I found this interesting article on Aspartame and their side effects.   Aspartame-containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates and gain weight.  The side effects of aspartame poisoning are causing even worse issues for people.  If you are having some issues that your doctor and you do not have a clue to the cause, it may be time to try removing the artificial sweetener from your diet, especially diet sodas.  There is no nutritional value in drinking these beverages and can be linked to many side affects of aspartame.   Try making a healthy switch to water instead of reaching for the sugar free soft drink.  This change could bring your health back in balance.

Aspartame is a sweetener you don’t want to use..

Health Insurance reducing premiums using supplemental insurance coverage is a different approach than your parents may have used.  Insurance premiums have increased forcing people to accept higher deductibles than they would be used to with a large group insurance policy.  When you look at ways to lower your individual health insurance premiums you have 4 methods to do so, Increase Deductible, Reduce Coinsurance (100/0, 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40, or 50/50) , Increase the Prescription Deductible, or Change the Number of Office Visit Copay’s (Unlimited, 2-6 visits or none).  All post reform plans will cover your annual wellness at no cost – this will cover all the government required preventative tests.  So these are the areas that we can use to change the premium.  There is no one plan that can meets every specific situation.

Moving the deductible up can feel more uncomfortable for someone who has a lower deductible.  If the premiums are forcing you to consider dropping insurance coverage, it is better to increase your deductible and add some supplemental coverages for Accidents and Critical Illnesses to reduce the financial risk of the deductible and coinsurance.    The most risky thing you could consider is not having health insurance coverage, if you really need help diagnosing a condition or situation, without the insurance card, no service in many places.  With the supplemental policies that cover accidents, they can offer coverage up to $10,000 per accident with a deductible of $0-$500 per accident for as little at $24/mo for an individual.  This can protect 50% of the reason you may visit a hospital and be forced to pay out of pocket.  It is such a relief when you are going to the ER for a broken are or some other accident knowing the event will cost you only $0-$500 depending on the coverage you select.  You would always show your health ID card, and file a claim with the accident company. Many companies will pay the bill directly or pay you.  You should walk out paying only the deductible of the accident plan and defer billing for the rest of the bill through the insurance company.  It is a smart approach to the being forced to higher deductibles.  These accident plans can work with Individual and Group Health Plans to protect you and your family.

On the illness side, I have not found anything to cover across the board illnesses like the accident plan.  I did find a way to reduce the illness exposure by coverage for Critical Illnesses.  These plans pay a lump sum for invasive cancer, heart attack, stroke, major burns.  They have lower payouts for other critical illnesses, you will need to review the coverage to know exactly what the plan will cover.  This can reduce you financial exposure for Critical Illnesses with a lump sum payouts the amount of coverage you can match your deductible and coinsurance or event go higher some plans offer simplified issue up to $50,000.  I sometimes use the larger amounts to provide a cushion to cover expenses while your recovering from the critical illness.   These plans rates vary by age and face amount.

We would love to share with you some options in each of these categories to help you see a complete health insurance package that can offer you piece of mind for protecting your family while keeping premiums affordable with all three policies.  Give us a call for any questions or assistance.

 

 

 

 

Health Insurance reducing premiums using supplemental insurance coverage – RF Insurance Masters – YouTube.

Life insurance – personal policy outside of work policies are important.  Many times we run into client that have employers that provide life insurance.  Many times these life insurance policies are not portable.  Portable mean that the employee can opt to take the policy with them when they leave a company for another job or retire.  If your policy is not portable you should consider obtaining an individual life insurance policy on you and your spouse.  When you change jobs, you are not only between jobs, you are between life insurance protection.  Do not leave your family exposed during the transistion.  Another reason to do this is that we never know if we will become sick or diagnosed with a condition that a life insurance company may consider a high risk or refuse to offer coverage to you.   At that point you are not able to obtain additional insurance.  If you are healthy and only have a work provided policy, I would get an individual policy while you are healthy that can offer you the lowest premiums.  Try not to procrastinate, get it in place today.

There are many types of policies to consider  such as Term, Universal Life,  or Whole Life.  No matter what policy you obtain, you can protect your future ability to be insured and will be covered for you and your family no matter what your employment situation is.  Today with the number of people that get let go from their employer, when they are released, their life coverage ends.  This really leaves you and your family exposed.  Talk with a licenses insurance agent to help you find the best options for your specific situation and protect you and your families future.

Life insurance – personal policy outside of work policies – RF Insurance Masters – YouTube.

Are looking for individual maternity insurance options in Texas if you are already pregnant?  We get asked all the by our client what options do they have if they have become pregnant and are currently uninsured.  How do I find maternity insurance now that I am pregnant, or insurance that can cover complications of pregnancy?  We have a few options to help them in Texas get coverage.  If their income level is low enough they should look into coverage through Texas Medicaid in the first trimester.  If you cannot qualify for Medicaid, we have two additional options for coverage the Texas Health Insurance Pool (BCBS of TX managed) or if they have been uninsured for 6-months the government plan – Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan – www.PCIP.gov.  Both these plans want to cover people with conditions who do not have access to group health insurance or COBRA.  We can help you identify the best options for you and help you get it in place.  Give us a call.  We want our customer to be able to focus on their family not worry about how they will pay for health coverage.

Maternity Insurance – How to find insurance if you are currently pregnant – RF Insurance Masters – YouTube.

The longer I have been in the business of insurance the more I feel compelled to share about the importance of life insurance for children.  This can be especially important in for children and can be a smart idea for grandparents or parents to purchase a life policy for their child.

With any insurance product that needs to be underwritten, they will review medical history and determine if the child is eligible to be offered coverage.  A young healthy child can obtain life insurance easily.  We cannot predict the future of a child, but we can protect his future eligibility by getting a life insurance policy on them when they are young and healthy. I have had some friends who had healthy children when they were younger, and unexpectedly they had an illness effect their child at age 10 they will prevent the child from ever being able to obtain individual life insurance.  This is a sad situation and could have been helped if they had early on in the child’s life bought life insurance for them.

Some of the Universal Life Policies can offer 20 pay, that allow after twenty years of payments, they are fully paid up and will offer protection for the child until age 100+.  We did purchase a life policy on our daughter for two reasons, to give her a paid up life policy at age 25 and to protect her insurability and protect her family to age 100, a generation skipping gift.

If you are interested in looking at some options for your children or grandchildren, we can share with you some options.

Life Insurance for children – RF Insurance Masters – YouTube.

I wanted to share an updated video of some of the insurance basics to consider as you are looking for coverage. You could be transitioning from COBRA, leaving a group plan, or not covered at all looking for ways to find an affordable health insurance coverage.

Searching for health insurance coverage is not easy if you do not do it all the time. You can find yourself overwhelmed with the information and number of plans available to choose from. It is important you work with someone who is knowledgeable in the health insurance field, I would highly recommend working with a broker who can give you the personalized guidance you need to understand the options and opportunities to save.  I like the insurance broker who is not only selling one companies product and can offer you more variety in options.

The insurance agent should take the time to ensure you are educated on the options and features of the plans you are considering.  They should be able to provide you with a Summary of Benefits for the plan.  If they do not offer this to you, I would be concerned and if it is not on paper/PDF provided by the carrier, be concerned.

In this short video below I share with you some of the basics in health insurance and some ideas around deductible and ways to save on your health policy or reduce your financial exposure with higher deductibles.

 

I hope this short slide deck help you to understand how you can protect you and your family with lower premiums and adding a high deductible health plan with supplemental coverage.  We can help you with your specific situation and give you guidance that can lead you to being able to afford coverage.

To learn more and apply for this coverage :  Homeland HealthCare AWA Gap Plans

Brochure :  AWA GAP PLANS_Basic Guide V1 6 1 12 11

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns on this plan, give us a Call at 512-807-9594.  It can be a great complement with your major medical coverage to save you on your deductible exposure.  It can work with HSA or regular health plans individual or group health plan.

Supplemental Accident Plan

Supplemental Accident Plan Name	Plans Face Value per Accident	Deductable Per Accident	Critical Illness Face Value	Monthly Premium
AWA Gap Basic 1	$10,000	$100	$10,000	Ages 18 to 64 $52.00 per Month for Member $93.00 per Month for Member plus Spouse $98.00 per Month for Member plus Child(ren) $101.00 per Month for Member plus Family
AWA Gap Basic 2	$5,000	$100	$5,000	Ages 18 to 64 $32.00 per Month for Member $42.00 per Month for Member plus Spouse $44.00 per Month for Member plus Child(ren) $46.00 per Month for Member plus Family

Note: One time enrollment fee of $49

For detailed information or to apply for Homeland HealthCare AWA Gap Plans click this link.

This is not basic health Insurance.

Most people today feel safe only have the life insurance benefit provided by their employer or none at all. Some people do not think life insurance is necessary or do not get to getting a policy in place for their family. This is a large mistake for your family if something happens unexpectedly. They will have wished they had the life policy on their loved one.

Employer life insurance is usually inexpensive and does not have a required physical to become covered by the insurance. You can easily buy up your insurance to some number of times of your salary. These plans can provide coverage while you are employed, but what happens when you transition jobs or loose your job as it is very common in today’s economy. You would leave your family exposed, no one every can predict what the future will be. I would highly recommend in having personal life insurance to protect your family with or without employer sponsored life insurance.

I have become more aware of this situation as I had only employer sponsored life insurance, and I went for a long time between jobs and I did leave my family exposed on my providing for their future. I have since been able to secure life policies to protect my wife and daughter. I will never again leave my family exposed to the financial risk of not having life insurance for them. I wish my Dad would have suggested that advice to me to get an individual policy in place to guarantee my insurability and protect my family. In a future blog post I will share some ideas to help your children protect them for their life, but I want to focus on you and your spouse and children.

I do hear stories from time to time on people who did not properly protect their family with having life insurance in force. The remaining family members have the stress of loosing their loved one, but the beginning of the financial stress as to how they will afford the lifestyle that they have gotten accustomed to. I have seen people go through drastic life changes to lifestyle without the help of life insurance. The stories are of unexpected deaths through accident or illness and sometimes when they have been between jobs or in jobs that do not offer life insurance benefits. I have even heard stories of people retiring from a job, and when they retired they did not have any life insurance in place, so the spouse was left with a life changing financial crisis. I hope never to let anyone not understand the exposure to their family and the importance of life insurance.

The great thing about an individual policy for life insurance will let you keep your policy in force no matter what your work and health situation once it is in place and keep paying the premiums. I would advise you get with your insurance broker to help you with your needs analysis to help you determine what your family needs are for either spouse. This will help you determine how much insurance you should have to maintain you lifestyle. It takes into account the debt, earnings, college, day care, and other factors that you should take into account for the face value of your life insurance policy.

I would not wait to begin the process to get the life insurance in place as you never know what the future will bring for your health or if something unexpected can happen. The process is easy and the insurance broker can help you determine the type of policies that may be best for your particular situation. Life insurance is a necessary insurance for your family’s future as we do not know what future is for any of us. The one thing to know is the remaining family members will have probably wished they had the life insurance protection in place if you never thought it was a priority. Let us know how we may be able to help you start your process.

How to get health insurance for a child without a parent or guardian

Getting health insurance for a child by them self (without a parent/guardian) is a challenge with health care reform.  I am an insurance broker located in Austin, Texas and I help people protect their family with health, dental and life insurance.  Being an insurance broker you tend to run into many different situations that you try to help people find the best coverage for their particular situation.  Before the health care reform, the hardest part was placing people who could not be insured by a carrier due to preexisting conditions.  In Texas we have been lucky to have the Texas Health Insurance Pool for people who had cancer, heart attack, diabetes and other ineligible medical history.  This is a hard task to have to inform people that because of their condition, they have to go to the Texas Health Insurance Pool to obtain coverage, though major medical coverage at a higher cost.

Since September of 2010, we had a new law go into effect to help Americans get coverage.  These changes included no riders/preexisting conditions for children, so they have all conditions covered with no waiting period, preventative/wellness/physicals available to everyone who had insurance.  Adults are expected to have the same no riders rule starting in 2014.  The government did add a plan to help those states who did not have a Health Insurance Pool, and some states who had a Pool as well have the Government Insurance, they call this plan Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.  This plan was similar goal as the Texas Health Insurance Pool.  The Government Plan has a few items I cannot understand, they have a waiting period, and people need to be uninsured for 6-months to be eligible.  You do have the advantage of no waiting period for preexisting conditions to be covered if you have been uninsured, other than the 6-months you need to be uninsured to be eligible.

The intent of the changes all sound good on paper, but this week I ran into a situation that really opened my eyes to a condition we created for healthy children.  I would have never guessed that this was a side effect of the changes.  When the changes when into effect for children to be issued without any riders or they cannot be denied coverage, the major medical carriers decided that they would not offer coverage to any child under 18 without a parent on the policy.  This means no children can get a policy by themselves, even if they are healthy without any conditions.  You would think the Health Insurance Pool or the government plan would be obtainable for child who cannot obtain coverage from a major medical carrier, but this is not the case for healthy children.

Health insurance rates have gone up more this year as result of some of the changes mandated by the law, making it harder for Americans and Texans to afford comprehensive coverage for themselves and their family.  This higher costs cause parents to make tradeoffs of paying necessary bills verses obtaining health coverage for their family.  They make tradeoffs for themselves, but try to cover their children with health insurance.

The issue that opened my eyes was a young girl who legal guardian is the grandmother (on Medicare) who was looking to obtain coverage for her granddaughter and needs to look at individual policies for her.  I originally thought the Texas Health Insurance Pool was the best option for her.  She had not been uninsured for 6-months, so the government plan was not an option.  We decided to submit an application to the Texas Health Insurance Pool, and get her coverage, so I thought.  After a few weeks, we had gotten a letter back from the pool rejecting the reason for obtaining coverage as being a child under 18-years old.  I thought that this would be a valid reason to be accepted into the health insurance pool.  I ended up calling to ask the question as to why they would not accept this young girl.  I ended up talking to the Director of the Pool for Texas, and he told me that they pool would not be able to accept this healthy young girl.  He mentioned a hole in the health insurance pool rules and a flaw in the major medical companies allowed offer insurance in Texas and not offering coverage to children.  The government plan you would think may be the next option, but they would accept her if you can prove that her premium is more than their rates.  I have not found a solution for this young healthy girl that really has nowhere to obtain major medical coverage.

One suggestion that could help improve this in the future is to impose that companies that offer health insurance in the state of Texas need to offer policies to children alone and they do not have the option to reject or not insure children without a parent.  This may take a while to get addressed so, children may need to go to limited benefit plans if they are healthy.  This is not the best approach for protecting their health and families financial exposure.  I think we need to make people aware of this big gap that hurts healthy children from obtaining coverage.  It is sad to see the changes help the sick and families who can afford health insurance, but hurt the healthy and less fortunate.  I just want to help people who need coverage find the best solution, but in this case, we do not have one.  I will do my part to raise the awareness of the issue.

Health Care Reform Updates for 2011.  January 1st we have some changes in the non-grandfathered plans, some companies are letting you know about the added benefits with a premium increase letter.  These increases in premium are happening to support the increased benefits provided by the health care reform.  The changes will allow you to have wellness exams (annual physicals) included with your plans.  This will include any tests that are needed to be run in conjunction with your annual exam.  This includes mammograms, pap, colonoscopy and other items that we would usually have some out of pocket expense for.    This is a good thing keeping healthy, the down side is your monthly premiums may be going up.  It is always good to check to make sure that you are at a competitive rates.  You will need to stay with your current company if you have any issues currently in progress – unfinished tests, diagnosis and still under a doctors care.  If you have an older plan – grandfathered plan, you may be better off staying with that plan instead of changing to a newer plan, as you may see premiums higher than what you currently have.  We are happy to show you what your current options are.

There is never any added costs for working with an insurance broker, and they are a valuable resource to help you get the best policy for your specific situation.  Let us assist you with your finding the best plan.