Is Group Insurance Enough?
Posted on | September 3, 2010 | Comments Off
When you are shopping for a health insurance quote one of the things you might consider is a group health insurance policy. But you should know that there are many drawbacks to group health insurance policies that can adversely affect you and your family.
The Difference between Individual and Group Policies
Before you get a health insurance quote you should understand the difference between group and individual health insurance policies. Group health insurance policies are those issued to employer, fraternal or trade groups. They have advantageous rates because there is a distribution of policies to both sick and healthy people. In addition, group insurance policies are not individually underwritten so your individual health problems are not taken into consideration when you buy into a group health insurance plan.
Individual insurance policies are issued to individuals and families. The rates are based on the health history and potential health future of the individuals the policy is issued to. The policy issuance is not dependent on being a member of any particular group. You can be denied coverage if you have certain illnesses unless you live in a state with guaranteed issue policies.
The Drawbacks to Group Health Insurance Policies
You can only keep a group health insurance policy for as long as you are a member of the group. Once you leave the group you may have access to COBRA, which allows you to carry the group insurance coverage up to 36 months after you leave the group. If you get a group policy while you are healthy and then you become chronically ill while you have the policy, you may no longer be able to get your own individual policy.
Additionally, while you may be able to choose between plans in your group’s benefit profile, there is no guarantee that the group will offer the type of policy or coverage options that you and your family really need. You may be subject to a restrictive set of doctors and treatment centers, may not be able to see doctors that you are used to seeing and may not have certain care options that you are used to getting.
In short, if group health is the only kind of policy you can get due to poor health or financial issues, then it is a good choice. Otherwise, an individual policy may be a better bet.
Equity Indexed Life Insurance
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | Comments Off
Whole (or permanent) life insurance policies are more than meet the eye. Sure they offer a death benefit that caries through the rest of your life as long as you pay your premium and keep the policy in force, but more than that they offer an additional benefit of premiums accruing into something called cash values. These cash values can grow in a few different ways:
1. They can grow at a fixed rate like in a traditional whole life policy.
2. They can grow at a variable rate by choosing a sub account to invest them in. Sub accounts in a variable policy may have fixed investments like money markets, they may have stocks, bonds or mutual funds.
3. They can grow at a variable rate tracking the returns of a specific index-like the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The third kind of growth is seen in an equity indexed life insurance policy. When you have an equity indexed life insurance policy, your cash values grow as they would in a variable policy but the sub account you choose is created to mimic the performance of a particular index. If that index goes up, then your cash value will likely go up. But if the index goes down, then so will your cash value.
One of the most important things to remember about an equity indexed life insurance policy is that there is no guarantee that you will earn money. Many illustrations for life insurance will show the great amounts of cash that can be accumulated in an equity indexed life insurance policy, but there is always the chance that the index you choose for your sub account will go down in value and will reduce the cash values you accumulate. The great things about equity indexed life insurance policies, however, is that they often have a floor, or minimum amount that you are guaranteed to gain. While this threshold is often significantly less than the fixed rate of return in a traditional life insurance policy, it at least offers some sort of gain while markets are down. On the other hand, there is also often a ceiling or maximum gain you can experience which may be less than the actual increases experienced by the index that you choose.
Choosing the Right Auto Insurance Limits
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | Comments Off
Insurance policies do not supply endless amounts of coverage. In fact, there is a limit to how much all of your insurance policies will pay for an insurable event-including your health insurance, home insurance and auto insurance. These caps are called limits and they protect your insurance company from committing an endless supply of dollars toward the reimbursement of your insurance incidents.
Imagine how difficult it would be to develop auto insurance rates if you had no idea how much you might possibly have to spend on a particular accident. It would be almost impossible. From medical expenses to emotional damages, from property damage to auto damage-there is no end to the amount of money you could be responsible for without limits to your benefit set.
When you get your auto insurance quotes and rates, you are asked to decide what kind of limit you want on your policy. The lower the limit you choose the less the insurance company knows it will have to spend per insurable interest-and that means the lower the rates you are quoted. But if you choose a limit that is too low in your eagerness to get cheap auto insurance rates then you run the risk of hurting yourself. Why? Well what do you think happens if it costs more to fix your car after an accident than the limit in your policy provides? That’s right-you have to pay it out of pocket. Any expense that exceeds your limit must be paid by you and if you don’t have the funds available then you run the risk of having your car in the shop and unrepaired much longer than you intended.
For guidance on limit setting, check with your mechanic to get an idea of repair and replacement costs for your car. Also, check with your insurance company to see if they have any data that will give you the average amounts for claims of various natures in your state. Lastly, make sure the limit you choose looks like one that will cover the bulk of any accident or insurable event and doesn’t seem like it will leave you paying out-of-pocket beyond your deductible.
How can I loose weight fast and healty?
Posted on | August 28, 2010 | 3 Comments
I want to loose some weight real fast but I also want to be healty and be able to go on with my life without taking up too much time. Got any tips that work and are fast yet healthy?
How many pounds do i need to shead to be healty?
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 4 Comments
height: 5′2
weight: 130
BMI: 23.8
Body Fat %: 23.3
age: 13
gender: girl
Everyone tells me my weight is too high for my range, not my fault, the more i exercise the more i seem to be gaining. its weird.
i play a lot of soccer so its not like im out of shape or anything. how on earth can i lose sounds pounds to be healty?
What is a healty breakfast for someone who wants to lose weight?
Posted on | August 26, 2010 | 7 Comments
What is a healty breakfast for someone who wants to lose weight without the hassle of working out.
Who pays for medicaid programs and medical and healty familes ?
Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 3 Comments
Need information
how does a medical card look like anyone have a picture sample?
and a healty families?
whats a good healty energy booster, taht i can take daily? my life is very hectic and i need all the energy i?
Posted on | August 13, 2010 | 3 Comments
i work full time and i go to school full time.. i eat healty and excercise daily. but my energy levels are low throughtout the week. i get the rigth amount of sleep but i know that i have a very crazy schedule. i have tried GREEN TEA and coffee, but those never seem to work. what can i use taht is safe and healty.
Homeowners insurance policies have their limits.
Posted on | July 17, 2010 | Comments Off
Sometimes life just is not fair. You think you have done everything absolutely right and then circumstances show you everything is turning out wrong. So it is that you get to see the end of hope played out in court cases. You know it should never come to this but, when it comes to people’s lives, there are few real choices if you feel you want justice. You do your best to be reasonable. You offer to settle. But the other side just fights on. It all comes down to willpower. Whoever is strongest will be left standing.
We need to go back to a time before the recession. This was a time of great optimism. People were getting married and planning their families around the idea of buying a new home. The first home would be the perfect nest for their first child. Property values would continue to rise and, as the family grew, they would keep trading up and cashing in their positive housing equities. This one family found a new estate just starting to build. They signed a contract in which the builder said it would deliver a residence in “a perfect condition”. There was also a set of minimum warranties imposed through the New Home Warranty Act of 1986 in Louisiana. As a third string to their bow, there was a cheap home insurance policy. During a tropical storm, the roof leaked and the carpets were soaked. What the couple did not realize is that the water triggered the growth of a toxic mold behind the leaking walls. Their newborn baby’s health was permanently damaged by this mold and, during the resulting stresses and strains of medical treatment and disputes with the builders and the insurance company, their marriage collapsed.
In court, the three members of the family now claim for their losses. The parents claim for the loss of value in the property and the failed marriage. Their daughter claims for personal injuries. Midway through, the builder’s insurance company agrees to pay out on the loss in value of the house caused by the defective workmanship. In the end, the parent’s claim for failed marriage is dismissed because it was caused by the poor construction of their home and that claim was settled. The first moral to this story is that you can only make two claims when they are independent of each other. If one claims flows naturally from another, settling one means losing the other. But the daughter can claim because she was not a party to any of the contracts. Her remedy is in negligence for personal injuries. The builder and insurers are therefore looking at third party liability and that falls within the scope of the home insurance policy.
Unintentionally, the court has done the right thing. It has protected the interests of a baby whose life was wrecked by defective workmanship. It has approved the payment to the parents for the loss in value when the property became uninhabitable. But dismissed their claim because the marriage collapsed. These things happen and, unless in exceptional circumstances, they are not covered by homeowners insurance policies. The only problem is that, in arriving at this result, the parents are liable to pay the builder’s and the insurers’ costs. In effect, therefore, they get nothing out of all the stress of events and their legal consequences. Supposedly, they will be wiser for this experience.
Auto insurance and your age
Posted on | July 16, 2010 | Comments Off
There are many people out there who still don’t know how insurance providers calculate their rates for insuring their autos. It comes to the point when people ask their insurance agents why their neighbors have lower rates while driving the same car and getting insurance form the same provider? Unfortunately, it’s quite common for insurance industry workers to deal with cases like this, because lack of necessary knowledge makes the customers very suspicious and unfriendly.
To go straight with the question, there are different factors that will impact the rates you will be charged for insuring your auto. One of the most important factors is the age of the policyholder. They say that age doesn’t matter. Well, probably for many other things it really doesn’t matter, however when it comes to insuring your vehicle, age plays a very important role in the overall equation. Below you will find some explanations on why the policyholder’s age plays such an important role and in what way does it influence the final rates.
Fresh drivers behind the wheel
Insurance company statistics tell that younger drivers tend to take risk far more often when behind the wheel than those who have are older and have more experience in driving. The direct consequence of such tendencies is that teen drivers tend to get involved in serious accidents far more often than drivers from other age groups. That is why insurance companies charge young inexperienced drivers with higher rates. However, if the young driver maintains a good record and doesn’t file any claims for a specific period of time, the rates can be reduced significantly.
Gender
This may sound la bit sexist, however there’s pure statistical fact that women tend to be more attentive and careful while being behind the wheel than men. Women file far less claims when having auto insurance, that’s why they usually have cheap auto insurance as compared to their male peers. However, male drivers still have the possibility to prove that they are better drivers by maintaining a good clean driver’s record and not getting involved in any traffic accidents. This way you can opt for premium discounts that will diminish the difference in rates according to gender.
Safety measures
Auto insurance is closely related to safety and security of the vehicle. The safer is the car, the less likely its owner to file an insurance claim, which eventually leads to lower premiums as compared to riskier vehicles. Things like anti-theft devices, alarms, airbags, additional seat belts, anti-lock brakes and other features that are used for increasing the safety and security of your vehicle will substantially reduce your rates regardless of your age. However, before installing such gadgets into your vehicle, make sure that your insurance company will provide you with such a discount and make sure that the devices you are trying to install comply with the company’s requirements. Still, having a secure and safe vehicle matters a lot, even if you don’t get a special discount for that.