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HEALTHMARKETS JOINS LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION IN FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

HealthMarkets sponsors the 2007 LIVESTRONG Challenge in Austin

North Richland Hills, Texas — October 10, 2007 — HealthMarkets (http://www.healthmarkets.com)announced today that it is joining the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s fight against cancer by contributing $50,000 and becoming a proud sponsor of the 2007 LIVESTRONG® Challenge in Austin, Texas on Oct. 13-14. The LIVESTRONG Challenge (http://livestrongchallenge.org) allows people to do something bold in the face of cancer by raising funds to support the foundation’s mission to inspire and empower people affected by cancer.

HealthMarkets is a leading provider of affordable health and life insurance to the self-employed, individuals and small businesses through its subsidiaries, The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company.

“Developing a relationship with the Lance Armstrong Foundation will allow us to better support our members who have been diagnosed with cancer and help them cope with this struggle,” said William Gedwed, president and CEO of HealthMarkets. “Together, we are helping people with cancer live life on their own terms.”

The LIVESTRONG Challenge is an annual series of fundraising events in which participants can walk, run or ride to support efforts to assist those diagnosed with cancer. Austin will be the third LIVESTRONG Challenge city this year. In August, LIVESTRONG Philadelphia raised more than $2 million. A Portland, Ore., LIVESTRONG event took place Sept. 29-30, garnering donations of more than $1.7 million.

“We are delighted to welcome HealthMarkets as a sponsor of the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Austin,” said Doug Ulman, president of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. “The company’s support of the Foundation’s efforts, as well as their plans to provide LIVESTRONG Survivorship Notebooks to their members living with cancer, reflect a true commitment to their members and to the cause of cancer survivorship.”

Funds raised through the LIVESTRONG Challenge enable the Foundation to continue helping people across the nation with the physical, emotional and practical challenges of cancer. Since its inception in 1997, the LAF has raised more than $204 million to support its mission, including providing funds to cancer survivorship programs, research, and patient care and advocacy organizations throughout the United States.

This year, the Austin LIVESTRONG Challenge also kicks off a Texas bus tour by LAF founder and chairman Armstrong in support of Proposition 15, which if approved by voters in the Nov. 6 statewide election, will establish the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The institute would distribute $300 million in grants each year – starting in 2010 – to fund cancer prevention and research programs throughout the state, for a total of $3 billion, making it the single largest state-level investment in cancer research and prevention.

To register or to learn more about the 2007 LIVESTRONG Challenge, call 888.4.CHALLENGE (888.424.2553) or visit (http://livestrongchallenge.org).

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About the Lance Armstrong Foundation

The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) unites people to fight cancer, believing that unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. We provide the practical information and tools people battling cancer need to live life on their own terms. We take aim at the gap between what is known and what is done to prevent death and suffering due to cancer. We engage the public at large to pursue an agenda focused on preventing cancer, ensuring access to screening and care, improving the quality of life for people affected by cancer, and investing in needed research. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, the LAF is located in Austin, Texas. UNITE at (http://LIVESTRONG.org).

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About HealthMarkets

HealthMarkets, headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas, is a provider of health and life insurance products to individuals, families, the self-employed and small businesses. HealthMarkets offers products and services through its licensed insurance subsidiaries The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company (https://www.megainsurance.com/) Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee (https://www.midwestlife.com/) and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company (https://www.chesapeakeins.com/). The Company’s offerings include individual and self-employed health insurance, small employer group health insurance, life insurance and reinsurance. Through its Consumer Guided Health Insurance plans, HealthMarkets seeks to provide affordable and accessible health coverage to individuals and small businesses. The Company is owned by a group of private equity investors, including affiliates of The Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, members of management and the Company’s independent, licensed agents through the Company’s agent stock accumulation plans. For more information, visit http://www.healthmarkets.com.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995:

Some of the matters discussed in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements are intended to be identified in this document by the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "objective," "plan," "possible," "potential" and similar expressions. Actual results may vary materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions; the continued ability of the Company to compete for customers and insureds in an industry where many of its competitors may have greater market share and/or greater financial resources; the Company’s ability to accurately estimate medical claims and control costs; changes in government regulation that could increase the costs of compliance or cause the Company to discontinue marketing its products in certain states; the Company’s failure to comply with new or existing government regulations that could subject it to significant fines and penalties and/or result in restrictions on its operations; changes in the relationship between the Company and the membership associations that make available to their members the health insurance and other insurance products issued by the Company’s insurance subsidiaries; changes in the laws and regulations governing so-called “association group” insurance (particularly changes that would subject the issuance of policies to prior premium rate approval and/or require the issuance of policies on a “guaranteed issue” basis); significant liabilities and costs associated with litigation; failure of the Company’s information systems to provide timely and accurate information; negative publicity regarding the Company’s business practices and/or regarding the health insurance industry in general; the Company’s inability to enter into or maintain satisfactory relationships with networks of hospitals, physicians, dentists, pharmacies and other health care providers; failure of the Company’s regulated insurance company subsidiaries to maintain their current ratings by A.M. Best Company, Fitch and/or Standard & Poor’s; and the other risk factors set forth in the reports filed by the Company from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Media Contacts:

Donna Ledbetter
HealthMarkets Corporate Communications
(817) 255-5405
Donna.Ledbetter@healthmarkets.com
www.HealthMarkets.com

Doug Holt
For HealthMarkets
(312) 596-3487
Doug.Holt@bm.com