Rating service Standard & Poor’s says the financial performance of personal insurers—which offer auto, health and similar coverage—continued a downward trend in 2001. Under earlier, more favorable market conditions, these insurers had amassed huge financial reserves and cut prices aggressively. However, since 1998, S&P says, managed care and other cost-reduction measures have lost their effectiveness, eating up personal insurers’ savings and making it harder for them to compete by reducing premiums. ( www.standardandpoors.com/Forum/RatingsCommentaries/Insurance/Articles/121801_pcoutlook.html )