If you are considering purchasing life insurance, an overview of the available types should prove helpful. This article will briefly discuss the difference between whole and term life insurance, as well as some variations on whole life insurance.

The easiest way to understand the difference between whole life insurance and term life insurance is to look at what is meant by their names. When you purchase whole life insurance, you are covering your “whole” life - as long as you own the policy, it will pay a benefit when you die. What that benefit is depends on the value of the policy at the time of your death, but you own the policy even if you are no longer making payments on it. Whole life also accumulates a cash value on a tax-deferred basis. In addition, whole life can pay dividends throughout the life of the policy.

Term life insurance, on the other hand, is purchased for a certain term, or period. As long as you die within that period, term life insurance will pay an agreed upon amount to your beneficiaries. It will not pay if you cease to make payments or if you die after the term has expired. In addition, term life insurance has no cash value.

Two other aspects of whole versus term life insurance should be pointed out. The first aspect is that premiums for whole life insurance are higher to begin with, but remain steady over time. On the other hand, premiums for term life insurance are lower near the beginning of the policy, but increase over time. Another aspect is that you can borrow against the cash value of a whole life insurance policy. This is not possible with term life insurance, since it does not have a cash value. There are two variations of whole life insurance that need to be mentioned. The first is a more flexible form of whole life called universal life insurance. With universal life insurance, you can adjust (within certain limits) the premiums as well as the benefit amount over time to suit your financial situation. This is made possible by placing the premiums in a fund that accumulates based on the interest rate. As with normal whole life insurance, this type of policy has a cash value that can be borrowed against.

The second variation on whole life insurance is called variable life insurance. This type is similar to universal life insurance, except that the premiums in the fund are tied to the financial markets rather than to interest rates. While the potential for growth is greater with this type of insurance, the potential for loss is greater as well.

As you can see, there are some choices to be made when considering the purchase of a life insurance policy. Now would be a good time to use some of the other resources at this site to help you decide on the life insurance policy that is right for you and your family.

Mike Bell is the webmaster of http://www.InsuranceOptionsGuide.com, a resource for life and health insurance answers.

Tags: Health Insurance, insurance, life insurance, types of life insuranceHealth Insurance, insurance, life insurance, types of life insurance

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Many Americans receive health insurance through their jobs or enjoy its benefits because a family member has insurance at work. The least expensive of its kind, this is known as group insurance. In a number of instances, the employer bears part or all of the cost.

Employers can offer you different types of plans: a fee-for-service plan, a health maintenance organization (HMO), or a preferred provider organization (PPO), for example. If you leave the job, you won’t be entitled to the employer-supported group coverage and if you keep the same policy, you will have to pay for it yourself. A federal law called COBRA requires that if you work for in a company with 20 or more employees and leave your job or are laid off, you can continue to get health coverage for at least 18 months at a higher premium than when you were working.

In North Carolina, you can find many group insurance plans as they benefit both employers and employees. These plans help employers attract and retain employees while employees benefit from lower premiums and employer contributions.

There are many licensed health insurance companies in North Carolina and the highly competitive market keep premiums affordable. Because of their nation-wide networks, many regional and national insurance companies can provide coverage for North Carolina business’ employees that live and work outside of North Carolina’s borders.

Group insurance programs are flexible offering many coverage options. Employees can be provided a fixed program or offered a menu approach that gives each employee the ability to select the coverage options that best suit his/her requirements.

Apart from group medical and life insurance plans, other group insurance plans are available also from which a group program can be tailored: group medical insurance, group dental insurance, group vision insurance, group disability insurance (short and long term), group life insurance, business travel accident, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

To avoid employing additional staff for handling paperwork, group insurance companies these days are using toll-free telephone numbers and Internet websites for program administration.

North Carolina Health Insurance provides detailed information on North Carolina Health Insurance, North Carolina Group Health Insurance, North Carolina Individual Health Insurance, Health Insurance Companies in North Carolina and more. North Carolina Health Insurance is affiliated with Colorado Health Insurance Company.

Tag: North Carolina Group Health InsuranceNorth Carolina Group Health Insurance

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In the United States health insurance, unlike many other countries, you can find dozens of Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. Hundreds of regular commercial insurance and so many more health insurance plans like managed-care plansHMOs, PPOs and PPG’s. For some travelers, they may have Medicaid, and for those over 65 years have Medicare. All of these different types of plans have many various benefits, costs, deductibles, exclusions and restrictions.

So think before you travel and check your existing health policy to see what it pays for. It may reimburse you for up to 100% of the cost of emergency medical care when you’re out of the country, of course, excluding any deductibles or copayments.

For nonemergency care overseas you may be covered but probably will have to call your insurance company or HMO in the United States for all for treatments that need to be authorized.

Check with your health plan about this before you leave home because failure to get authorization from your HMO or insurance company may mean you will not get reimbursed if you later file a claim.

If your health insurance policy doesn’t cover your medical cost abroad, or you do not have any coverage whatsoever, then you should consider purchasing a travel health specific insurance policy.

Even if your present health insurance will pay doctor and hospital bills when you’re out of the country, you may want to purchase a travel insurance policy to get other important benefits such as coverage for air ambulance transport and on-site medical expense payment.

With some specific diseases like diabetes, COPD, epilepsy, etc when you’re traveling it may not be covered so make sure you first speak we your health insurance agent before you travel and then see what is covered.

When my father travels he does get travel insurance, not for the benefit of the health insurance, but just in case he does get ill and unable to take the trip at the at the time he supposed to travel. This way he can get his money back.

Copyright 2005 - Fern Kuhn, RN
Specializing in Diabetes

http://www.travelinsurancecenter.info
http://www.diabetestestingcenter.com

You may reprint this article as long as you keep the links active

Tags: health insurance when traveling, travel health insurance, travel insurancehealth insurance when traveling, travel health insurance, travel insurance

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