Cigna reported $120 million in after-tax income in the same period for its group health and life insurance divison.

But she said that insurers and H.M.O.'s were "not yet ready" to guarantee coverage for people moving from group health plans into the individual insurance market.

This is one reason why premiums for some individual and group health insurance policies have jumped by 100 percent or more in the last year.

In the past, some employers' group health plans limited, or even denied, coverage if a new employee had such a condition before enrolling in the plan.

And there are some crown jewels in this company - its pension business, its group health and others are potentially very attractive.

After the state began requiring group health plans to include outpatient treatment for alcoholism in 1983, those programs soared 115 percent.

They get group health and pension plans that are subsidized by taxpayers as well as employers, plus numerous workplace amenities, sometimes even including child care.

It is intended to assist employers that sponsor group health plans with COBRA.

The division contributed a respectable $400 million to operating income last year, but most of that was from group health and foreign property-casualty operations.

Today it offers life, group health, auto, and other property/casualty lines.