Insurance

May 22, 2008

Insurance Guide

Filed under: Insurance Guides — Tags: , — admin @ 9:35 pm

Insurance is basically a coverage taken out to protect oneself or one?s property against risk. It is whereby the overall risk is transferred from one entity to another in exchange for money, which in insurance is called a premium. Insurance ensures business continuity in the event that there is a catastrophic loss of life or assets. Insurance companies therefore, are organizations which are the business of assuming financial risk on behalf of their clients who pay a monthly, quarterly or yearly premium. Risk management is essentially what insurance companies do when it comes to protecting individuals and companies against loss.

Individuals need insurance as well. The most common types of insurance for individuals is life insurance which is taken out against accidental death and health insurance which protects a person by indemnifying them for hospital visits, medicine, surgeries, lab tests and other medical emergencies. Life insurance is a great protector of assets and can be a great help in the event that the breadwinner of a home passes away. This ensures that the remaining family members are financially able to meet their obligations even with the loss of income. Some life insurance coverage packages have a cash option rider which allows the insured to ?cash out? of the policy after some time. This is an attractive option for seniors who have accumulated assets in their latter years and therefore sufficiently self insured and therefore their families will not suffer financial loss in the event that they passed away.

Health insurance is also extremely popular and also essential. This protects an individual or a family against financial loss resulting from an accident or an illness which may result in loss of income due to inability to work. The most common way to get health insurance is through an employer. This is called group health coverage and is provided by most employers to their employees and their families. Group health coverage is very convenient in that the employee because he or she does not have to shop for the best coverage best premium rates and so forth. All he or she has to do is contact their human resources department and request the benefits package which includes the health insurance. An employee can also elect to add his or her family members to the package for an additional cost. Group health insurance packages are very cost effective for the employee because of the ?group? aspect. Since there are many contributing to the pool, the premium costs are low. Group health insurance through an employer is therefore one of the most convenient ways that a person can acquire health insurance.

Health insurance also includes dental and vision which consists of slightly different terms although all have the same characteristics in that they are administered under what is called managed care. Managed care involves a network of insurance companies and health care providers who have come together to provide health care to their customers at discounted rates. An example of one provider is CIGNA. There are others such as Metlife, AETNA, PRUDENTIAL and Blue shield. When an employee is hired, he or she finds him or herself automatically covered under either one of the care services that the employer participates in.

Credit Insurance Guide

Filed under: Credit Insurance — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 9:33 pm

Working people who want to buy cars or homes or start businesses do so by taking out loans and repaying them back with interest. Lenders who lend money to individuals or organizations do so with the hope that they will be repaid in full plus interest at the end of the contract term. Sometimes something unforeseen happens, like the death of the borrower, which can cause the lender not to be repaid. To protect him or her from loss, a lender can take out what is called credit insurance. This assures him that he or she will be paid in the event that the borrower is unable to pay the loan.

Credit insurance can also be taken out by the borrower himself. This is to ensure that if he were to die, the debt would be repaid in full and his family members would not be left to suffer loss.

People also take out credit insurance to guard themselves against interruptions in income which may result in a financial setback. One such income is a sudden loss of employment.

To ensure that credit insurance is paid, credit companies usually include the premiums inside the regular payment. In credit card payments, the credit insurance is called ?credit protection plan? and is optional. Nevertheless, it is a good way to ensure that if the borrower is beset by any circumstance that may stop them from being able to make monthly payments, there is the a way for them to get back on track before the account is rendered delinquent. In a credit card which has credit card insurance on it, the minimum balance continues to be paid in the event that the card owner is unable to pay for some time.

There are several types of credit insurance:

Credit disability insurance
This type pays the credit card minimum balance in the event that the card owner is unable to pay. It can come in handy in high interest cards when the owner has been laid off.

Involuntary Unemployment insurance
This is also taken out as a protection of the credit card minimum balance payments in case the card owner is rendered unemployed by being terminated.

Credit property insurance
This insurance pays for or fixes items that have been bought on credit in the event that the borrower is unable to make the payments.

Credit life insurance
This is excellent because it pays the entire debt that the borrower owes if he or she dies before making the full repayment of the debt.

Taking out credit insurance is easy. Most have no contractual agreements and the borrower can cancel at any time. They are also optional meaning if you have a credit card you have the choice to take out the insurance or not. The terms and rates for a credit insurance are strictly regulated by the state insurance commissioner.

One great plus of credit insurance is that unlike the regular health insurance, there is no such thing as pre-existing conditions that can disqualify you. Anyone is approved regardless of health, age or credit history.

Health Insurance Guide

Filed under: Health Insurance — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 9:31 pm

When planning your financial position, it is extremely essential to factor in insurance. Even though that fact is known to most of us, millions of individuals and families continue to be without health insurance. While most low income families and individuals do not have health insurance because they cannot afford it, there are even more that do not have it because of ignorance. There are many that do not know that there are different types of insurance.

Traditional Insurance coverage
The basic type of health insurance is called the traditional health insurance. This one works much like car insurance. There is an initial payment and then the monthly premiums which are deducted from the person?s checking or savings account. Some insurance companies also bill the customer monthly by sending a paper bill. Most people prefer to have it deducted directly from their account in the form of a bank draft. This preempts the possibility of the policy lapsing if the policy holder forgets. Traditional health insurance has been the norm for insurance for many years.

In a traditional health insurance policy agreement, the individual deals directly with the insurance companies or broker. The insured also negotiates all terms with the company.

Managed Care Insurance
Managed care insurance has been around since the early 19th century but not until the last 20 years has it really picked up and gone mainstream. Managed care involved a network of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers working in tandem with insurance companies to form a network that provides health care at reduced costs to their members. The most common example of this is group health insurance which is provided by employers to their employees when they get hired or when they become eligible for insurance.

PPO
PPO stands for Preferred Provider Organization and this refers to a network of insurance companies working in league with health care providers to provide medical services at discounted rates to their members. When the insured joins the network, usually through an employer who is participating in the network, he or she is fills out a form usually online. In the application, the insured is asked to pick out a doctor from among many who participate in the network. Usually, the patient picks out a doctor who is in the area where they live. The insured then received an insurance card in the mail which has their name, their group number, the 800 number of the network and the name of the doctor usually known as the PCP (primary care provider). An example of a PPO network is CIGNA.

HMO
This stands for Health Maintenance Organizations. These are very similar to PPOs but offer their services at a cheaper rate than PPOs. The insured also goes through the process of picking the doctor and receiving an insurance card over the mail. Just like in a PPO, when the insured goes to a doctor, he or she pays a co-pay, usually between $10-35 and the insurance company picks up the rest of the cost.

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