It helps to be insured. It could be your car, your home, or even your motorcycle. If you insure these, it’s only practical that you also insure your health, right? So you have health insurance and disability life insurance and other kinds of insurance.

Another insurance you should have is the mortgage disability insurance. This is because your home is a single large investment that you have done. Think of all the hours you toiled so you could afford your abode.

A number of people realize the importance to insure against loss of homes. But they ignore the fact that paying the mortgage might not be completed – because we are mortal. Let’s say we get sick or die, paying the mortgage will not be that easy.

That is why there’s mortgage disability insurance. Either of these two events cannot affect the mortgage payment of the house if you have this.

Mortgage disability insurance is specifically designed to provide you with the funds you need in order for you to meet the responsibilities you have for your mortgage loan. It ties you up to three years, just in case you become disabled during that span.

It is very affordable especially if you are a two-income family. Think of you and your spouse insured in paying the mortgage.

Let’s say something happens to you or your spouse, you wouldn’t have to worry about losing your home, just as long as you have mortgage disability insurance.

Another scenario is you being bedridden. It won’t be that easy to pay the mortgage. At least with mortgage disability insurance, you get to pay the bill just in case you do become an invalid and cannot earn the income that you need in order to pay your home.

The reality is the foreclosures of most mortgages are the results of disabilities. The homeowner can no longer meet his end of the bargain on a financial level because of this.

Since the contract states that foreclosure will take place if any even happens, that is the ending of the whole mortgage drama. With the mortgage disability insurance, the homeowner wouldn’t have to face that scenario.

If you are smart enough, you wouldn’t agree to be a statistic. With your mortgage disability insurance plan approved, you are secure that your home will be paid in sickness or in health.

If you do get injured, you can recover easily because you don’t have to worry about not paying the bills.

Insurance-what a big topic. There are many kinds of insurance. Regardless of the kind, here are ten tips to guide you in making wise choices and avoiding paying more than you need to.

Health insurance is not always the first financial consideration for young adults. After all, when you’re young you feel healthy and don’t think you’ll have the need. Actually, health insurance is one of the most important financial protections you can get when you are young.

Many young people don’t often realize that they are usually dropped by their parents’ health insurance coverages when they either turn 18 or finish being a full-time student by age 23 or so. However, many young adults also feel like they don’t really need it either. Yet a single accident or serious illness can end up costing thousands of dollars.

Financial advisers strongly recommend that young adults maintain some sort of health insurance coverage. But how do you go about getting affordable health insurance?

First, check with your employer to see if they offer health insurance benefits. If so, and you are eligible, this is probably your best bet as far as the types of coverages you get at a low cost.

If your employer doesn’t offer health insurance, or you’re not eligible you can shop around for an individual health insurance policy. There are policies available that provide coverages for catastrophic need at affordable premiums. Usually, these have limitations to the coverages and feature high deductibles. However, they are still better than going uninsured.

Remember, health insurance costs can vary quite a bit from company to company, and some companies offer policies especially for people in your situation. Plan coverages also vary from company to company. Make sure to spend some time shopping around for comparison quotes and ask lots of questions so you fully understand your coverages and obligations.

If you are a full-time college student, you may be able to get student insurance through your college or buy shopping online.

You may also be able to participate in a form of group insurance through an association. If you are a member of an association, or are aware of any in your area that you can join, check to see if they offer access to health insurance.

You won’t like the answer to that particular question, but the facts are the facts. Health insurance rates are going up because of us. That’s right, we are the authors of our own misfortune if you will. Very simply we do not look after ourselves and by doing that, we send the price of health care rates sky high.

We drink, we smoke, we’re aging (OK we can’t do anything about that) and we don’t work out. Our obesity rate as a nation is abominable. The health care costs of treating alcoholics, smokers and obese patients are phenomenal.

It’s not just that we don’t take care of ourselves either. The other factors that drive up the cost of health insurance rates are medical inflation and medical errors. Now you might be thinking medical errors must cost a bundle. Actually, they are declining – a good thing by any standards.

The biggest area of problems is medical inflation. Just try to find out what a surgery will cost you, and good luck on that. Let’s say for instance you needed an appendectomy. You want to know what that will cost. No hospital or doctors office will give you that figure because they have no idea what they will bill you for until they bill you.

Surgery has almost become an a la carte menu where the doctor (and hospital) picks and chooses what you will get billed for. From the cost of dispensing pills to the cost of the pill itself and from the cost of the extra pillow you wanted to the extra dressing required for your incision. You get billed for each item. No wonder bills are so high and they can’t tell you what it costs.

However, having said that, it’s interesting that doctor’s offices are able to tell the biggest insurance companies paying the freight how much it costs to stay in hospital per day and what a certain surgery costs. See what’s happening here? The doctor gets paid a rate by the insurance company and then bills you extra for other things. Nasty, but it works.

If you want lower health care rates, start taking care of yourself. Don’t smoke, don’t drink to excess and get moving and work out. The healthier you are, the less expensive your health care costs tend to be.

Health Insurance; COBRA; OBRA; HIPAA; Medicare. If asked, could you state that you knew that all 5 of these topics had the same thing in common: medical insurance coverage for you and, perhaps, your family? Would you know the qualifications for each? Well, in this article, we will discuss them. For a timeline that depicts, graphically, the time relationship between them, please see the timeline in http://www.disabilitykey.com.

HEALTH INSURANCE Coverage from Work

If we are lucky, we, and/or our spouse, work for a company that provides, as a benefit, health insurance coverage for us and our family. If so, we are very lucky. Even if that is true, there are some key things that you might want to look at to see if you have ENOUGH coverage.

1) From your Human Resources Department (or wherever else you would go to get information about your health insurance) get what is called a “Summary Plan Description” (SPD). This document should be kept where you can always find it, as it contains all the information you will need about what your insurance covers and what it doesn’t.

2) Look up “Coverage” and “non-coverage” in your SPD.

These will tell you what your plan covers and doesn’t cover. You need to see if, perhaps, you or one of the covered members of your family has a condition or circumstance that might not be covered, where you need additional coverage. For example, let’s say that your family has a history of cancer; perhaps your plan restricts the number of hospitalization days for care; or, restricts the days per condition. In this case, (like my children) you might want to get additional “cancer insurance” (I think that AFLAC might provide this type of coverage).

It would be a good idea to contact a Health Insurance benefit Broker and ask him/her to read your SPD and see if you have any gaps in coverage. They then can help you supplement coverage BEFORE YOU NEED IT!

NO HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

You might be one of the growing members of our society that, through one circumstance or another, does NOT have health insurance coverage for your family. In this case, I strongly encourage you to contact a Health Insurance Broker and get immediate coverage of what is called “catestrophic” (not sure if I spelled this correctly) coverage. In this type of coverage, you will generally have large deductibles, but will have coverage if, say, one of you has to go into the hospital.

CONTACTING A BENEFITS INSURANCE BROKER

Whenever you call or email a Health Insurance Broker, it is very important to prepare ahead of time. WHAT, specifically are you looking for; how much can you afford to pay every month; what circumstances do you want to make sure that your family is covered for. In this way, you can make sure to focus on your critical needs.

COBRA

COBRA is an acronym ( how can I spell acronym correctly, yet not be sure that I spelled catestrophic correctly?) that stands for: Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Basically, it is a federal law that allows you to pay for your Company-paid health insurance, as an active member, if you no longer work for that company for, generally 18 additional months.

1) COBRA is “triggered” (that is, you, or a covered member of your family, become eligible for COBRA) by events such as the following: resignation from the company; termination (FOR ANY REASON) from the company; divorce of a spouse; a covered chile’s birthday makes them ineligible for coverage. These are the main “triggering” events for COBRA.

2) Now, when eligible for COBRA, you will be asked to pay for 100% to 105% of the company’s employee/employee and family coverage amount. You should get a letter from your company explaining what that amount will be. BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE COBRA, there are some important things for you to consider.

What will be your cost, and what will be the coverage for that cost?
Sometimes the cost is too much for the coverage. In these cases, you might want to select HIPAA coverage, instead (see HIPAA below).

Or, you might just want to get catestrophic coverage as was mentioned earlier, and wait for full coverage under your next job.

Part of this decision should be whether or not you or a member of your family has what is called a “pre-exisitng coverage” condition.

Here again, before automatically taking COBRA, it would be wise to contact a Benefits Insurance Broker and give him/her all of your options, and get their input. I have worked extensively with a Benefits Insurance Broker, and he is absolutely fantastic!

OBRA

What, you ask, is OBRA? I’ve never heard of it, you say, and no one I know has heard of it either! Well, that’s because, 99% of Human Resource or Benefit folks that I know have never heard of it! OBRA is a federal law that was passed that extends COBRA for an additional 11 months FOR DISABILITY PURPOSES ONLY!! Why, you ask, is this important? Thanks for asking, let’s see if I can explain.

If you are as nieve (did I spell this wrong too? sorry!) as I was when I first started looking to bridge my health insurance from working to Medicare, I assumed that when I got through all of the hoops to qualify for SSDI (Social Security Disabililty Insurance) I’d IMMEDIATELY be eligible for Medicare, RIGHT??? WRONG!!!!

When you FINALLY qualify for SSDI, you have to wait for 5 months before you get your first check. AND, the rules state that, you are eligible for Medicare 2 years (24 months) FROM THE DATE OF YOUR FIRST SSDI PAYMENT. Well, if you add 24 + 5 you get, 29 months between qualifying for SSDI, and Medicare coverage.

OK, I said earlier that COBRA is for 18 months of coverage. Well guess what 18 months of COBRA + 11 months of OBRA equal – 29 months!

BUT, there are two catches to OBRA; first of all, you have a small window of 30 – 60 days to apply ( this window opens the date of your SSDI approval); and, it can cost up to 150% of your plan coverage amount. BUT, if you have a “previously existing condition” this might be the best way for you to proceed.

Again, it is important to contact a Health Insurance Broker to help you with the risk/cost ratio of all of these situations.

It is also improtant to know all of these deadlines as you plan to ensure that you and your family have important health insurance coverage.

HIPAA

HIPAA is a federal law that is called, briefly, the “portability” law for health insurance. What that means is that when you leave a group (read company-paid plan), the carrier that provided that plan, must offer to you, another plan, different from COBRA, when you leave the group coverage. Generally this will be what is called a “bare bones” plan. Again, the best thing for you to do is to call/email a Health Insurance/Benefits Broker with all of your information: SPD, COBRA info, HIPAA info, needs, cost limits, and let him/her help you find the optimum plan coverage for you.

MEDICARE

OK, now, finally, we’ve reached Medicare! BUT (you really didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?) if you have qualified for Medicare because of disability, there are RESTRICTIONS (of COURSE there are!).

First of all, if you are qualifying for Medicare because of disability, you are probably under the age of 65 – normal retirement age.

Medicare coverage does NOT cover prescription drugs, which, those of us with disabilities probably need, and which cost lots.

But, Congress prescribed that states (all but 11) offer what is called “Medicare supplement” plans, some of which do offer prescription coverages.
BUT, these plans ARE NOT REQUIRED TO, and do not, offer these medicare supplement plans that offer prescription coverages to folks who qualify under age 65! So, if you are qualifying because of disability, your medical insurance plan doesn’t cover one of your primary cost expenditures!

Here again is where you need to contact a health insurance/benefit broker. Again, he/she can work with you, and your specific circumstances, to get you the coverage you need.

Hope that this information was helpful to you. If you have any questions, please feel to ask them by commenting on this blog, and I’ll be happy to get you an answer.

Nowadays, you can find a variety of health insurance plans in the United States and North Carolina, the home of many brilliant physicians, hospitals, and reliable health insurance companies.

With the cost of health care getting higher and higher, you are likely to land in deep trouble if you have a serious accident or a major illness. Buying health insurance can save you from a financial disaster. Armed with health insurance, you can protect yourself and your family if you are in need of expensive medical treatment. In that case, a third party will pay your expenses, which can be an insurance company or even your employer.

Most people receive health insurance through their jobs. Called group insurance, it is less expensive and in many cases the employer takes responsibility of the total or partial cost. Although some employers offer only one health insurance plan, some others offer you a choice of plans: a fee-for-service plan, a health maintenance organization (HMO), or a preferred provider organization (PPO). Most of the plans have some kind of managed care program to help control costs. All HMOs, PPOs, and several fee-for-service plans, have managed care. In case you don’t get this benefit from your employer, you can go for an individual policy.

Health insurance companies in North Carolina offer several plans for individuals, couples and families. In NC, you find group health insurance programs for employees of all sizes of businesses. Health insurance plans in North Carolina are not beyond your reach because you can select a policy that matches your budget. In North Carolina many public and private employers offer a managed care option to employees. The state of North Carolina offers many types of managed care options to state employees and their dependents, and it also has a portion of the Medicaid population enrolled in managed care plans.

There are a number of health insurance companies licensed and approved to do business in North Carolina. The choice is yours.