Employer life insurance is usually inexpensive and does not have a required physical to become covered by the insurance. You can easily buy up your insurance to some number of times of your salary. These plans can provide coverage while you are employed, but what happens when you transition jobs or loose your job as it is very common in today’s economy. You would leave your family exposed, no one every can predict what the future will be. I would highly recommend in having personal life insurance to protect your family with or without employer sponsored life insurance.

I have become more aware of this situation as I had only employer sponsored life insurance, and I went for a long time between jobs and I did leave my family exposed on my providing for their future. I have since been able to secure life policies to protect my wife and daughter. I will never again leave my family exposed to the financial risk of not having life insurance for them. I wish my Dad would have suggested that advice to me to get an individual policy in place to guarantee my insurability and protect my family. In a future blog post I will share some ideas to help your children protect them for their life, but I want to focus on you and your spouse and children.

I do hear stories from time to time on people who did not properly protect their family with having life insurance in force. The remaining family members have the stress of loosing their loved one, but the beginning of the financial stress as to how they will afford the lifestyle that they have gotten accustomed to. I have seen people go through drastic life changes to lifestyle without the help of life insurance. The stories are of unexpected deaths through accident or illness and sometimes when they have been between jobs or in jobs that do not offer life insurance benefits. I have even heard stories of people retiring from a job, and when they retired they did not have any life insurance in place, so the spouse was left with a life changing financial crisis. I hope never to let anyone not understand the exposure to their family and the importance of life insurance.

The great thing about an individual policy for life insurance will let you keep your policy in force no matter what your work and health situation once it is in place and keep paying the premiums. I would advise you get with your insurance broker to help you with your needs analysis to help you determine what your family needs are for either spouse. This will help you determine how much insurance you should have to maintain you lifestyle. It takes into account the debt, earnings, college, day care, and other factors that you should take into account for the face value of your life insurance policy.

I would not wait to begin the process to get the life insurance in place as you never know what the future will bring for your health or if something unexpected can happen. The process is easy and the insurance broker can help you determine the type of policies that may be best for your particular situation. Life insurance is a necessary insurance for your family’s future as we do not know what future is for any of us. The one thing to know is the remaining family members will have probably wished they had the life insurance protection in place if you never thought it was a priority. Let us know how we may be able to help you start your process.

Since September of 2010, we had a new law go into effect to help Americans get coverage.  These changes included no riders/preexisting conditions for children, so they have all conditions covered with no waiting period, preventative/wellness/physicals available to everyone who had insurance.  Adults are expected to have the same no riders rule starting in 2014.  The government did add a plan to help those states who did not have a Health Insurance Pool, and some states who had a Pool as well have the Government Insurance, they call this plan Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.  This plan was similar goal as the Texas Health Insurance Pool.  The Government Plan has a few items I cannot understand, they have a waiting period, and people need to be uninsured for 6-months to be eligible.  You do have the advantage of no waiting period for preexisting conditions to be covered if you have been uninsured, other than the 6-months you need to be uninsured to be eligible.

The intent of the changes all sound good on paper, but this week I ran into a situation that really opened my eyes to a condition we created for healthy children.  I would have never guessed that this was a side effect of the changes.  When the changes when into effect for children to be issued without any riders or they cannot be denied coverage, the major medical carriers decided that they would not offer coverage to any child under 18 without a parent on the policy.  This means no children can get a policy by themselves, even if they are healthy without any conditions.  You would think the Health Insurance Pool or the government plan would be obtainable for child who cannot obtain coverage from a major medical carrier, but this is not the case for healthy children.

Health insurance rates have gone up more this year as result of some of the changes mandated by the law, making it harder for Americans and Texans to afford comprehensive coverage for themselves and their family.  This higher costs cause parents to make tradeoffs of paying necessary bills verses obtaining health coverage for their family.  They make tradeoffs for themselves, but try to cover their children with health insurance.

The issue that opened my eyes was a young girl who legal guardian is the grandmother (on Medicare) who was looking to obtain coverage for her granddaughter and needs to look at individual policies for her.  I originally thought the Texas Health Insurance Pool was the best option for her.  She had not been uninsured for 6-months, so the government plan was not an option.  We decided to submit an application to the Texas Health Insurance Pool, and get her coverage, so I thought.  After a few weeks, we had gotten a letter back from the pool rejecting the reason for obtaining coverage as being a child under 18-years old.  I thought that this would be a valid reason to be accepted into the health insurance pool.  I ended up calling to ask the question as to why they would not accept this young girl.  I ended up talking to the Director of the Pool for Texas, and he told me that they pool would not be able to accept this healthy young girl.  He mentioned a hole in the health insurance pool rules and a flaw in the major medical companies allowed offer insurance in Texas and not offering coverage to children.  The government plan you would think may be the next option, but they would accept her if you can prove that her premium is more than their rates.  I have not found a solution for this young healthy girl that really has nowhere to obtain major medical coverage.

One suggestion that could help improve this in the future is to impose that companies that offer health insurance in the state of Texas need to offer policies to children alone and they do not have the option to reject or not insure children without a parent.  This may take a while to get addressed so, children may need to go to limited benefit plans if they are healthy.  This is not the best approach for protecting their health and families financial exposure.  I think we need to make people aware of this big gap that hurts healthy children from obtaining coverage.  It is sad to see the changes help the sick and families who can afford health insurance, but hurt the healthy and less fortunate.  I just want to help people who need coverage find the best solution, but in this case, we do not have one.  I will do my part to raise the awareness of the issue.

There is never any added costs for working with an insurance broker, and they are a valuable resource to help you get the best policy for your specific situation.  Let us assist you with your finding the best plan.

I would recommend that everyone who is wondering if they should have a review of their current coverage, now is the time to take a look at that and ensure that we get a plan in place to control your costs through the next three years.  I believe we will see things get much worse before they stabilize.  If you just let it ride with the hopes of your premium staying controlled, then you may find your new premium unaffordable.  Talk to us to get your rate controlled with a 36-month lock that they will honor through all the changes.  Do it sooner rather than later to not miss locking in your rate. Be prepared and control your premiums, before you find things out of control.  Talk to us soon.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Health-Insurance—An-Affordable-Approach&id=3494485

The Insurance Agent/Broker can offer you the personalized advice and guidance you need to navigate through obtaining health insurance. To get this personalized service there is no effect in the premium cost, so why would you shop on the internet alone for insurance. The personalized service you will get will save you a lot of time when you need to ask a question or need help. They will know who you are when you call. You will have a person who you know to call if you have a question. If you call an 800 number of one of those internet services to buy insurance, you will be talking to a different agent every time you call. You may even need to call the insurance company and have no one on your side to help you work an issue.

The great advantage of working with an Insurance Broker/Agent is growing a relationship together. They know you and you know them so it will save you time if you need help. The insurance agent has support people in the particular insurance company to help them if your issue has not been resolved through the normal channels.

The Insurance Agent/Broker has something you do not have when you are applying for insurance online is access to the underwriter guide and to underwriters to do a pre-screen before you apply to see if the insurance company can accept you and what your rate up may be. The insurance company has the final word on your premiums, but you will be able to get an estimate with the help of an Agent. Using an insurance agent can save you some frustration and guidance that can help lead you to an approach to saving you on your premiums.

I would suggest you build a relationship with your insurance agent to help you through any personal insurance needs. They will be a good contact for you in the event of any issues and can help you through finding the best solution for your needs. Do not go it alone, find an agent you trust to help you. The best complement for any insurance agent is a referral, so ask around to find one of your friends if they know if an agent. We are always able to help you if you need a trustworthy agent. Call us today.

Help your neighbor not a big company; use an insurance broker/agent.

If you and your family are healthy with no major medical conditions, then you can choose. This week with President Obama signed an extending the federal subsidy for Cobra for an additional six months relieving the financial issues surrounding Cobra. I guess that seeing that Cobra is similar to a short term policy with a known period, I would suggest to my clients to move to an individual policy as soon as possible. There are very few situations in which I would recommend putting a client on a short term policy.

The risk with any of these policies is that they coverage does come to an end. This would mean in today’s health insurance industry, they would not be able to continue treatment on anything that the previous insurance company did not complete and the patient recover fully from. In the future this may not be an issue with the health care reform. This can be a very expensive mistake by the customer to keep Cobra, and find himself in this situation where there was no coverage available to complete his recovery. In Texas we are fortunate to have the Texas Risk Pool, but this is much more expensive than an individual policy.

I had a customer today withdraw his application for individual insurance coverage for his family to continue with Cobra benefits. I tried to make him aware of the exposure with staying with Cobra, but he told me so it is no different than being on a group policy. Well, it is a close comparison to this, with a group you have additional features from your employer that can allow you to stay employed and continue your health coverage with short and long term disability. On Cobra once it is done, you are done.

I still believe that moving away from Cobra as soon as you can is the best move to protect you for the long haul. This can be because you have become self employed or if you have not found another company to work for with group health insurance benefits. Something that is permanent as long as you pay the premiums offers you the best protection. The government incenting Cobra on the American people can leave some uninsured and un-insurable when Cobra is exhausted.

I have run into a customer recently that had a heart attack on Cobra. She was healthy individual with good build and never thought that they may have a heart condition. They ended up on Cobra needing two stents put in, and she had contacted me when her Cobra benefits were almost over – 18-months. I had to tell them that they will not be able to get individual insurance and the only major medical option available to them is the Texas Risk Pool. The customer said to me if they had known that they may be in a situation where they would be forced to the Texas Risk Pool, they would have got off Cobra as soon as they could. They felt that because the government was discounting the rates this was the way to go. There is as well a corporate knowledge that you always sign up for Cobra if you lose your job. For this customer the Texas Risk Pool was in the $500+ a month for a $7,500 deductible plan. The customer said they could not afford it and I now believe they are living without any coverage. It seems very wrong, but this is the way it is.

As a licensed insurance broker I would always recommend replacing Cobra a soon as you can if you are able. I am even starting to believe that group plans are not the best way to go if we leave our health care system be able to deny insurance to customers. Maybe this will change in the future, but today I would move away from Cobra as soon as you can.

I bet you are wondering how much this costs for this HMO dental plan. They do ask that you keep the plan in force for only 6 months. The monthly premiums are below:

• Individual: $39.95/month**
• Plus One: $57.95/month**
• Family : $79.95/month**

**Plus a onetime application/group membership fee of $55.00

**Only a 6-month commitment required

If you are interested in learning more about the plan you can contact us about it at (512) 807-9594. We will be happy to email you a copy of the complete list of dental codes and copays for the plan. I know this has helped many Texans get their mouth feeling better. We look forward to helping you smile again.