Health Insurance

Health Insurance

Unless you're a millionaire and can pay for your health care out of pocket, health insurance is a crucial purchase. The time to buy it is before you have an accident, suffer a serious illness or discover you're pregnant. Individual health insurance doesn't cover health care for medical problems or conditions that start before the date you were issued a policy, although there are now pre-existing condition insurance plans available from the government. However, due to health care reform legislation, health insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage or refuse to renew coverage to adults with pre-existing conditions beginning on Jan. 1, 2014.

Home insurance

Home insurance

Once you know the proper level of coverage, consider special add-ons for valuables such as jewelry, your computer equipment and other pricey possessions. You might also need additional coverage for earthquakes, flooding or windstorms, depending on where you live. Lending institutions usually require mortgage customers to purchase home insurance. Don’t rely on the coverage levels mandated by your bank or mortgage company. Those levels are designed to protect the house itself, but not necessarily your possessions. That’s why it’s important to check with your agent or insurance company to make sure you have adequate coverage. Here are some dos and don'ts when insuring your home from UnitedPolicyholders.org. Basic policies The terms of standard home insurance policies have been defined by the Insurance Services Office (ISO), so standard coverage is generally not going to vary from company to company, although rates will. That's why it's important to shop around. Perils covered in HO-2, HO-3, HO-4 and HO-6 policies:

The 10 costliest tornadoes

The 10 costliest tornadoes

The May 20, 2013, Moore, Okla., tornado is a reminder of how violent thunderstorm season can be. Disaster modelers estimate damage will top $2 billion, possibly making it the costliest U.S. tornado of all time. The twister touched down in the southern Oklahoma City metro area and in 40 minutes cut a destructive swath 17 miles long and up to 1.3 miles wide -- almost the size of Manhattan. Winds of up to 210 mph ripped through Briarwood Elementary School, leveled Plaza Towers Elementary, wrecked some 12,000 homes and tore off the top floor of Moore Medical Center. Twenty-four people lost their lives, including seven children at Plaza Towers. Tornadoes are the second costliest type of disaster in the United States, having caused $130.2 billion in insured losses from 1992 to 2011, more than five times that of earthquakes and fires combined. Only hurricanes and tropical storms, which caused $161.3 billion in insured losses in those years, are more destructive overall. Joplin, Mo., tornado damage

Health plan choices in 2014

 Health plan choices in 2014

Before you start shopping for health insurance for 2014, learn the difference among platinum, gold, silver and bronze -- the names for new standardized health plans that will be sold through "marketplaces." Health plans sold through the state and federally operated health insurance marketplaces, formerly known as exchanges, will be standardized to make it easier to compare prices and benefits. The National Conference of State Legislatures has state-by-state information on marketplaces. All the plans must offer the same core package of essential benefits, such as coverage for prescription drugs, maternity and newborn care, lab services, emergency services and preventive and wellness care. And none of the plans can deny coverage or charge higher premiums for pre-existing conditions, meaning illnesses or conditions you already have.

Insuring a car you don't own

Insuring a car you don't own

Driving a car that belongs to Mom and Dad? How do you insure it? The question is a common one, and the situation is tricky, says CarInsurance.com consumer analyst Penny Gusner. [Let Insure.com help you find affordable car insurance now.] If you are living with your parents, you simply could be a listed driver on their policy. Usually a car insurance policy covers all the licensed drivers in the household who have permission to drive the car. "It gets difficult when the driver of the car isn't on the title and doesn't live with the title holder," Gusner observes. insurance for a car you don't ownWhat you need in these cases is "insurable interest." Having insurable interest in property, such as a car, means you would suffer a financial loss if it were damaged or destroyed.

What you have to reveal at an accident scene

What you have to reveal at an accident scene

You've just been involved in a fender bender. Police are on the way. Meanwhile, what information do you have to exchange with the other driver? That answer varies by state. In Florida, for instance, state law requires drivers to share name, address, contact details, driver's license number, license plate number and auto insurance information. In New York it's more of the same, plus if the driver's name is different from the name on the insurance card or registration, you're supposed to provide the name of the person who owns the car or who holds the insurance policy. In California you're supposed to show your driver's license, vehicle registration card, evidence of financial responsibility and current address to the other driver or persons involved. car accident information exchangeBut state laws can defy common sense. Is it really wise to hand a stranger your driver's license in this age of identity theft? "First of all, nobody says you even have to get out of your car in the middle of the road with cars buzzing all around you and put your life at risk and potentially be assaulted or carjacked," says Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert with McAfee. He says in the commotion of an accident scene, caution is often thrown out the window. People can get into heated arguments over who is at fault, or a rear-end collision could be a scam to steal your personal information.

Husbands lie more than wives about driving mistakes

Husbands lie more than wives about driving mistakes

Molly M. of Yuma, Ariz., says her husband might have tried to keep his scrape with the law a secret if it weren’t for two little mommy's helpers -- the couple’s daughters, then ages 5 and 7, in the back seat. Her husband, who is chronically late, was trying to get the girls to school on time. “And so he was speeding, made an illegal left -- and got a ticket for not having an insurance card with him -- so three tickets in one stop." Upon seeing her daughters later that day, they blurted out, "Mommy, Mommy! Daddy got pulled over by a policeman!" The girls, who are now 6 and 8 years old, still talk like to about it. "Remember when   Daddy got pulled over by that policeman and we were really late for school!?" According to a recent survey by Insure.com, 34 percent of married men are keeping a traffic ticket a secret from their wives. Conversely, only 16 percent of married women say they have a secret traffic ticket. It turns out there are lots of driving-related secrets among spouses, from dinging the car to driving without insurance. (See stats at right.) Crash it and forget it Even car accidents are being kept under wraps. Thirty-one percent of husbands and 17 percent of wives have a secret car accident. Gary N. of Ponte Vedra, Fla., remembers his dad, Homer, a true prankster, trying to pull a fast one on Gary’s mother back in the late ‘70s. His father accidentally hit something in his Ford Galaxy, damaging the front fender to the tune of a couple hundred dollars.

7 magic words to expedite insurance claims

7 magic words to expedite insurance claims

No words can erase a disaster that strikes your home or wrecks your car. But some words can help expedite your insurance payments. Here are seven magic words that can smooth the claim process. 1. Covered! You need to have insurance in the first place in order to make a successful claim. That sounds like a no-brainer, but many drivers and homeowners get caught by surprise. Perhaps they don't have coverage for the damage, or they have exclusions they didn't know about, or they don't have enough coverage. expedite insurance claimsAfter the 2010 Fourmile Canyon wildfire near Boulder, Colo., 64 percent of homeowners found themselves underinsured on their homes by an average of more than $200,000, according to a survey by United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group in San Francisco. Surveys in other parts of the country have revealed similar results. Many of those homes were insured for about $100 to $125 per square foot, but the cost to rebuild was $250 to $300 per square foot, says public insurance adjuster Scott deLuise, CEO of Denver-based Matrix Business Consulting Inc. and a vice president of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters. Other gaps that often take people by surprise: Many car insurance policies exclude business use of a vehicle. Here's how you might have less car insurance than you think. Standard home insurance typically doesn't cover the cost of meeting new codes when rebuilding. 2. Documentation Reporting as much information as you can to an insurer after a car accident speeds up the claim process. After you've called police and made sure everyone is OK, document

A good insurance website makes you open your wallet

A good insurance website makes you open your wallet

If a car insurance company website is easy to use, you're more likely to buy from that insurer than from one with a clunky site -- even if you have to pay a little more, according to new research from J.D. Power & Associates. Yet most major insurance companies make it easier to get service on your own policy online than to shop for a new one, says J.D. Power. Both objectives are important for attracting and keeping customers. But "with the exception of the stars, very few excelled in both," says Jeremy Bowler, senior director of J.D. Power's global insurance practice. insurance website studyAmong the 20 insurance companies included in the firm's 2013 "Insurance Website Evaluation Study," Esurance, GEICO and Progressive stood out as top performers. Users in the study found it easy to shop for new policies as well as get service on existing policies on the websites. Industry-wide, though, insurance company websites scored higher for servicing than for selling, with an average score of 414 on a 500-point scale. Shopping had an an average score of 347. Not surprisingly carriers with better websites and lower prices won over shoppers. But in many cases carriers with higher-rated websites beat competitors with lower prices. The study found that 60 percent of the time, customers comparing quotes on two carrier websites chose the insurer with the better site, even if it quoted a higher price. Struggling to catch up Bowler observes that insurance companies that are struggling to catch up built the servicing function on their websites first, before investing heavily in the shopping function. Some companies feared the inherent risk of having a fully automated underwriting system operating on a website 24 hours a day, he says. What if there were a glitch, and thousands of policies were underpriced before the error could be fixed? This is the kind of question that keeps insurance executives up at night. "To build a system that's trustworthy takes an investment seven digits long," Bowler says. But now, at a time when more than half of insurance shoppers scout out options on the Web, companies are seeing the cost of not providing a good online shopping experience. "There's an opportunity cost: GEICO's eating your lunch," Bowler says. For servicing, users in the study rated their insurance carriers' websites for how easy it was to perform several different tasks to manage their policies. The easiest was paying bills. Users rated companies an average of 4.5 out of 5 points for that task. Requesting a replacement ID card and adding a driver or vehicle to a policy was harder. The average score for both those tasks was 4.2. In the shopping evaluation, customers were asked to compare two sites and rate them on how easy it was to request a quote, compare policies, find policy information, get discount information and find company contact information. The two tasks that were hardest to accomplish were also the ones customers considered most important for shopping: finding policy information and requesting a quote. On average, users rated websites 3.6 and 3.8 out of 5 respectively, for those tasks, compared to 4.2 for the ability to find company contact information. Don't make me wait Speed and accuracy are critical for the online quoting process to work well. One strategy carriers are using to speed up the process is to prefill forms for customers, Bowler says. You provide a driver's license number, for instance, and the website retrieves a bunch of data automatically for you. Quick and accurate pre-filling is one of the most impactful steps carriers can take to improve the experience, Bowler says. Reducing the number of screens you have to go through to accomplish a task also helps. Some carriers take customers through five screens to do something, while others make them go through more than a dozen, Bowler says. The worst-performing websites keep customers waiting between multiple screens while the backend retrieves data. Clearly communicating which discounts are available and which ones have been applied in a quote is also important. "If customers weren't sure all the discounts were accounted for, scores would tumble by 80 or 90 points," Bowler says. One of the prime reasons customers abandon insurance carrier websites to phone the call centers is to verify price quotes, he adds. Meanwhile, companies with the best websites are using customer-friendly videos to explain information, while those that are lagging behind are still using 1990s-style pdf documents with frequently asked questions. It's an uphill battle for insurance companies with bad websites. Only 21 percent of customers with a negative online experience with a carrier's website say they will return to the site, and a mere 16 percent say they will recommend the website to others, the study found. Meanwhile, 68 percent of customers with a positive experience say they will return to the website, and 65 percent say they will recommend it to others. 

News Source :  www.insure.com

Tornado damage cleanup and insurance claims

Tornado damage cleanup and insurance claims

Standard home insurance policies include coverage for tornado damage. But there are steps homeowners can take to minimize the damage and get back on track. "I always tell people documentation, communication and cooperation are the most important elements of any claims settlement," says Logan Harrison, chief deputy commissioner at the Indiana Department of Insurance. "We recognize that homeowners are going through a really tough time but if they're able to keep those three things in mind, it will make their lives much easier." Write it down making tornado damage claimsBefore you can begin documenting the damage to your home and property, it's critical that you determine whether or not it's safe to remain in an area that's been hit by a tornado. After all, downed power lines, gas leaks and broken glass are accidents waiting to happen. "Make sure it's safe to go back into your neighborhood," warns Julie Rochman, president and chief executive officer at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety in Tampa, Fla. "Safety always comes first. You want to make sure that emergency operations people have first cleared the area [for you] to go back." Next, begin documenting the damage. "Be as detailed as you can," recommends Jeanne Salvatore, a spokesperson for the III. "You want to make lists and take photographs." Rochman agrees, adding that "taking video is also a really good thing to do. That's because a lot of videos include time and date stamps for greater accuracy." That's not to suggest that you should delay making minor repairs. While it's critical to document every bit of damage, Salvatore says, "If you don't have a total loss, you also want to make basic or interim repairs to prevent additional damage." Putting a tarp over a damaged roof, boarding up blown-out windows or sweeping up broken glass won't impact your insurance claim. Remember to "save your receipts for things like tarps and plywood, because you'll be reimbursed by your insurance company for the costs of those repairs," says Salvatore. Locate a mobile claims unit If your neighborhood has been hit by tornado, chances are there are a number of mobile claims units from various insurers roving around. Fortunately, finding them is easier than you think. "Call your insurance company or go online to find out if there's a mobile claims unit in your area," recommends Salvatore. "Your state insurance department can also be a good resource." According to Rochman, in the aftermath of a tornado, insurance companies typically "start advertising on radio and print. Red Cross will have the numbers you need, and shelters will too. Insurers also park mobile units in places where people are most likely to shop, like big-box hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowe's." Rochman says you can make it easier for mobile claims units to find you by putting up homemade signs with your address, the name of your insurance carrier and a phone number where you can be reached. Initiating your claims process If you're paying regular visits to a hospital or traveling back and forth between shelters, starting your claims process may not be at top of your list. But Harrison says homeowners should "reach out to their insurance agent or designated representative as soon as possible." Harrison recommends "jotting down the date and time of all communications with an agent, as well as the employee's name and identification number" in order to track your claim. If your home is uninhabitable, you're likely entitled to reimbursement for additional living expenses from your policy, including hotel and meal expenses. If your home has suffered extensive damage, consider hiring a public insurance adjuster to help you through the claims process.. An ounce of prevention Your insurance claim will go more smoothly if you have prepared a home inventory in advance. The III has helpful Know Your Stuff software. Then you won't need to spend time reconstructing a list of your possessions from memory. "Conducting a home inventory by listing all your personal possessions makes it easier to file a claim," says Salvatore. "Make sure you've kept your insurance up to date. And try to understand what your insurance policy covers and what it doesn't cover before you make a claim." 

News Source :   www.insure.com

Life insurance tax surprise The unholy trinity

Life insurance tax surprise The unholy trinity

A major plus with life insurance is that the death benefit is usually tax-free. Your beneficiaries receive the money and don't have to worry about Uncle Sam. But there's an exception you should know about if you're planning to buy life insurance and want to protect yourself from a gift tax. [Let Insure.com help you find affordable life insurance now.] The tax trap is known as the "unholy trinity" or "the Goodman Triangle" after a 1946 court case, Goodman v. Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. It happens when three different people play the roles of policy owner, insured and beneficiary. Unholy trinity life insurance taxThink of a life insurance policy as a triangle, says Amy Rose Herrick, a Chartered Financial Consultant and life insurance agent with offices in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Tecumseh, Kan. The three points of the triangle are: The policy owner -- the person who bought the policy and pays the premiums. The insured -- the person whose life the policy covers. The beneficiary -- the person designated to receive the death benefit when the insured dies. (See more about who's who on a life insurance policy.) "You always want two points of the triangle to be the same person, company or charity," Herrick says. If there are three different people at the three points, then the death benefit could count as a taxable gift to the beneficiary. Say, for instance, a husband owns a policy on his wife's life and names their son the beneficiary. The death benefit then is considered a taxable gift to the son. The person who makes the gift -- the policy owner, not the beneficiary -- is the one who could be subject to gift taxes. Whether any tax is owed depends on how much is given away. Under federal tax law, you can give a certain amount every year and over a lifetime tax-free to someone. In 2013, the annual limit is $14,000 per recipient. The lifetime amount is $5.25 million. A married couple can give away $10.5 million over their lifetimes without paying gift taxes. (Money and property transferred to spouses is not taxed.) The unholy trinity trap is often overlooked, Herrick says. Even some life insurance salespeople are unaware of it, and it can occur with term life or permanent life insurance. Life insurance should be part of a holistic financial plan. Work with a savvy adviser when you purchase coverage because estate planning and tax issues are complex, especially when you have a large estate. For more, read these 10 ways to screw up when you name life insurance beneficiaries.

News Source :  www.insure.com

U.S. Medicare outlook improves as healthcare costs ease

 U.S. Medicare outlook improves as healthcare costs ease

Slower growth in U.S. healthcare costs improved the budget outlook for the Medicare program for the elderly from last year, but the fortunes of the Social Security pension program have not changed despite a better economy, trustees of the programs said on Friday. The trustees repeated warnings to Congress to pass reforms that will enable the programs to meet all of their long-term obligations, but their report adds to recent evidence of an easing in U.S. budget pressures, and could help encourage a sense of complacency in Washington. The main trust fund that supports the Medicare healthcare program will be depleted in 2026, two years later than forecast last year, the trustees said in their annual status report. The trustees attributed the improvement to lower projected spending for most treatment categories, especially in skilled nursing homes, an assumption in keeping with recent signs of slower healthcare inflation. They also said the implementation of key parts of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law next year will reduce costs by more than previously projected. The report said the Social Security fund for retirees will be depleted in 2033, the same as forecast last year. But a much more pressing need is the 2016 depletion date for the Social Security's trust fund that pays benefits to people with disabilities. While this is also unchanged from last year's report, it means that Congress now only has three years to agree on new funding or reforms that would avoid reduced payments to beneficiaries. Depletion of the Medicare and Social Security trust funds does not mean that all benefits would stop. At the current rate of payroll tax collections, Medicare would be able to pay about 87 percent of costs after 2026, declining to 71 percent by 2047. Social Security would be able to pay about three quarters of its benefits through 2087, according to the report. REFORM ENTHUSIASM DIMS The programs represent the two largest federal expenditures and account for about one-third of all U.S. fiscal outlays. The reports will feed into bitter arguments between Democrats and Republicans over how to reform the programs to keep them solvent and able to support the needs of the massive Baby Boom generation that is now starting to retire. The healthcare improvements cited by the trustees in the report could dampen enthusiasm, particularly among Democrats, for any reforms to entitlement programs. The report comes on the heels of other signs showing a quick, if only temporary, reduction in the U.S. budget deficit. "It reinforces a consensus in this city that the crisis isn't imminent," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Croup, a firm that advises investors on Washington politics. "A mood of complacency is intensifying over entitlement reform. There's no sense of urgency." U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the report supports Democrats' approach of protecting the basic structure of Social Security and Medicare, while reducing healthcare costs and excessive drug subsidies and asking wealthier seniors to contribute more. While the Obama administration wants to work on bipartisan reforms to strengthen the programs' financial footing, Lew said "changes to Social Security and that involve deep cuts in benefits or privatization will be unacceptable." Senator Bernard Sanders, a liberal Independent from Vermont, said the report shows that Social Security "is not going broke" and argued against Obama's proposal to limit future cost-of-living increases by applying a less-generous measure of inflation. Sanders in a statement said the report showed the wealthy should pay more into the pension program. "We must lift the cap on Social Security payroll taxes and make the wealthy contribute the same percentage of their income as other workers," he said. "Today, someone making $10 million a year contributes the same amount of money as someone making $113,700. That is absurd." Republicans in the House of Representatives, meanwhile, have proposed massive long-term changes to Medicare that would effectively convert the popular fee-for-service program into a voucher-like system that provides a subsidy to seniors to buy private health insurance. "Today's report is yet another reminder that Medicare and Social Security are in great danger," said a spokesman for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the leading Republican fiscal voice. "We need to protect and strengthen these critical programs." Republicans also want to repeal Obama's healthcare reforms. But the report said the "modest improvement" in the Medicare finance outlook came from lower projected spending for most service categories "that reflect recent data suggesting that certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act will reduce growth in these costs by more than previously projected."

News Source :   www.reuters.com

Newly discovered virus takes more lives spreads

Newly discovered virus takes more lives spreads

A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans continues to spread -- with the worldwide total now at 49, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Of the 49 known infections with the MERS-CoV virus, 27 have resulted in death, the organization said. The latest deaths were reported in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi health ministry said Wednesday that three people died from their infections in the country's eastern region. Health workers infected with coronavirus How is dangerous new virus spreading? WHO tracks new virus to Middle East The virus is "a threat to the entire world," the WHO's general director said Monday. 5 things to know about the coronavirus It "is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself," Margaret Chan said Monday in her closing remarks at the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. Although many of the cases have occurred on the Arabian Peninsula, people have died of the infection elsewhere. However, "all of the European cases have had a direct or indirect connection to the Middle East," the WHO said earlier this month. But "in France and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among close contacts who had not been to the Middle East but had been in contact with a traveler recently returned from the Middle East." On Tuesday, a patient died in France after having contracted the virus during a trip to the Middle East, the WHO reported. Coronaviruses cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as well as a variety of animal diseases. However, the new virus is not SARS. The WHO recently gave it a more specific name: Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus, or MERS-CoV. It acts like a cold virus and attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Health officials do not yet know much about how the virus spreads, which makes it hard for scientists to prevent infections, Chan said. The WHO is calling for the world to pull together its resources to study and tackle the virus. New virus is a 'threat to the entire world'

News Source : www.edition.cnn.com