That, obviously, is a gross oversimplification, but you can get the full treatment at our original Georgia life insurance article.

Now we need to talk about a third, and more complex, type of Georgia life insurance: universal life.

The key thing to keep in mind when talking with a Georgia life insurance agent about universal life insurance is this: make absolutely certain that the policy is guaranteed. This is because things aren’t as cut and dry with a UL (universal life) policy as they are with a WL (whole life) policy.

To put it as basically as possible: with a whole life policy, as long as every premium is paid the death benefit of that policy is guaranteed to pay out when the insured passes away. With a universal life policy, on the other hand, the policy will “lapse” (meaning your death benefit will vanish) if the premiums and cash value aren’t enough to cover what’s known as the COI, or Cost Of Insurance. For that reason, it’s vital to make sure you’re getting a guaranteed UL. With a guaranteed policy, also called a no-lapse policy, it’s written into your contract that if you make certain premium payments that the policy will be guaranteed not to lapse until a certain age. Generally, that age is 121, meaning you’d have to be very old indeed to outlive your policy.

When it comes to Georgia life insurance, you’ll find that UL policies are less expensive by far than WL policies. This makes a UL policy an attractive choice to a Georgia life insurance shopper, but again, you must be aware that without a guarantee written into the policy that your premium payments may not be enough to sustain your coverage in the future.

So which Georgia life insurance shoppers should be looking for a universal life policy? If you’re looking to get longer lasting protection than term life insurance can provide for not much more in monthly premiums, then a universal life policy might be right for you. Georgia life insurance shoppers should also have their eye on a UL policy if they’re looking for something that will build a cash value, but don’t want to pay the super high premiums of a traditional whole life policy.

As you can see, UL policies can provide great advantages to Georgia life insurance shoppers. However, there are a few pitfalls that you need to look out for, which is why I firmly believe you should work with an agent to figure out just what Georgia life insurance product is right for you. Now that you’ve started learning, why not set up your no-cost, no-obligation conversation with your personal Georgia life insurance agent today? Getting started is as easy as requesting your free Georgia life insurance quote.

Georgia Universal Life Insurance is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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I’m exaggerating, of course, but only barely. If you want to make it a little more complicated, all you’ve got to do is throw in a dash of maternity insurance.

The important thing to keep in mind when you’re dealing with maternity insurance is that most maternity-related expenses are going to have little or nothing to do with your normal benefits. The costs of pre-natal care, delivery, and post-delivery care are almost universally not covered expenses under your normal health plan. The second thing to keep in mind is that if you’re currently pregnant, you’re out of luck. If you don’t already have maternity insurance, you’re not going to be able to add it. Actually, if you don’t currently have health insurance of any sort and you’ve just gotten pregnant, then no major carrier will issue you a health insurance policy of any sort. If that’s the situation you’re in, I suggest checking out your options with state assistance.

The third thing to keep in mind is that maternity insurance on an individual policy can be very pricey, and here’s why: health insurance is all about risk. When a health insurance company issues a policy, they’re hoping that you never, ever, ever get sick or injured, because then they’ll have to pay a claim. If an insurer issues a hundred policies and only one person files a claim, then the insurance company’s expenses are kept low, and that means that their premiums can stay lower. That’s why it’s also more expensive to get health insurance when you’re older or when you have a more colorful health history — you present a bigger risk to the insurance company (in other words, there’s a greater chance that you’ll actually use your health insurance to pay a claim), so they charge you more to accept that risk.

Now, nobody is out trying to get sick or injured, and that means that every year loads of people with health insurance will pay their premiums and not file a claim. Health insurance companies love this, and you should too — fewer claims means lower expenses for insurers, and that means lower premiums. However, as a general rule, nobody buys maternity insurance unless they’re thinking about getting pregnant, and that means the chance of a claim being filed against that insurance policy is much higher than the chance of a claim being filed against a normal health insurance policy. That means that policies that include maternity insurance have significantly higher premiums than policies without it.

Now, what does maternity insurance do?

In a nutshell, maternity insurance covers the costs of pregnancy and delivery. Of course, nothing could be that simple, so let’s elaborate a little.

There are two main ways in which maternity insurance can work.

The first is the method utilized by most insurance companies: subjecting maternity benefits to a maternity deductible separate from the normal medical deductible. So, if you break your leg, your costs associated with that apply to your medical deductible, and that medical deductible is completely separate from your maternity deductible.  Aside from that, maternity benefits structured in this way are pretty normal.

The thing is, many maternity deductibles are pretty high, sometimes up in the $10,000 range, while the usual cost of a routine pregnancy only runs $4000 – $6500. It may seem pretty useless to have a maternity deductible that high, but there is a benefit to it.

As we discussed in the article on high deductible health plans, covered expenses get negotiated rates while non-covered expenses get billed the full amount. As a quick refresher: if you go to the emergency room and don’t have health insurance, you’ll get billed for the full amount of the ER visit (let’s say, just for example, that the cost is $4000). If you do have health insurance, then the insurance company will get a bill from the hospital for $4000, but chances are they won’t pay that much. Instead, they’ll pay the negotiated rate that the hospital has agreed to accept from the insurance company for the services rendered. This means that on a $4000 bill, an insurance company will probably pay $2400-$3200. Well, if you go to the hospital on a high deductible health plan and get that bill for $4000 and you haven’t yet met your deductible, you can generally negotiate to pay that negotiated rate, too. A high deductible maternity benefit works the same way — although you may never meet your deductible, since your maternity expenses are a covered expense you will be able to negotiate a lower rate than you would be able to if you had no maternity insurance at all.

The second way maternity insurance can work is the method employed by United Health Care’s individual division, Golden Rule. With Golden Rule, you get first-dollar benefits, meaning you don’t have to meet a deductible before your insurance starts paying benefits. Instead, you have a sort of bank of $4000 that you can draw on to pay maternity costs. Once you have used up that $4000, you’re responsible for the rest of your maternity costs. To get the full benefit, you’ve got to have the benefit added to your plan for twelve months — trying to use the benefits before that twelve month period is up means you’ve only got access to 50% of the bank, or $2000 worth of benefits. That twelve month waiting period does include conception, so patience is a virtue with this plan.

Depending on the carrier, your maternity benefit may also impose a waiting period for any maternity benefits of anywhere from 90 days to twelve months. Always remember, that waiting period includes conception. Also, maternity benefits cover routine expenses, but even if you don’t have maternity benefits on your health insurance policy, emergencies related to pregnancy (such as having to have an emergency c-section) may be covered. When it comes to maternity benefits, it’s vitally important to have your agent handy to help guide you through your policy.

If you’re contemplating maternity insurance, then that means you’re thinking about bringing a new life into this world – and that’s a huge decision. It’s vitally important that you get the maternity insurance policy that truly fits your personal needs, and the safest way to get the right maternity insurance is to work with an independent insurance agent. Head up to our free Georgia insurance quote page to find out how much your maternity insurance will cost and to get free, expert help in choosing the perfect policy for your new family!

How Maternity Insurance Works is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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Aetna coverage is a hot commodity right now, and with good reason – Aetna coverage is among the most affordable types of health insurance available in Georgia today. There are several different types of Aetna coverage, so let’s have a look at what’s on the market.

Aetna Coverage Option One: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO First Dollar 30

The first thing you’ll notice about Aetna coverage is that the plans have frightfully long names.

The Managed Choice Open Access & PPO First Dollar 30 plans are the top of the line when it comes to Aetna coverage. There’s no deductible on these plans – instead, with this Aetna coverage option, you’ll pay 30% of your bills until $7500 comes out of your pocket. After that point, you’ll pay nothing and your Aetna coverage will pay 100%. Office visits are handled by a $30 copay ($40 for specialists). Visits to an urgent care center will run $50 under this Aetna coverage plan, and visits to the ER will cost you $300 flat-fee (unless you’re admitted, in which case this Aetna coverage waives the $300 and goes back to charging you 30% until you’ve reached your annual $7500 out-of-pocket limit). 

Prescription drugs are subject to a $500 deductible. Generics are a $15 copay (deductible waived), so only preferred drugs ($40 copay) and non-preferred drugs ($60 copay) are subject to the deductible with this Aetna coverage.

The Verdict: This Aetna coverage is pretty magnificent, but it carries a magnificent price tag, too. If you want to spend this much on your health insurance, why not limit your out-of-pocket exposure a little more and get a Copay Select plan with Golden Rule?

Aetna Coverage Option Two: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO First Dollar 40

This Aetna coverage is essentially the same as the first, with the following modifications

• This Aetna coverage pays 40% of your bills, not 30%
• The maximum out-of-pocket is $12,500, not $7500
• Office visit copays are each increased by $10
• Brand name drugs are not covered

The Verdict: The lack of prescription benefits with this Aetna coverage really kills it. As always, I never recommend a plan with less than full prescription benefits.

Aetna Coverage Option Three: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO 1500

This Aetna coverage is more in line with what most people think of when they think “health insurance.” Here, we’ve got a $1500 deductible – once that’s met, this Aetna coverage will pay 80% of your bills and you’ll pay 20% until an additional $1500 comes out of your pocket. At that point, your Aetna coverage will pay 100% of your bills.

Office visits with this Aetna coverage are handled by a $25 copay ($35 for specialists). Generic prescriptions cost $15 without meeting any deductible. After a $250 prescription deductible, preferred drugs cost $35 and non-preferred cost $50. 

The Verdict: This Aetna coverage is just about top-of-the-line and carries Aetna’s trademark affordability. This is an excellent option.

Aetna Coverage Option Four: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO 2500

This Aetna coverage is the same as the PPO 1500 with the following modifications:

• There’s a $2500 deductible, then 20% coinsurance to an additional $2500 out-of-pocket (our previous Aetna coverage had $1500, 20%, and $1500)
• Office visit copays are $30 ($40 for specialists)
• Prescription drugs are handled in the same style, but this Aetna coverage carries a $500 prescription deductible instead of $250.

The Verdict: A more affordable version of the 1500 Aetna coverage without any significant holes. Again, an excellent option.

Aetna Coverage Option Five: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO 3500

Again, this Aetna coverage is the same as the PPO 1500 and 2500 with the following modifications:

• There’s a $3500 deductible, then 20% coinsurance, then a $6500 out-of-pocket limit, making the total liability for this plan $10,000
• Office visit copays are $35 ($45 for specialists). 
• Prescription drugs are handled in the same way as with the PPO 2500 Aetna coverage.

The Verdict: This Aetna coverage includes a $6500 out-of-pocket limit, making the total liability on this plan a little too high. The price difference between this Aetna coverage and the PPO 2500 is not large enough to justify the difference in liability.

Aetna Coverage Option Six: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO 5000

Once again, we have a plan that works the same as our previous few options with a couple of modifications:

• This plan has a $5000 deductible, 20% coinsurance, and then a $5000 out-of-pocket limit. This means that the total liability is the same as with the PPO 3500 option, but the deductible is larger.
• Office visits are handled with a $40 copay ($50 specialist).
• Prescription drugs have a $500 deductible and work the same as our last two Aetna coverage options.

The Verdict: If your budget restricts you to this or the PPO 3500, the 3500 will give you greater flexibility and value. However, it’s very much worth the slight price increase to move up to the PPO 2500 and cut your liability in half.

Aetna Coverage Option Seven: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO Value 2000

This Aetna coverage option has the word “Value” in the name, which loyal readers of Georgia Insurance Options will know is code for “watch out – limited benefits ahead.” However, Aetna breaks the mold a bit by offering a robust coverage option and only limiting unnecessary benefits.

Here, you’ll have a $2000 deductible. Once you meet that, you’ll pay 30% of your bills until an additional $2000 comes out of your pocket. At that point, your Aetna coverage will pay 100%. 

You’ve got six office visits per year covered by a copay ($40, or $50 for specialists). Specialist and non-specialists share those six visits under this Aetna coverage option, so budget those visits wisely.

Generic prescriptions are again a $15 copay, and the deductible is waived. Other prescriptions, however, are subject to a $200 prescription deductible with this Aetna coverage option. After that’s met, you’ll pay a $25 copay for preferred drugs and a $40 copay for non-preferred drugs. 

The Verdict: Extremely affordable with low liability means this Aetna coverage option is a great choice for just about anyone. The only people I wouldn’t recommend this plan to are parents with very young children – those six visits will dry up quickly with them.

Aetna Coverage Option Eight: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO Value 5000

Not to sound like a broken record, but this Aetna coverage option is the same as the previous plan with the following modifications:

• You’ll have a $5000 deductible, then 30% coinsurance to an additional $5000 out-of-pocket.
• The prescription deductible is $500, not $200. 

Aside from that, this Aetna coverage option is identical to the previous plan.

The Verdict: This Aetna coverage option is decent if you’re on a budget, but the Value 2000 is far superior and the prices aren’t that far apart. I suggest looking at the Value 2000 Aetna coverage option more closely if you’re considering the Value 5000 plan.

Aetna Coverage Option Nine: Managed Choice Open Access & Value 10000

This Aetna coverage option is flat-out bad. 

First, you’ve got a $10,000 deductible. Once you meet that, you’ll pay 30% of your bills until you pay an additional $2500 out of pocket for a total liability of $12,500.

You’ve got two office visits per year covered by a $30 copay. After that, under this Aetna coverage option your office visits begin falling to your deductible.

Generic drugs under this Aetna coverage option cost $20, no deductible. After a $500 deductible you can get preferred drugs for $40, but non-preferred drugs aren’t covered. On top of that, there is a maximum prescription benefit of $5000 per year for prescription drugs – meaning if you’re on $8,000 a round outpatient cancer treatment drugs, you’ll be out of pocket for everything after the first round.

As a final straw, this Aetna coverage option has a $1,000,000 lifetime maximum benefit. Seems like a lot until you realize that the standard is usually $5,000,000 and some plans in Georgia go up as high as $25,000,000

The Verdict: This Aetna coverage option is bad, bad, bad. However, admittedly, it’s the cheapest health insurance plan in the state of Georgia. If you absolutely, positively cannot afford anything else, then this Aetna coverage option is technically better than nothing.

Aetna Coverage Option Ten: Managed Choice And Open Access Preventative and Hospital Care 1250

This one’s no good either.

First, you’ll have a $1250 deductible with this Aetna coverage option. After you meet that, you’ll pay 20% until an additional $3000 comes out of pocket. At that point, you’ll be covered at 100%.

Office visits are not covered expenses, meaning that with this Aetna coverage option you’ll not only pay for the entire bill for your doctor’s visits, but that amount won’t apply to your deductible and you won’t get network repricing. Horrible!

Labs and X-Rays aren’t covered either. Neither is physical therapy or durable medical equipment (like wheelchairs, crutches, etc.). Again, “not covered” means you’ll not only pay for them, but the cost won’t apply to your deductible with this Aetna coverage.

Preventative care under this Aetna coverage is handled well, giving you unlimited visits at $25 a pop – but who goes for preventative checks more than once or twice a year?

Finally, you’ll get your generic drugs at $15 each, but brand-name drugs are not covered. That’s the final nail in the coffin of this Aetna coverage.

The Verdict: I sat here for ten minutes trying to think of a reason why you should buy this Aetna coverage, and I didn’t come up with a single one. A resounding “NO.”

Aetna Coverage Option Eleven: Managed Choice Open Access and PPO Preventative & Hospital Care 3000

Somehow, worse than the 1250 Aetna coverage.

This Aetna coverage is probably the single most offensively awful thing I’ve ever come across. You’ve got a $3000 deductible, 20% coinsurance, and then another $2000 out of pocket. Then your Aetna coverage kicks in and pays 100% of your bills.

Again, office visits aren’t covered. Labs and X-Rays aren’t covered. Physical therapy isn’t covered. Durable medical equipment isn’t covered.

Under this Aetna coverage, you don’t even get the $15 generics – there is simply zero prescription drug coverage.

The Verdict: I wouldn’t wish this one on my worst enemy. This Aetna coverage option is the absolute, bottom-of-the-barrel worst health insurance plan offered by any major insurance company in Georgia. It is absolutely, positively unthinkable that there would ever be a situation in which this Aetna coverage option was the right choice for you.

Aetna Coverage Option Twelve: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO High Deductible 3000 (HSA Compatible)

The last two Aetna coverage options are very good and very simple. This Aetna coverage has a $3000 deductible – costs before it come out of pocket, costs after are paid 100% by Aetna. That’s it – doctor’s visits, hospitalizations, prescription drugs, everything. Once you’ve paid $3000, you’re done for the year and your Aetna coverage will pick up the rest. This is an extremely simple HSA style plan with very few moving parts and an integrated prescription deductible.

The Verdict: While this Aetna coverage option is great, it doesn’t offer any advantages over the Humana Autograph Total Rx series of plans. These two often run neck-and-neck as far as pricing goes, so comparison shop. However, as we’ll see in a moment, even if the Humana plan comes out to be $30 a month more expensive I’d probably recommend it over the comparable Aetna coverage.

Aetna Coverage Option Thirteen: Managed Choice Open Access & PPO High Deductible 5000 (HSA Compatible)

This plan is functionally identical to the previous plan – the only difference is that the deductible is $5000 instead of $3000. This, of course, makes the plan slightly more affordable while trading off some of the risk. 

The Verdict: My feelings about this Aetna coverage are the same as they are about its $3000 sister. Compare closely against Humana to see which one works better for you.

Special Considerations

There are a couple of things to consider when you’re looking at an Aetna coverage option. Although the plans are some of the most affordable in the state, Aetna has a reputation for being somewhat difficult to deal with on the billing side. Aetna coverage comes with Aetna bureaucracy, which means increased headaches when it comes to getting bills paid and rates negotiated.

Aetna also has a nasty habit of raising their rates multiple times in the second year of coverage, turning a very affordable Aetna coverage plan into an overpriced bank-drainer. In contrast, Humana and Golden Rule will raise their rates once a year at most, and Assurant will allow you to lock in your rate for up to three years on some plans.

There’s also no option to add maternity to your Aetna coverage, so if you’re planning a family then this isn’t the company for you.

On the positive side, Aetna’s dental coverage is widely regarded as some of the best in the business. It’s accepted across a large range of practitioners and geographic areas and is a very affordable form of dental coverage, too. 

The final verdict on Aetna coverage in general: The plans are affordable (for the first year), but you’ve got to be very careful which one you pick. You could either get awesome Aetna coverage, or be stuck with one of the worst plans in the state – there’s very little middle ground when it comes to Aetna coverage. The company also has a slightly spotted reputation, but it’s still a first-tier carrier and that means it’s miles above no-names like Imerica and World.

In short, Aetna coverage is a good budget option, but probably shouldn’t ever be your first choice. Always compare these plans closely with offerings from Humana and Golden Rule before making your final decision.

Now that you’ve learned more about Aetna coverage than you probably ever wanted to know, it’s time to find out how much it costs! Head on over to our free Georgia insurance quote page to get your instant, personalized proposal now!

Which Aetna Coverage is Right for Me? is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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It’s simple, really: life insurance protects the ones you love from financial peril after you’ve left. We talk about why you should have life insurance in detail in another article, but let’s focus here on what kind of life insurance you need.

When it comes to Georgia life insurance, you’ve got two main options: term and whole life. Universal life, a more complicated product, will be discussed in its own article later.

Our first Georgia life insurance option is term life insurance. Term life is the simplest type of Georgia life insurance to understand: you select a face value (the amount that the policy will pay out in the event of your death), and you select a term (the length of time your policy will be effective). If you pass away during the term that your Georgia life insurance is effective, then the policy will pay the full face amount. Term is the cheapest type of Georgia life insurance – hundreds of thousands of dollars of coverage can be purchased for very low rates. The downside, however, is that once your Georgia life insurance term policy’s term expires, you’ll either have to renew your policy at significantly higher rates or convert to a new plan.

Term Georgia life insurance is best for young individuals looking to cheaply insure their lives as they build a solid economic foundation. Buying a term Georgia life insurance policy at a young age can lock in a great rate for twenty or thirty years and guarantee that you’ll be able to get another Georgia life insurance policy down the road. It’s also great in addition to another type of Georgia life insurance policy when you want to add a little extra protection for a set amount of time – for instance, adding an extra $100,000 of Georgia life insurance to your coverage for ten years to make sure that, should something happen to you, your child would undoubtedly be able to afford college.

However, when you get into your forties and fifties, it’s a good idea to explore whole Georgia life insurance. This is because term Georgia life insurance may only be renewable to 75 or 85 (depending on the company) years of age – outliving your Georgia life insurance means that your protection won’t be there when you need it. Converting to whole Georgia life insurance guarantees that your plan will be there and in-force when your family needs the protection.

Whole Georgia life insurance works a little differently than term Georgia life insurance. Here, your only concern is the face value of the policy. Whole Georgia life insurance comes with a higher investment than term Georgia life insurance, but you’ll have protection that lasts your entire life and that builds cash value. Whole life insurance is what most people mean when they talk about “final expense” or “burial insurance” – these policies are smaller, but guaranteed and more stable than term policies.

Within these two types of Georgia life insurance policies, you’ve got two “sub-options:” medically underwritten and non-medical Georgia life insurance.

Medically underwritten policies are policies with a longer application, a more rigorous set of health criteria, rates dependent on health status, and often a requirement for a paramedical examination. These Georgia life insurance policies generally have higher face values at lower premiums because the company issuing the policy is better informed about your health status. Medically underwritten policies are the best Georgia life insurance option for healthy individuals who have had a physical within the last one or two years and who don’t mind the slight inconvenience of filling out a slightly longer Georgia life insurance application and submitting to an examination.

Non-medical Georgia life insurance policies are slightly more expensive, but much easier to obtain. Applications for non-medical Georgia life insurance policies have few or no health questions, do not require a lengthy application, do not require a medical examination, and can be issued much more quickly than medically underwritten Georgia life insurance plans. Non-medically underwritten Georgia life insurance policies are best for individuals who haven’t had a physical within the past couple of years or for individuals who have a few health issues that would drive the rates of medically underwritten policies too high.

Georgia life insurance is offered by many, many different insurance companies, and it’s not always easy to figure out which one is the best for you. However, you’re in luck – as a Georgia life insurance expert, it’s my job to help you figure out what type of Georgia life insurance you need, how much coverage you should have, and which company will offer you the best rates. Now that you’ve learned a little bit about Georgia life insurance, take a second to let me know how I can help you protect your family by filling out this short form. As always, your information will be held in the strictest confidence, never shared or sold. My only goal is to help you find the Georgia life insurance policy that will best insure your family’s financial future.

Thank you! And remember, working with a Georgia life insurance expert carries no fees, no hassle, and no obligation. The only thing you’re getting is a 100% free Georgia life insurance expert to shop rates, compare companies, and do the dirty work for you so that you can be absolutely sure you’ve got the Georgia life insurance policy that will work best for you!

Georgia Life Insurance is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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Assurant insurance (you may be more familiar with their old name, Time or Fortis) is a major player in the Georgia insurance scene. Assurant insurance plans are uniquely customizable, ultra-flexible, and offer some of the most individually tuned coverage options available in the private insurance market today. If you’re looking for health insurance, then Assurant insurance is an excellent choice.

Please note: Georgia Insurance Options has access to the “Assurant Insurance Elite Product” line – a group of Assurant insurance plans that few brokers in the state of Georgia are able to offer. For that reason, some of what you’ll read here will hold true only at Georgia Insurance Options. The short version of the difference between an Elite Assurant Insurance Broker and a Standard Assurant Insurance Broker is this: the elite lines have more coverage at the same cost.

Now, let’s compare each and every Assurant insurance plan one-by-one to see which ones shine and which don’t.

Assurant Insurance Plan Number One: MaxPlan

The first Assurant insurance plan is called MaxPlan, and it offers the most comprehensive coverage you can get in an Assurant insurance plan. You can elect an office visit copay of $35 (with unlimited visits), generic drugs are covered by a $15 copay, and brand name drugs are covered with a $25 copay plus 20% of the drug cost after a $500 deductible. That extra 20% can mean drug costs can add up quickly with this Assurant insurance plan.

You can select a deductible ranging from $500 to $25,000, a coinsurance level of 100% to 50%, and a maximum out-of-pocket past the deductible of $0 to $7500. The huge range of mix-and-match options means that this Assurant insurance plan is incredibly customizable to your specific needs.

The Verdict: Unfortunately, this Assurant insurance plan is generally overpriced, and the prescription drug benefit is lacking. If you really love this plan, then I recommend getting very similar benefits at a fraction of the cost with Humana’s Portrait Unlimited Plan.

Assurant Insurance Plan Number Two: CoreMed

Our second Assurant insurance plan is far more reasonably priced. Like Assurant insurance plan number one (MaxPlan), you can elect a $35 office visit copay with this plan. This time, however, this Assurant insurance plan will only cover four office visits per person per year – visit five and up are subject to the deductible and coinsurance.

With this Assurant insurance plan you can again select a deductible anywhere from $500 to $25,000 and a post-deductible out-of-pocket maximum of $0 - $7500. The coinsurance level ranges from 100% to 50% just like with our first Assurant insurance plan, MaxPlan.

Unfortunately, prescription drugs are handled in a similar way to the first Assurant insurance plan: $15 copay for generics, $500 deductible then a $25 copay plus 50% coinsurance. That can get astronomical quickly, and honestly should disqualify this Assurant insurance plan from consideration. When you consider the cost of brand-name cancer treatment drugs alone, this Assurant insurance plan simply doesn’t have the coverage anyone needs.

The Verdict: Assurant insurance almost hit a home run with CoreMed, but the weak prescription drug coverage kills it. Again, if you like the idea of having an office visit copay but saving a little money by having a set number of office visit copays available per year, ditch Assurant insurance and the CoreMed plan and check out Humana’s Autograph Share 80.

Assurant Insurance Plan Three: RightStart

At this point, you may be wondering if Assurant insurance has anything worth buying. They do, but it’s not RightStart.

This Assurant insurance plan is unacceptable. Deductibles range from $500 to $3000, and coinsurance levels go from 75% to 60%. Office visits are covered by a $25 copay and are limited to two per person per year. So far, so good.

However, outpatient benefits are capped at $2500 per year (a single ER visit will usually exceed that – with this Assurant insurance plan, you can buy that up to $5000, but it’s still awful). Annual benefits are capped at $50,000 per year, so this plan will not cover claims above that number in any year (Assurant insurance will let you buy that up to $100,000, which is still unacceptable). 

Prescription drugs under the RightStart Assurant insurance plan are handled in exactly the same way as with the CoreMed Assurant insurance plan, but the RightStart Assurant insurance plan won’t pay more than $2,000 per year in benefits. This, again, is an absolutely unacceptable limitation.

The Verdict: Under no circumstances should you ever consider buying this Assurant insurance plan. There’s a reason that it’s jokingly referred to as “WrongStart” by insurance agents.

Assurant Insurance Plan Four: SaveRight

Here’s a general tip: anytime you see a health insurance plan with the word “value,” “save,” or “budget” in the name, be very careful. The SaveRight Assurant insurance plan is significantly better than RightStart, but it still falls short.

Deductible levels with this Assurant insurance plan range from $2300 to $5100, and coinsurance levels run from 100% to 0%. Maximum post-deductible out-of-pocket levels range from $0 to $3000, and no office visit copay option is available with this Assurant insurance plan.

Prescription drugs don’t have a copay – instead, you pay for drugs out-of-pocket until you hit your deductible, at which point they’re covered at 100%. However, be very careful – with SaveRight, your prescription drug benefits are either capped at $2000 or not subject to an annual maximum. It only costs about nine dollars with this Assurant insurance plan to get full prescription coverage, but many agents fail to include that benefit.

The thing that cripples SaveRight is that outpatient services are capped at a maximum of $25,000 per year. A hole in coverage this huge just isn’t acceptable for true major medical insurance. When you consider that this plan also only covers outpatient physical medicine up to $50 per visit for just two visits, a simple broken arm or leg can completely max out the plan benefits.

The Verdict: The inclusion of an outpatient cap opens you up to too much risk. You can get full benefit plans for the same cost as this Assurant insurance plan, so I don’t recommend it.

Assurant Insurance Plan Five: OneDeductible PPO

This is where Assurant insurance truly shines. The OneDeductible PPO is an excellent plan I’d happily recommend to anyone. With this Assurant insurance plan, you select a deductible of $1200 to $5000 ($2400 to $10000 family). You can set this Assurant insurance plan to pay 100% after the deductible is met, or set an 80% or 20% coinsurance level to a maximum post-deductible out-of-pocket limit of $2000.

There is no office visit copay, so doctor’s office visits come out-of-pocket. Prescription drugs do the same – under this Assurant insurance plan, drugs go towards your deductible and are covered at the level you’ve chosen once you meet it. 

All in all, it’s a simple plan – you’ve got a deductible. Once you meet it, you’re covered at 100% (or at 80% or 50% to a maximum out-of-pocket of $2000, if you chose to save a little on your Assurant insurance premiums).

The Verdict: This Assurant insurance plan is extremely reasonably priced, offers totally comprehensive coverage, and is competitive with products from other carriers. It’s also the best product Assurant insurance offers, so if you’ve got your heart set on Assurant insurance, then this is the plan for you.

Assurant Insurance: The Add-Ons and Optional Benefits

Assurant insurance has a ton of optional benefits that you can add. Let’s go through each Assurant insurance optional benefit one-by-one.

Health Savings Accounts

We’ve talked about HSA’s elsewhere, so instead of rehashing that here we’ll just note that SaveRight and OneDeductible PPO are both HSA eligible plans.

RightStart Cancer Benefit

If you, for some unknown reason, simply must go with RightStart Assurant insurance, then you can increase the annual outpatient maximum of $5,000 by $25,000, but only for cancer treatments.

Preventative Care Benefit

If you chose the OneDeductible Assurant insurance plan, you can get $500 of first-dollar coverage for preventative care by adding on this benefit. This means that well-care visits, physicals, mammograms, etc. are covered up to $500 per person per year (total) before you have to pay a dime. You must have this Assurant insurance plan with this add-on for one year before using this benefit, though.

Maternity Benefit

We’ve discussed the Assurant insurance maternity benefit in depth already, so we won’t go through it all again here. One thing to keep in mind is that Assurant insurance has the shortest waiting period of all Georgia insurance carriers for maternity benefits: there’s only a ninety-day waiting period. 

Dental-Vision Discount Plan

Adding on the dental-vision discount plan to any Assurant insurance plan provides discounts on services from dental and eyewear providers. Savings range from 15% – 50% on dental services and 10% to 60% on eyewear. This is a discount plan rather than true insurance, but it’s a nice add-on to an Assurant insurance plan.

Dental Insurance

You can add dental insurance to the health part of any Assurant insurance plan. However, the dental insurance add-on to Assurant insurance plans is less attractive than the full dental coverage discussed in our earlier article on the subject because of the fee-for-service nature of the program. Basically, instead of being guaranteed coverage, you have to compare your procedures to a checklist and determine what the coverage level is with this add-on benefit. 

Accidental Medical Expense Benefit

With Assurant insurance, you can add a first-dollar benefit of $500, $1000, or $2500 that will cover any accidental injuries you might have. No matter what your deductible or how close you are to meeting it, Assurant insurance will pay your selected amount off the top of your bill before you ever pay a penny.

SuiteSolution – SecureSolution Level

SuiteSolutions is a “benefit package” you can add on to any Assurant insurance plan that will provide you with some extra optional benefits to reduce your risk. The first level available to you is the SecureSolution level. You get an Accident Medical Expense Benefit like the one described above, but with two modifications: the benefit level can be $2500, $5000, or $10000 and there’s a $250 deductible per insured, per accident. Secondly, you get an accidental death and dismemberment benefit of up to $10000 for the primary insured and up to $1000 for the spouse and each child (essentially, this is a life insurance policy that pays in the event of accidental death, or pays a reduced benefit in the event of severe dismemberment or deformation). Lastly, adding SecureSolutions to your Assurant insurance will pay 70% of your weekly salary to a maximum of $250 per week for the primary insured if the primary insured is forced out of work due to an accidental injury.

SuiteSolution – SelectSolution Level

With the SelectSolution add-on to any Assurant insurance plan, you get all the SecureSolution benefits plus a critical illness expense benefit. Adding this to any Assurant insurance plan will provide $2500, $5000, or $10000 (your choice) in the event of life-threatening cancer, heart attack, stroke, renal failure, coma, organ transplant, loss of sight, loss of hearing, loss of speech, or paralysis. A critical illness add-on to any Assurant insurance plan can really help you out in a time of sudden need.

OneDecreasingDeductible

With the OneDeductible Assurant insurance plan, your deductible will gradually decrease over time if you don’t have any claims on your policy. You have to elect a higher deductible, and there’s a waiting period before your deductible will begin decreasing but a full outline of just how the OneDecreasingDeductible works would take another five pages and is beyond the scope of this article. Note that you must elect to make this plan HSA eligible for your deductible to gradually decrease.

We’ve gone over a ton of options relating to Assurant insurance in this article, and it’s probably a little overwhelming. Assurant insurance offers more options to its clients than any other insurance company in Georgia, and for that reason it’s exceptionally important that you work with an agent to get your Assurant insurance plan.

Now that you know how the plans work, get a free, instant Assurant insurance quote on our Georgia insurance quote page! There’s no obligation, no cost, and the quotes are instant. And remember, if you ever have any questions about Assurant insurance, or any other insurance, Georgia Insurance Options is here to help!

Which Assurant Insurance Plan is Right For Me? is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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United Healthcare is one of the biggest and best known insurers in the USA today. Their individual division, Golden Rule, is responsible for insuring individuals and families who don’t have insurance through a group plan. For ease of reference throughout this article, please note that when we say UHC insurance, we mean United Healthcare insurance, and that their individual division goes by the name Golden Rule.

There are a variety of UHC insurance plans you can choose from when you’re getting private health insurance. Let’s go through each UHC insurance plan one-by-one and look at the benefits of each.

UHC Insurance Plan One: Copay Select

The first UHC insurance plan we’ll look at is the robust Copay Select. This is a plan structure you’re probably very familiar with by now: you select a deductible of $500, $1000, $1500, or $2500. Once you meet that deductible, this UHC insurance plan will pay 80% of your bills until an additional $2000 comes out of your pocket. At that point, this UHC insurance plan will begin to pay 100% of your bills.

Doctor’s office visits are handled by a $25 copay with this UHC insurance plan. Well child care and immunizations (for children 6-18) are covered with that same $25 copay, but labs and x-rays performed outside of the doctor’s office are subject to the deductible (which means you’ll pay for that service out-of-pocket under this UHC insurance plan until you’ve met your deductible). With this UHC insurance you’ll pay $15 for generic prescriptions, and (after a $100 prescription deductible) $30 for preferred and $60 for non-preferred medications.

The verdict: This UHC insurance plan is for the people who want the best of the best and don’t care about cost. The $500 deductible plus a few optional benefits (discussed later) make this UHC insurance plan one of the strongest available on the private market – but it comes with a strong price tag, too.

UHC Insurance Plan Two: Copay Saver

UHC insurance plans are all like this: a great plan, and then a more stripped down “saver” version of the same plan. The Copay Saver UHC insurance plan is identical to the Copay Select with the following changes:

• There’s a $3000 out-of-pocket after the deductible instead of a $2000 out-of-pocket
• You can only select a deductible level of $2500
• Outpatient x-rays and labs are only covered if performed within 14 days of surgery or medical confinement – a gap that severely weakens this UHC insurance plan
• $35 copay instead of $25, and each person on the plan only has two visits per year
• If you go to the ER with this UHC insurance plan but aren’t admitted, you’ll have a $500 copay to contend with
• There are no preventative care benefits with the Copay Saver UHC Insurance plan, but you can add them on again later.
• Several outpatient procedures aren’t covered – listing them all is beyond the scope of this article, but they’re outlined in the policy brochure available for download at the free health insurance quote page.
• There is no name-brand prescription drug coverage, only $15 generics

The verdict: I strongly recommend against this plan. The gaps in coverage are too great to justify the savings on monthly premiums. If you really want a more affordable copay plan, then instead of this UHC insurance plan check out the Autograph Share 80 Humana Plan.

UHC Insurance Plan Three: HSA 100

HSA 100 is the number two most-loved UHC Insurance plan according to client satisfaction surveys. With it, you’ve got your choice of deductible ($1150, $1900, $2900, $3500, or $5000 for individuals; $2300, $3850, $5800, $7500, or $10000 for families). Under this UHC Insurance plan, once you meet that deductible the rest of your expenses for the remainder of the year will be paid at 100%. Prescription drug costs also apply to the deductible, and this UHC insurance plan is HSA eligible. The preventative benefits aren’t great unless you add the preventative care package, which is cheap and very robust.

The Verdict: the second best UHC insurance plan you can get, and a great price tag, too. If you’re in love with the HSA concept then this UHC insurance plan is the one for you – otherwise, hold out for Plan 100.

UHC Insurance Plan Four: HSA Saver

It’s set up again with a standard UHC insurance plan and then a stripped-down saver version. Again, the coverage for this UHC insurance plan is identical to HSA 100 with the following exceptions:

• Outpatient x-rays and labs aren’t covered unless they’re within 14 days of surgery or confinement under this UHC insurance plan.
• Doctor’s office visits aren’t a covered expense, a huge gap in this UHC insurance plan.
• Emergency room fees are covered normally if you’re admitted to the hospital, but with this UHC insurance plan if you’re not admitted then you’re limited to $250 per person per year in benefits.
• Outpatient prescription drugs, adult preventative care, and childhood immunizations are all not covered under this UHC insurance plan.

The Verdict: I don’t recommend this plan – the gaps in coverage are just too great.

UHC Insurance Plan Five: Plan 100

When it comes to UHC insurance, Plan 100 is where it’s at. This is the most popular UHC insurance plan by far and enjoys the highest customer satisfaction rating of all UHC insurance plans.

Plan 100 has a choice of a $2500, $3500, or $5000 deductible. These are individual deductibles, and the family deductible is always twice the chosen individual deductible. That means that even if you have twenty children, if you have the $2500 deductible level then your entire family’s medical bills for the rest of the year will be paid at 100% once the family’s medical costs reach $5000. Everything applies to the deductible – doctor’s visits, prescription drugs, hospitalizations, everything. Well care for the kids up to age five is covered at 100% before the deductible (in other words, under this UHC insurance plan it’s free). 

The Verdict: This plan is not HSA eligible, so if you love the HSA concept then you’ll like HSA 100 better. Personally, I prefer Plan 100 for the more competitive price and the fact that this UHC insurance plan has more optional benefits (discussed later) available.

UHC Insurance Plan Six: HSA 80

This UHC insurance plan is identical in every way to HSA 100 in terms of what’s covered. The deductible levels are the same, the coverage is the same, everything is the same – the only difference is that this UHC insurance plan pays 80% once you meet the deductible instead of the 100% that HSA 100 pays. Once $3000 comes out of your pocket after the deductible is met, then this UHC insurance plan will pay 100% of your medical costs. 

The Verdict: This is the only “budget” UHC insurance plan I’m comfortable recommending to any of my clients. There aren’t any gaps in coverage – it’s just a little cheaper and your benefits are a little slower to kick in. If you’re on a budget and don’t like the Monogram Humana Plan, then this is what you should have.

UHC Insurance Plan Seven: Saver 80

The cheapest UHC insurance plan is, of course, the one with the fewest benefits. Saver 80 has deductible levels of $500, $1000, $1500, $2500, $3500, and $5000. Once you meet your deductible, this UHC insurance plan will pay 80% of your medical costs until another $3000 comes out of your pocket. Then, this UHC insurance plan will pay 100%. 

This plan has some pretty hefty gaps in coverage, though:

• Doctor’s office visits aren’t covered
• Outpatient x-rays and labs are only covered if performed within 14 days of surgery or confinement
• Outpatient prescription drugs aren’t covered (this alone makes this UHC insurance plan not worth having)

The Verdict: Plan 80 is only a few dollars more, so if you’re really on a budget then that’s where you should be looking. I would shy away from Saver 80

UHC Insurance: Optional Benefits

There are a number of optional benefits available for add-on to some UHC insurance plans. Let’s look at them one-by-one:

UHC Insurance Preventative Care Package:

Note: this benefit isn’t available with the Copay Select plan. 

The preventative care add-on gets you free well-child visits up to age 18, free childhood immunizations, free mammograms, free pap smears, and free PSA tests (all one per year). Also, after a twelve-month wait, adults can get preventative care for just a $35 copay. This is a no-brainer, a great add-on to any UHC insurance plan.

UHC Maternity Insurance:

We go over this one in pretty great detail at How Maternity Insurance Works, so we won’t re-hash it here. Just keep in mind that this benefit isn’t available with either HSA 100 or HSA 80 – most people like to add this to their Plan 100.

UHC Prescription Drug Card Benefit:

This one is available with Plan 100 and Plan 80 and it allows you to get any generic prescription for only $20. Name brand drugs can be had for a $50 copay, but you’ve got to meed at $250 per year, per person deductible first.

UHC Supplemental Accident Benefit:

This one isn’t available with the HSA plans, but if you add it on to any other UHC insurance plan you’ll get first-dollar coverage up to $500 for the treatment of an injury resulting from an accident. This is an awesome add-on to any UHC insurance plan, it’s super cheap, and can save you a bundle when you need it.

UHC HSA Hospital Indemnity Rider

With the two HSA plans, you can add on a hospital indemnity rider to help protect you against major hospitalization expenses before you’ve built up cash in your HSA. Basically, on the third day of hospital confinement, this UHC insurance add-on will pay you a lump sum of cash to help offset the hospital costs. There’s a one-time additional premium payment of $40 ($150 family), and the benefit will pay $1500 ($3200 family) if the hospitalization occurs in the first month of coverage. The benefit then slowly decreases until finally it disappears at month sixteen. This is a great add-on to a HSA eligible UHC insurance plan because it provides significant, early-on protection and buys you time to build up your HSA.

Now that you’ve learned more than you ever wanted to know about how UHC insurance plans work, you’re probably dying to know how much they cost. Well, Georgia Insurance Options has you covered there, too. Head up to our free, instant Georgia health insurance quote page where you’ll receive an instant, personalized proposal telling you just how much you can save and how you can get protection for your family today!

Which UHC Insurance Plan Is Right For Me? is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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When it comes to individual insurance in Georgia, Humana is one of the best choices you can make. Each and every Humana plan offers excellent coverage, and there’s really no such thing as an unaffordable Humana plan. Let’s go over each Humana plan one by one and see what each one has to offer.

Humana Plan One: Autograph Total HSA

The first Humana plan is called the Autograph Total HSA, and this particular Humana plan comes in two flavors (integrated and non-integrated prescription deductible). The Autograph Total HSA Humana plan has a set deductible for the individual (for single person coverage) or for the family ranging from $1500 – $5000 ($3000 – $10000 for a family). Once that deductible is met, then this Humana plan will pay 100% of your medical costs for the rest of the year. 

With the integrated prescription deductible, any prescription drugs you buy will chip away at that total deductible. With the non-integrated prescription deductible, all of your prescriptions are handled with a discount card, meaning a percentage of your prescription costs are knocked off. The Autograph Total Humana Plan with the discount card also has a slightly different deductible structure ($2000-$5200 individual, $4000-$10400 family). Of these two, I strongly recommend getting the full prescription benefit offered by the Autograph Total Humana plan with an integrated prescription deductible.

Also, it’s worth noting that once the Autograph Total Humana plan has been effective for 90 days, everyone on the plan can get a routine annual physical, mammogram, pap smear, colorectal cancer screen, chlamydia screen, and transvaginal ultrasound totally free of charge. Child wellness visits up to age five are also free, and immunizations from age six to eighteen are free as well under this Humana plan.

Finally, as the name implies, this Humana plan is HSA (health savings account) eligible. 

The verdict: this Humana plan (with the integrated prescription deductible) provides the best combination of comprehensive coverage and affordable premiums on the market today. I like this plan for anyone ready to ditch the office visit copay.

Humana Plan Two: Portrait Unlimited 80

The second Humana plan is the one that probably looks a bit more like what you’re used to. With this Humana plan, you’ve got a $35 office visit copay ($50 for specialists), and then your medical deductible of either $1000 or $2500. Once you meet your medical deductible with this Humana plan, Humana will pay 80% of your bills until an additional $2000 comes out of your pocket. At that point, this Humana plan will start to pay 100% of your bills.

When it comes to prescriptions, this Humana plan divides things into four tiers. Tier one prescriptions are your basic generics (you can often get these at Wal-Mart for $4) and cost $15 if you can’t find them cheaper elsewhere. Tiers two through four are subject to a prescription deductible of $500 (you can buy this deductible down to $0, but it’s not really worth it). Once you’ve met the $500 prescription deductible under this Humana plan, tier two drugs (high-cost generics and brand-name drugs) have a $35 copay, tier three drugs (higher-cost brand name drugs) have a $55 copay, and tier four drugs (biotechnology drugs, self-administered injectables) have a 25% copay up to a maximum out-of-pocket of $2500 (then, this Humana plan will pay 100%). 

This Humana plan is the sort of health insurance that most people have at work and are most comfortable with. However, the vast majority of people will never take advantage of the unlimited office visit copays offered by this Humana plan – and that means that they’re paying for a benefit that they’re not using. 

The verdict: Get this Humana plan if you’re not ready to ditch the office visit copays yet, but be aware that you’re going to pay slightly more than you would for other any other Humana plan.

Humana Plan Three: Autograph Share 80

This Humana plan is the budget-conscious version of the Portrait Unlimited Humana plan. Here, you’ve got the $35 doctor visit copays ($50 for specialists), but under this Humana plan each family member only has six copays per year. The seventh visit onward will be billed to your medical deductible (either $5000 or $6000). Once you meet your deductible, this Humana plan will again pay 80% of your bills until you have another $2000 come out of your pocket – then, this Humana plan will pay 100%.

Prescription drugs are handled just like the Portrait Unlimited Humana plan, but the prescription deductible choices are $500 and $1000 instead of $0 and $500.

The verdict: This Humana plan is right for someone who really wants that office visit copay, but is on a tighter budget. However, if you’re looking at this Humana plan, then you’re almost certainly going to be better off with the Autograph Total Humana plan.

Humana Plan Four: Monogram

The fourth and final Humana plan is the Monogram. This is the lowest-cost Humana plan available, making it very attractive for the most budget-conscious shoppers. With the Monogram Humana plan, you have a $7500 medical deductible. Once that deductible is met, this Humana plan will pay 100% of your costs. Additionally, you’ve got a $1000 prescription deductible. Tier one drugs still cost $15 and aren’t subject to that deductible, but under this Humana plan tier two drugs are $40 and tier three drugs are $65 after the prescription deductible is met. Tier four drugs are still a 25% copay to a maximum out-of-pocket of $2500.

Child wellness services up to age five, routine annual physicals, routine immunizations from age six to eighteen, routine pap smears, routine mamograms, routine colorectal cancer screens, routine transvaginal ultrasounds, and chlamydia screening tests are all paid at 100% before the deductible with this Humana plan, meaning that they’re totally free. The only catch is that you must wait ninety days to take advantage of these benefits.

The verdict: The lowest-cost Humana plan still has comprehensive benefits, but they won’t kick in until quite a bit of medical expenses have already been incurred. This is a great plan if you don’t have room in your budget for the Autograph Total.

Optional Beneifts: Make Your Humana Plan Shine

You can add a few optional benefits to your Humana plan to really beef it up. First, consider adding a Supplemental Accident Benefit (SAB) to your Humana plan to protect you more completely against accidental injury. With this benefit added (for about $8-$12 per month extra), you can have the first $500 or $1000 of your medical bills resulting from the emergency treatment of an accident paid in full, regardless of what your deductible is. So if you trip and break your wrist, and you’ve added a SAB to your Humana plan, the first $500 or $1000 worth of care will be paid in full at no additional cost to you.

You can also add dental insurance to any Humana plan. We talk about the dental available with any Humana plan in great length over at our full dental coverage article.

Lastly, getting life insurance bundled with your Humana plan is as easy as can be. There are no additional questions, no physical exams required, nothing – if you’re approved to get a Humana plan discussed above, then you’re approved to get term life insurance through Humana as well. However, I recommend against this for two reasons: one, since this is a “non-med term” policy, it’s slightly overpriced. And two, tying your life and health insurance plans together isn’t a great idea – rate increases are much more common in the health insurance world, and you’re not going to keep your individual health insurance when you enter the Medicare years. Because of that, I recommend getting your life insurance through a company that makes life insurance their primary focus. Don’t worry, as an agent, I’m able to help you with that, too!

Now that you’ve seen how each and every Humana plan works and you’ve got a good idea of which one you think you want, head over to our free, instant Georgia insurance quote page and find out just how affordable these plans really are!

Which Humana Plan Is Right For Me? is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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“Is health care the same as health insurance?”

This question is making health care the hot-button issue these days, and it’s also making health care the most misunderstood thing around. There’s a major difference between the two, and we’re going to take a short look at what makes health care the target of so much attention in Washington today.

The short answer: health insurance is what pays for heath care. Health insurance, held by individuals or groups, is a system into which the policy holder pays so that when a medical problem arises there’s someone to pay the comparably larger bill, making health care the recipient of health insurance dollars and provider of medical care.

Now, a lot of people lately are mixing up universal health care and universal health insurance – but these are two vastly different things. Universal health insurance refers to a system in which absolutely everyone would be able to get health insurance on a guaranteed-issue basis, regardless of pre-existing conditions. The result of this is that costs would rise for insurance companies (because those insurance will have to pay the medical bills of less healthy people, and with health care the prices for treatment are obviously higher for the more critically ill) and that premiums would rise across the board for insured persons.

Universal health care refers to extending health care coverage to everyone, making health care the step-brother of health insurance in a way. Universal health care is related to universal health insurance, but that doesn’t make health care the same as health insurance by any stretch.

Here at Georgia Insurance Options, we strive to bring impartial views on industry trends and to correct misconceptions such as this without bias. While I publicly neither support nor decry universal health insurance or universal health care, I realize that our current political climate has made health care the issue on everyone’s mind. I hope that this short article has made this issue somewhat more understandable and has answered the question that we set out to address: “Is health care the same as health insurance?” While they’re related, and are becoming more and more intertwined at the governmental level, for now we still have a private system, making health care the realm of the doctors  and insurance the realm of the agents and insurers.

If you have any questions or concerns about this article, or you just want some help making health care the topic of your next talk with your agent, please feel free to contact me. And, since you’re here already, why not make saving on health insurance a priority like you’ve made learning about health care the focus of the past few minutes? You can get a free, personalized insurance quote right here at Georgia Insurance Options – we’re still in a private health insurance system, why not save a little money?

Health Insurance and Health Care – The Difference is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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The easiest way to get (and save on) full dental coverage is by bundling it with a new health insurance policy. The vast majority of people in the individual market are overpaying for their health insurance, so it’s a great idea to get your agent to do a little extra shopping and save on both products. 

If you’re looking to bundle your full dental coverage with your Georgia health insurance plan, you’re in luck: the best, and lowest priced, health insurance company in Georgia also offers very affordable full dental coverage. Humana One is an excellent insurance company in Georgia (and very reliable – I’ve personally written Humana One policies for my fiancee and her sister, so you know I must believe in them), and their full dental coverage option is very nice. Let’s take a closer look at it:

Preventative services (oral exams, routine cleanings, x-rays, sealants, and topical fluoride treatment) are paid at 100% before the deductible – in other words, they’re free. You have no out-of-pocket cost for these services – now that’s full coverage dental!

Basic services (emergency exams, pain relief, thumb sucking appliances, space maintainers, composite fillings, oral surgery, routine extractions, non-cast stainless steel crowns, and denture repairs/adjustments) and major services (root canals, periodontics, crowns, inlays, onlays, getting dentures, denture relines, and removable or fixed bridgework) are paid at 50% after the deductible. That deductible is $50 for an individual or $150 for a family. So, for example, if you have a root canal you’ll pay $50 then half of the remaining bill. In the world of full dental coverage, this is an excellent deal!

You’ll also get a 20% discount on all your orthodontist work so long as you visit a participating dentist, and most dentists are in this network. Lastly, this full coverage dental plan will pay for 50% of your teeth whitening services after your deductible and up to a $200 lifetime maximum.

Now, this is a full dental coverage plan, but there is an annual maximum benefit of $1000. This means that Humana will pay according to the guidelines above, but they’ll only pay $1000 of benefits per year. On the face, this doesn’t sound great, but full dental coverage in the private market always has caps like this. It’s about in line with what you’ll find anywhere else.

Now, you should have your agent check up on your health insurance plan once in a while to make sure that you’re still getting the best coverage at the best rates. The market shifts constantly, and there’s no harm and no cost to have your agent make sure that you’re still ahead of the game. If you’ve recently had your agent do this and you’re happy with your health insurance, but still want full dental coverage, then you might want to look into standalone full dental coverage.

If this is the route you want to go, then I recommend going with one of AHCP’s full dental coverage options. Option one is the AHCP Saver Dental, which has a $1000/year maximum, a $25 deductible, covers 80% of preventative work, 40% of basic work, and 20% of major work. As you can see, the loss of coverage when compared to the Humana plan is huge, especially when you consider that the two plans are almost the same price.

Option two is the AHCP Comprehensive Dental, which is more of a full dental coverage plan. Here, we have a $1500/year maximum, a $50 deductible, coverage at 100% for preventative services, 80% for basic services, and 50% for major services. This is a much more comprehensive full dental coverage option, and is only very slightly more expensive than the Humana full dental coverage.

The one thing that really pushes the AHCP Comprehensive Dental plan above and beyond is the fact that, so long as you had prior dental coverage, there’s no waiting period for any services. The Humana full coverage dental plan has a six month waiting period for basic services and a twelve month wait for major services. The AHCP Saver Dental has a flat twelve-month waiting period for all services. But, if you’ve just left a job with full dental coverage and have proof of that coverage, then the AHCP Comprehensive Dental plan will kick in immediately with no waiting periods whatsoever.

That, in a nutshell, is what full dental coverage looks like in the private market. As with any insurance plan, I strongly recommend that you talk to your personal insurance agent to help figure out what plan is best for you. Now that you know what the market looks like for individual full dental coverage, why not get a free full dental coverage quote and see how much you could be saving on your insurance?

Full Dental Coverage in Georgia is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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1. Should you buy health insurance from an agent, or directly from the company?

This one’s easy: use an independent health insurance agent. The rates are the same since they’re set by law, and agents don’t charge any sort of “broker’s fees” or anything to use their service. Agents tend to know a lot more about your options than your average call center employee, and they’ll work with you for the life of your policy.

2. What are the top five health insurance companies in Georgia?

Based on my personal experiences (level of client service, ease of application, claims payment record, etc.), I’d say that the top five individual health insurance companies in Georgia are:

1. Golden Rule (the individual division of United Health Care)
2. Humana
3. Assurant
4. Aetna
5. Kaiser Permanente

Each company has its quirks, of course – Golden Rule is great if you’re in perfect health, but they love to issue riders. Assurant is more expensive, but they are more lenient in their underwriting. Aetna will decline anyone with three prescriptions. Humana doesn’t offer maternity benefits, and Kaiser requires you to stay within Kaiser facilities with most of their plans. Every company is different.

3. Can I still get COBRA if I was fired?

In most cases, yes. There is a provision in the COBRA law that says you are ineligible for COBRA if you were “terminated for gross misconduct,” but that has never been tested in court. Generally, if you leave a company (either voluntarily or involuntarily) and that company stays in business and keeps the group plan that you were on in force, you can get COBRA.

4. Is there such a thing as emergency maternity coverage?

No. If you’re already pregnant, no major medical insurer will issue a policy to you. Now, there are some guaranteed issue policies that will cover you, but you must be extremely careful with those – oftentimes, you’ll either end up paying more for the policy than you would for the pregnancy, or you’ll get stuck with a bill that the insurer will weasel out of. Never purchase a policy like that without consulting with an agent, preferably an independent agent who can compare it with true major medical plans.

5. How do I get my pre-existing conditions covered with an individual health insurance policy?

Depending on the condition, it’s possible that you can just apply for coverage and have it covered. Things like high blood pressure, cholesterol, and most allergies aren’t generally excluded from coverage under individual health insurance policies (however, the rates to cover these conditions may be higher). If you have a more serious condition, like diabetes or Crohn’s Disease, your options are more limited. In Georgia, there’s no state risk pool, so if you’re above the income level for Medicaid then you’re not eligible for state assistance. Your best bet is to find employment with benefits, or, if you’re self employed, talk with an agent about going on a small group plan. That’s a tricky option, but it can be done. There are some guaranteed issue plans in Georgia that will cover pre-existing conditions, but like with question four, you must be extremely careful with those. You can wind up losing a lot of money if you’re not. 

6. What does maternity insurance cover?

Maternity insurance covers the costs associated with a normal pregnancy. Depending on how your specific maternity benefits are structured, you may either have a set amount of money to apply to maternity costs or your maternity costs may apply to a separate deductible. It’s worth noting that true emergency c-sections are covered by your normal health insurance plan.

7. What do I do when my COBRA runs out?

When your COBRA eligibility runs out, you can do one of two things. You can either purchase an individual policy, or you can elect to use a HIPAA conversion option. With HIPAA conversion, the health insurance company that administered your COBRA plan will switch you over to an individual plan, and you can’t be turned down for coverage. HIPAA conversions aren’t available until you have used up your entire COBRA eligibility period.

8. How does my deductible work?

Your deductible is the amount of money in medical costs you’ll be responsible for before your insurance company starts picking up part of the bill. If you have a copay plan, your copays generally will not apply to the deductible. Once you meet your deductible, then (depending on your plan) your insurance company will either pay 100% of the rest of your bills, or you’ll pay a small percentage until you reach your out-of-pocket limit. That small percentage is usually 20%, but some plans do increase that amount.

9. How did the new stimulus package change COBRA?

Previously, if you wanted to go on COBRA then you had to pay 102% of your health insurance premiums. That came as a shock to many people who went on COBRA, because they were used to paying only a portion of the full premium while their employer picked up the rest of the tab. Now, for the first nine months of COBRA eligibility, you’ll only pay 35% of your premiums and your former employer will pick up the other 65% (they’ll be reimbursed in the form of a payroll tax credit). At the end of those nine months, things go back to the way they used to be and you’ll start paying 102%.

10. What’s the best life insurance option for me?

Most people are best served with simple term life insurance. Get a policy that’s guaranteed renewable so that you never have to worry about being uninsurable, a face value that will provide for your loved ones (don’t forget to pay off debt and account for lost income when you’re figuring out how much you should get), and discuss the various riders available with your agent. In my humble opinion, variable life, universal life, and whole life are just not worth it for the vast majority of people. Term is simple, term is easy, and term is what you need. There are a ton of life insurance options out there, and with all the riders available you can really customize your term life insurance to fit your needs.

Bonus!

11. What does “no-stone-unturned” quote mean, anyway?

I get asked this one a lot, so I thought I’d toss it in there. I’m an independent agent, so when you come to me with a health or life insurance question I work with a bunch of different companies to make sure you’re getting the best deal on the market. Instead of just sticking you with an easy-to-issue policy, I leave no stone unturned to make sure that when I run a quote and write an application with you that I’m doing what’s in your best interest. 

Did I miss any burning questions? Anything you’re absolutely dying to know? Then feel free to comment on this post, use the contact link at the top of the page to email me, or just call me up at 404-660-1020 and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have. Who knows, your question might make it into the next edition of this article! Or if this cleared up all of your questions and you’re ready to see how much you could be saving on your insurance, then head to our free insurance quote page and get a no-obligation, personalized quote!

Reader’s Choice: Top Ten Health and Life Insurance Questions is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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You can find affordable health insurance in the private market!

In fact, let’s repeat that one, because a lot of people find it hard to believe: you can find affordable health insurance in the private market! Just because you’re getting health insurance as an individual instead of part of a group doesn’t mean you have to destroy your bank account every month. The secret is to realize that there’s not one magic bullet that can take health insurance from a giant money sink to just a small portion of your budget, but instead that there are a number of factors that will work together to make your health insurance affordable.

The first thing you should do is look into high deductible health plans. These insurance plans are a lot more simple than most types of health insurance: you have a deductible, and that’s about it. Before your deductible, you’re responsible for your medical costs. After your deductible, your insurance company will pay your bills. Simple! Because these plans don’t include a lot of bells and whistles (either you’re working on meeting your deductible or your insurance company is paying for everything), they’re affordable for the health insurance company – there’s just not a lot of stuff for them to worry about. That means that the savings are passed on to you, making high deductible health plans a very affordable form of health insurance.

If you decide to go with a high deductible health plan, making your health insurance more affordable is pretty simple. Raising your deductible will lower your monthly premiums, and lowering your deductible will raise them. One thing that you should always keep in mind when you’re looking at deductibles is how your particular insurance company defines a “family deductible.” Some companies will assign every family member an individual deductible, some will assign the family as a whole a deductible, and others will give individual deductibles but say that when either two or three family members meet them then the entire family’s deductible is considered met. Your agent will know how each individual company handles family deductibles.

The major thing that people worry about with high deductible health plans is the fact that office visits aren’t covered by a copay. In our dedicated article about HDHP’s we discuss why this isn’t as big an issue as many people think, but if an office visit copay is something you feel like you can’t live without then you still have ways to find affordable health insurance.

The first of these is to ask yourself how many times a year you actually go to the doctor. If it’s only three or four times, but you still really want a copay for those visits, then consider looking at limited copay plans. These plans offer comprehensive benefits and a copay for a certain number of office visits a year (usually two to six). The first few visits are covered by a copay, but after that you’ll be responsible for the full amount of your medical bills until you meet your deductible. Having a limited number of copays a year instead of an unlimited number will make your health insurance significantly more affordable.

The second big thing you can do is to raise your deductible. Having a slightly higher deductible can drastically lower your monthly premiums. This one is pretty self-explanatory: raising your deductible lowers the amount of financial risk the insurance company takes on, saving them money. Those savings are passed on to you in the form of more affordable health insurance.

The last thing is something you should do no matter what: work with an independent agent. There are no “broker’s fees” or anything like that when you work with an agent, so you’ll end up paying the same in premiums that you would going directly to the insurance company. And since independent agents work with several insurance companies, we know who has the best rates and best coverage for various situations. For instance, for the majority of people in Georgia, maybe Carrier A is the most affordable. But perhaps for people in a certain age range Carrier B has better rates, and for people with high blood pressure Carrier C has the most affordable premiums. Your agent, who will have the ability to shop around and work the system in your favor, will be able to find the most affordable health insurance premiums while not sacrificing coverage.

Affordable health insurance is out there, and now you know the easiest way to find it is to use an independent health insurance agent. Luckily, you’ve got an independent agent at your disposal right now! Head on over to our free health insurance quote page and find out just how much you could be saving!

Getting Affordable Health Insurance is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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This economy is rough, no doubt about it. Lots of people are suddenly finding themselves laid off, unemployed, and without the group health insurance benefits they had come to rely on. The transition out of the active job market can be rough, and the last thing most people want to think about is finding new private health insurance (not to mention private health insurance that is also affordable health insurance)! Unfortunately, that’s one of the first and most important things you’ll have to worry about.

The first thing to do is to figure out if COBRA health insurance is right for you. Since we’ve discussed how to do that at length in another article, there’s no need to repeat the entire topic here. If you’ve read that article and determined that you need to look for affordable health insurance on your own, then read on.

You’re probably used to group health insurance, but now you’re looking for private health insurance – and those are two very different animals. There are a few key differences between the two types of insurance that you’re going to want to be aware of:

• A private health insurance policy with the same benefits as a group policy will be more expensive than that group coverage. This is unfortunate, but it is a reality of private health insurance. This isn’t to say that private health insurance can’t be affordable, but you should be ready to either pay a little more for the same coverage or investigate a somewhat higher deductible.
• Group insurance is, by law, required to provide certain maternity benefits. Private health insurance is not bound by that same requirement, so maternity benefits aren’t automatically included. Check out our article on how maternity benefits work in the private market for more details.
• If you have any pre-existing medical conditions (you’ve had cancer or open heart surgery in the past, currently have Crohn’s disease, currently have diabetes, etc.), your options for private health insurance are going to be severely limited. In this case, COBRA is probably your best option.

If COBRA isn’t right for you, then your next step is to think about how long you’re likely to be unemployed. If your prospects for employment look good and you think you might be back in the workforce in six months or so, then a short-term health insurance policy might be right for you.

However, if you think it’s going to take more than six months to get back into the workforce, or if you are considering taking advantage of your newfound unemployment to explore the possibility of becoming self-employed, then a normal full-term private health insurance policy will be your better option.

The sudden loss of income that comes with unemployment means that finding an affordable health insurance plan is important to your budget. However, it’s very, very important to remember the following: an affordable health insurance plan can still provide comprehensive benefits. There are cheap health plans that offer limited benefits, leaving gaping holes in your coverage – avoid these at all costs! Remember, that plan that seems too good to be true probably is – the ten bucks a month you can save on your premiums by buying a limited benefit plan will quickly be wiped out when you find out you need surgery or major medical treatment that your limited benefit plan won’t cover.

Now, you’ve learned about the difference between private health insurance and group health insurance, you’ve seen how to determine if COBRA, short-term medical, or full-term health insurance is the best choice for you, and you know that you need to make sure to buy a comprehensive health insurance plan instead of a limited-benefit policy. There’s only one more thing you need to know before you start looking for your new private health insurance plan:

DON’T HESITATE!

When you find yourself suddenly unemployed, you’re working against the clock. If you immediately purchase private health insurance, so long as you don’t have any pre-existing conditions, your new insurance company will see that you just got off of a group plan and won’t have any trouble issuing you a policy. That’s because they know that if one insurance company had you as a client, then you’re probably okay to be a client of theirs, too. However, if you wait too long (about three weeks) to purchase a private health insurance policy, you’ll have what’s known as a “gap in coverage.” When you go that long without health insurance and then go to buy a new private policy, your new insurance company will generally make you pick a policy effective date 30-45 days from the date of your application. That way, they’ll have time to review your medical records and make sure that you’re an “acceptable risk” – a process that can be avoided entirely by not having a gap in coverage in the first place.

Now that you know the most important points about moving from a group to a private health insurance policy, the last step is to contact an independent insurance agent and work with them to find the best policy for your needs. Let that agent know that you’re newly unemployed and that finding an affordable health insurance policy is important to you, but that you don’t want a limited benefit policy. Since independent agents represent many health insurance companies, you’ll have a lot of options open to you. Your agent will know the best ways to narrow them down and help you find the policy that’s right for you!

I know that finding private health insurance when you’re unemployed is a hard thing to think about. It’s easy to feel like everything is piling up on top of you, and it can get a little overwhelming. However, I’m really glad that you’ve taken the time to read this post and learn more about how to protect your family’s health no matter what. The last step is to get your free health insurance quote so that you can find a plan that will protect you, your family, and your bank account. Don’t worry – I’ve been in your situation before, too, and I’ve already learned from my mistakes. But you can protect your family, even when the economy is down – and I can help!

Finding Private Health Insurance When You’re Unemployed is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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In 1995, Congress passed the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, a law that gives employees the right to continue their group health insurance coverage in the event that they lose their group coverage. Basically, COBRA health insurance allows you to retain your group health insurance in the event that you lose a job with benefits. In other words, it’s a temporary measure to allow you to keep your group coverage until you can find new employment with a new group health plan. There are two big questions to answer when considering COBRA health insurance: how does it work, and it is it right for you?

The first thing you’ll need to figure out is if you’re eligible for COBRA health insurance. There are three criteria used to determine COBRA eligibility:

1. Plan Coverage: to be eligible for COBRA health insurance, you must be coming from a group health insurance plan held by at least twenty employees working more than six months out of the year. So if you worked for a very small group, or if the vast majority of your co-workers were temporary employees, you may not be eligible for COBRA health insurance.
2. Qualifying Event: this is the event that happened to cause you to become unemployed. If you leave your job voluntarily, have your hours reduced to part-time status, or become eligible for Medicare, then you become COBRA eligible. If you leave your job involuntarily (you’re laid off, downsized, or fired) then you’re probably still COBRA eligible. The only way you can be fired and not retain COBRA health insurance eligibility is if you’re fired for “gross misconduct,” but neither the actual text of the COBRA law or any court says precisely what that means. If you lost your job because your company went bankrupt or out of business, then chances are you’re not eligible for COBRA. To be eligible for COBRA, the group you’re coming from must remain in force. So if your former employer goes belly-up or just decides to discontinue group coverage, then you will be unable to elect COBRA.
3. Qualified Beneficiary: You can only go on COBRA health insurance if you were covered by the group health insurance plan the day before the Qualifying Event. If your spouse is the covered individual and you divorce or separate, you may be eligible for COBRA health insurance until you can get on your feet. If your spouse is covered and passes away, you are also eligible for COBRA health insurance.

Once you’ve figured out if you’re eligible, then it’s time for an unfortunate reality check: COBRA health insurance can be extremely expensive. When you have group coverage, your employer pays for a large portion of your monthly premiums (usually at least 75%). However, when you move onto COBRA health insurance, you become responsible for 102% of your premiums. That’s not a typo – you are responsible for the full amount of your health insurance premiums, plus a 2% service charge for administrative costs. COBRA costs can skyrocket quickly, and the sticker shock of the first premium payment can be a very harsh awakening. Your first 102% premium payment will come due 45 days after you first apply for COBRA health insurance. (UPDATE! The recent stimulus package has changed how COBRA payments work. Please see the end of this article for new information)

COBRA health insurance is retroactively effective (meaning, for example, if you get laid off, apply for COBRA, and get approved two weeks later, the effective date of your COBRA health insurance is considered the date of the layoff). This is a great thing, because COBRA is designed to keep you from having a gap in coverage. Not having a gap in coverage means that when you go onto a new group or decide to buy a private health insurance plan you won’t be subjected to a lengthy review of medical records and a series of phone interview – waiting periods that could easily be avoided.

As long as the original group policy stays in force, you can stay on COBRA health insurance for up to eighteen months, although there are a few exceptions. If, for instance, you become disabled during this initial eighteen month period, you can extend the coverage under OBRA (a sister law to COBRA) for an additional eighteen months, bringing your total time of coverage to thirty-six months.

That, in a nutshell, is how COBRA health insurance works. Now, how do you know if it’s right for you?

If you have any sort of significant pre-existing medical condition, then COBRA health insurance is probably a good bet. Things such as diabetes, cancer, or heart disease can make finding private health insurance a nightmare – most private health insurance plans just won’t accept that level of risk. Groups, however, give insurance companies a way of balancing out that risk with a pool of healthy individuals, and so they’re better able to extend comprehensive benefits to people with these conditions. COBRA health insurance is just an extension of your group health insurance, so your benefits under COBRA will probably be better than anything you can find in the individual market. Still, it doesn’t hurt to check – if you just want to know what your options look like with a certain condition, contact me using the link at the top of this and every page and I’ll let you know.

If you don’t have a pre-existing condition, then your best bet is to check out your options in the private market. The private health insurance world is a little different than the world of groups, but I do my best to walk you through it over at this article: Private Health Insurance When You’re Unemployed.

The bottom line is this: COBRA health insurance is fantastic if you’ve just lost your job with benefits and you need health insurance for a pre-existing medical condition. However, if you’re generally in good health, chances are your options in the private health insurance market are going to be better than what you could find with COBRA health insurance.

If you have any questions or concerns about COBRA health insurance, please use the contact link at the top of this page to send me an email and I’ll do anything I can to help. If your needs are more urgent, or if you just want to hear my happy voice, then feel free to call me at 404-660-1020, anytime!

UPDATE: COBRA UNDER THE NEW STIMULUS PACKAGE

Since the recent stimulus package passed, the way COBRA is funded has changed dramatically. Now, if you’ve lost your job between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 and are eligible for COBRA health insurance, you’re only on the hook for 35% of the costs of your health insurance instead of 102%. The other 65% is still paid for by your employer, who is reimbursed in the form of payroll tax credits. This subsidy is available for the first nine months of eligibility, so after that things go back to the 102% mark.

The COBRA subsidy applies to group health insurance plans, as well as group dental, vision, and HSAs. FSAs are excluded from the subsidy.

This means COBRA coverage can be more affordable for folks using it as a temporary form of health insurance while between jobs. COBRA is still not a long-term solution, and it’s still a very good idea to compare the quality and cost of reduced-cost COBRA coverage with private health insurance plans.

For an official rundown of the COBRA changes, have a look at this extremely comprehensive look at the COBRA changes. If you have any questions that neither this article nor that page can answer, please feel free to contact me and I’ll help you in any way I can.

Is COBRA Health Insurance Right For You? is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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If you look around this website, you’ll find pages and pages of information about how wonderful it is to use an independent agent, how having an expert on your side can save you time and money when dealing with health insurance companies, and how having your own, personal agent on call to address your insurance needs can truly save you. But, there is one downside to using an independent insurance agent: we’ve got access to hundreds of different policies.

Now usually that’s a good thing. It means that you have a great deal of choice, that you’re not tied down to any one company or product line, and that your agent can just about always find a policy that offers the right combination of protection and monthly cost for your needs. However, that amount of choice can also get a little overwhelming and can make the task of narrowing things down to just one plan seem slightly daunting. Imagine walking onto the lot at a Carmax and just telling a salesman “I want a car.” He’d probably look at you blankly and have no idea where to get started, right? Even though that car salesman knows where everything is on the lot and knows the details and specs for all of his cars, he still needs you to let him know a little about what you want in order to help you find the right vehicle for you. So you go to the dealership armed with a little information, like how many passengers you want to be able to seat, what color you want, what kind of interior, and so on and so forth. Health insurance works in a very similar way – there are hundreds of plans out there, and the benefits are very different with all of them. Some cover well-care for children, while some have excellent accident benefits. Some have better copay structures, while some have an awesome health savings account component. If you know a little bit about what you want, you and your agent can work together much more effectively to find the policy that will work best for you.

So, how do you do that? How do you go about figuring out what type of policy is best for you and your family? You don’t have to have all of the answers, of course, since you’ll be working closely with an independent agent and he’ll be able to help you figure that out, but like we discussed a moment ago, it’s a good plan to have a basic idea of what your needs regarding health insurance will be.

In my experience, the best way to get started is to ask yourself three questions:

1. What do I like about your current policy?
2. What don’t I like about your current policy?
3. If I could design a policy from the ground up for yourself, what would you put in it?

Answering these three questions will just about always point you towards the right policy for you. There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re asking yourself these things.

When you’re thinking about what you like about your current health insurance plan, think about the past few times you’ve had to use it. Have you been to the doctor’s office or emergency room lately? Did you have a copay for either visit? Have you had to call your insurance company recently, and if so, were you satisfied with the level of customer service you received? What kind of deductible do you have now? How are your prescription drugs handled?

Thinking about these things will also probably reveal what you don’t like about your current plan. Maybe your current deductible is too high, or your prescriptions aren’t covered like you want them to be. Maybe you don’t have a copay and you want one – or maybe you do have a copay, but you never use it and want to lower your premiums by doing away with it.

When you get through thinking about what you like and don’t like about your current insurance policy, you should have a decent idea about how you feel about your deductible, your copay, and your premiums. Additionally, if you’ve had to use your health insurance lately, you’ll probably have an idea about any special circumstances you want your policy to cover (for instance, if chiropractic care is covered, if wellness benefits are included, and so on).

Now with that information, you’re ready to tackle the third question: if you could design a policy from the ground up, what would you put in it? This is where you get to make sure any special considerations you may have are taken care of. For example, do you want to make sure that your child under age five will have free well-care checkups? Do you want to make sure a certain prescription drug is covered? Do you want to have extra coverage if you have some kind of accident (known as a supplemental accident benefit)?

The next step is to take this idealized plan you’ve built and give it an unfortunate “reality check.” Personally, I want a health insurance plan that has a $10/year deductible, covers all of my office visits with a $2 copay, gives me free prescription drugs whenever they’re prescribed, sends me Chinese food on Fridays, and does it all for under $5 a month. That plan, however, doesn’t exist, which means you’ll need to identify which category you have more flexibility in: are you more willing to let your premiums go up a little to get the coverage you want, or do you want to increase your deductible and maybe eliminate your copay to get down to the monthly premiums you can afford?

Think about this: the difference between a $1500 and a $2500 deductible is $1000 a year, but if you save $84 a month by moving to a higher deductible, then you’ll have made up that difference just from your premium savings. That means you have that money in your pocket instead of sending it to the insurance company – and believe me, if you don’t meet that $1500 deductible, they’re not going to send any of your money back for “overpaying” them. Raising your deductible can put extra money in your pocket while still giving you comprehensive coverage, and is probably the area you should look at when you’re trying to figure out how to fit health insurance into your monthly budget.

Now, you’ve identified what you like about your current policy, what you don’t, and what you would change. On top of that, you’ve figured out what sort of deductible you’d like to look at, if you want an office visit copay, and any special things you want included in your new health insurance policy. Furthermore, you’ve figured where you can be flexible if you have to be: benefits, or premiums. The only thing that’s left is to sit down and start looking at policies until you find one that matches what you want.

Everything up to now has sounded harder than it really is. Unfortunately, this last part flips that on its head by sounding significantly easier than it is. There’s much more to the final step than writing down a deductible, copay, and premium amount and just looking at plans until one matches up. This is where your independent agent comes in. With access to hundreds of different policies, that choice that earlier looked overwhelming now just looks welcoming.

With the knowledge you’ve gained from reading and applying the techniques outlined in this article, you and your independent agent are now ready to sit down and figure out the exact policy that will work best for you. And remember, working with your independent agent to select your personal health insurance policy isn’t just a one-time interaction – you’ll be getting an expert on your side who will work for you for the life of your policy. But you’ve already read the article about Why You Should Use an Independent Agent, right?

When you’re ready to start working with your own independent agent, visit our free Georgia insurance quote center. You’ll be shocked at how easy it is to work with an independent insurance agent, and even more shocked at how affordable insurance can be!

How To Choose The Right Health Insurance Policy is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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1. What’s the deductible?

This should be the first question you ask about any policy. The deductible is the amount of money that must come out of your pocket before your health insurance company will begin paying benefits. So, if you have a $500 deductible, and you get a $750 hospital bill, then your benefits will kick in on the last $250. That first $500 will be applied to your deductible.

Your deductible will have a massive impact on your health insurance premiums. Having a higher deductible will lower your premiums, and having a lower deductible will raise them.

Take care to note, however, that that doesn’t mean you’ll only have to pay $500 dollars and consider that $250 handled. Many health insurance plans have a coinsurance amount linked to an out-of-pocket limit. In fact…

2. What’s my coinsurance and out-of-pocket?

Depending on the company, the “out-of-pocket” limit may also be called a “stop-loss” or “break point,” but these things are all the same. Your out-of-pocket limit is the amount of money beyond your deductible that you’ll be responsible for before your plan pays 100% of your remaining medical costs. The out-of-pocket limit is always paired with a coinsurance amount, which defines what percentage of costs beyond your deductible you’ll be responsible for on any given bill. So for instance, if you’ve satisfied your deductible but have a $1000 out-of-pocket limit with an 80% coinsurance, and you get a bill for $100 dollars:

• The insurance company will pay $80 of this bill
• You’ll be responsible for $20 of this bill
• And that $20 will be applied to your out-of-pocket limit, reducing the balance down to $980.

So, even though the bill was $100 dollars, you were only responsible for $20 because you had met your deductible. With these numbers, if you had medical bills (after your deductible) totalling $5000, you would be responsible for $1000 and the insurance company would pay the remaining $4000. Paying that $1000 would also cause you to reach your out-of-pocket limit, so any additional covered medical bills within your beneift period would be covered at 100%. Out-of-pocket limits are generally locked into various policies, so even if your agent can adjust the deductible it’s common that the out-of-pocket can’t be changed.

One important thing to note is that if you have a high deductible health plan, or HDHP, you usually won’t have an out-of-pocket limit. Once you meet your deductible, your costs will generally be covered at 100%.

3. Is the deductible per-incident, per-confinement, or per-year?

This one is huge. One of the sneakiest ways health insurance companies reduce their risk, and therefore lower their costs and raise their profits, is by defining their deductibles by confinement or incident instead of the standard per-year definition. With most health insurance policies, once you meet your deductible, you’ve met it for the year. Any further medical bills will be applied to your out-of-pocket limit, and then covered at 100% once that is satisfied. This means that if you have more than one incident in a year that causes you to incur significant medical costs, you’ll be covered.

However, if you have per-confinement or per-incident deductibles, things are very, very different.

With per-confinement or per-incident deductibles, every time you have a situation where you require medical attention is subjected to its own deductible. So if you have a $1000 per confinement deductible then have food poisoning in January, a broken arm in March, strep throat in June, a routine OBGYN visit in August, a case of the sniffles in October, and you cut your hand open carving the Thanksgiving turkey, then each one of these incidents is subjected to its own $1000 deductible!! In other words, say the total medical bills related to your food poisoning come out to $800, your broken arm is $750, the two doctor’s office visits together come out to $350, and then the ER visit for the Thanksgiving mishap comes out to $500. That totals up to $2400 in medical bills for the year, which means that $1000 should apply to the deductible and $1400 to the out-of-pocket limit, right? Nope — you’ve got per-incident deductibles, and not a single one of those visits cost more than $1000. That means that with each new medical incident your deductible reset back to $1000, and you never once met it. Every last dollar of those medical bills comes out of your pocket, because the deductible was per-incident, not per-year.

Long story short, deductibles should be per year, not per incident or per confinement, especially if you have more than one person on the policy. MEGA Life and Health is infamous for defining its deductibles by incident instead of by year. Golden Rule’s short-term medical plans also use per-incident deductibles, which is why they’re one of the cheapest short-term medical policies on the market.

4. Do I have an office visit copay?

When you go to the doctor, some insurance plans hold you responsible for the entire sum of the bill (subject to your deductible and coinsurance, of course) while others employ a copay. Basically, when you have a copay, you’re responsible only for a nominal fee to go see your doctor instead of the full bill. That fee usually hovers around $15-$35 for a primary care physician (a family doctor) and $25-$55 for a specialist (an orthopaedic doctor, dermatologist, OBGYN, or other, specialized doctor).

On the face of things, a copay sounds fantastic. Instead of being responsible for the entire cost of a doctor’s office visit, a copay reduces the cost to a predictable amount that is essentially always lower than the full bill. However, adding a copay to your insurance plan is the number two biggest thing you can do to increase your monthly premiums (number one is lowering your deductible). Think about this: how many times a year do you go to the doctor? Most people will say anywhere from one to three visits is average for them. The additional cost you would pay upfront for those one to three visits a year is almost always offset by the amount of money you’ll save off of your monthly premiums by switching to a plan that doesn’t offer an office visit copay. Let’s run the numbers:

• The average cost of a primary care visit is $60; a specialist visit averages about $175
• The average primary care copay is about $35; for a specialist, that’s about $50

So in a year that you went to your primary care doctor twice and a specialist once, you’d pay $120 on a copay plan or $295 for a plan that doesn’t offer copays. The difference there is $175, or a little under $15 a month. In this scenario, it makes sense that if you can save over $15 a month by eliminating copays from your plan, then it’s smarter to be without copays than to include them. I can say with a great deal of confidence that if two plans are identical in every way except that one offers a copay and one doesn’t, then the plan without a copay will always offer savings greater than $15/month in premiums.

If you’re really, really tied to having a copay, then consider asking your agent about a plan with a limited number of office visits covered by copays a year. Most limited-copay plans give you six or so office visits a year covered by a copay, and you’ll be responsible for the full bill after those visits until you meet your deductible. These plans give you a compromise by lowering your premiums but still giving you the comfort of the copay.

5. Do I have a limited period to get diagnostic tests?

After the per-confinement deductible, this is the worst trick an insurance company can pull. With most plans, diagnostic tests can be done at any time so long as they’re medically necessary. This means that if you think you’ve broken your hand, you go to the doctor, have an x-ray, and then find out that you’ve just bruised it, well, no big deal. That x-ray was deemed medically necessary by your doctor, and therefore it was a covered expense.

This changes, however, with some types of health insurance plans. Certain plans allow diagnostics only in a certain time period before and after a surgical procedure or inpatient confinement. For instance, some MEGA Life and Health plans allow diagnostics only fourteen days before and/or fourteen days after a surgery or inpatient confinement. This means that, in our example above, the x-ray would not have been a covered expense because no surgery resulted from it.

That limited window for diagnostics can be a minor pain when dealing with things like hand x-rays, but it can be absolutely devastating when dealing with monitoring a long-term condition like leukemia, or monitoring recovery after major surgery. You have health insurance to cover medical costs, so why would you accept a plan with such a fundamental limitation?

These five questions will give you a great deal of information about your plan by covering the basics (copay, out-of-pocket, and deductible) and will make sure you catch it if the policy includes one of the two most common sneaky limitations (per-confinement deductibles and diagnostic windows) that insurance companies use to limit your benefits. When I sit down with a client, these are always the first five things we go over, because I know that these five points are the most important things they could ask me to make sure they’re getting the level of coverage that they need.

There’s one question that’s not on the list, because it’s the one everyone already knows to ask: what’s the cost? Well, the easiest and safest way to figure that out is to head up to our free Georgia insurance quote page and get a free, no-obligation, no-stone-unturned insurance quote. You’ll be amazed at how easy insurance can be when you work with an independent agent, and shocked at how affordable insurance can be when you have an expert in your corner!

Top Five Questions For Your Health Insurance Agent is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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For some reason, people are often reluctant to talk about life insurance. Maybe they think that discussing it means admitting their own mortality. Maybe they think that talking about it makes the possibility of death into a certainty. Or maybe it’s because they’re afraid to admit that the money they’ve made from working hard their whole life won’t be enough to cover their final costs. Whatever the reason, life insurance isn’t often thought of as a fun topic of conversation. And because of that, people push it to the back of their minds, try not to think about it, and hope that their savings account and three bedroom two bathroom house in the city will provide all the assets their loved ones need after they’re gone.

In the early 2000’s, my mother and father lived in a four bedroom two bathroom house on the Satilla River in Woodbine, Georgia and the real estate market was good. My parents were out eating dinner one night and happened to mention, just in passing during a conversation they were having between themselves, how fair their house was from the river. Their house wasn’t on the market, but they got two offers to purchase it on the spot – without marketing it or even listing it! Even though at the time my father was in his late sixties and my mother had just crossed fifty years old, they didn’t worry about final expenses or their debt. If things got too bad, no trouble. The real estate market was good, so if worse came to worst they could just sell the house and cover their expenses by downgrading to a smaller home. In 2005, the real estate market began slipping.

By mid-2006, the real estate market in southeast Georgia had crashed.

Around Thanksgiving 2006, my father started feeling ill.

By Christmas 2006, he started stumbling over words and forgetting things he normally wouldn’t. He didn’t want to worry about it, so he didn’t talk about it. He just pretended nothing was wrong. I guess it wasn’t a fun topic of conversation.

On May 9^th, 2007, my father was diagnosed with cancer of the brain, bone, lungs, blood, and colon. That day was my parents’ 32^nd wedding anniversary, and I still have the journal that my dad wrote in that afternoon.

On July 29^th, 2007, at 12:40 in the morning, my father died. It would take a little while, but before too long we realized that we were in trouble. There was more debt than we had realized, and there were medical bills coming in that his health insurance was doing nothing to cover (which leads me to plead with you again – even if you don’t use me, please use a local independent agent for your health insurance needs, someone you can build trust with and someone who has your best interests at heart). We did everything we could, but things quickly got out of control. My father didn’t have life insurance, and his estate was unmanageable.

This story doesn’t have as sad an ending as it could. That house on the river sold about a month before we would have run out of money and provided my mother with enough capital to stabilize herself and move back to Alabama, where she grew up. But it was a very, very close call, and there’s a lesson to be learned from it. If you expect your savings account to cover your final expenses, then you need to realize that that’s going to mean that those savings are going to be wiped out. If you expect your loved ones to carry the burden, then you have to be prepared for the responsibility of placing that heavy, heavy load upon their shoulders – and you have to realize, like it or not, that no matter how hard they try to feel otherwise they almost certainly won’t be able to help a few feelings of resentment. And if you’re hoping that your non-liquid assets like your real estate, your classic car, or your antique coin collection will provide a source of cash, then you have to consider that those things all take time to sell, that those you leave behind will be likely be too preoccupied to negotiate a fair price, and that it’s truly difficult for your loved ones to sell off all of your possessions when they’re desperately trying to cling to everything that reminds them of you.

Furthermore, while the assets you leave behind may be enough to pay for the cost of your burial, your car payment, and your mortgage, will it be enough to replace the income that your loved ones suddenly find themselves without? And finally, to the folks in their twenties and thirties, don’t think life insurance is only for people in their sixties and seventies. For just a few bucks a month, you could have coverage right now that protects your loved ones in the event of your death, meaning that you can worry about building your career and your life without running the risk of having it all fall apart should a tragedy befall you. Be honest – if you’re twenty-five and newlywed, do you have enough set aside to cover your financial responsibilities and provide for your spouse if something were to happen to you? The answer is probably “no,” and that’s okay. You’re just starting out in life! But that means it’s all the more important for you to protect the integrity of what you’ve accomplished, and the best way to do that is with life insurance.

So, once you’ve realized that you do need life insurance, what next? Well, there are a few major different types of life insurance: term life, whole life, and universal life.

Term life insurance is the simplest, most straightforward type of life insurance. Term life is also the least expensive type of life insurance. Basically, you buy a policy that is in force for a set period of time – a set “term.”If the insured person were to die during that period of time, the policy would pay the entire face value. So, for example, if you purchased a ten year term policy to insure your life and you passed away three years later, the policy would pay the full death benefit to the beneficiary.

When most people think of life insurance, they think of whole life. Whole life provides permanent protection while building a cash value. Premiums are generally fixed along the life of the policy. The cash value of the policy means that, should you need to at any point, you can withdraw money from your policy or even take loans against it, providing you with a small source of emergency funds. All of this is, of course, in addition to the normal death benefit of the policy.

Universal life is the most flexible form of life insurance. Over the life of the policy, you can adjust the premium amounts and payment schedule to better suit your needs at any given time. Universal life policies also accrue a cash value, just like whole life. That cash value allows you to earn a small rate of return based on market rates as well, so you can think of whole and universal life insurance as a low-risk source of very small returns.

So which one is best? Well, that depends on your needs, and a true needs analysis is beyond the scope of this article. The very, very broad brush answer, however is this: if you need life insurance to cover the risk associated with limited time propositions (for example, you want to make sure that if you pass away your kids have enough money to finish college) then term life is probably for you. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for permanent protection that will last for the rest of your life and provide an inheritance for your loved ones, then you need to look at whole or universal life.

To get started with your personalized needs analysis, head up to our term life insurance quote page and let me know a little more about yourself. I believe very strongly in the need for life insurance because of my personal history, and I know that I can help you get the protection that my family should have had. I’m ready to help you whenever you are.

Life Insurance – Why and How is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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You’ve put your gender, date of birth, and desired date of coverage into a website. Then you’ve been shown three or four plans, each with different premiums and levels of coverage. Even though these plans are backed by contracts which range anywhere from fifteen to a hundred pages in length, the only information you’re given about your options is summed up in three or four bullet points. Do you know exactly what these plans cover? No – at best, you know the office copay, deductible, out-of-pocket limit, coinsurance, and monthly premium. Let’s say you select one of these plans – now they ask you for more information. Height, weight, medical conditions, a few other personal questions, and contact information. Now the fun begins. If you’ve put this information into a carrier’s website, you might get one or two agents from that insurance company calling you to talk to you about what sort of coverage you want. If you’ve put this information into a website offering “Free Instant Quotes From All Major Carriers!!!” then you’re likely about to be in for a shock. That information is instantly sold to anywhere from one to twenty-five agents who will immediately jump on their phone to try to get at you first – you’ve just become a “hot lead,” not a “person” with a “family” who has “insurance needs.” Whether you used an insurance company’s website or a “quote warehouse,” you’ve got problems.

If you used an insurance company’s website, you’re going to be contacted by “captive agents.” Now I’ll give them credit, captive agents usually know their products inside and out. If you have an Aetna captive agent on the other end of the phone trying to sell you an Aetna policy, then he’s going to know just about everything there is to know about that policy. Problem is, he’s not going to know about what Golden Rule, Humana, Assurant, or anyone else has to offer, and he’s certainly not going to encourage you to find out. It’s sort of like going to buy a new car – the Ford salesman is going to try to sell you a Ford, and if he mentions a Chevrolet at all it’s just going to be to tell you how much better his products are. If you get an Aetna agent on one line and a Humana agent on the other, they’re both going to tell you that their policies are the best fit for you. More importantly, they’re not going to highlight the same things about their policies, meaning you’re not going to be able to make an informed and complete comparison. That’s why shopping the major carriers direct just doesn’t work – it results in you being forced to compare apples to oranges when what you really wanted was a banana, anyway.

Things are worse if you enter your information into a quote warehouse site. The agents that will contact you regarding these plans are agents that have bought your information as a “lead” from a website like www.prospectzone.com. More likely than not, your information was sold to at least three agents (sometimes, significantly more – up to twenty-five in some cases) who will all fall all over themselves to get to you before the others do. Then, knowing that there are other agents hitting their redial button, these agents go for the high-pressure quick close. Usually, this means putting you into the cheapest policy they can – the commission check might be lower, but it’s a volume game at this point – regardless of whether or not the benefits suit your needs. These agents assume that if they can quote you a cheaper premium than anyone else, then they’ll make the sale – the quality of the coverage is hardly even a concern! There’s no personal attention, there’s no comparison of policies, there’s no dedication to client service; there’s only trying to pressure you into the sale and, if you don’t feel comfortable buying right away, dumping you and moving on to the next lead that hits their email inbox.

There is one problem common to both of these scenarios, and it’s a big one. When you apply for health or life insurance, your application goes through what’s called an “underwriting process.” During this time, your application is evaluated to make sure the insurance company knows just what it’s getting into when they agree to insure you (this is also the time during which your premiums might be adjusted based on the level of risk you present to the company, or when certain conditions may be “ridered out” as uninsurable). One of the tools underwriters use to evaluate what level of risk you present to the company comes from information made available by the Medical Information Bureau. The MIB, according to their website, alerts its member insurance companies to omissions and fraud during the underwriting of life, health, and other types of insurance. One of the things that will show up in your MIB report is if you’ve ever been declined for health or life insurance coverage before. If you show a decline in your record, it becomes much more difficult for you to be considered an acceptable risk by the company with which you presently want to get insurance. Now, the quickest way for an agent to get a commission check is to get your application out of the door as quickly as possible. Sometimes, agents will send your application to multiple insurance companies at the same time just in case one or two don’t go through. The problem here is this: if these applications get declined, you’re going to have a much more difficult time getting health or life insurance. Since you’re just another “hot lead,” though, and not a person with a family and needs, that doesn’t matter – the goal here is to get your application out as quickly as possible and move on to the next target.

Now tell me: Do either of these scenarios sound like they’re going to result in you getting the policy that’s best suited to your needs? Do you think either scenario ends with you having an agent that remembers your name, your needs, and will still be there to help you in three months when you have a question about your policy?

You have another option – find your local independent agent! Now of course, I’m a little biased (after all, I’m hoping that when you go looking for that independent agent, you’ll find me), but things really are different when you go this route. Shopping for insurance becomes a stress-free, hassle-free experience. When you pick up the phone and call me, or send me an email, message me on Facebook, or even DM me on Twitter, our business is strictly between the two of us. Your information isn’t shared with other agents, sold to mailing lists, or put in some online database so that other people can see your private information. You’re not a lead, you’re not a deal, you’re not an appointment – you’re a client, and you’re someone whose health and life coverage I take personal responsibility for.

Your local independent agent has access to more than just one carrier – not like the captive agents that work directly for the major insurance companies. For instance, I currently offer products from Humana, Aetna, Assurant, Golden Rule, GTL, Imerica, Madison National, World Insurance, Genworth, Colorado Banker’s Life, and AIG, as well as a nifty standalone dental plan through AHCP. And guess what – I have no reason to sell one of these carriers over the other! That means you get a fair and balanced comparison of these major insurance companies and the policies that they offer with no hidden agenda. That also means that you get access to a LOT more options than you would have with a captive agent.

You also get the personal touch. If my email inbox filled up with fifty purchased “hot leads” a day and I called each and every one of them, there’s no way I could remember all the names of the people I called by the end of the day. By the end of the week, forget it! But when you contact your local independent agent directly, you have the chance to have an expert in your corner working for you, not for an insurance company. Now think about this: seven months down the line, when you have a question about your policy, who do you want to call? The giant call-center at the insurance company? The agent that bought your information and a hundred others online and forgot who you were the second his commission check came in? Or would you rather call your local independent agent who went over your policy with you, took the time to shop for you and, out of a sea of options, found the policy that best protects you and your family? The answer to this one should be obvious!

And remember a few paragraphs ago when we were talking about how each and every time your application is declined by an insurance company it gets harder and harder – and eventually impossible – for you to get coverage? Well, that’s only a problem when you deal with someone in a captive agency or someone who has a hundred phone calls to make by the end of the day. Your local agent, who works for you, can call the insurance company before sending your application in. I can call up an underwriter at any of my carriers, give them my agent ID, give them a little information and find out if that policy will be issued, issued with an increased premium, or cancelled. But since I can do that without giving away who is applying, if they tell me the application will be declined then I never even have to send it in. That means there’s no black mark on your MIB records, and that means you still have a chance to get coverage with another company.

There’s one more thing about having your own local independent agent, which almost makes the arrangement too good to be true. We’ve already discussed the fact that your local independent agent will be someone you have the chance to have a personal relationship with and who will always be available to help you with your policy questions. And we’ve already discussed the fact that this local independent agent works for you, not for the insurance company. And we’ve discussed the fact that with a local independent agent you can, at any time, pick up the phone or write an email and have an on-call expert to answer your insurance questions. But here’s the best part. Ready?

It’s all at no additional charge.

You can pay your insurance premiums and have a faceless company that doesn’t know who you are and what your situation is. You can pay your insurance premiums and have a “churn and burn” agent who is interested only in selling you a policy as fast as possible and moving on to the next mark. Or, for the same price, you can have a local independent agent working to protect your family 24/7. Your premiums are going to be the same in every case (and this is by law – insurance companies aren’t allowed to charge different premiums based on who you buy your policy from). The only difference is in the level of service and personalized attention you’ll receive.

Now, there are three ways to buy life and/or health insurance: direct from the company, online through a quote warehouse, or through your local independent agent. The price will be the same for all of them. Knowing what you now know, which one do you think is the right choice?

I think the answer is obvious. Using an independent agent is easy, it’s free, and it’s the surest way to guarantee that you’re getting the best, most affordable policy for your needs. To enlist the help of an independent agent, head up to our free Georgia insurance quote page and get ready to see what it’s like to have a true expert working for you! And by the way, filling our that free quote form is perfectly safe and completely private – I’m the only person who will see the information you submit, and I will never share it with or sell it to anyone. Your privacy is my priority – trust me!

Why You Should Use an Independent Agent is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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As you know, when you have an independent insurance agent, you have access to all the health insurance companies that agent represents. And, as you know, this is the time of year when a lot of our policies are renewing, which also means a lot of our plans are seeing rate adjustments.

Unfortunately, the majority of the time those rate adjustments go upwards rather than downwards. It looks like this year won’t be any exception, especially with the way our economy is trending. Today, I’ve talked with several people who are reporting rate increases from Golden Rule and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, as well as less severe rate increases with Imerica and Assurant. My own research has borne this out — it looks like these companies are increasing rates across the board.

Keep in mind, this isn’t based on any official information from the insurance companies. This is just something I’m watching on my end, and I’m personally seeing a lot of higher premiums for the same coverage.

That being said, major kudos to Humana. From what I can tell, Humana’s rates are holding steady with no sacrifice of benefits. I’m keeping an eye on this, and I’m going to spend some time this week calling current clients to make sure that they’re still satisfied with their coverage.

Rate hikes, especially when they come out of nowhere, can really disrupt your monthly budget. That’s why I always, always recommend a twelve-month rate guarantee to my new clients. Locking your rates in for the first year adds an element of predictability to your plan, which is a great deal for a product that exists to provide asset protection.

If you want to evaluate your current plan against the shifting market to make sure that you’re still getting the best rate possible, check out our free Georgia insurance quote page to get your free, personalized, no-stone-unturned quote. You never know how much you could be saving until you get your agent to research the market for you!

Georgia Insurance Options: Rate Watch January 2009 is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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Insurance might seem like a strange thing to have a passion for, but it’s where my heart lies. Before you put the responsibility for your health and life insurance into my hands, I’d like you to know a little bit about who I am, where I came from, and why I’m dedicated to doing the best job for you that I possibly can.

I’m a graduate of the University of Georgia (go Dawgs!) and proudly hold a Bachelor’s Degree of the Arts in Sociology. At first glance, it may not seem like a sociology degree from the University of Georgia is the most impressive qualification for an independent insurance agent. Perhaps finance, business, or economics would seem more appropriate – but I’d argue that you’d be wrong. The focus of my degree was on quantitative demographic analysis, which means I have spent years crunching numbers to track trends in all sorts of areas. Applying that knowledge to the insurance industry means I not only watch trends as they develop, but I anticipate what will happen in the future. We’ve all heard horror stories about people signing up with a health insurance carrier at a great rate only to see their premiums skyrocket midway through the year. Wouldn’t you want an agent who knows how to track and anticipate that sort of thing? Remember the article on this very website about why you should use an independent agent: you can shop for your own insurance, you can buy direct from the insurance companies, and you can pay a monthly premium. Or, you can use an independent agent, pay the same premiums and no additional fees, and have an expert working for you to select the best policy for your needs. In other words, you can use an independent agent and, at no extra cost, get someone to research all of your options for you and present you with the best ones. Now, doesn’t it make sense that an agent with a college degree in research and analysis is a smart choice?

I’ve worked with insurance ever since graduating from college. As a benefits specialist for a major medical group in the Atlanta, Georgia area, I analyzed and applied the benefits of anywhere from twenty (on a slow day) to one hundred fifty patients every day. In an average week, I would review the health insurance policies of at least four hundred patients. When I say I’m a health insurance expert, it’s not me artificially inflating my credentials: if there’s a policy sold in the state of Georgia, chances are I’ve seen it, I’ve worked with it, and I know just what to expect from it. And I know, from real-world experience, what types of policies work best in what situations. I know what carriers and what networks work best in what geographic areas of our state. And believe me, I know what the consequences of having the wrong coverage can be.

In fact, it’s that last point that led me to leave my position as a benefits specialist for a career in independent health insurance sales, education, and consultation. I lost track within three weeks of starting that job how many people I watched go bankrupt because they either didn’t have the coverage they thought they had or because they thought they could save money by not carrying health insurance. That plan never works – we all get sick, we all have accidents, and we will all incur medical bills. But I wasn’t allowed to say that to our patients, because our golden rule was “We identify benefits, not advise on them.”

Well, privacy laws and personal ethics prevent me from discussing the straw that broke this camel’s back, but suffice to say I saw one too many people walk out of our doors completely broke because they had health insurance that didn’t serve their needs. It wasn’t the fault of our clinic – we followed standard billing guidelines and I never personally saw a charge posted that I didn’t think was fair. It wasn’t the fault of our patients – in almost every case, they had coverage that they thought was more comprehensive than it truly was, and if that wasn’t the case then they honestly believed that they couldn’t afford health insurance. And it wasn’t the fault of the big bad insurance companies – their policies were written and selected by the patients, and claims were paid as promised (most of the time). Health insurance is complicated, and policy contracts are difficult to read. If you’ve never been exposed to them before, they can be completely incomprehensible.

But somewhere along the line, someone forgot to explain to these patients just what was going to be covered and what wasn’t. Someone forgot that you sell a health insurance policy to a living, breathing person with a spouse and a family and a business to run, not a faceless name in a ledger. And so, I took the experience I gathered from reviewing literally thousands upon thousands of policies, left that medical group, and began applying my experience and expertise to filling that gap. And now, I don’t work for the doctors, and I don’t work for the insurance company: I work for you, my client.

If you have any questions about my professional qualifications or affiliations, please use the contact form located on this website to get in touch with me. I’m always excited to speak with new people. A lot of insurance agents like to say that they’re self-employed, but I like to say that I work for my clients. It might seem like a strange decision to trade my one boss for hundreds, but I can’t imagine a more fulfilling profession. So, if you’d like to hire me, I’m always open to an interview! If you want to see how much money I can save you, then head over to my free Georgia insurance quote page and get your personalized insurance quote today!

Know Your Georgia Insurance Agent: Nick Perry’s Biography is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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When you buy a health insurance policy for yourself or your family, you’re buying protection that will last for the full duration of your policy. Usually, that means that you’re signing a contract that agrees to one year of health insurance coverage (that coverage will automatically renew every year unless you tell your agent you want it to do otherwise). But sometimes, you don’t need a full year of coverage. Perhaps you’ve just graduated from college and you just need health insurance for a couple of months until you get a job with benefits. Maybe you’ve run into the same problem more and more of us are facing in this economic downturn: employee volume reductions have left you temporarily jobless, and all of a sudden you – not to mention your spouse and children – are without the health insurance benefits you had been counting on from your employer. You’re out there looking for a new job with new benefits, but what can you do in the meantime? In a bottomed-out economy when you’re already without your normal income, the last thing you need is for an unexpected health care emergency to wipe out your savings.

In a situation like this, I highly recommend short-term medical insurance. These policies can be absolute lifesavers for people who find themselves unexpectedly and temporarily without health insurance.

For often shockingly low prices, you can get the same benefits of a full plan for a limited period of time. Short-term medical insurance is just as simple as that. Standard, full benefits, full coverage, low price, limited duration. Does it get any easier than that?

Short term medical insurance is designed to cover a gap in coverage, and by filling that gap it provides you with a hidden benefit that’s often overlooked. If you have employer benefits, lose your job and lose those benefits, but wait for three or four months to buy an individual health insurance policy, then you’ve had what insurance companies call a “lapse in coverage.” This opens you back up to the dreaded “pre-existing condition” rules that insurers use to deny claims every day. But, if you fill that gap with a short-term medical plan, you can prove that you’ve had continuous coverage back to when your first job’s benefits began. That means that, by law, those conditions that might otherwise be called pre-existing cannot be excluded from coverage when your new benefits begin. Let’s use an example.

Say that you started a job at company A. While working there, and while covered by company A’s group health plan, you developed tendinitis in your wrist. Since that condition didn’t develop until after you were covered, company A’s group health insurer can’t deny any claims under a pre-existing clause. Unfortunately, company A has to lay you off and you realize that COBRA is just too expensive (and we have an article on COBRA elsewhere on this website for your reading pleasure!), so you suddenly find yourself without health insurance. Three months pass, and you either take a job with company B or decide to buy an individual family plan. Well, since you’ve had a gap in coverage longer than sixty-three days, any claims you make for that tendinitis may be denied as a pre-existing condition – if that new insurance policy didn’t just include a rider to exclude that condition from coverage from the beginning!

However, if you had filled that gap with short-term medical insurance, you would have had continuous coverage for the duration of your condition. That means that that tendinitis cannot be considered a pre-existing condition any longer – since you’ve been insured for it with no gap in coverage, it can’t be said that it existed before you had insurance! But when you have that lapse in coverage between your two group policies, you open yourself up to all sorts of exclusions and underwriting requirements that are easily avoidable. Add that on to the problems of going without health insurance in the first place, especially during a period in your life when you’re between jobs or fresh out of college, and you can see why going without short-term medical insurance just isn’t a wise decision to make.

Filling the gap between employer benefits or between graduation and employment is absolutely vital, and short-term medical insurance is the best, simplest, most effective way to do that. Short-term medical insurance is also remarkably affordable – to find out just how much short-term medical insurance would be for you, head over to our free Georgia insurance quote page and get your personalized value proposal today!

Short Term Medical Insurance is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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“I can’t afford health insurance!”

I can’t tell you how many times I heard that when I used to work in a doctor’s office as an insurance benefits specialist. Know what else I can’t tell you? How many people walked out of our doors followed by phone calls, letters, and eventually collections agents and bankruptcy attorneys. What these people truly couldn’t afford was to not have health insurance.

The cost of health care can be astronomical. Accidents happen, critical illness strike, and they generally don’t have the manners to call a week ahead of time to let you know they’ll be visiting. Are you one of the people who says they don’t have health insurance because they can’t afford it – but hey, it’s not like you plan on getting sick anytime soon, right?

Stop reading this article right now. Get in your car, go to the nearest hospital emergency room, and ask how many people there were planning on getting sick. Ask how many of them were planning on having an accident that day. See the guy with the appendix that’s about to rupture? He’ll be getting a bill for over ten thousand dollars in the mail before too long. The kid in the corner who fell off of his bike and whose parents don’t have health insurance coverage? That broken arm is going to cost at least a hundred bucks to evaluate, plus another $175 per x-ray (and they’ll probably do two or three), plus casting fees (triple the cost if the doctor deems a waterproof cast necessary), plus follow-up visits (at least one, at at least $125), plus cast removal (another $150 or more), plus physical therapy if he needs it. The thirty-five year old guy who didn’t realize he had an almost complete arterial blockage until he had a heart attack – forget it. If he survives, he’s bankrupt. If he doesn’t make it, his family will be.

If your budget is truly so tight that you don’t think you can afford health insurance, then take a close look at where your money is going. Ask yourself this: what is going to truly ruin our family, an extra set, steady charge each month that we can plan and budget for, or a sudden crush of medical bills?

I can’t emphasize this enough. You should be looking to save money on the cost of your health care, not your health insurance. Sure, you can adjust your deductible and coinsurance levels. You can eliminate a copay from your plan, like we talked about in another article. But you simply cannot afford to go without health insurance – it’s a gamble, and it’s one that may work for a while, but it’ll get you in the end. The bottom line is this: no matter your situation, you need health insurance. If you’re self employed or own your own business, the costs of a medical emergency can cripple your financial infrastructure and run your business into the ground. If you have a family, you owe it to your children and your spouse to protect them from financial devastation. Even if it’s just you, modern day hero, a healthy young man or woman going it alone, bankruptcy can ground your dreams and take years to claw your way out of. You don’t go broke because you have a monthly premium to pay. You don’t go broke because you’ve factored a set, predictable monthly cost into your budget. If you go broke, it’s going to be because you got slammed with a hundred thousand dollar medical bill and don’t have insurance coverage that will pay for it.

The reason many people think they can’t afford insurance is because they think health insurance is an all-or-nothing proposition. Either you get the $750 a month policy that covers absolutely everything at no cost past premiums or it’s just not worth paying for. This simply isn’t the case. Now, don’t get me wrong; if you have room in your budget for the high-end policy and you, with the counsel of your local independent agent, decide that that’s the level of coverage you need, then that’s what you should buy. But for the vast majority of people, a policy that robust simply isn’t necessary. What’s the point of paying for coverage you simply don’t need? Think about it this way: what’s the point of buying a Hummer with Swarovski crystal rims and velvet airbags when all you want to do is drive to McDonalds?

The reality is, you probably don’t need a plan that has a $10 co-pay for all services with no deductible, no out-of-pocket cost, and 100% coverage. The reality is, you can probably get the coverage you need at a lower price than you think! Your local independent agent will know what plans offer the proper level of coverage while still bringing an affordable price to the table. The fact is, no matter what your budget, there’s a health plan out there that will work for you. Think about your car insurance. It covers you in the event of an accident, right? Do you have car insurance for that day you have an accident, or do you have car insurance to cover your oil changes, new wiper blades, air in the tires, and the occasional wash? Can you imagine how much more expensive your car insurance would be if it covered those things? Health insurance works the same way! Eliminate the benefits you don’t need, put the money you save on premiums away, improve your financial situation, enjoy the peace of mind that comes with comprehensive coverage, and everybody wins.

Save money on the cost of health care, not by eliminating health insurance from your budget. It’s a gamble that you, your business, and your loved ones will pay for when – not if – you lose. Georgia Insurance Options is 100% dedicated to getting you the coverage you need at the price you can afford, so when you’re ready to protect your family head on over to our free Georgia insurance quote page and get your personalized health insurance proposal today.

The Unaffordable Health Insurance Myth is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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We all know that health insurance is important – without it, we’re open to an unacceptable level of risk from unforeseeable, unavoidable health problems. But we know too that sometimes it can be tough to fit health insurance into our budgets. Trust me, I know – long ago, my family thought that we were spending a little too much money each month and thought it might be a good idea to save by cancelling our family health insurance policy. Well, after a while, my parents realized that perhaps this wasn’t the best idea – my mother hasn’t ever been the gambling sort, and she was worrying constantly about what might happen if one of us got sick without coverage. So my parents sat back down and decided that we’d just skip eating out a few times a month, maybe give up some of the premium channels in our cable package, and perhaps I didn’t really need to be taken to Toys R Us quite so often (I realize now that they made the right decision, but there’s no way you could have convinced me of that then!).

That was probably about fifteen or sixteen years ago. Since then, my parents’ combined medical bills have totaled in the millions of dollars. A fourteen year battle with Ménière’s Disease for my mother and a failed struggle with cancer for my father meant the bills rolled in fast and hard – and we didn’t see the onset of either one coming. Looking back now, I almost have to laugh. The amount we’ve paid in premiums is negligible compared to what the cost of her streptomycin injections and brain surgery would have been out-of-pocket. Paying for health insurance instead of HBO doesn’t seem like such a sacrifice when I realize it bought me a few extra weeks with my dad. The point is, I know it can be tough to find room in the monthly budget for health insurance coverage – but it can frequently be absolutely impossible to find room for those medical bills once they hit you.

We’ve used this example in another article, but it’s a good one that bears repeating. What do you use your car insurance for: to cover your expenses in the event of a wreck, or to cover the expenses associated with oil changes, new windshield wipers, fresh air filters, and a wash and wax every weekend? Of course, your car insurance is there to cover the big things – not the little tiny things like the ones we just listed. But if your car insurance did cover those little things, can you imagine how expensive your premiums would be?

Health insurance works the same way! If you want your health insurance to cover every bump and scrape, then your premiums are going to be higher. If, however, you are willing to take responsibility for some of the minor costs of your medical care, then your premiums are going to be much, much lower. There’s a way to do this, and it’s called a High Deductible Health Plan. Remember the story I told you at the beginning of this article about my own life experiences with the health care industry from the consumer’s perspective? Those bills didn’t come from check-ins with our pediatrician, or from a case of the sniffles. They came from surgeries, tests, and esoteric procedures – and those are the crucial risks you can’t afford to not be protected from.

A High Deductible Health Plan, or HDHP, is defined as any health insurance plan with a single-person deductible of $1100 or more (or a family deductible of $2200 or more) and a maximum out-of-pocket limit of $5600 or more (or a family out-of-pocket maximum of $11200). Usually, however, a HDHP is set up with a straight deductible around $2500 to $5000. You are responsible for your medical costs up to that point – after that, you’re covered at 100% of allowable charges.

What does this mean? Well, first off, it means your premiums are lower. Since you’re assuming more responsibility for the little costs of your personal healthcare, the insurance company doesn’t need to take as much money in the form of premiums to cover that risk.

Secondly, it means that your insurance is covering the things you truly need. If you have a cold, sure, you’re going to have to pay for that visit to the doctor out of your own pocket. The average visit to a primary care physician costs about $60, not including any labs or diagnostics that might need to be done. Think about it though, how many times in the past year have you gone to the doctor? Say you went three times, and each visit cost you that $60 – that’s $180 in doctor’s office charges for the year. So for the year, you’ve spent the same as $15 every month ($15 a month X 12 months = $180). But if you’ve saved $30 a month by switching to a high deductible health plan, then you’re still ahead of the game! Not only that, but you’ve still got quality insurance to protect your assets in the event something happened.

Now, keep in mind, we’re not talking about limited benefit plans. A high deductible health plan isn’t a plan that has a ton of limitations, riders, exclusions, and confusing clauses. The premiums for a HDHP aren’t lower because the plan doesn’t cover cancer, or won’t pay on claims related to high blood pressure – if it’s a covered expense under one of the $1000 a month policies, then it’s a covered expense under a HDHP. The only difference is that you have to meet a higher deductible before your benefits kick in and, usually, that you won’t have a copay for your smaller health care concerns.

There’s one more thing about high deductible health plans that makes them an excellent solution for your health insurance needs: HDHP’s are the only type of plan qualified for health savings accounts.

A health savings account is a tax-advantaged medical savings account. Any money you place into your health savings account is not subject to federal income tax and can be used for qualified medical expenses at any time without federal tax liability. In other words, if you put money into a health savings account and then pay for a qualified medical expense with funds from that health savings account, then that money is never subjected to federal income tax. You can put up to $3000 a year (for an individual policy, or $5950 a year for a family policy) into your health savings account, and those funds roll over year after year after year. So long as you have a HDHP, you can keep depositing money into your health savings account up to the annual contribution limit. If you cancel your HDHP and move to a plan that doesn’t qualify for a health savings account, you don’t lose your money – you can keep taking it out until the account is depleted, but you can’t put any more in. Furthermore, you can take the money in your health savings account at any time even for non-medical expenses, but the funds you withdraw become subject to income taxation and you incur a 10% penalty.

So basically, with a high deductible health plan, you get the same coverage, a lower premium, qualify for a tax-advantaged health savings account, and have more control over your health care dollars. Sound like a good deal?

High deductible health plans are the hottest product in health insurance these days, and it couldn’t be easier to start saving money with one each and every month. Head over to our free Georgia insurance quote page and find out just how much you’re overpaying now and how to put that money in your pocket, not an insurance company’s!

High Deductible Health Plans is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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Health insurance can be a complicated thing to figure out alone. A lot of questions immediately spring to mind when looking at health insurance policies. What’s a premium and how are they paid? What’s a copay? How does my deductible work? What do you mean “coinsurance?” In this article, we’re going to go over the basics of individual health insurance policies and try to clear up some common misconceptions. After reading this, you’ll be a more informed consumer and better equipped to select a health insurance policy appropriate for your needs!

First things first, what is health insurance and why do you need it? This question’s simple. Health insurance is a type of insurance that protects you against the costs of medical care – and believe me, medical care can be expensive! Take a look at a few real-life claims and imagine how different the patient’s situation might have been without the coverage provided by their medical insurance (for reference, these claims were paid by Assurant Health). When you see “cost to patient” below, that cost generally represents the patient’s deductible and coinsurance. Don’t worry, we’ll cover exactly what these terms mean soon!

• 38 year old male, heart attack
  • Cost to patient: $3500
  • Amount paid by insurance company: $92,729.87
• 18 year old female, multiple injuries resulting from motor vehicle accident
  • Cost to patient: $550
  • Amount paid by insurance company: $165,818.16
• 13 year old male, leg broken in bicycle accident
  • Cost to patient: $5500
  • Amount paid by insurance company: $337,404.68
• 33 year old male, complications from prescription medication
  • Cost to patient: $3,838.98
  • Amount paid by insurance company: $1,467,700.55

Now, it’s obvious that having health insurance protected these people from HUGE medical bills that might have otherwise had a severely negative impact on their financial well being. You may read those claims and think to yourself “But I thought they had health insurance! They pay their premiums for coverage – why did they have to pay anything at all?” This is where several very important elements of any health insurance plan come in: the premium, the co-pay, the deductible, out-of-pocket limit and the coinsurance. Let’s go over these one by one.

Many plans include a copay, which is most easily explained as a small, set dollar amount that covers certain medical services. For instance, if your plan has a $20 copay for a primary care physician’s office visit, then a trip to your family doctor will cost you $20 out of pocket and the insurance company will pay the remaining balance for the visit. Plans with copays generally offer them for doctor’s office visits, prescription drugs, emergency room visits, and sometimes visits to outpatient surgical centers. It’s very important to make sure you know exactly what services are covered by your insurance copay before you solicit or agree to services provided by medical practitioners. Some copays include all services that can be included during the course of an office visit, while others may only cover the physician’s evaluation – any diagnostic tests, applications of casts, injections, or other miscellaneous services might not be covered. If you have questions as to what your policy covers, contact your health insurance agent. Your agent should be familiar with your individual policy and will be able to review your policy with you and answer any questions you might have.

A deductible is the amount of money that you, the patient, are 100% responsible for before your insurance plan will pay anything beyond what is outlined in your copay agreement. If your plan has a $1000 deductible, you will have to pay one thousand dollars towards the cost of your medical care before your plan begins to pay any benefits. As a general rule, the higher the deductible is on a policy, the lower the premiums. This is because the insurance company assumes less of the financial risk of your policy and you assume more financial risk. Once your deductible is met (meaning you have paid, in this example, $1000 towards your medical care), your benefits begin to kick in.

However, just because you’ve met your deductible doesn’t automatically mean that your insurance plan will cover the rest of your medical bills in full. Most plans have what’s known as an out-of-pocket limit (this is sometimes also called a stop-loss or break point – these terms all mean the same thing). This limit is the maximum amount you’ll be required to pay for any given benefit period – the maximum amount of money that will come “out of your pocket.” If you’re responsible for 100% of your medical costs up to your deductible, and the insurance company is responsible for 100% of your costs over your out-of-pocket limit – but what about in between, above your deductible but below your out-of-pocket limit? This is where coinsurance comes in. Say you have a 20% coinsurance on your policy – you will be responsible for 20% of the cost of your bill and the insurance company will be responsible for 80% of your bill until you have paid enough money out of your own pocket that your out-of-pocket limit is reached.

This is just the beginning – health insurance can be very complicated, and having your own independent agent on your side can help you navigate these tricky waters. In the following articles, we’ll delve a little deeper into the nuances of health insurance. In the meantime, there’s no need to wait to save on your monthly health insurance premiums. Visit our free Georgia insurance quote page to get your personalized health insurance proposal today and see just how much money you could be saving!

Health Insurance 101 is a post from: Georgia Insurance Options

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