Note 1 - Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements
Nature of Operations [Text Block]	1. Nature of Business American Independence Corp. is a Delaware corporation (NASDAQ: AMIC). We are a holding company principally engaged in the insurance and reinsurance business through: a) our wholly owned insurance company, Independence American Insurance Company ("Independence American"); b) our full service direct writer of medical stop-loss insurance for self-insured employer groups, IHC Risk Solutions, LLC (“Risk Solutions”); c) our 23% investment in Majestic Underwriters LLC ("Majestic"); d) our 51% ownership in HealthInsurance.org, LLC (“HIO”), an insurance and marketing agency; and e) our 89.6% ownership in Independent Producers of America, LLC (“IPA”), a national career agent marketing organization. After the end of the first quarter of 2011, the Company consolidated its wholly owned subsidiaries, IHC Risk Solutions – RAS (formerly known as Risk Assessment Strategies, Inc. ("RAS")), IHC Risk Solutions – IIG (“IIG”), and IHC Risk Solutions, Inc. (“RSI”), formerly known as Excess Claims Administrators, Inc into IHC Risk Solutions – Marlton (formerly known as Marlton Risk Group LLC ("Marlton")) and changed the name of the merged entity to IHC Risk Solutions, LLC (“Risk Solutions”). As used in this report, unless otherwise required by the context, AMIC and its subsidiaries are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Company" or "AMIC", or are implicit in the terms "we", "us" and "our". Since November 2002, AMIC has been affiliated with Independence Holding Company ("IHC"), an insurance holding company, which owned 78.5% of AMIC's stock as of December 31, 2011. The senior management of IHC provides direction to the Company through a service agreement between the Company and IHC. IHC has also entered into long-term reinsurance treaties through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York (“Standard Security Life”) and Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. (“Madison National Life”), whereby the Company assumes reinsurance premiums from the following lines of business: medical stop-loss, New York statutory disability (“DBL”), short-term medical and group major medical.

Note 1 - Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements

1. Nature of Business

American Independence Corp. is a Delaware corporation (NASDAQ: AMIC). We are a holding company principally engaged in the insurance and reinsurance business through: a) our wholly owned insurance company, Independence American Insurance Company ("Independence American"); b) our full service direct writer of medical stop-loss insurance for self-insured employer groups, IHC Risk Solutions, LLC (“Risk Solutions”); c) our 23% investment in Majestic Underwriters LLC ("Majestic"); d) our 51% ownership in HealthInsurance.org, LLC (“HIO”), an insurance and marketing agency; and e) our 89.6% ownership in Independent Producers of America, LLC (“IPA”), a national career agent marketing organization. After the end of the first quarter of 2011, the Company consolidated its wholly owned subsidiaries, IHC Risk Solutions – RAS (formerly known as Risk Assessment Strategies, Inc. ("RAS")), IHC Risk Solutions – IIG (“IIG”), and IHC Risk Solutions, Inc. (“RSI”), formerly known as Excess Claims Administrators, Inc into IHC Risk Solutions – Marlton (formerly known as Marlton Risk Group LLC ("Marlton")) and changed the name of the merged entity to IHC Risk Solutions, LLC (“Risk Solutions”).

As used in this report, unless otherwise required by the context, AMIC and its subsidiaries are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Company" or "AMIC", or are implicit in the terms "we", "us" and "our".

Since November 2002, AMIC has been affiliated with Independence Holding Company ("IHC"), an insurance holding company, which owned 78.5% of AMIC's stock as of December 31, 2011. The senior management of IHC provides direction to the Company through a service agreement between the Company and IHC. IHC has also entered into long-term reinsurance treaties through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York (“Standard Security Life”) and Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. (“Madison National Life”), whereby the Company assumes reinsurance premiums from the following lines of business: medical stop-loss, New York statutory disability (“DBL”), short-term medical and group major medical.