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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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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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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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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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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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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