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.
