Life / Health

Health Insurance

There are more choices than ever to find affordable health insurance. When you find an “affordable” health insurance, be sure to look at all the terms of the insurance. We have included a small directory for the terms used with health insurance policies.

Deductible
The deductible refers to the amount of money that the insured would need to pay before any benefits from the health insurance policy can be used. This is usually a yearly amount so when the policy starts again, usually after a year, the deductible would be in effect again. Some services, like doctor visits, may be available without meeting the deductible first.

Co-insurance or Co-Payments
This is the amount that the insured would need to pay before the insurance pays. This is in addition to the deductible.

Out-of-Pocket
This is the cost the insured would pay out of their own pocket. When the term annual out-of-pocket maximum is used, that is referring to how much the insured would have to pay for the whole year out of their pocket. This does not include premium payments.

Lifetime Maximum
This is the most an insurance policy will pay will pay for the entire life. It is important to pay attention to individual lifetime maximums versus family lifetime maximums as they, most likely, will be different.

Exclusions
The exclusions are the things that the insurance policy will not cover.

Pre-existing Conditions
Pre-existing conditions are conditions the insured had been diagnosed with prior to getting health insurance. Some plans will cover pre-existing conditions while others may completely exclude them. In some cases, health insurance policies will cover pre-existing conditions after a certain time period.

Premiums
These are the monthly payments required by the insurance company to provide health insurance.

Waiting Period
This is the time one the insured will have to wait until certain health insurance coverages are available as outlined in the health policy.

Grace Period
This is the amount of time one has to pay their health insurance premium after the original due date and before insurance coverage would be canceled.

Life Insurance

Do you have someone who depends on your financially? A child? An elderly parent? A spouse? A life insurance policy is so important. Anyone who has someone depending on them should make purchasing a Life policy a priority. Life is so unpredictable and leaving your loved ones to grieve the loss of you on top of no financial support would be devastating.

Life insurance is designed to protect your family and other people who may depend on you for financial support. If you die, the people that are dependent on your financial support will lose that income, so life insurance can help cover some or all of that loss depending on the policy you choose.

But there are instances where life insurance can be beneficial even if you have no dependents, such as your desire to cover your own funeral expenses.

Types of Life Insurance:

Term Life Insurance
Term Life Insurance is generally a low cost life insurance. Term life insurance policy premiums are generally much cheaper than cash-value policies (universal and whole), especially if you are young and in good health. A low cost term life insurance policy does exactly what you expect it to do by financially taking care of your beneficiaries. Basically, you purchase life insurance based on a specific period (such as 10 year, 20 years, etc.)

Whole Life Insurance
A whole life insurance policy covers you for your entire life, not just for a specific period such as term insurance. Your death benefit and premium in most cases will remain the same. Whole life insurance also builds cash value, which is a return on a portion of your premiums that the insurance company invests. Your cash value is tax-deferred until you withdraw it and you can borrow against it.