Statistics has shown that 1 in 3 American Citizens are projected to fall victim of cancerous ills. Due to the ongoing rise in illnesses, including newfound diseases the companies are designing policies that will offer families and individuals the coverage they will need in difficult times. Not one single person on the face of the earth can say if they will be the 1 in 3, therefore, coverage now is better than waiting until it is too late.

The current policies that are making the news today are the Critical Illness Plans that are often offered with Life Insurance. The policy will cover transportation to and from hospitals if inpatient or outpatient is needed, including the cost the family or mate will need to visit. The coverage will also cover medical treatment and procedures, including in-home care, nurse visits, vacations, car and home modifications, and more. Since our air is filled with contaminations that are claiming health everyday, we can never feel it is too late to get coverage. Many of the policies available, including Terminal Ill, Critical Illness and Life Insurance are often affordable, making it easy to cover an entire family.

The different polices also include, Single Plans and Joint Policies. It is important to understand that Single Polices are often more expensive than Joint Policies, however the Single policies will cover each member of your household if you fall ill and/or die. If you have a Joint Policy and die, then the additional members will have no resource for burial expenses, or other related costs.

In spite of your financial circumstances, having Life combined with Critically Illness coverage can save you a bundle later. Therefore, if you can only afford minimal coverage now, why not, since later you will thank your self for taking the time to consider all details of illness and death, including the survivors if you should pass. To give you an overall idea of price now vs. price later we will consider the following: Let’s say you (we hope not) become one of the 1 in 3 Americans that fall ill to cancer. If this should happen, you will need long-term treatment, including Chemotherapy. You may need to stay at the hospital for a week or longer. First, the cost of medical treatment without the extras is expensive, and this expense does not include medicines.

For treatment for one month, you will pay thousands of dollars splitting the cost between medicines and physician/hospital fees. You will also pay additional thousands for treatment for cancer, plus you will loose money since you are not able to work any longer. Your family will need money to cover visits, possible stays at hotels, food, and so forth and this does not include the cost of living. You may need equipment that will cost a few more thousand dollars or more to recover from the disease. Furthermore, if your treatment is successful you may need money to cover the cost of recovery and checkups to make sure the cancer remains inactive. As you can see, the few thousands just soared beyond ten grand, and if you should die, we have factored in the burial expenses, which are going to be another thousand of dollars.

Still, we haven’t reviewed mortgage, credit cards, personal loans and any other debts that are activate before and during death. Therefore, around $20 more or less now per month can save you and your family later if you become ill and/or die. It makes sense to combine Critical Illness and Life Insurance, since both Policies change slightly offering different types of coverage. You definitely want to consider Critical Illness Coverage since these policies consider more when it comes to illness than Life insurance polices do. Life Insurance will often cover burial, which if the policyholder dies then the large sum provided will probably payoff the burial expenses leaving nil left. The Critical Illness will provide the extra cash if the policyholder falls ill or dies.

Authored by Michael Bens. For more great information about all forms of insurance visit our free online insurance publication the Gabae Insurance Source to find the information you’re looking for!

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Tags: critical illness health insurance, critical illness insurance, Health Insurancecritical illness health insurance, critical illness insurance, Health Insurance

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An HSA - a “healthcare savings account” - is medical and retirement planning savings account that can be used on a tax-advantaged basis. HSAs were created in Medicare Modernization legislation passed in December 2003. To be eligible for an HSA, a consumer must be covered by a high deductible health plan (HDHP).

By contrast, an HRA - a “healthcare reimbursement account” is an account maintained by an employer to be used to reimburse employees for qualified medical expenses. HSA accounts must be funded before they’re used, but HRAs don’t need to be. Using an HRA, an employer can simply pay the medical expenses as they’re incurred.

HSA accounts belong to the individual employees and are fully portable; in other words, employees can take the accounts with them if they leave an employer. HRA accounts belong to the employer. Each employee gets an annual allocation of dollars and unused funds roll over from year to year as long as the employee continues in good standing. Typically, an employee forfeits the money in an HRA account if they leave the employer.

An HSA can be funded by either the employer or the employee (or, often: both). An HRA may only be funded by the employer.

All qualified contributions into an HSA are tax-free. If the employer contributes, then such contributions aren’t treated as part of the employee’s income, and are therefore tax-advantaged. If the employees makes contributions, these can be deducted from the employee’s income when tax returns are filed.

Here’s the best part: not only are deposits into HSAs tax-free so are withdrawals. Any distribution from an HSA for qualified medical expenses is tax-free. HSAs are typically managed much like an IRA: that is, there are a variety of investment vehicles that the consumer can put his or her money into, so that it might compound and grow while it’s waiting to be used for medical needs. The specific investments available to a consumer vary depending on the company offering the HSA. As we said before, like an IRA a HSA belongs to the individual and is portable.

Consumers can make withdrawals from HSAs for non-medical purposes after the age of 65 but the withdrawals (aka “distributions”) are treated as income and taxed accordingly. Distributions for non-medical purposes made before the age of 65 are treated as an early distribution and subject to an early withdrawal penalty of 10% plus regular income tax.

Kurt Stammberger is VP, Marketing at Healthia Inc. Healthia provides you comprehensive information to help you compare health insurance plans for Groups, Individuals, Families and Employees.

Tags: group insurance, Health Insurance, Small Business Health Insurancegroup insurance, Health Insurance, Small Business Health Insurance

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Bridge Out: A road sign you really never want to see. Its appearance in your path means that there has been a failure and that you have to find a new way of getting where you want to go. The rise of consumer-driven health plans indicates that the era of managed care failed to control the increased cost and demand for care and that many things about the way we receive healthcare in the US.

In late August 2006, Wellpoint, one of the nation’s biggest healthcare insurance providers, has gone on record stating that in 2007 they will the first insurer to have consumer-driven health plans in all states and for all types of people (from major employers to small groups to individual plans).

“Our customers who choose these consumer-driven products will have new opportunities to lead healthier lives because of this first-of-its-kind national offering,” Wellpoint CEO, Larry Glassock

The press release also goes on to share: “we’re empowering consumers through unique and robust online tools and incentives that encourage and reward them for choosing to live healthier lifestyles… Consumers who choose Lumenos will be eligible for extensive preventive care and personal health coaching, as well as smoking cessation and weight management programs. In addition, most consumers will receive financial rewards for completing various wellness programs.”

WOW! That sounds great, right?!?!?! Well, I always read these things and think about what my parents and my in-laws know about healthcare/ health policy and what they would think.

So for those of you who are not familiar with this new type of health plan, their implementation will produce significant changes in how care is reimbursed. Consumer-driven health plans are designed to shift some of the financial decision-making and responsibility to the individuals who consume healthcare services. Health savings accounts and high deductibles are key components to this new type of health plan. The thought behind all of this is to allow patients to determine how best to spend their healthcare dollars.

If you buy into traditional economic theory as applicable to the healthcare industry, this is not a bad way of trying to control skyrocketing costs. Since the price of services has a direct impact on demand for services, in theory , this type of plan has the potential to reduce duplication of services and unnecessary utilization of higher levels (more expensive) of care. In very simple terms, if patients are required to share some of the financial responsiblity of their care, then they are more likely to choose the cheapest, most effective care.

There are at least two very big ‘rubs’ to this plan. First, in order to to be able to make appropriate choices, consumers will need to know the cost of the care. While it seems easy enough, a physician or facilities’ billing rate for a service is significantly different than a contracted rate. And a contracted rate or allowable charge is significantly differerent than the acutal amount paid for services by an insurer or other third party payer. So healthcare consumers will need to understand all of these to be able to make the appropriate choices. Also healthcare providers will need to set up a system to be able to accurately inform the consumer the costs for a service. While this seems easy enough, it becomes increasingly complex when one understands that every, single, solitary insurance plan is different in regards to deductible, copay, contracted rate and reimbursement rate.

Second, in order to be able to chose the cheapest, effective treatment, healthcare consumers will have to know and understand their treatment options. This means that they will need to better understand the science behind their illnesses as well as the science behind the possible treatments. This would be a whole lot easier if we went back to the old world model of having healthcare providers that were able to develop rapport and a trusting patient-provider relationship. In the past, providers were given the time and opportunity to really partner with individuals, understand the complexities of care and develop a truly individualzed treatment that best fit the patient/consumer’s need. However, in the days of the 15 minute visit, this becomes increasingly difficult to do.

President Bush’s recent executive order pushing for many things including transparency of pricing information is an attempt to address the issue of understanding the financial aspects.

However, how do we make sure individuals have the information they need to be able to get the best treatment value? In reality, physicians and healthcare providers, because of their ability to understand and evaluate individual cases and circumstances, are the best resources for helping individuals make these decisions. However, they will likely need to develop new ways of doing this that are cost and time efficient. If healthcare providers do not develop these new ways, consumers/patients will be left to fend for themselves.

If consumers do not adequately educate themselves or access resources/advocates that will assist them, then this plan too is doomed. Costs will not be contained, health will not be preserved and access to appropriate, effective care will continue to be compromised.

Carol is the Vice President of The Promedica Research Center. She has a masters degree from Mercer University in Health Policy and Administration and currently teaches a master’s level course on Health Care Organizations for the University of Phoenix (Online), College of Health Sciences. Longer bio found at drivingintraffic.com.

Tags: consumer driven health plans, Health Insurance, healthcare, patient empowermentconsumer driven health plans, Health Insurance, healthcare, patient empowerment

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