Insurance Decoded

As a parent you want to do the very best for your family. You work long hours to provide the best home, food and other amenities of life that you can afford. Hopefully, you have employer sponsored health insurance , but that is not always the case, nor it is guaranteed. Company downsizing, restructuring, or business failure can spell loss of health insurance for your family, and often times, those same situations can equal an inability to afford private health care as well.

The number of uninsured people around the world is growing in leaps and bounds.

Skyrocketing health care insurance costs are keeping many employers from offering it as a benefit, and private insurance can be even further out of reach for many struggling families. A recent study showed that 15% of employees were not even offered insurance at their place of employment, and that of the remaining number that were offered, up to 52% of them did not take the offered insurance because of cost.

Nearly one third of the population, or 90%, 65 years old or younger, spent at least a portion of 2006 without any form of health insurance at all. It is not just the poor, or the working poor that suffer without insurance however. Nearly 40% of the uninsured are from households that earn $50,000 or more per year. Realistically, if these people cannot afford adequate health insurance for their families,  how can we expect a family pulling in half that or less to manage?

Of course, our children come in contact with more communicable diseases by their very nature, and they are more likely to be injured during play, but the number of uninsured children keeps growing every year.

Some children will qualify for Well-child, or similar state sponsored health care plans, but limited funding and impending budget cuts puts those programs at risk for termination. The number of children without insurance is well over eight million, and only increasing as the economy falters.

Without insurance, health concerns go untreated until they become a major issue. Most uninsured people admit that they rely on local emergency rooms for so called “routine” care, making hospital charges increase, which in turn increases insurance premiums. This increased premium will then force yet another family to drop their insurance coverage and the vicious cycle goes round again.

Care in the emergency room costs more than in wellness clinics and doctors offices, but those places are more and more frequently asking for fees to be paid upfront.

If that money is not available, then the visit will be put off until it actually does become an emergency. An uninsured person is 30-50% more likely to be hospitalized for an avoidable condition, and the cost of that stay will be in the neighborhood of $3300. Maintaining your health and the health of your family is important, but if you truly cannot afford insurance, what can you do? Not all families will have employer insurance offered to them, and those that do have the offer, cannot afford their portion of the premium. Many of the so called “working poor” do not qualify for state sponsored health care, even for their children only.

Insurance can be such a wide based, confusing topic. There are different policies for homes, cars and other vehicles, health, dental, and other lesser known forms. Insurance is a necessity, and in some cases a legal requirement. You need to decide how much of what kind of insurance you need, and then you can find out exactly what is covered and what is not.

You do not want to over cover a vehicle, you will not recoup that added expense if there is a loss. A liability policy will cover another person’s vehicle during an accident, as well as any property damages. Medical expenses for the other party will also be covered, up to the amounts specified by the individual policy.

If you have a newer car, or work in certain occupations, then full coverage insurance may be a better bet. Some jobs, including those that involve transporting clients, may require you to carry full coverage.If you want to get fair replacement value for your car, then you simply must have full coverage insurance.Some full coverage policies include rental during a repair period, and free towing. Additional benefits can include hotel stays if you are stranded far from home, and meals during that stay. Of course, if the vehicle is financed, then you will be required to carry full coverage insurance until that lien is removed.Home owners insurance policies can be written to include not only the home itself, but also the belongings inside, and some outside structures.

If you have a home filled with valuable antiques though, you might want to consider having them insured separately, above and beyond the home. An appraisal is done to assess the value of the structure and a list is made of the other items to be covered and the policy written from there. Certain things are not generally covered, however, so make sure that you know what is and is not included. For instance, flood damages are ,usually, not covered by the homeowners policy and must be purchased separately.

If you make additions or changes to your home which increase value, then call your insurance agent to be sure you still have enough coverage.

Health insurance is probably the one thing that most people need yet do not have, and the one that can be the trickiest to understand. The options that are available can be overwhelming, especially when they are presented in the confusing insurance jargon. Insurance offered through an employer may not always be available for instance, and may not be the best choice even when it is.

A private based insurance plan, one that you pay for out of pocket, may make more sense for your own personal situation. Consider your health, your budget and your employment before deciding on insurance needs and then talk to a professional to make the final policy decision. Be aware that certain health policies will not cover all treatments, and most do not cover pre-existing illnesses. Most policies do cover basic illnesses and injuries, as well as medically necessary surgery and medications. Again, consider cost when choosing whether to use your medical insurance to get your medications or the $4 prescription drug plans that are available in many pharmacies now.