Health insurance 101

We all understand the importance of health insurance; however, as the types of health insurance continue to increase it is becoming more and more difficult to select the type of coverage that is best for you and your family. To help you find out which type of policy might benefit you the most, let’s take a look at the most common types of policies. There is usually a lot of hype regarding HMOs so let’s look at that one first. A HMO is a health maintenance organization plan that works with a specified group of doctors and hospitals within the network. A primary healthcare physician is selected and you must obtain referrals for care that cannot be provided by that physician. The benefits of this type of plan are lower office visit costs and prescription drug co-pays. In addition, there will typically be either no or limited deductible costs for hospital stays. Depending on your coverage, there may also be no pre-existing condition cause limitations. It is also important to understand that your choice of doctors and hospitals will be limited with a HMO and you won’t be able to have out of network services covered. A PPO or Preferred Provider Organization works similar to a HMO; however, the major difference is that you are not required to select a primary care physician. In addition to the benefit of being free to choose your own physician without worrying about a referral you also gain the benefit of limited or no deductible costs for hospital stays as well as a possible larger selection of physicians that might be available with a HMO. Out of network services may also be covered; however, for a higher charge than in network services. A POS, or Point of Service, is also similar to a HMO in that you select a primary care physician. The difference is that you are free to choose out of network treatment if you’re willing to pay a higher out of pocket cost. Another option is what is known as a traditional coverage policy. This type of policy will have a higher monthly premium as well as deductibles. In addition, you will generally be required to pay for services out of your own pocket up front and then submit claim reimbursement forms. You may also wish to consider various types of disability plans, which cover a percentage of your income in the event that you experience an illness or accident that prevents you from working for a period of time. A short term disability plan will provide benefits from the first day of an accident or the eighth day of an illness up to 26 weeks. Generally, this type of plan will cover 66% of your weekly income. Long term disability will begin after short term coverage has expired and will provide coverage for a variable term, depending on the policy you select. Some policies are limited to providing coverage up to two years while others will cover you up to the age of 65.

How disability insurance differs from health insurance

When faced with the option of whether to purchase disability insurance, many consumers say no without fully understanding the consequences of their decision. The major reason why so few people opt for a smart amount of disability insurance is that disability insurance policies are not as widely held or as commonly discussed as life or health insurance policies. This leads to the current situation, where many people remain uneducated as to the possible benefits that disability insurance can offer them. Disability insurance works within a fairly simple framework. In the event you become disabled in some way and cannot do the job that you are trained for and accomplished in, your insurance will pay you some amount of tax-free replacement income. Disabilities come in many shapes and forms, and anything from vertigo to obesity to any other condition that interferes with your ability to work can potentially make it possible for you to file a disability insurance claim. To many people, disability is a word that brings to mind hospitals and medical costs. To be certain, you may require a substantial level of care in order to recover from the injury or illness that has made it impossible to work, and having good health insurance is an important part of making it through this kind of situation with your bank account still in the black. However, it is all too easy to forget about the fact that if you find yourself in this situation, medical costs are just one piece of the financial pie. If you cannot work because of a health condition, trying to keep your home, car, and other assets can be a serious struggle without the assistance that a disability insurance claim can offer. The exact amount of money you will receive as income replacement varies depending on the kind of policy that you have, but most people who have disability insurance are insured for roughly half of their normal gross income. This kind of helping hand during the difficult period of recovery after an injury or illness can mean the difference between being able to make ends meet or falling deeply into debt. Although few people enjoy planning for a worst case scenario, spending some time figuring out how you could financially weather becoming disabled may lead you to put some important plans into place. This kind of forethought can help make a difficult period much more bearable. Many people find that knowing they are prepared for the worst helps them enjoy more carefree times; so consider taking out disability insurance for your peace of mind as well as for its other benefits.

Get cheap car insurance for your teenager three tips to save money

Our children bring us great joy – first words, first steps, and first days of school, to name a few. Our children also bring us great worries and expenses, many of which are preventable. An event that brings us both worries and expenses is when our teenagers begin to drive. Statistics for auto-related injuries and fatalities keep us biting our nails until our teenagers get home, and the same statistics have us emptying our bank accounts every month for high car insurance costs. While we may not be able to drive our teenagers every where they need to go for the rest of their lives, there are several ways we can get cheap car insurance for our teenagers. 1.Have your teen driver take a driver education course in school, as well as encourage your teen to make good grades. Many car insurance companies offer discounts to those teen drivers who have taken driver education courses and make fairly high grades. 2.Add your teen driver to your own car insurance policy. There is no reason to purchase a completely separate car insurance policy for your teen driver when you can add him or her to your own car insurance policy. This alone will save you money, and you may even be able to get a multipolicy discount, too. Ask your own car insurance agent. 3.Drive responsibly. If your teenager sees you speeding, ignoring stop signs, and giving in to road rage, he or she will most likely develop the same driving behaviors. These behaviors lead to traffic citations and traffic accidents, both of which will lead to higher insurance prices, as well as injuries and fatalities. Sure, we can not stop our children from eventually driving, but we can find ways to get cheap car insurance for our driving teenagers. Some of these ways will also help our teen drivers become safe, responsible drivers. It is a win-win situation!

The true cost of underinsuring your home building and contents

If you’ve ever been tempted to decrease the sum insured for your home and contents in order to obtain a lower premium, think again. You may end up paying a far higher price than you imagined. Whenever we take out an insurance policy, we are entering into a contract with the insurer. Whether household, motor vehicle, personal accident or any other type of policy, it is a legally binding contract between the insurer and the insured. For householders, insurance of home building and contents is vital, not merely for peace of mind but to maintain the lifestyle they are accustomed to if the unthinkable should happen. There are several aspects to consider when purchasing household insurance. • The insured has a duty to disclose to the insurer anything that they know or could reasonably be expected to know is relevant to the insurer’s decision to accept the risk and, if so, on what terms. For obvious reasons, this is called the Duty of Disclosure. • Each party to the contract (i. e.: insured and insurer) has an obligation to each other in accordance with the clause of Utmost Good Faith. Utmost good faith means that in every dealing between insured and insurer, all parties are obliged to act in a totally scrupulous manner – that is: in a spirit of Utmost Good Faith. This clause overrides all other clauses in the policy and is the measure by which the majority of insurance disputes are settled. • The sum insured is a major consideration when taking out an insurance policy. It not only affects the cost of the premium but the insurer’s liability if a claim is made. For home building and contents insurance, the sum insured is, arguably, the most crucial aspect and the importance of “getting it right” cannot be overstated. According to The Insurance Council of Australia, approximately 43 per cent of home building and/or contents policyholders are significantly underinsured. Determining the Sum Insured For many people, determining exactly how much to insure their home building and contents for is a daunting task. It needn’t be, however, with a few guidelines to follow. Most insurance companies offer replacement cover for household policies – or “new for old” so it is important to insure the building and contents for their full replacement value, not their value after depreciation. • Home building insurance: The sum insured is based on the total cost involved in rebuilding the property to its original or a comparative state. In addition to the actual building expenses, this includes the costs of demolition and removal of debris as well as any associated engineering, architectural and council requirements. Consultation with a professional builder or property valuer is recommended. • Home Contents Insurance: The most effective way of determining the sum insured for contents insurance is to conduct a room-by-room inventory. Simply go into every room, listing the individual items in each. Next to each item, write down how much it would cost to buy that item brand new. Most insurers provide literature, online information and calculators to assist with determining sums insured. As previously stated, the sum insured determines the insurer’s level of liability in the event of a claim. If the property is underinsured, the result can turn an already traumatic event into something more devastating. Some insurance policies contain an “average clause” or “co-insurance clause.” What this means is that in the event of a claim, if a property is found to be significantly underinsured, the liability of the insurer will decrease commensurate with the level of underinsurance. Let’s look at a hypothetical example without the average clause: A home is gutted as a result of bushfire. There is nothing retrievable. The homeowner had insured the building for $200,000.00 and the contents for $10,000.00. When assessors inspected the ruins and collected all the information about what was lost, it was determined that the actual replacement value of the building was $400,000.00 and for the contents, $20,000.00. The insurer, however, was only obliged to pay a total amount of $210,000.00, less any excess, and did this. The insured could not rebuild for the amount of the claim payment and had to settle for a much more modest home, fewer household contents and a significantly reduced standard of living. Let’s look at another scenario with the average clause: During a wild storm a tree falls onto a house, damaging the roof and part of the living room. Again, the building was insured for $200,000.00 and the contents for $10,000.00. As in the previous example, loss assessors deemed the building’s actual value to be $400,000.00 and that of the contents, $20,000.00. The cost to repair the living room and roof is $30,000.00 and is well within the sum insured. However, the insurer was only obliged to pay an amount commensurate with the level of underinsurance. The underinsurance level of the building was 50 per cent and so the insurer paid 50 per cent of the repair cost – i. e.: $15,000.00. Contents to the value of $8000.00 were also destroyed during the incident, however, the insurance payment, under the average clause, will be just $4000.00. In total, the insurer paid $19,000.00, less any excess, when repairs to the building and replacement of contents actually cost $38,000.00. These two examples highlight the importance of placing the correct value on home building and contents insurance policies and how decreasing sums insured to save a few dollars in premium costs is really quite a gamble that could have disastrous effects. It far better to know that should an unfortunate incident occur, we can recover what is lost. After all, isn’t that what insurance is all about?

The two basic kinds of life insurance

Life insurance offers every consumer a way to take care of loved ones for years to come, even if he or she won’t be around to put food on the table. The basic idea of life insurance is that during an insured person’s lifetime, he or she makes monthly payments to an insurance company. When the insured person passes away, the beneficiaries of his or her policy, usually immediate family members, make a claim and the insurance company writes them a check for the value of the policy. In many cases, the amount the beneficiaries receive is higher than the amount of money the customer put into the policy. There are two basic kinds of life insurance. The first, called term life insurance, is bought for a discrete period of time at a fixed premium. It includes nothing above or beyond a basic death benefit. This is an increasingly popular form of life insurance. The second kind of policy, known as a whole life insurance policy, is a bit more complicated. A customer contributes to his or her whole life insurance policy on a monthly basis for the duration of his or her life. The premiums fluctuate over time, and tend to follow a gentle upward curve as the customer ages. In addition to including a basic death benefit, whole life insurance includes an investment component that is meant to help the customer grow his or her wealth. This makes whole life insurance substantially more expensive than term life insurance, but many people argue the increased fees are worth it because you get more for your money. How much life insurance you need has quite a bit to do with how much you can afford to spend on a life insurance premium each month; but it has equally as much to do with how much coverage your family’s lifestyle and situation requires you to have. It is a good idea to try to provide your beneficiaries with a policy that will offer them enough to cover your funeral expenses and to continue to meet their living expenses for as long as possible without facing financial hardships. There are multiple worksheets available online that can help you make an educated estimate as to how much coverage you should aim for, but it is crucial that you discuss your situation with an experienced and trustworthy professional before you make any firm decisions about what kind of life insurance policy to purchase.