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Insuring one’s health is crucial for keeping the medical expenses caused by a condition or illness within the budget. For a relatively small amount of money you can benefit from quality healthcare, which otherwise would cost quite a lot of money. In general there are two main types of health coverage widely spread in the United States: individual and group insurance plans. Group plans are quite widespread because they are typically offered by the employer. Under an employer-sponsored health plan a person can get standard insurance coverage for a very small amount of money, or even free of charge, depending on the employer. State and federal sponsored programs also provide health coverage to certain groups of citizens that are either less financially stable or have specific healthcare requirements such as senior citizens or toddlers. However, a large group of citizens do not fall under any group insurance plans and are forced to consider individual policies. Others buy such plans on purpose since they offer a set of benefits that group health plans do not provide. Here are some of the advantages you typically get under an individual health insurance plan: 1. It’s much easier to keep track of the financial flows under an individual plan since you know who’s paying who and where the money goes. Some intermediaries of group plans are eliminated, which allows the benefits to be distributed much faster and more efficiently. 2. You can customize your plan in order to meet your exact insurance needs. Group health insurance plans do not allow this and you get the same set of benefits as everyone in the group does regardless of your individual requirements. With individual plans, however, you can choose what services are more important and what services aren’t required at all according to your health history. 3. Under individual health plans it’s much easier to cover pre-existing conditions. Most group plans won’t cover health conditions that were present before the policy was purchased, which is rather down-turning for people who have serious health problems they are struggling with. 4. You can also include your spouse and children to your individual plan for proper healthcare assistance. This way you can make sure that your entire family is properly covered and gets all the benefits needed. (more…)

Some research indicates that America is one of the most uninsured countries in the world when it comes to auto insurance, and one of the main reasons this is lies in how expensive auto insurance is these days. The fact is that America is in a recession, and many Americans can barely put food on the table, never mind consider premiums on an insurance policy. But we need a car to get to work, and so the uninsured issue rises. Unfortunately a lot of those uninsured Americans aren’t getting the required coverage due to a series of insurance myths that perpetuate the industry. Here we are going to banish those myths, so that you can get the insurance you need in your budget, to safely protect your family when you are on the road.

Myth 1: Complete collision coverage will still protect me in the event of hail or theft.
FALSE. A lot of people know the basic difference between liability and collision coverage, but they make the mistake of assuming that collision coverage covers everything that liability insurance doesn’t. This is not the case. Collision covers only your end of expenses in the event of an accident for which you are at fault, and covers nothing else. If your car is stolen, damaged by weather vandalism, you will need comprehensive insurance if you don’t want to be out of pocket.

Myth 2: I don’t have to cover liability insurance if I don’t want to.
DEPENDS. Most of the states in America do require liability insurance, but liability laws from state to state are changing, so there may be a chance you don’t need liability insurance. However, not getting it will not mean anything to you until you are involved in an accident for which you are found at fault, as you are then put in the line of risk where you could be sued for ALL damages as a result.

Myth 3: If my friend gets in an accident in my car then their insurance will cover everything.
FALSE. In most cases this depends on the individual policy’s, who is at fault in the accident, and the discretion of the insurance company, however most insurance companies will not take kindly to incidents of this nature. The other driver involved in the accident may have voluntary excess coverage on their car, and this may sort things out, but if they don’t, your insurance will be the one responsible. Your friend’s insurance does not cover your vehicle, it only covers theirs. This is one reason why loaning your vehicle is a risky move to make, as your insurance score may even be affected if a car accident happens and you were not behind the wheel of the insured car. Your driving record won’t be, but you will still see hikes in insurance down the road as a result.

Myth 4: I live in a no-fault insurance state, so if I’m not at fault, that accident last year won’t affect my insurance rates.
FALSE. Any claim on your insurance record will be a mark against your current score, even if the insurance company never paid anything out on your behalf. All no fault insurance means is that your insurance company will pay the damages regardless of who caused the accident. (more…)