Monday, April 30, 2007

Tips On Finding The Right Health Insurance For Your Family

Choosing the right health insurance provider is a big decision, but it's an even bigger decision when you must choose for the whole family. When you have kids, there are many more things you have to think about. Knowing what to look for will help you choose the right provider.

Group Health Insurance

Usually the cheapest way to get health insurance for your whole family is through your employer. Most employee-sponsored group health insurance plans cover dependents, such as a spouse and kids. If you have a family, or plan to start a family in the near future, you should be particularly concerned about this. Your company may offer a special family plan.

Group insurance plans tend to be less flexible, and for that reason people with families usually choose to take out an individual plan. "Individual" in this case doesn't mean a single person; it means that the plan is not connected to a group or company.

The Pros And Cons Of Individual Health Insurance Plans

Buying your own insurance policy is more expensive. You might be paying as much as $400 a month for it. But, it will give you a lot more flexibility. You will be able to choose which doctors you'd like to take your family to.

If you're getting family insurance, you should try to find a plan that allows you to visit any emergency room. You never know when little emergencies will happen, and you want to be fully covered no matter where you take your injured or sick kids.

Preventative Medicine

When you're looking for coverage for your family, you should pay close attention to preventative medicine. Your kids probably aren't going to have heart trouble or diabetes, but they'll need screenings and shots. With kids, it's important to watch for early signs of developing health problems.

Many health insurance plans do not cover preventative medicine. Your physician may not be able to do the tests necessary in his or her office, and will need to refer you to a specialist. When you are checking out health insurance plans for your family, you need to keep this in mind.

Paying For Prescriptions

With a whole family to provide for, you can expect to pay more for the prescription drugs everyone will need. Drug prices are continually rising. Because of this, many companies have stopped covering drugs. Some still do, but require you to pay a high percentage of the cost.

There is no way to avoid this, but you can at least shop around for the best deal on drugs when you are looking at insurance policies. For your family, this is a part of the plan you should consider carefully.

Bring Up Baby

If you have a baby, you can expect to be practically living at the doctors. For this reason, you should choose a health insurance policy with higher premiums. Higher premiums mean that you pay more each month, but less each time you go to the doctor. This way, you can reduce the cost of your doctor visits.

You can find the right coverage you need if you can anticipate your needs beforehand. Hopefully, these tips will help you find the right health insurance plan for your family.

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Saturday, April 28, 2007

One Out Of Five At Risk In Texas For Developing Diabetes

Diabetes is becoming the greatest public health crisis of the next quarter century. In a new report from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), one in five individuals in Dallas, Houston, throughout Texas and in the rest of the country is either at high risk for developing Type-2 diabetes or are unaware that they already have diabetes.

To address this burgeoning health crisis, the ADA is issuing an urgent call-to-action for Americans to find out their risk for Type 2 diabetes. The numbers are staggering, with more than six million Americans who have diabetes, but don't even know it. While another 54 million Americans have pre-diabetes, placing them at increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes sometime during their lives.

The World Health Organization divides the disease into three main forms: Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy.

Type 1 is usually a result of autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin. Type 2 is characterized by tissue-wide insulin resistance and varies widely; it sometimes progresses to loss of beta cell function. Gestational diabetes is similar to Type 2 diabetes, being that it involves insulin resistance; the hormones of pregnancy cause insulin resistance in those women genetically predisposed to developing this condition.

Researchers say Types 1 and 2 are incurable chronic conditions, but both types have been treated with insulin since it became medically available in 1921. Physicians also say the diseases can be managed with a combination of dietary treatments, pills, and, more often than not, insulin supplementation. Gestational diabetes however usually cures itself upon delivery.

Among the primary risk factors for Type 2 diabetes are being overweight, sedentary, over the age of 45 and having a family history of diabetes. African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are at an increased risk, as are women who have had babies weighing more than nine pounds at birth.

The ADA encourages people who are overweight, physically inactive and over the age of 45 years to take the American Diabetes Risk Test, which asks seven simple questions about weight, age, lifestyle and family history -- all potential risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. The agency says people scoring ten points or more are at a high risk for diabetes and are encouraged to schedule an appointment to see their doctor.

Early detection and treatment can help prevent Type 2 diabetes or serious complications associated with diabetes, such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, amputation, and even death. By taking the American Diabetes Risk Test, people can be one step closer to having the information they need to lead a healthier life.

Medical professionals say individuals with Type 2 diabetes can live for years without realizing that they have the disease. However, individuals with diabetes may exhibit noticeable symptoms, which include frequent urination, blurred vision and excessive thirst. Yet, most individuals diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes do not show these warning signs when they develop the disease.

According to researchers, Type 2 diabetes only becomes evident when people develop one or more of its serious complications, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye damage, and nerve damage, which can lead to amputation.

How you treat your body when you're young will certainly affect your health when you get older. Eventually, it will also affect your wallet.

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Growing Popularity and Importance of Critical Illness Cover

Critical unwellness screen is one of the most popular and fastest growth insurance merchandises available in the UK. This is shown by the fact that there was a 31% addition in the number of critical unwellness insurance policies sold between 2001 and 2003.

What is Critical Illness Cover

Critical unwellness insurance pays out a tax free lump sum of money to policy holders if they are diagnosed with a serious unwellness which is covered by their critical unwellness plan. Examples of serious unwellnesses covered by critical unwellness insurance policies include; strokes, bosom attacks and cancer.

Policyholders can utilize this money in any manner that they wish such as as for medical care or to cover life costs that they cannot otherwise ran into owing to loss of income.

Who Should See Critical Illness Cover

Most people make not like to contemplate the fact that they might go seriously sick and presume that it will not go on to them. However, statistics demonstrate how widespread serious unwellness is and that we should confront the fact that we might endure from it at some point.

For example, 100,000 people in the United Kingdom have got shots each twelvemonth and almost 8,000 of them are under 55 old age old. Of these, a 3rd dice within twelve calendar months and another third, over pass the remainder of their lives disabled.

Furthermore, in the UK, 300,000 people have got bosom attacks each twelvemonth and 80% of people aged between 45 and 65 survive. Whilst over 30,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually many of whom last for a number of old age but travel on to need medical treatment.

Given that so many people who are diagnosed with serious unwellnesses go on to last but need in progress medical treatment and often cannot go on working, critical unwellness insurance can supply a very welcome financial safety net.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Understanding Title Insurance

Title to a property is a record detailing the proprietors of the property and rights associated with the ownership. Title typically demoes a patterned advance of ownership from the first proprietor to the current one. Title is a fairly simple concept, but when it travels incorrect it is a nightmare. That is where statute statute statute title insurance come ups in.

Title Insurance

Title insurance warrants that the title on a property is marketable when you purchase the home, condo, land, etc. You should always pay for title insurance. It typically costs a few hundred dollars and will salvage you a package if problems arise.

When you purchase statute statute statute title insurance, a title insurance company researches the title for the property. The insurance company will look to see if the statute title is clear. “Clear” simply intends that the marketer is truly transferring statute title to you and no other individual can claim ownership. While this sounds fairly simple, remainder assured that statute statute title problems originate all of the time.

Title Problems

You might be wondering how you could possibly have got title problems. Here are a few examples:

1. Divorcing Couples – Divorce is unpleasant and sometime very ugly. In particularly awful situations, one partner may attempt to sell a home without telling the other. To derive clear title, you need both partners to subscribe off on the sale. If you don’t, you are going to go a political party of the divorcement proceedings. Now, wouldn’t that be fun?

2. Estate Sales – If you are purchasing a house as portion of an estate sale, there can be existent problems. The inheritors May not be getting along and in an attempt to “get what’s mine”, may seek to sell the abode without including all the inheritors in the transaction. If you purchase this home, you could stop up involved in a lawsuit filed by an inheritor left out of the transaction.

3. Ingress and Egress Issues – Title to a property can have got technical issues related to emersion and ingress. Occasionally, one discoveries statute title to a property that is so messed up that the proprietor doesn’t have got the right to come in or go forth the land because to make so would necessitate crossing another person’s property. In short, the property is landlocked and something must be worked out with the neighbors. Typically, a solution come ups in the word form of hard, cold cash…lots of it.

These are just a few issues that tin originate with title. With existent estate, alone issues can originate all the time.

If you purchase statute statute title insurance, you don’t have got to worry about problems with title. If a problem arises, you calmly pick up the phone and phone call the statute title insurance company. The insurance company will come up up with a solution, even if it intends paying you for bad title.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Disability Insurance in Depth

The function of a disablement policy, whether individual or group, protects a certain amount of the employees' salary. The insured may accumulate a part of their wage once they go sick or injured, as long as their elimination time period have been sufficed. Once the individual is able to go back the work full clip the benefits will stop completely in all likelihood. It should be noted that injuries or illness arising out of the occupation are protected by Workers Compensation.

The stereotyped theoretical account for a individual labeled as handicapped is person in a wheelchair. However illness can be just as debilitating as injuries from an auto accident. Some people are unaware that disablement claims can include sickness, but they can.

Get up to Five Free Disability Insurance Quotes Today!

There are two types of disablement policies, short and long-term. Short-term policies last less than two years, while long-term can last to age 65 or older. Both function their intent but be aware of the difference.

Group Disability Insurance is often the lone manner for employees to measure up or pay for disablement insurance. The medical history of some employees may cause them to be turned down for an individual policy. Yet depending on the size of the company for Group Disability Insurance, simplified or small underwriting may occur. While others may be stretched to the bounds with other debt or measures to pay for another policy.

An Individual policy is written based on occupation, salary, and elimination period. In both individual and grouping policies, each individual tin measure up for a certain amount of benefit based on their salary. Their business will act upon the terms of weekly or monthly benefit. The elimination time period states you how long you must wait before benefits can begin.

The ground to have got got to have disablement insurance is protect your wage from accident or sickness. While individual may purchase this policy, employees may have got Group Disability Insurance at work. Remember that you put on the line your ain earning powerfulness without proper coverage.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Alternate Risk Transfer (ART) - Insurance Strategies

Risk Management

Alternate Risk Transfer is a fancy way of saying alternate methods of insurance and risk management, of which there are many. From the most basic alternative of going without insurance (self-insuring) to so-called "program business captives", there are a wide variety of strategies from which to choose.

To understand why ART strategies are so popular it is important to understand a few facts about insurance pricing.

►Insurance Premiums are related primarily to economic cycles NOT primarily to claims.

"The claims that recent increases in medical malpractice liability insurance premiums in Connecticut are attributable to overly generous jury verdicts are unfounded. The more likely explanation for the sudden rise in rates is the decrease in investment earnings of the medical malpractice insurers…“ Professor Tom Baker, Director, Insurance Law Center, University of Connecticut School of Law

Every time insurance industry profits decline sharply, the industry declares an "insurance crisis" - rates go up sharply, deductibles rise and underwriting guidelines tighten.

►Insurance Premiums have risen much faster than claims.

Median medical malpractice payments rose 35 Percent from 1997 to 2001 (an average of 8.5% a year).
Average premiums for single health insurance coverage increased 39 percent over that time period (9.5% per year). (Source: National Practitioner Database)

►A small number of insured may be responsible for a large percentage of losses.

National Practitioners Database:

For example, in Florida, 6% of the doctors were found to be responsible for 51% of the malpractice claims. 2,674 out of 44,747 doctors have paid two or more malpractice payments. These doctors are responsible for 51% of total malpractice payments.

24 Florida physicians have paid 10 or more malpractice settlements since 1990.

Needless to say, the 94% pay for the poor claims experience of the 6%.
ART Strategies

Conventional insurance markets are one-year indemnity contracts designed to transfer specific hazard risks. Typical features of an ART strategy are:

►Multi-year, multi-line coverage

►Coverage tailored to special need of insured

►Provides coverage not generally available in the marketplace

►Risk retention by insured

There is a multifarious trade-off between risk retention, complexity and cost among the various different ART strategies. Not surprisingly, the plans with the least risk, complexity and expense generally provide the least benefit. As more risk is retained, the greater and greater benefits can be obtained. Of course, complexity and administrative expenses grow as well. Windward Harbor can help you find, execute and manage the right strategy for you. We have listed the basic ART strategies below.

►Guaranteed Cost Insurance Plans

Traditional insurance coverage.

►Loss Sensitive Insurance Plans

Insurance coverage for a specific insured where the final premium is based on the insured's losses.

►Risk Purchasing Groups (RP's)

Risk Purchasing Groups were created by the Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986. The purpose of the act was to break through the myriad of state insurance regulation in the hopes of making it easier for groups to purchase liability insurance. The act allows groups of individuals combine to purchase liability insurance while prohibiting states (regulators) or insurance companies from discriminating against them.

►Self-Insured Retention Plans (SIRS)

The primary difference between a deductible and a self-insured retention is that a deductible amount counts against the total limits of the policy, reducing total coverage, whereas a self-insured retention plan provides limits of coverage in excess of the self-insured retention so that the amount payable under the policy is not reduced by the amount of the retention.

►Protected Cell Captives (Segregated Portfolio Companies)

PCCs (SPC's in certain domiciles) are essentially rent-a-captive companies that ensure complete separation among program participants. According to the laws of specific domiciles, PCCs or SPC's generally guarantee complete separation of each cell’s assets, capital, and surplus from each other. Because they can achieve economies of scale, rent-a-captives make captive insurance affordable for companies that would not otherwise be large enough to profitably own and operate their own captive.
Windward Harbor LLC owns a BVI licensed Segregated Portfolio Company - Windward Harbor SPC Ltd, which provides rent-a-captive services for selected clients on an annual fee basis. Each segregated portfolio has its own economic ownership, tax Id number and files a separate tax return.

►Self-Insured Groups & Pools (SIG's)

While the concept differs slightly from state to state, SIGs work similarly in the nearly 40 states in which they are legal. A group of employers form a nonprofit corporation or trust and hire a professional to manage it. This new entity then purchases the insurance, meaning the SIG members essentially "own" their own workers' comp company.

The group pools the money it otherwise would pay an insurer, earning investment income on funds held in reserve. If a SIG program cuts down on workplace injuries and claim costs, the surplus, or "dividend," from premiums is returned to members.

Of course, if a company or the group as a whole has catastrophic losses, members pay the difference, up to a limit. Above that point, the group buys excess insurance to offset a single large loss or a combination of losses.

►Captives (See Captive Services)

A captive insurance company is an insurance company that is owned and controlled by its insureds. According to Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA), the first captive ever formed was in the late 1800s, and was designed to write more cost effective fire insurance policies for New England textile manufacturers that were hit hard by increasing market rates.

Captives gained popularity in the 1980s as a result of the US liability crisis, particularly in the medical arena.

As captives have continued to grow over time, employers are considering employee benefits as a new or expanded coverage. The more recent hard market and changing economy is expected to spur even more and rapid industry growth yet this year.

Single Parent (Pure) Captive: A single parent captive is owned and controlled by one owner, typically the parent organization, and is formed as a subsidiary company. The captive subsidiary underwrites policies for the parent, and solely bears the risks of the parent.

►Group Captive: A group captive is owned and controlled by multiple insureds. They may or may not be related entities or a part of a homogeneous group like industry or trade groups. Typically, companies of similar size pool their risks in an industry captive with customized insurance plans. Similarly, companies of similar size in different industries can also form group captives to enjoy the benefits of a captive model. More recently, associations have been forming association captive insurance companies to offer captive services as part of their membership benefits.

►Agency Captive: Agency captives are companies typically owned by groups of brokers or other insurance intermediaries and are typically structured like rent-a-captives.

►Risk Retention Groups

Risk Retention Groups were also created by the Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986, which provides for streamlined regulation. A RRG is an insurance company in every regard but has one very important regulatory distinction. Every RRG chooses a single state in which to be domiciled and regulated. The act provides that the RRG is then eligible to do business in all states.

►Program Business Captives

Associations, regional producers and corporations who desire to assume some selected third-party exposure.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Health Care Purchasers Should Focus on Value, Not Price

As I read articles in the press or online these days, I cannot help but to notice how frequently health care related conversations end up focusing on "price" alone - specifically the price of health insurance premiums. We all know that health care has become too expensive, and that the situation is worsening with each passing day. Since we are talking about health care in the first place, shouldn't we utilize the same diagnostic strategy a good physician would use in identifying his patients' medical conditions, to then adopt a proven treatment protocol to cure that condition?

This means looking beyond the symptoms (e.g., high prices) to isolate the specific conditions creating the malaise. In health care this means looking at the very nature of the U.S. health care system. When you examine the system at this level you will quickly and easily notice that we have over time unwittingly created a system that has created misplaced competition and skewed incentives for almost all system participants. In the end, this unhealthy competition and these incentives are inflationary. It has created an environment in which the current winner is determined by who has most effectively shifted costs to the other competing interests in the system.

Instead of encouraging cost-shifting across system participants, we should be focused on creating attitudes, cultures, systems, and processes centered on creating value. Value in the context of health care is when hospitals and physicians provide the highest quality risk-adjusted outcomes throughout the entire cycle of care resulting in the lowest possible overall cost. Until we all work together to build a system that focuses all of our time, energy, and money on the creation of this type of value, it won't matter whether or not guaranteed issue laws for small (or large) employers exist in your state - the underlying system will still be inflationary, and the symptoms will persist.

A value-based health care system will encourage all system participants to expect, even demand, the absolute highest risk-adjusted quality care at the lowest market-driven cost. In order for this to happen employers must insist that all health care providers give their plan members up-front pricing and risk-adjusted quality data to make informed decisions. Because health care is a highly complex and
emotional issue, employers and their health plan partners should work as patient advocates to help their members understand their medical conditions and all their treatment options. In this way, they can help plan members and their loved ones navigate the system at what is surely an emotionally trying and confusing time in their lives.

I would say that legislators addressing this issue are wise and should be applauded for wanting to do something about an issue that is so important to all of us and that so many other politicians are unwilling to touch - for fear of potential political fallout.

The fact remains however, that for those legislators or anyone else's efforts to ultimately result in lower health care costs this conversation needs to take a dramatic shift. The discussion of price needs to be shifted to a discussion of value. The value-creating tools available to hospitals, physicians, health plans, insurers, and employers are numerous and easy to find if you are looking for them.

Personally I hold all health care professionals in the highest regard, they dedicate their lives to
making ours better. They stand beside us at our most frightening and vulnerable moments. They however are in business to maximize profits just like the rest of us. In order to help them see that quality and its resulting value improvement is a better way to maximize profits, employers and other health care purchasers should stop treating health care like a commodity. In fact it varies greatly in its quality and cost and should have never been purchased on price in the first place. Purchasers should demand that all health care system participants, especially system intermediaries such as health insurance companies, managed care networks, and others stop creating systems and processes that promote the misplaced competition and skewed incentives creating the problem in the first place. Once this is accomplished, consumer tools like Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements will finally have the effect they were intended to have.

No matter who you are, you can help our country move in the direction of value-based health care by regularly asking your health care professionals, health insurers, and employers to embrace quality and cost transparency, simplified administration, and electronic records and ordering. The collective voice and consumers expectations make a meaningful difference in our free-market system. I encourage you to play a part in that process.

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Saturday, April 14, 2007

Water Pollution - Everything You Need to Know and How You can Help

What do the human body and the planet earth have in common?

Water. If the human body has about two-thirds water, our planet has about 70% of it, which establishes the fact that water constitutes a major portion in both body masses. And that is what's alarming. If 70% of the earth's surface is made up of water, then humankind should have been very wary of anything that would pollute this major portion of the planet. Alas, the human race has done otherwise. Water pollution is now a global problem.

Today, water pollution is rampant and the chief source of water pollution is the human race. We are the very ones that need water most and, yet, we have polluted it, even to the brink of extinction.

There are many types of water pollutants but these can be segregated into four classifications: natural, agricultural, municipal and industrial pollutants. Natural water pollutants could include all the natural phenomena that happen from time to time such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes that cause major upheavals in the ocean floor and storms that cause flashfloods. Even global warming could be qualified as a cause of water pollution.

Agricultural pollution consists mainly of poultry and other agricultural animal wastes that are carelessly thrown off to bodies of water near farms. It could also be the fertilizers or pesticides that are used to make better crops, which erode into lakes, rivers or streams. Municipal wastes are those that come from residential areas. This is the liquid waste that households throw into bodies of water. Industrial pollution consists of all the wastes that major industrial firms chuck into the waters. This last classification is the most severe and most rampant among the three - and it is also the one that has caused the most damage. Industrial waste could include contaminants that are hard to take off from the waters once they spread - petroleum from oil spills or nuclear wastes.

The bodies of water in the world are in catastrophic danger, what with all the industries in the world today, plus our individual wastes all put together! No wonder mankind now drinks from bottles instead of just scooping water from running streams. The effects of water pollution to humanity is staggering. But we should also consider all the other life forms that suffer - the fishes and other animals such as birds, and plants. And what happens when humans eat the very fishes that live in polluted waters? Do you still want that answered?

But where there is life, there is hope. There is something that we can do - you can do - to save the only planet that we have. You could be an advocate, in your own simple way, of retrieving the lost beauty of oceans, lakes, rivers and streams. Here is a list that might get you to consider in fighting water pollution:

1. Primarily, you should prevent water pollution. Just like an illness, it is much simpler to prevent its occurrence rather than to cure. Begin at your own home. Make sure that you conserve water. You can never imagine the water shortages that happen all over the globe. So if you have a constant supply of water at home, use it wisely.

2. Plant trees (if circumstance would allow you). Having more trees or plants in your yard would prevent pollutants from flowing freely into nearby bodies of water. Since they keep the soil from eroding, water pollution or, at least, the quality of the water is improved.

3. Do not throw any form of garbage into any body of water. Sign up for any organization that aims in cleaning up beaches (or lakes, or streams). Be an active member of such organizations.

4. Never throw water pollutants down your sink or toilet bowl. Make sure to dispose wastewater properly. Think of the many septic tanks that contribute to water pollution. Now, 'get the picture?

Luckily, for all of us, there were concerned lawmakers out there that have made legislations on water pollution. The U.S. alone has several anti-water pollution laws such as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, which was amended in 1988. These laws prevent further damage to U.S. waters.

Although water pollution is an extensive problem, bridling it is still possible. And everything begins with each and every individual in each and every home. And yes, that population includes YOU.

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Florida Group Health Insurance

Florida Group Health Insurance is very difficult to compare with individual health insurance. Recent polls taken by the Washington Post said that "33% of the consumer population didn't realize that group and individual health plans are different". How do I get a group health insurance policy? And what are my options to get lower cost health insurance?

Group health insurance plans allow you to participate in a good policy, based on your inclusion in a specific workplace group of people. If you're a business owner, then offering a good group health insurance plan is the best idea for a many reasons.

Do you qualify for one of these plans? Many employers think that, with just a few employees, their businesses are too small. To the contrary, even a two person company can qualify for a group health plan.

The terms "two person" company, I'm including you, the owner, as one of the people. This can take an enormous financial burden off of you if you've been paying individual health insurance premiums. And, you don't need to go through too much paperwork to attain a good policy.

What are the criteria needed to obtain a Florida Group Health Insurance Policy? You'll need to show the insurance companies that you are a valid and legitimate business. To do this, you'll need to show various documents, including your official wage report, occupational license and possibly articles of incorporation. Once you've established that you're a business "group", you can proceed with a group health insurance plan--and all the benefits that it can convey!

How do you get a lower cost health insurance plan? There are various ways to reduce the costs of a group health insurance plan. You can be a very discerning consumer and take your time shopping down the best and most affordable policies. Doing this is greatly expedited when you use an online search engine provided by a reliable insurance broker.

How else can I reduce my health insurance costs? The very notable way to lower your group health insurance costs is through tax exemptions. Not everybody is aware of the fact that they can reduce the amount that they are taxed on by using their medical insurance plan. If you're able to do this, you can save a lot of money.

The tax code allows employees to pay some of their health insurance premiums from pre-tax dollars. In other words, they're not going to be taxed on the considerable sums that they'll be spending on insurance! This is good news for both employees and employers.

If paying less income tax and lower social security taxes sounds good to you, consult your employer. You may be able to save a lot of money in the coming fiscal year. A group health insurance plan can also be a great financial asset at tax time!

Lastly, the best way to lower you group health insurance costs is to let an insurance consultant go out to the marketplace and bring you back the best possible benefits, while keeping your costs in check. If you are searching online I'd suggest that you check some of the various local Florida Web Portals. You can "Take your web quotes to a professional health insurance consultant such as Florida Health Insurance Web." They are online at www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com

"An agent can assess your needs, explain complex policy riders and sometimes get you a better deal." (Some insurers aren't in online databases.) You can search for agents in your area through the National Association of Health Underwriters at the web site: www.nahu.org.

Find a Florida Health Insurance Agency that holds a full product line to ensure you are finding the best group health policy at the best rate.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

Insurance for Your Business

The importance of insurance cannot be over-emphasized and neither tin the danger of paying for insurance you don't need. It is strongly recommended you beg the advice of an in-dependent business insurance agent. Don't forget to SHOP! Talk to three or four independent agents and compare short letters and prices. An insurance agent will put out a huge array of insurance coverage much of which you simply may not need. Your state of affairs will be alone and you must see each insurance component carefully to guarantee comprehensive coverage.

Whatever your concluding insurance programme looks like, you should reexamine it at least every six months. Your business can change rapidly, especially in the first few old age and insurance needs change with it. Keep your programme up to day of the month by calling in your agent and reviewing your coverage. Brand changes where necessary.

LIABILITY INSURANCE

This is probably the most of import component of your insurance program. Liability insurance supplies protection from possible
losings resulting from injury or damage to others or their property. Just remember some of the large cash awardings you have got got read about that have resulted from lawsuits concerning liability of one sort or another and you will understand the importance of this insurance. Your insurance agent can depict the assorted types of liability insurance coverage that are available. If you will stop up with a comprehensive general policy, make certain that the general policy makes not include points you don't need. Wage for lone the insurance you need. For example, your business may not need merchandise liability insurance.

Do not mistake business liability coverage with your personal liability coverage, both of which you need. Your personal coverage will not cover a business-generated liability. Check to be certain.

Compare the costs of different degrees of coverage. In some cases a $2 million policy costs only slightly more than than a $1 million policy. This economic system of scale of measurement is true with most word forms of insurance coverage. That is, after a certain value, further insurance goes very economical.

KEY individual INSURANCE

This type of insurance is particularly of import for the exclusive proprietary or partnership where the loss of one person through illness, accident, or death may render the business inoperative or severely restrict its operations. This insurance, although not inexpensive, can supply protection for this situation. Key individual insurance might also be necessary for others involved in your business.

SGC was a small firm tally by three partners, a software programmer, marketer, and a general manager. Their merchandise was a complex computing machine programme used by aerospace firms. Al, the programmer, was involved in a terrible automobile accident, became totally disabled, and SGC lost their scheduling capability. The problem was that the computing machine programme written by Aluminum was essentially the company's exclusive product. Modifications to suit the client became impossible and the clip to convey another computer programmer up to rush was excessive. SGC lost considerable business as a consequence of this situation. These losings could have got been offset by cardinal individual insurance.

DISABILITY INSURANCE

You, as a business owner, should be covered by disablement insurance whether or not you make up one's mind on cardinal individual insurance. This insurance, along with business-interruption insurance, described below, will assist guarantee your business will go on to operate in the unfortunate state of affairs where you are not able to work. Your disablement insurance policy needs to supply satisfactory coverage. Particular attention should be paid to the definition of "disability," hold clip until payments start, when coverage terminates, and accommodations for inflation.

FIRE INSURANCE

Fire insurance, like all insurance is complicated and you should understand what IS and IS NOT covered. For example, a typical fire insurance policy covers the loss of table of contents but makes not cover your losings from the fact that you may be out of business for 2-months while your installation is rebuilt. Fire insurance is compulsory whether you're working out of a home office or you have got a separate facility. You should discourse a comprehensive policy with your agent. Take the clip to understand the details. For example, volition the table of contents be insured for their substitution value or for existent value at the clip of loss?

Consider a co-insurance clause that will reduce the policy cost considerably. This agency that the insurance carrier will necessitate you to carry insurance equal to some percentage of the value of your property. (Usually around 85%.) With this type of clause it is very of import that you reexamine coverage frequently so you always ran into the minimum percentage required. If this minimum is not met, a loss will not be paid no matter what its value.

If you are working out of your home, your existent homeowner’s policy may not cover business property. If this is the case, have got got your insurance agent to add a home-office rider to your policy.

AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE

You probably already have automobile insurance but it might not include business usage of your vehicle. Brand certain that it does.

WORKER’S compensation INSURANCE

If you do the determination to engage employees, you will be required, in most states, to cover them under worker's compensation. The cost of this insurance changes widely and depends on the sort of work being performed and your accident history. It is of import that you properly sort your employees to secure the lowest insurance rates. Work closely with your insurance agent.

BUSINESS break INSURANCE

This protects against loss of gross as the consequence of property damage. This insurance would be used, for instance, if you could not operate your business during the clip repairs were being made as a consequence of a fire or in the event of the loss of a cardinal supplier. The coverage can pay for salaries, taxes, and lost profits.

CREDIT INSURANCE

This will pay for unusual losings as the consequence of nonpayment of accounts receivables above a certain threshold. As with all policies, you must thoroughly understand the inside information so discourse it with your insurance agent. One of the largest suppliers of this coverage is American Credit Indemnity, Baltimore, MD. (800) 879 1224.

BURGLARY/ROBBERY/THEFT INSURANCE

Comprehensive policies are available that protect against loss from these perils, including by your ain employees. Brand certain you understand what is excluded from coverage.

RENT INSURANCE

This policy covers the cost of rent for other installations in the event your property goes damaged to the extent that trading operations cannot go on in your normal location.

DISABILITY INSURANCE

This insurance will pay you an amount each calendar month slightly less than your current wage in the event you go handicapped and are not able to work. Cost for this coverage changes considerably depending on your profession, wage level, how quickly benefits start, and when they end. Benefits paid are tax-free lone if you, not your company, wage the premiums.

This listing could be continued since it is possible to purchase insurance for just about any hazard you can conceive of ... if you can pay the premium! When considering your insurance coverage, usage the following checklist:

INSURANCE COVERAGE CHECKLIST:

• Can you afford the loss?

• What coverage is required by Federal, state, or local law?

• What particular points are covered by the policy?

• Are points to be insured for their substitution cost or original value?

• What particular points are EXCLUDED by the policy?

• If there is a co-insurance clause, make you have got adequate coverage?

• Rich Person you chosen deductibles wisely in order to minimise costs?

• Bash any of the policies you are considering reduplicate or overlap one another?

• Bash you need any insurance based on location, e.g., flood, earthquake?

Use the following checklist to reexamine your insurance plans:

INSURANCE plan CHECKLIST:

• Employment an independent insurance agent rather than going to individual insurance companies. Guarantee the agent stores for your insurance.

• Talk to and get citations from at least THREE agents and pick the best one for you.

• Use money economy comprehensive policies, if possible.

• Perform periodical (every 6-months) reappraisals of your insurance program.

• Rich Person business assets professionally appraised to determine coverage needs.

• Ensure existing personal insurance coverage includes business-related activities and add riders as necessary or obtain further coverage.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Health Insurance and Their Different Types

Health Insurance is the protection of a persons or a group against the financial loss due to the bad health or illness or injury. Well a big question rises here - How many people know about this and how many people have the health insurance?

Seriously like other type of insurances health insurance is also a general type of insurance which you don’t need until and unless you NEED it seriously. Health insurance does not help you until you get into the trap of the heavy medical bill. But if you think to be safe in the bad patch of your life then you should consider yourself as the suitable candidate for the health insurance.

There are different types of health insurance but mainly all the health insurance pays a fixed percentage of the expenses for the policy holders bill. Some of the basic types of health insurance are listed below:

The first one is Indemnity Plans. This plan allows the holder to get the assistance whenever and wherever he/she need it. There are no restrictions when it comes to seeking medical help and there is no restriction on the doctor also. You can simply choose your own doctor. But this plan is some what expansive than the others.

Next one is Self-insured/Uninsured. People with no insurance, and people who have health insurance but are responsible for paying 100% of the insurance premium.

Along with these two types of insurance there is one more type of health insurance and that is Managed Care Plans. They are again of some different types. In one type policy holder pay a fixed monthly fee, regardless of how much medical care he/she need in a given month. There is one more type in which a group of doctors and hospitals is created which provides medical services to the policy holder only.

So from all the above you can choose which one is best for you and your pocket. It’s in fact a time consuming job to choose which one is better for you. But it is the need of your life so we should not ignore this.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

What is Pet Health Insurance?

Pet Health Insurance can give you the peace of head that you are covered against unexpected veterinarian bills. Having a pet can be a costly matter when you see such as disbursals as food, inoculations and checkups. But did you cognize that the cost of surgery can run into thousands of pounds? Would you be able to afford the vet's measure for major surgery should your pet autumn sick or the cost of a claim against you if your domestic dog runs out into the route causing a route traffic accident?

One of the most distressful states of affairs to originate is when a pet's problem is curable but the cost is too high for the proprietor to be able to afford, and consequently the animate being have to be set to sleep. A less serious state of affairs is when the proprietor have to choose for the less than best treatment owed to money constraints. Obviously with the right insurance policy these states of affairs are avoided.

Pet Health insurance can take away the financial concerns when a pet is seriously ill. It is often hard to get insurance for aged pets and pre-existing illnesses will not be covered so it is of import to believe about insurance as soon as possible. It is now possible to pay a monthly insurance premium to see your pet against veterinary fees.

Pet Insurance is a policy that screens your household pets such as as true cats and domestic dogs as long as they're healthy. Whether your domestic dog or true cat is mixed breed or lineage most insurance companies will cover the animate being for the whole of its life.

Pet insurance often covers more than than just the veterinarian bills. It can also cover emergency kennelling costs, theft and travel. Like most other word forms of insurance, pet insurance have got a small surplus which you will have to pay on any claim. Vaccinations and routine treatments such as as worming and flea treatments are also excluded.

It is often hard to get insurance for aged pets and pre-existing illnesses will not be covered so it is of import to believe about insurance as soon as possible.

There are usually different degrees of screen available where different values or events are covered. Usually the higher the monthly payment, the greater the value of screen and number of facets covered.

Outlined here are some of the different facets of screen you need to reexamine such as as; Vet's Fees, Screen for Life, Accidental Damage, Death from Illness, Death from Accident, Ad & Reward, Theft or Straying, One-Third Party Liability & Legal Expenses, Boarding Kennel Fees, Holiday Cancellation Costs, Overseas Travel.

Shop around to do certain that you are getting the best deal possible. It is of import to take the right pet insurance but don't just look at the price, check what is covered under the pet insurance policy and check the policy inside information in terms of exclusions.

You may freely reissue this article provided the author's life stays intact:

About The Author

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Pet Insurance - Suss Out the Answers to 10 Key Questions

If your articulations and castanets are flexible and strong, they travel freely. And that agency life can be merriment and appreciated to its' full. But for one in seven people, motion is hindered by a musculoskeletal problem - back pain, arthritis, osteoporosis, fracture, or athletics trauma. Faced with such as hurting you may be delighted to pay £4,000 for orthopaedic surgery to get those painful articulations flexible again. But would you be so willing to pass the same money on your pet Basset Hound?

Veterinary care have moved quickly over the last 10 old age and as pets get aged they are increasingly apt to endure unwellness that tin be expensive and drawn-out to treat. Take diabetes for example. Diabetes is relatively common in domestic dogs and whilst it can be successfully treated, the management of the status is in progress and expensive – one veterinarian estimated that typically, treatment cost around £2,500 per year. Eczema is yet another of many statuses that necessitate an drawn-out clip period of treatment.

But as with humans, your pet can need emergency treatment at any time. According to research company Mintel, one in three pets do an unplanned visit to the veterinarian every year. Boxers and Spaniels are susceptible to dodgy hearts, Labradors and Golden Retrievers are prostrate to progressive retinal atrophy, Setters' tin get laniary leukocyte adhesion lack and Alsations, hip dysplasia. And then there are always scrapings in which our pets are so likely to go involved. Your true cat may have got nine lives but you may well land yourself with nine vets' bills! With a series of x-rays costing £400 and an magnetic resonance imaging scan putting you back £1,500 the lawsuit for insurance screen goes convincing.

Against this backdrop, pet insurance is now the fastest growth word form of insurance in the UK. Petwise, Petplan, Pet Protect, PDSA, E&L, Animal Friends, and Simon Marks and Herbert Spencer are all name calling in the market. Indeed, competition for your business is ferocious with over 60 insurance companies offering over 220 different policies. With so much choice, the undertaking of choosing a policy goes somewhat complicated.

So allows seek and maintain things simple. Pet insurance falls into three basic groups. The first and usually the cheapest form, bounds the claim to per status per 12 calendar months - suitable for one-off emergencies but not too good for diabetes! The second bounds the sum paid annually whilst the 3rd bounds the amount paid per condition.

Faced with all this pick what have make you need to look out for? Here are 10 key inquiries to ask:

• Are claims subject to a upper bounds annual bounds or on a “per condition” basis?

• If the insurance is limited “per condition”, what is the clip limit?

• What is the surplus per claim? Sometimes the surplus will be a set sum, sometimes a percentage of the cost and more than often, a combination of both.

• Is there a bounds on vets' fees? If so, what is it?

• Discovery out if your pet is prostrate to any familial statuses and whether the program will cover those. For true cats you'll happen information about familial statuses at www.petplanet.co.uk/petplanet/breeds/cats-breeds and for domestic dogs you'll get the replies at www.the-kennel-club.org.uk

• Is your domestic dog covered for 3rd political party liability? Remember, if your domestic dog causes injury or damage you could be apt for damages.

• Makes the favored insurance screen the cost of advertisement and a finders' reward if you favored is lost or stolen?

• If you pet undergoes urgent surgery shortly before you're due to travel on holiday, will your pet insurance ran into the holiday cancellation costs?

• If you travel in hospital, makes the policy screen doghouse or cattery fees? Some policies will payout after the proprietor have been in infirmary for a certain number of days.

• Makes the program do a payout when your pet dies? If so, how much?

How can you get replies to all these questions? Surprisingly, veterinarians are not particularly well clued up. They normally have got inside information of one or two programs in their waiting suite but are rarely up to day of the month with what else is available in the market. Perhaps not surprising with all the developments in veterinary care to maintain abreast of!

No, you've already establish the best beginning of information – the Internet! Search for pet, domestic dog or true cat insurance and you'll happen all the information you'll ever need. It might take you an hr to finish your research, and retrieve to do notes, but it will be deserving it in the end.