Ford Motor Company announced that it will offer short term medical insurance as part of a buyout retirement offer for almost all of its 41,000 hourly workers. The offer is intended to reduce the firm's factory work force. The New York Times reports that in the past Ford kept laid-off workers in a job bank rather than remove them from the payroll. This year, however, Ford is actively reducing its work force in anticipation of lower demand for cars in the future.
The short term medical insurance plan is a six month basic health insurance policy but the details of the coverage are not provided. Ford has not announced how many workers are expected to elect the buyout offer.
Considering the larger regional trend of employers hiring temporary workers and the shift toward individual health insurance (as opposed to employer-sponsored group insurance), some of these workers in the Detroit area are likely to consider alternate affordable health insurance options for the long term before deciding whether to accept the buyout package. Those who do not qualify for lower cost options could face higher health insurance costs through their state's high risk Blue Cross insurance pool.
In a press release dated 10/30/09, HCC Medical Insurance Services, LLC announced its new alliance with Travel Insured International. HCC Medical Insurance Services LLC is a leader in online health insurance products for international travelers and expatriates. Travel Insured International is a provider of travel insurance services such as trip cancellation, trip interruption and travel assistance services.
HCC Medical Insurance Services President Mark Carney is quoted saying “We are very excited to announce our affiliation with Travel Insured International. In spite of the economic downturn, the international traveler and expatriate’s need for health insurance products continue to grow”.
Travel Insured International’s product portfolio will now include eight additional health insurance products that are already also available online at Freedom Benefits:
Atlas Travel Series – a short-term health policy for individuals traveling outside their home country
CitizenSecure(SM) – annually renewable major medical insurance with a term-life insurance option for individuals and families
StudentSecure(SM) – health coverage for international students and scholars studying abroad
IC+ International Term Life – term life insurance policy for individuals living outside the U.S. for up to 10 years
Other products offered by HCC Medical Insurance Services include: Atlas Group, Atlas Professional, CitizenSecureSM Economy, GroupSecureSM.
About Travel Insured International
Travel Insured International, based in East Hartford, CT, was founded in 1993 by the foresight of insurance industry executive Peter Gehris when he acquired the travel protection division of the Travelers Insurance Company. Travel Insured International delivers strong, affordable benefits in the customer’s choice of a broad range of travel plans, as well as group and customized protection programs. Travel Insured International has established and driven higher standards for policy quality and customer care.
About HCC Medical Insurance Services
The international products are administered by Indianapolis-based HCC Medical Insurance Services, LLC (HCCMIS), a recognized leader in international life and health insurance offering coverage to consumers in more than 130 countries. Through its staff and a worldwide network of distributors, HCCMIS provides quality and value to clients. The company is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to serve its clients worldwide. HCCMIS is a subsidiary of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HCC), a leading international specialty insurance group headquartered in Houston, Texas. HCC has assets of $8.9 billion, shareholders’ equity of $2.8 billion and is rated AA (Very Strong) by Standard & Poor’s and AA (Very Strong) by Fitch Ratings. In addition, HCC’s major domestic insurance companies are rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company.
Buying Life Insurance: What Kind and How Much?
Finding the middle ground between being "insurance poor" and unprotected requires assessing real needs and choosing products that are affordable. This article introduces different types of insurance products and the role that they can play in a personal financial plan.
Buying Life Insurance
Conventional wisdom says that life insurance is sold, not purchased. In other words, some people are reluctant to discuss the importance of owning life insurance, and others are simply unaware of the need to have life insurance. Although many large companies provide life insurance as part of their benefits package, this coverage may be insufficient.
Who needs life insurance? If there are individuals who depend on you for financial support, or if you work at home providing your family with such services as child care, cooking, and cleaning, you need life insurance. Older couples also may need life insurance to protect a surviving spouse against the possibility of the couple's retirement savings being depleted by unexpected medical expenses. And individuals with substantial assets may need life insurance to help reduce the effects of estate taxes or to transfer wealth to future generations.
The brand name "Secure Short Term Medical" is one of the best-known and most highly regarded low cost health insurance plans in the U.S. The brand actually consists of four products that each target a specific group of consumers. The four products are: 1) Secure STM, 2) Secure Lite STM, 3) Secure 12x3 STM and 4) Secure Saver STM.
What makes this product lineup work so well? Probably not any one thing in particular but rather a combination of factors. We could make an analogy to an "all star lineup" in a sports team. First, the plan is administered by Health Plan Administrators, Inc., arguably one of the best service organizations in health care today. Second, The Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York enjoys a strong reputation among insurance professionals and consumers.
Next is the length of coverage. This is the only insurance product that can adequately span a gap from just one month to 36 months of continuous coverage. With a growing number of consumers looking forward to post-reform insurance within a few years, the Secure 12x3 offers the flexible length of coverage they need del with the uncertainty of the health care reform timetable.
Eligibility for the four insurance plans is liberal so most applicants will qualify for coverage. In fact, in many cases this is one of the few options available to applicants who have been previously declined for health insurance with another company. The exceptions are listed in the "medical eligibility" section of the online product descriptions. It is important to realize that all short term medical insurance plans exclude coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. This is what makes them so affordable and easy to access.
Only one of the four products screens for weight or previous declines in determining eligibility. That is the Secure Saver, as we might expect, since it it the lowest cost plan with the least predictable out-of-pocket expenses.
Finally, we cannot ignore price. Despite all the talk about the quality of insurance the fact is that many consumers buy based primarily on price. The Secure Lite and Secure Saver rank among the least expensive major medical insurance choices in many parts of the country.
A comparison of the four Secure STM products is published at FreedomBenefits.net and a description of coverage and exclusions is available for each product. Although all of these policies come with a standard "10 day free look", generic sample policy certificates are also available online for all four products for those who want to take a closer look at these insurance options.
Pricing of short term medical insurance tends to be more stable than managed care plans or other types of health insurance. As a result, pricing trends tend to develop more slowly and it may take longer for advisers and consumers to identify those companies with cost advantages. One such example is Celtic Insurance that has slowly and quietly winning over customers with its low rates and strong customer service. The coverage is priced and issued completely online at the company's secure enrollment site managed by ehealthinsurance.
Buying Life Insurance For The First Time
When one purchase insurance, it means that you are buying something that you would never use it, but in case you need to file an insurance claim, you would come to know how important it is to have right type of coverage. Follow the below given tips in case you are a first time buyer for life insurance.
It is a remarkable fact that people who is actually healthy get best rates on life insurance. You would be asked to pay a superior rate of anything that lessen your life expectancy for example, if you have smoking habit, or if you are overweight, or may be bad in driving.
The life insurance company would certainly ask you about your health check history and might desire you to take some kind of medical you as well test for. While filling up the health advice form you need to be true to them, in case you lie the company would find out and your life insurance policy would be surely canceled. And if in case your sick and were to die and then the life insurance company found out you lied earlier, if, for instance, you said you were a non-smoker but ended up dying of lung cancer from a smoking habit, they would then certainly deny the death benefits.
No matter what type of insurance you're purchasing, the course is fundamentally the same. Once you've determined what type of insurance and as well how much coverage you require, you could start contacting insurance companies online, straight by phone, or even through an insurance broker or agent to get quotes. Get quotes from numerous diverse insurers because premium cost could surely vary widely.
An insurance policy may cost less because it offers less, or dissimilar, features and benefits. And make certain the company you've settled on is highly regarded, with high-quality customer service and also claims-paying ability. All insurance companies are rated by chief rating agencies (e.g. Standard & Poor's, Moody's, A.M. Best) on their available capability to pay claims. You could also access these ratings online, by way of public libraries, or through insurance company literature.
An insurance policy is a legal contract that may be loaded with technical terms that are hard to understand. But read it anyway before you sign on the dotted line to find out about the coverage you're buying. A life insurance policy is a lawful deal, which might be loaded with technical terms that are hard to understand, but you need to read it anyways before you sign on dotted line to find out about the premium and coverage you are buying. For instance, the policy would tell you:
Who is covered?
What coverage eliminations and limitations apply?
When coverage starts and ends
How much coverage is actually provided to you?
How much you would pay for insurance coverage
How you report a loss and to file a claim
The most excellent key for purchasing right amount of life insurance is just to have sufficient coverage policy which meets your need. In case if it carry more life insurance than what you really required; you'll land up paying unwanted for higher premiums. On the other hand it is also significant not to have too little coverage, which might result in you being underinsured.
If you've been putting off for buying life insurance because you don't want to pay the premiums, you might be doing yourself damage in the long run. The younger you are when you buy life insurance coverage, the lower your premiums would pay. Make your life insurance policies work for you by taking the time to occasionally review your needs and coverages.
