Archive for February, 2011

Supplemental Medical Insurance What Is Supplemental Health Insurance? February 25th, 2011

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Group health insurance rates have been increasing year after year and employers have been forced to make some drastic changes in their employee benefit programs. Many employers have changed their health insurance to high deductible plans. Dental Insurance has been discontinued by some companies as well as vision care. Disability programs have been trimmed down as well as group life insurance. This has created gaps in coverage and employees have had to look for alternatives for coverage that has been omitted or decreased in their benefit package. The answer to this problem has come in the form of supplemental health insurance. Supplemental health insurance companies will enroll employees with these products and the premiums are paid through payroll deduction.

Supplemental health Insurance Products

1. Disability Insurance Supplemental disability insurance is sold to employees to fill in gaps or replace lost benefits. Long term and short term disability insurance can be purchased with a variety of waiting periods and benefit periods.

2. Life Insurance Supplemental life insurance includes a variety of permanent plans as well as term life insurance. There are non-medical life policies available for larger groups when a certain amount of employees participate in the plan.

3. Dental Insurance This is one of the more popular supplemental health products because it usually the first discontinued by the employer.

4. Cancer Insurance The cancer policy is a single need policy with relatively low premiums.

5. Accident Insurance The accident policy covers accidental injury and death. There are accident disability riders on some accident policies.

6. Hospital Income The hospital income policy pays a daily dollar rate to the insured while hospitalized. These policies can pay as low as $10 per day and as high as $200 for each day hospitalized.

The need for supplemental insurance is stronger than ever before. These policies can also be purchased on an individual basis with most companies.

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Veteran Universal Life Insurance What Is It And What February 17th, 2011

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Veteran Universal Life Insurance What Is It And What Are The Advantages?

Veteran Universal Life Insurance is insurance that works for veterans to aid them in their post military endeavors. Universal life insurance means that you can vary or even suspend your premium payments depending on the financial pressures you face. Unlike typical life insurance, which pays out only on the demise of the policy holder, or at a nominated age, veteran universal life insurance is an investment scheme as well as life insurance.

This means that you build up a balance which you can borrow against or from to finance various purchases. The flexibility that is built in with payments is unparalleled in the insurance world, and can really help you and your family financially. If the policy is performing well, your beneficiaries may even receive more than the nominated death benefit.

You can also borrow on the balance of the insurance, for things like post retirement income. These withdrawals are deducted from the death benefit which is paid out to the beneficiaries. All these benefits do come at a cost however, a cost that you bear in the form of higher premiums than normal life insurance.

Where the advantage comes in is that you can effectively combine life insurance and investment together, not only that, but the policy can be tailored to suit the needs of a growing family. You can often choose which investments your policy goes towards. You can choose from stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Not only that, but you can often change which investments your premiums go towards if you so desire.

This means that you can choose the amount of risk you take on, all whilst reaping the rewards that come with investments. Veteran universal life insurance can be an excellent investment and means of safeguarding your family financially, but it does pay to investigate the ins and outs of the particular policy offered to you, and also to learn a little about investing before you take the plunge.

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Special Event and Travel Cancellation Risks February 14th, 2011

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The beginning of the new millennium will be remembered as one of the worst times for event organizers world-wide. A sequence of disastrous events caused hundreds of thousands tourists to cancel their holidays. Weddings, family events, children’s summer camps, and thousands of commercial events and conventions were cancelled. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, terror attacks caused not only direct vast damages but also collateral damage to millions of individuals and businesses.

The resulting financial damage is huge. Empty hotels, lost deposits, travel agencies with no income, airliners that fly almost empty, lost income to wholesalers, organizers and many individuals and the list goes on. The estimated losses are stated in billions of dollars (according to the publications of the numerous insurance companies).

This scenario is familiar to the insurance industry: those companies who write Travel Insurance that includes a Cancellation Fees Clause; those who write Special Events with Cancellation Fees Clauses; and those insurance companies who write Political Coverage (many of which are state-owned organizations).

Although this scenario is well-known, the actual loss sustained by the insurance industry is by far lower than the actual loss sustained by the tourism industry, the canceling individuals and many others. The reason is Awareness.

In the past century the world witnessed many events, which should have caused people to understand the need to protect their investments. Although rates in the past decades have been quite reasonable, most prospective customers did not purchase any kind of protection. The saying, “It won’t happen to me,” led millions of travelers all around the world to refrain from purchasing travel insurance (or to ensure that their cover includes a Cancellation Clause), which resulted in somewhat higher premium rates, as the spread of risk was smaller than the potential. Most of those organizing events private or commercial ignored history, and smiled when nothing happened and the event was over. For those who saw the risk materialize, no smile could help.

The insurance market can only offer the products. It cannot purchase them instead of the at-risk customers. However, it is important to elevate the level of awareness in the general public, to ensure better protection to the public.

The big numbers look a bit remote from the individual whose story is the wedding reception of his son or daughter, and whose relatively small deposits for the reception hall and the caterers are now lost. An additional average expense of $100 could now save this money, and ensure his ability to celebrate the occasion at a later date.

The small stories are those that should alert you, the reader personally or as an insurance broker or agent to ensure that next time, you will not be caught without protection.

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Shopping Around For Term Life Insurance February 8th, 2011

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Comparison shopping for term life insurance coverage is just a click away. However, before you go around clicking on websites, there some basic information you should be prepared to provide to get preliminary quotes:

Aside from the obvious underwriting information such as your name, age and gender, you will have to provide more detailed information such as:

Weight: If your height weight ratio is not within certain limits (in other words you are overweight) it may affect your rate.

Do you smoke? Smokers pay a higher rate than non smokers. Rates can be as much as three times higher. However if you have quit smoking for at least a year prior to submitting your application, you may save some money.

Health: Companies want to know how much you exercise and what type of lifestyle you live. Do you participate in risky activities like racing, scuba diving, sky diving, rock climbing?

Type of work: Is your job hazardous? For example, if you work in underground mining, high-rise construction or work with explosives, you’ll carry a higher rate.

Driving record If you’ve been convicted of reckless driving or DWI in the last 5 years will increase your rate.

Your familial history Have your parents or siblings had cancer or cardiovascular disease before the age of 60?

You may be tempted to tell the insurance company what they want to hear (even if it’s not exactly the truth), but don’t. Lying on your application may void your insurance coverage.

Once you’ve elicited quotes from several companies, compare your rates and make sure your insurance company will be around for the long haul. Check their AM Best rating. AM Best is a company that measures the financial stability/solvency of insurance companies. A very low quote from a financially unstable company won’t do you a lot of good if they’re not going to be around to pay the claim.

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Types Of Healthcare Plan February 3rd, 2011

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There is a lot said about health care these days. With costs rising and no end in sight there is a bigger need than ever for everyone to have the coverage of a health care plan. Health car plans are basically like insurance that helps you cover medical costs. Like any insurance they are sometimes difficult to understand.

There are many types of health care plans available. Each type breaks down into two basic groups: group or individual. Group plans are the least expensive option. They are provided through an employer. Individual plans are offered through private companies and can cost much more than group plans because there are no group discounts to the provider. Within each group there are a few different type of health care plans.

Fee for service plans are the most common and traditional forms of health care coverage. With a fee service the covered individual gets many choices of doctors and hospitals. The insurance provider pays for a portion of your costs while you pay a fee. You pay both a monthly fee for coverage and fees based on the care you receive. Many times there is a deductible that must be met before the insurance provider pays anything. Most plans also have a maximum amount you will pay out of pocket. Once this figure is reached your costs are covered 100%.

Health maintenance organizations or HMOs are another type of health care plan. HMOs charge a monthly fee. You are required to use certain doctors who are signed up with the HMO. You pay a fee for any costs you incur called a co-payment. The total costs of any medical care is negotiated between the doctor and the HMO so the costs are lower.

Preferred provider organizations or PPOs are a combination of the fee based plan and an HMO. There are limits on the doctors and hospitals you can choose, you make a co-payment for each service and you may have a deductible. You can, however, use a doctor that is not part of the PPO. You will still get coverage but you may end up paying a larger fee.

There are other forms of health care plans. The government offer two plans: Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a plan for people over age 65 or disabled. The coverage provided by Medicare often changes and can be confusing. There are different types of Medicaid. There is a free type and a fee based type. Medicaid is another government offered plan. It is based on income. With Medicaid all of your expenses are covered. New changes have made it so some care requires a very small fee. There are also variations in Medicaid. To find out information a person should contact their local government human services agency.

Health care plans can be very confusing. Talking with your provider will help ensure you completely understand how your plan works and what coverage is provided.

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