Archive for February, 2010

In order to get a life insurance rate quote, you must first determine what kind of life insurance policy you want to purchase. There are two basic kinds of life insurance policies - term life insurance policies, and whole life insurance policies.

Term life insurance policies offer life insurance coverage for a “term.” This means, your life insurance coverage will last for a certain period of time. Most term life insurance policies offer coverage anywhere from five to thirty years. How long your term life insurance policy lasts is up to you. Term life insurance policies appeal to people because of the lower life insurance rate quote. Term life insurance policies are usually less expensive than whole life insurance policies, because term life insurance policies don’t offer, or require, the components that whole life insurance policies do. When you purchase a term life insurance policy, you’re purchasing pure life insurance.

In contrast to term life insurance policies, whole life insurance policies offer life insurance coverage for the rest of your life. They also provide a required savings component along with the whole life insurance policy. Some people are attracted to this savings component because it allows the whole life insurance policy to accumulate a cash value. The policyholders can use that cash value in certain times, such as times of financial stress, or times when they want to put the accumulated cash toward their policy premiums.

When you begin your search for a life insurance rate quote, take note that your life insurance rate quote will most likely reflect the type of life insurance policy you decide to purchase. You’ll usually pay less for a term life insurance policy, and get simply the life insurance coverage you want. You’ll usually pay more for a whole life insurance policy, but get extras you might need. Consider the life insurance rate quote based on the coverage, and extras, you want with your policy.

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Renter’s insurance is protection intended for anyone who rents an apartment, home or other live-in dwelling. Purchasing renter’s insurance can protect you against the risk of fire, theft, windstorms, falling objects, smoke, and vandalism. Another important aspect of renter’ insurance is that it protects you against liability in the unlikely event that someone meets harm or injury in your home.

While it is true that your landlord more than likely holds insurance on your residence his insurance normally only covers the actual building you reside in. The burden of replacing your personal property lies on you. The landlord’s insurance definitely will not cover any legal responsibility for injury or damage to a guest or their property. In many cases rental insurance may even provide for the cost of a legal defense.

It is also important to make sure you are aware of the different types of coverage and that you provide yourself with adequate protection. Personal property coverage protects the assets in your home such as your furniture and clothing. It also provides protection for those things you may have with you while traveling or away from home.

Loss of use coverage pays for living expenses when an insured loss prevents you from habitation of your home. This includes food and shelter for the duration of time while your home is being repaired or replaced for up to two years.

Inflation coverage routinely augments the amount of your insurance coverage as cost of living expenses increase. Personal liability coverage grants payment for legal accountability according to the limits of your individual policy for damages based on bodily injury or property damage, which are incurred in your home.

Medical payments to others coverage pays the medical expenses for visitors who are accidentally injured while a guest on your premises. This coverage does not pay out to you or your family members who reside with you.

When purchasing renter’s insurance you will need to make a decision as to whether to insure your possessions based on their actual cash value or their replacement value. Actual cash value payouts will be based on how much your property is worth post depreciation, meaning if you lose a 10-year-old computer to wind or storm damage you will be paid the cost to replace the same 10-year-old computer. Replacement coverage pays a return without consideration of depreciation.

The best thing about renter’s insurance is that for the amount of protection it provides it is still relatively inexpensive and if you purchase your renter’s insurance from the same company that insures your automobile you may be eligible for a significant discount.

As with any insurance that you purchase it is important to make sure you understand exactly what may or may not be covered by your renter’s insurance policy. Some losses that may not be covered include but are not limited to flood or underground water damage, earthquake, mud or landslide damage or even nuclear hazards. Although your renter’s insurance may not cover these disasters it is highly probable that optional or additional coverage may be available for an additional premium.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Best-Free-Insurance-Quotes.com. He provides more insurance information and offers free money saving auto, home, life, health and renters insurance quotes that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

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If you run into a billing problem or misunderstanding with a hospital or doctor’s office for which you’re planning to use money from your Health Savings Account (HSA), you could be in trouble.

This article will help you understand how hospital and doctor visits are different when paying with a Health Savings Account. Not better or worse, just different.

If you have an HSA, you must have health insurance. It’s a requirement. However, if you are using money from your HSA, it means that you haven’t hit the deductible of your policy yet.

In this particular situation, life is a bit different when it comes to resolving billing disputes with hospitals.

Insurance companies have a comprehensive system for dealing with billing disputes when they have covered a hospital stay or doctor visit. But when they haven’t covered it because you are still within your deductible, that comprehensive dispute resolution system doesn’t necessarily apply.

Here are some points to keep in mind when you are dealing with a hospital in a billing dispute, and you have paid with HSA money. I learned these important points when I was talking to an expert in this field named Dr. Vincent Riccardi, who is the owner of American Medical Consumer (www.medconsumer.com), a company dedicated to helping people resolve billing disputes with hospitals and doctors.

Here’s what Dr. Riccardi has to say:

  1. First, discuss the issue with your physician. Sometimes the problem stems from an incorrectly applied billing code and the doctor can easily change it to please the hospital and resolve the problem on the spot.
  2. Negotiate in person. Especially if you just don’t have the money to pay a bill, it makes the best sense to negotiate face-to-face with the person at the hospital who has the authority to reverse or reduce the charges. Hospitals would often rather be paid part of a bill than risk losing the entire bill. Be honest and forthright and you may have a good chance in negotiating a reduced fee from the hospital. This includes the situations where it was a misunderstanding on your part. It’s at least worth a try.
  3. Don’t bother going to the State Medical Board. In most cases, they are not able to help you. This is the case with most government agencies. Even the Departments of Insurance cannot help, because this isn’t an insurance problem, it is technically a fee-for-service situation.
  4. Recourse to a lawyer is usually not fruitful unless there is a big amount involved. For amounts less than $5,000 (which is what most HSA-style deductibles are), a lawyer probably won’t be able to help you.
  5. Remember that the only things that count in negotiations like this are the things that have been written down. If a doctor mentioned something to you but didn’t write it down, it probably won’t help you. Get things in writing all the way through the process.

I think of HSAs as a way to “be your own insurance company” for the small stuff (under your deductible). That is its power. But it also means that when it comes to disputes, you also have to “be your own insurance company” and take charge of the negotiations with the hospital, just like an insurance company would. Your willingness and ability to negotiate will influence your ability to get unfair charges reversed or, at least, lessened. But it’s a “do it yourself” situation, so be aware of that when you sign up for an HSA.

Daryl Kulak is the author of the book “Health Insurance Off the Grid - A Wonderful Way to Use Alternative Medicine and Save Money on Insurance Using the New Health Savings Account (HSA).”

The book provides a nine-step plan to get your self-employed or small business health insurance costs under control using a unique approach you won’t find anywhere else. The book is available for sale as an e-Book or paperback at the Website http://www.healthoffthegrid.com

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