Friday, May 18, 2012
Clark Howard, Costco, and Health Insurance
It works for toilet paper, so will it work for health insurance? Can you get a better deal on health insurance at Costco?
Consumer advocate and talk-show host Clark Howard recently reported that Costco is set to begin offering members individual health insurance plans in partnership with Aetna. For their part, Aetna has promised a cheaper rate for Costco members. So far the program has rolled out in nine states, including Georgia. So is this a good thing?
In the markets we serve, even with the Costco discount, you can still do better. We ran sample rates for a family of four in Atlanta and the Costco/Aetna plan was $409/month. A similar plan for the same family was cheaper with four other individual insurance companies we checked, ranging in price from $296 – $367/month.
Costco does a lot of things well (like tires or chicken alfredo, which we recommend with spinach). Art and Jo shop there regularly. But for health insurance, we’d suggest you’re better off working with a licensed health insurance specialist (like…. us!) who can help you shop around and find the individual health insurance plan that best suits your family’s needs.
To get started, click the “get a quote” button to the right or just contact us.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Friday, May 18, 2012
Critical Illness Insurance from Golden Rule (UnitedHealthOne)
Cancer is expensive. So are heart attacks and a bunch of other big-ticket health events like that. A good health insurance policy covers that stuff, but more and more people have really high deductibles because, well, health insurance is also expensive. That’s why critical illness insurance is one of the fastest-growing types of insurance out there, and that’s one of the reasons so many health insurance companies are introducing these policies into the marketplace.
You can read more about it elsewhere, but the gist is that a critical illness insurance policy pays you a flat sum (usually between $10k and $100k) if you have a heart attack, are diagnosed with cancer, and other significant medical events. That money helps you meet your health insurance deductible, make up for lost time at work, travel for care, any number of things (it’s your money).
Golden Rule Insurance (branded as UnitedHealthOne) has recently introduced critical health insurance in South Carolina (it has previously rolled out in a few other states like North Carolina and Arizona). If you have health insurance in South Carolina (or other states) with Godlen Rule Insurance, or even if you don’t, this is cheap way to cushion yourself against a high deductible. If you’d like to learn more about or get a quote on critical health insurance, let us know.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Health Insurance and Motorcycles
Does your motorcycle influence your individual health insurance premiums? Not usually, but until now if you had an individual health insurance policy with Golden Rule Insurance (branded “UnitedHealthOne”), you payed a 20% premium surcharge for riding your Harley. But as of June 1, that will no longer be the case.
If you’d like to get a quote on individual health insurance with Golden Rule (and other carriers) click the “Quote now” button the right or simply contact us.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Monday, May 14, 2012
What is Legal Shield?
I heard on the radio just today that the average cost of an attorney in the U.S. is around $295/hour. What would you do if you really needed to talk to one? If you’re like a lot of people, you’d just do the best you could without one because of the expense. Do you ever wish you had access to a lawyer that wouldn’t cost you a ton of money? Someone you could get to review contracts, finally do the will you know you ought to have, or consult with if you ever find yourself in trouble?
Check out this 3-minute video:
Legal Shield gives you access to a lawyer 24/7. If you’d like to learn more about Legal Shield (they also have a really good identity theft protection plan — buying the two together brings a nice discount), you can learn more about Legal Shield and even purchase it here if you’re ready.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Friday, May 11, 2012
A heads up for our “mom and pop” groups!
A little heads up to some of our smaller groups that have health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina:
They’ve notified us that they recently received clarification from the federal government regarding certain provisions in the health care reform law (“Obamacare”). The new information requires them to identify covered groups that are sole proprietorships or two-person groups in which the covered members were spouses as of December 31, 2011. (We’ve got a few of those!)
So on Monday, May 14, they will begin calling all groups that they think might fall into these categories to gather this information.
The information they will be asking for will not affect their coverage, just how Blue Cross complies with certain requirements of the law that apply differently to group markets and the individual market.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012
What is “Deductible Credit”?
There are a couple of individual health insurance companies out there that offer some kind of deductible credit on their policies. It’s a pretty cool benefit – particularly if you purchase a health insurance policy with a high deductible. UnitedHealthOne is one of those companies, and explain deductible credit in this short video:
You can get an instant quote on an individual health insurance policy from UnitedHealthOne with deductible credit (and a number of other carriers), or you can just contact us to learn more.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Disability insurance for small business and families
Every 10 minutes, nearly 500 Americans become disabled, according to the National Safety Council. What would happen to you and your family if you were one of them? If you run a small business, would you be in a position to help out an employee if they had to sit out for a while with a short-term disability? How long could you help if a more serious long-term disability emerged?
The good news for small employers is that disability insurancecould be more affordable than you think. It’s a great benefit to offer your employees to make sure they’re taken care of (like you’d want to do) if something happens without placing an unexpected strain on your b
usiness. A short-term disability insurance policy is also a great way to handle maternity leave.
To be frank, individual disability insurance can be expensive, but there may be some creative ways to lower the price, depending on factors like the kind of work you do. You could also opt for something like an intermediate disability plan that would cover you for 2-5 years rather than to age 65.
If you’d like to talk about disability insurance for you or for your small business, we’d love to help you think through your options, get some quotes, and find a plan that makes sense. Contact us today!
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Friday, May 4, 2012
HSA Contribution Limits for 2013
Most of us are still living in 2012, but the IRS has just announced the contribution limits for HSA (health savings accounts) for 2013:
HSA contribution limits:
- Individuals (self-only coverage) – $3,250 (up $150 from 2012)
- Family coverage – $6,450 (up $200 from 2012)
A health savings account allows you to make pre-tax deposits that can be used to pay for health-related expenses. It’s a great way to make your health dollars (and most of us have a lot of health spending, unfortunately!) go farther and get a nice tax break. In order to open an HSA, you must first be covered by a “qualified” high deductible health insurance plan. The idea with these plans is that you will self-insure the first expenses (usually in the $1500-$5k range for an individual, double that for a family) and then have the insurance policy cover all of the expenses after that. (You will get preventative care upfront).
If you’re interested in getting rates for an HSA-qualified health insurance plan, please contact us or check out our online health quote engine to get some instant numbers.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Basic Coverages with Short-term health insurance
Short-term health insurance is a great coverage option for a lot of people, but we’ve found that not a lot of people know much about it! The idea is simple enough — get good, catastrophic health insurance protection (that’s the main point) for a short period of time – for example, while you’re waiting to get on the plan at your new job. But it also works if you’re having trouble with the price of a traditional individual health insurance plan (the short time frame lowers the price significantly), and can sometimes work if you’re having trouble with underwriting on an individual plan (again, the shorter time frame leads to more relaxed underwriting standards).
Here’s a summary of some of the benefits available with short-term health insurance with our preferred partner, HCC. You can get a quote and have coverage in place tomorrow.
| General STM Benefits | South Carolina-Specific STM Benefits |
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Posted by Alex Forrest |
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Qualifying Event for Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC
If you have health insurance coverage as a small business (or work for a business that does) with Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC, you’ll want to be aware of the late enrollment process. BCBS of SC does not have a traditional “open enrollment” period for small group plans, meaning there is not a particular month of the year when you can jump into your employer’s health insurance plan for the next year. If you (and/or your dependents) don’t join the plan in the period after you become eligible (i.e. after you become a full-time employee), and you later decide you would like to participate, you’ll be considered a “late enrollee” and will have a mandatory 12-month waiting period from the time you submit paperwork to participate and actually get coverage. (Now, don’t worry, you’re not actually paying premium during that time!)
The exception would be in the case of a “qualifying event.” These would include birth/adoption, marriage, divorce, etc., as well as loss of prior coverage (for example, you were covered by your spouse’s employer but lost that coverage).
This is one reason it’s critical that you remember to add your new spouse or child to your plan within 30 days or marriage/birth.
If you must wait out the 12 month period, we strongly suggest that you get an individual short-term health insurance plan, which will provide very affordable catastrophic coverage and give you “continuity of coverage” while you wait. You can follow the link to get quotes on a short-term health insurance plan (and potentially have it in place tomorrow). If you have questions or want to learn more, you’re welcome to contact us.
Posted by Alex Forrest |
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