and John Crowley learned they were having a baby, they did the responsible thing: they bought life insurance.

Barely in their 30s, they passed the insurance company’s physicals, applied for a $500,000 policy for Jenny and a $1 million policy for John, and thought they wouldn’t have to worry about it for decades.

The Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts was so taken with the Crowleys, the company used a photograph of their newborn daughter swaddled in a yellow blanket on the cover of one of its brochures.

Just one year later, Jenny was dead of an aggressive form of breast cancer, and when John tried to start his life anew as a single father, SBLI rejected his claim for it to pay his wife’s policy. The company claimed that even though doctors said Jenny was healthy, she must have been sick before they agreed to insure her.

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