Health, Health Care Insurance and Bankruptcy
by: Shobhana R. Kasturi
Imagine for a moment that your health has taken a turn for the worse. You need extensive medical attention and expensive treatments. Would you be prepared to account for these medical costs? Or would you or a family member ultimately have to deal with this financial burden?
Surely, you would not want to suffer the consequences of paying big medical bills on your own. This is why health insurance is so important. A Harvard study conducted in 2001 found that medical bills caused half of all bankruptcies. Therefore, you should make sure that you have some form of medical insurance. You should also make sure that your money is well-spent on insurance that meets your needs.
Insurance Provided by Employer
You should feel lucky if you are in the minority of people who receive health insurance through your employer. According to bankrate.com, company health insurance is actually part of a group insurance plan. Your employer pays for most of your insurance and also pays for your insurance with portions of your paychecks. Everyone in your group plan pays the same rate. The premiums paid by healthy members go towards paying the bills of sick members. Bankrate.com recommends that you study up on your employee benefits package to make sure that the insurance plan you choose provides you with the services and options you will need. If you are young and/or relatively healthy, you may want to consider choosing to pay for your company's cheapest health plan.
Bankrate.com also recommends that you review your insurance plan periodically. You may be paying more money for services you no longer need. For example, if you have children that have graduated from college or are no longer on your insurance plan, you should change your insurance plan accordingly. Additionally, if you have lost weight or quit smoking, you could qualify for a cheaper insurance plan.
Have You Been Laid Off?
If you have recently lost your job, you may want to consider the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (or COBRA) plan. With a COBRA plan, you pay for the medical benefits your former employer paid for on your own. The plan lasts up to 18 months. Keep in mind that the COBRA plan is a bit expensive. In addition to paying the premiums your company used to pay, you would also have to pay a 2% service fee.
Are You Uninsured?
Unfortunately, according to bankrate.com you may face discrimination from insurance companies if you try to insure yourself on your own. You may have difficulty buying insurance if you have any medical problems whatsoever. Remember, with a company group insurance plan, your insurance provider only has to pay the medical bills of the sick members in the group.
Look for health plans that have higher premiums. You may pay more upfront for medical coverage, but you will ultimately spend less on deductibles. At the very least, financial analyst Suz Orman recommends paying for worst-case-scenario insurance for medical bills that top $5,000. This way you can at least be sure that you will not have to foot the entire bill for high costs.
Conclusion
No one wants to live their life fearing the worst. By insuring yourself, you can at least rest assured knowing that you are prepared if your health takes a turn for the worse. As a result you or your family would not have to suffer the additional hardship of having to pay for your medical costs yourself. The good news is that if you can not afford insurance coverage, filing bankruptcy could eliminate your medical bills if necessary.
About The Author
Shobhana R. Kasturi is a partner with LegalHelpers and specializes in consumer bankruptcy law. www.legalhelpers.com, the law firm of Macey & Aleman, is one of the nation's largest consumer bankruptcy firms. Legal Helpers can be contacted by phone, 888-743-5787 or by email, info@LegalHelpers.com.
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Basics of Hospital Expense Insurance
Basics of Hospital Expense Insurance
by: Jakob Jelling
Hospital expense insurance covers the expenses incurred on a patient?s hospital stay, provided he/she already has a subscription in this regard.
Nobody has ever lived a life time without a bout of illness and a subsequent hospital stay. This is something inevitable as no one is perfectly immune to diseases. And every hospital stay one has brings with the discharge order a mind boggling bill - the psychological effect of which is more than enough to send back the fitness-regained patient for another few days for treatment in the same hospital. When it comes to health related issues, no one could keep a check on the cash flow. After all, in such circumstances, it is the question of life and health that supersedes the financial issue. But with hospital expense insurance, one could reclaim the money spent by producing all the relevant certificates and bill.
Hospital expense insurance...
Basics of Hospital Expense Insurance
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How To Get The Best Child Life Insurance Quotes
How To Get The Best Child Life Insurance Quotes
by: Jon Butt
Getting child life insurance quotes on the net can be convenient, but are you sure that you are seeing the big picture?
You can see life insurance information child policies, but the words can be cryptic. The child life insurance coverage information could be well-hidden online too! Because child life insurance costs money, it's important to know precisely what life insurance coverage you can get. It may be best to talk to an authorized life insurance agent.
Question You Should Ask About Your Child Life Insurance
Is child life insurance really worth the premiums? Many question the importance of child life insurance. After all, if anyone needs to get insured, shouldn't it be the working parents? While this is indeed a valid argument, there are advantages to getting child life insurance.
It's not so much the benefits as it is about future eligibility. Child life insurance...
How To Get The Best Child Life Insurance Quotes
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How A Bad Credit Report Affects Your Life
How A Bad Credit Report Affects Your Life
by: Sintilia Miecevole
A low credit rating or bad credit report can negatively affect virtually every aspect of your life. Whether you are consistently late on your mortgage or utility bills or you are over your limit on your credit cards, bad credit can make purchasing on credit virtually impossible, and it can limit your lifestyle in many different ways. Though over time you can recover from a bad report, there are still many aspects of your life that can suffer from poor financial management and low credit scores.
For instance, if you are planning to purchase a new or used car, it may be virtually impossible to secure a financing loan if you have a low credit report rating. Even if you can obtain a loan, you interest rate may be up to one hundred percent higher than it would if you had excellent credit. Rather than paying six or seven percent interest, you could end up with a fifteen or sixteen percent...
How A Bad Credit Report Affects Your Life
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Guide to RIB Insurance
Guide to RIB Insurance
by: Patrick Altoft
If you require insurance for your RIB, but have been presented with a number of alternative policy wordings from a variety of companies, Noble Marine's Guide to RIB Insurance may help you decide the sort of policy you require. Full details of the cover provided and an interactive quotation form, providing quotations at any time of day or night, can be found by clicking the RIB Insurance link on Noble Marine's website.
Both the cover provided by different RIB insurance companies and the service they offer, can vary greatly. Bear in mind that a cheaper policy may end up costing you more, if you have to make a claim and you should always check what cover is being offered before signing up.
Q. What should I look out for?
A. Everyone's needs are different, and only you can decide if wider cover is important to you. It is essential though, to understand what is being offered to you, before being...
Guide to RIB Insurance
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Term Life And Whole Life Insurance
Term Life And Whole Life Insurance
by: Ivon T. Hughes
Which type of policy is best for you, term or whole life? The answer depends on several factors, including:
Your Needs. If you need coverage only until your children graduate from college, for example, you might be better off with a term life policy.
Cash-value insurance is better suited for long term needs, such as planning estate taxes and providing lifetime security for your spouse. Some term policies cannot be renewed past age 70 or 80 and can become costly to renew as you approach that age.
The Cost. If term life insurance is more suited to your budget and you want life time coverage, consider a term life policy which can be converted into a whole life policy. Then you can convert the policy whenever your cash flow or needs dictate. You can also purchase a combination of term life and whole life insurance and gradually shift into whole life insurance over time.
Your...
Term Life And Whole Life Insurance
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Critical Illness Insurance And Life Insurance Cover For Better And For Worse.
Critical Illness Insurance And Life Insurance Cover For Better And For Worse.
by: Rachel Lane
There are three main types of insurance cover you can buy to protect yourself and your family: life insurance, private medical insurance and critical illness insurance. If you want your financial health to be completely bionic then you could choose all three types of insurance, but if your family finances are more restricted, it might be better to insure yourself with critical illness insurance and life insurance. Critical illness insurance should not be confused with private medical insurance or even income protection insurance and it?s important that you do a full evaluation of your needs before you pursue the different insurance options.
The purpose of critical illness cover (CIC) is to fill a gap that is left by traditional life insurance policies, which will only provide a pay-out on the death of the policy holder. CIC provides a tax free lump...
Critical Illness Insurance And Life Insurance Cover For Better And For Worse.
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Life Insurance vs Life Assurance
Life Insurance vs Life Assurance
by: Joseph Kenny
People spend a lot of money on complicated financial products and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of what products perform what tasks. Many people are not aware of all the financial products that are available or they only know of them vaguely. They may not know how much they cost or the potential benefits they offer. How can consumers make informed decisions on what products they would be willing to buy if they do not have this basic information? This problem can often lead to consumers buying unsuitable of overpriced products simply because they feel they should have some financial protections available but don?t have the details to make an informed choice.
One of the common questions many consumers have is regarding the difference between insurance policies and assurance policies. Put simply, insurance policies cover the costs of an event that might happen while assurance policies...
Life Insurance vs Life Assurance
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