If you don’t have health insurance, because of a layoff or other change in work, a divorce or a preexisting medical conditioned, don’t give up. Efforts to expand health insurance coverage reportedly are becoming quite common. Proposals have been introduced in many states, and Illinois has approved, a plan to offer low-cost health insurance to children that began July 1, 2006.
Even under current law, its possible to find coverage for you and your family, usually at a reasonable cost. Options to consider if you need health coverage but are too young (under age 65) to qualify for Medicare…
COBRA/STATE PLANS
For people who recently have lost group coverage, a smart choice may be to purchase a policy under COBRA, the temporary health benefits provision of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986. According to the rules, you can continue to be covered under your employers insurance for up to 18 months at up to 102% of the former policy’s expenses, depending on your circumstances. This amount includes both the employee and the employers share, if your employer splits the expense with workers, as many do. (The extra 2% is for administrative costs.) COBRA usually is available only from companies that have at least 20 employees. (Your spouse and dependent children can be covered for up to 36 months.)
Paying the full tab can be a shock to someone who is accustomed to having an employer pick up most of the cost of insurance. However, while COBRA policies often are more expensive than those purchased privately on an individual basis, they usually have more comprehensive benefits.
What to do: Apply for COBRA through your previous employer. To get more information on COBRA, contact the US Department of Labors Employee Benefits Security Administration, 866-444-3272.
Helpful: Many states require smaller companies and others not bound by COBRA to offer some type of continuation of coverage to employees. For a database on health-care coverage options by state or call 703-276-0220.
INDIVIDUAL POLICIES
Individual insurance is regulated on a state-by-state basis. You must buy a policy sold in your home state. Rules for individual health insurance outside a group plan vary among states.
*Medical underwriting. In the vast majority of states, insurance costs are based on the applicants health status. He/she will be assigned a rate class by the company and put into a pool with similar individuals who will be charged the same premium. Also, many states allow health insurers to issue elimination riders to people who have preexisting medical conditions. These riders allow you the option of picking a policy that covers all conditions or a less expensive policy that excludes certain preexisting conditions.
*Pricing based on guaranteed issue/community rating. “Guaranteed issue” laws state that a health insurance company cannot reject you for coverage based on any preexisting medical condition. Community rating laws say that everyone in the same geographic area pays the same price for coverage, regardless of age or health. It may be easier for people with medical problems to obtain coverage in states with such laws, but there is a price involved.
These laws make individual coverage in the state more expensive, on average, because insurers do not have the medical information to appropriately spread risk among the applicants. In these states, healthy young people are much less likely to purchase coverage. This makes coverage more expensive for those who do buy it.
Examples: A healthy, 25-year-old man living in the New Jersey suburb of Haddonfield could pay $467.16 per month for a comprehensive individual policy with a $1,000 deductible. If he lived in Pennsylvania in the suburb of Wayne (20 miles away), he could buy the same policy for only $58.86 a month. A healthy, 60-year-old man in Wayne would pay $289.82 for that policy. A man of the same age living in Haddonfield would be charged the same $467.16 a month that the 25-year-old pays for the plan. These vast price differences are due to the community rating and guaranteed issue laws affecting individual insurance in New Jersey.
*Using rates obtained from eHealthlnsurance. All rates are subject to change.
What to do: Purchase private coverage from an independent health insurance agent licensed in your state.
HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
For a tax-efficient way to pay for individual health insurance, consider a health savings account (HSA). You must choose a policy with a high insurance deductible – at least $ 1,000 for individuals ($2,000 for families) up to a maximum of $2,700 for individuals ($5,450 for families) as of 2006. Every year, you make your tax-deductible contribution up to the amount of the deductible. You withdraw money from the account to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses.
For people who create HSAs but don’t need to tap them, the accounts can function like individual retirement accounts. The money can be invested to grow tax-deferred. After age 65, you can withdraw the money for any reason, but you will have to pay income tax if it is used for non qualified expenses.
COVERAGE FOR SERIOUS MEDICAL PROBLEMS
In most states, you can be turned down for individual coverage if you have a serious medical condition (e.g., HIV or cancer). Fortunately, most states have developed some way to provide hard-to-insure people with access to private individual health insurance coverage.
Thirty-three states provide high-risk pools. You can apply for high-risk pool coverage through an insurance agent or directly to the state. Coverage costs more than private coverage because all the people in the pool have serious medical problems, but the rates are capped, usually between 125% and 200% of the average individual market premium. For instance, in a state where a healthy person pays $100 a month, someone of the same age in the risk pool might pay $150.
Twelve states use other means of providing hard-to-insure people with access to individual coverage (for instance, requiring coverage through a designated health insurance company of last resort). Five states – Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii and Nevada – offer no individual coverage options for those who are hard to insure.
Whole life insurance may be a good choice if you have extended future goals. Whole life generally offers level premiums and the accumulation of cash values. The guaranteed cash values may also provide you with money in the future to help with temporary needs.
Do you need life insurance coverage?
You may consider purchasing life insurance:
* If you become a parent.
* If your family does not have a lot of money saved.
* If you are a stay-at-home parent.
* To cover the mortgage or other large shared financial commitments.
The different types of whole life insurance policies you may choose from.
To help you choose the best whole life insurance, you may first need to know more about the different types of whole life policies you can choose from.
Level Premium Whole Life Insurance:
This whole life policy features premium payments that are:
* level.
* are required to be paid as long as the insured is alive.
In the early years the premium is more than enough to pay the current cost of insurance security. The surplus makes up the insufficiency of premiums in later years when the annual premium is not sufficient to pay the yearly cost of insurance. These extra premiums are held and invested by the insurer. This creates the cash value of the policy.
Indeterminate Premium Whole Life Insurance:
This type of whole life policy is similar to an ordinary whole life policy save for it providing adjustable premiums. The company will charge a premium based on its current estimate of expenditure, investment income and mortality. The company will adjust the premium in view of these estimates changing in later years. It will never be adjusted above the maximum guaranteed premium declared in the policy contract.
Single Premium Whole Life Insurance:
Single premium whole life is a limited payment whole life insurance policy with one quite large premium payment payable at issue. The policy is fully paid up and no further premiums are necessary. Owing to the single premium payment the policy will have an immediate cash and loan value. This could be considerable depending on the sum of the single premium payment.
Limited Payment Whole Life Insurance:
This whole life policy gives you life insurance protection but involves only a limited number of premium payments. The premium payments will be higher than with an ordinary whole life policy since the premiums are paid over a shorter timespan. Limited payment plans can provide for the payment of premiums for a set number of years such as 20 payment whole life insurance.
Participating Whole Life Insurance:
This whole life policy pays dividends corresponding to:
* the positive experience of the company.
* results from surplus investment earnings.
* favorable mortality.
The dividends may be:
* paid in cash.
* used to decrease your premium expenses.
* left to build up at a particular rate of interest.
* used to buy paid-up supplementary insurance.
Non-Participating Whole Life Insurance:
A non-participating whole life policy has a level premium and a fixed insured amount during your entire life. However, this policy does not pay out any dividends.
You may contact your insurance broker or a life insurance company for more information about the best whole life insurance for your personal life insurance needs.
International travel medical insurance offers temporary health insurance for US citizens and foreign nationals when traveling anywhere outside their home country, abroad or overseas. Some domestic health insurance plans will cover you away from home but many won’t cover you and especially for any major medical expenses. Medical evacuation and repatriation are important benefits of international travel health insurance coverage making it a good choice for travelers.
In the travel insurance market there are two types of insurance products: travel medical insurance (or travel health insurance) which is obviously more heavily weighted to cover you for health-related problems that might occur while traveling outside of your home country and has a smaller amount of trip cancellation coverage included and the other type is trip cancellation insurance. Your greatest financial risk while traveling outside of your home country is if you have any health or medical problems.
Make sure that the coverage of health and accident insurance you choose covers any hospitalization, doctor bills and medications. In case any emergency medical treatment is needed, have all the expenses listed in itemized bills to make a claim in the US when you get home. Most international insurance companies cost much less than American companies, because their overhead is lower. Also the cost of health care is much lower in other countries than it is in the United States.
Evaluating someone who has had an accident or become ill in an isolated place can be very expensive. There are a few group insurance plans that are relatively cheap, and if you’re with a tour group or a visiting business delegation you could save money by getting group travel medical insurance. Keep handy the addresses and phone numbers of the persons who are to be notified in the event of an emergency or you need to make a claim.
An international traveler, expatriate or business traveler needs to be careful about any medical costs that they may encounter. US insurance, like Medicare, should be checked for the extent of its coverage and the possibility that you may need to buy additional coverage. There are international travel medical insurance plans available with a wide range of costs and benefits, and with various different conditions available through many different insurance companies.
Whatever compromise in the plan you choose to make between the risks and costs, shop around not only for cheap international travel medical insurance plans, but also for a reputable company that gives you total information, has what is called – open view functioning and doesn’t evade any of your questions. You can exclude any medical condition that is pre-existing which can lower your insurance costs, but you must be sure that the condition will not become worse on your trip and cost you a lot more.
Medical costs all around the world are skyrocketing, due mostly to the advances in specialized equipment and the cost of advanced medicines and training specialists in a number of fields. When you are deciding on international travel medical insurance make sure to pay attention to the smallest of details.
Yes you can easily get low cost or cheap international travel medical insurance quotes; start by getting several quotes online and compare features and costs of course. Getting low cost or cheap health insurance is certainly a good possibility without giving up any quality care you might need when you travel away from home. If you already have travel insurance, check to make sure that it covers major medical expenses, since many policies don’t have this coverage.
Also make sure that evacuation coverage is included in your plan, because that can be a major expense. Getting you out of a difficult location such as a cruise ship, top of a mountain or African safari would be costly. International travel medical insurance is a must for all travelers going out of their home country, overseas or abroad.