Supplementing Medicare
August 9, 2009 by Weber's Insurance · Leave a Comment
Medicare supplemental health insurance is confusing and may seem to be overwhelming to many. Maybe this will help. There are two major categories of supplemental plans: government designed plans and government contracted plans.
Government designed plans are the Medicare Supplements or Medigap policies. They come in 12 standard choices with two of the choices available with a simple modification. The choices are called Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E, Plan F, Plan G, Plan H, Plan I, Plan J, Plan K and Plan L and the modified plans are the High Deductible Plan F and the High Deductible Plan J.
As the letters increase from A to J, the coverage generally increases and the premiums are generally higher. Plans K and L are lower coverage and lower cost alternatives. The high deductible versions simply impose a deductible before the insurance company pays any benefits as a way to cut your health insurance premium costs.
One important thing to remember. You don’t have to waste much time trying to figure out which company’s Plan F Medicare Supplement is better than the other company’s. The government designed the coverage and the insurance company is just providing the benefits. Cost is the only difference between two or more Plan F policies other than customer service and quality of company issues.
Government contracted plans are the Medicare Advantage, Medicare Cost, Medicare PPO, and Medicare Private Fee For Service (PFFS) plans. For these plans, the insurance company and the government enter into a contract.
As a perhaps an oversimplification, the government essentially provides the money and the insurance company provides the benefits and plan administration. The concept is that private industry can offer more senior health benefits with the same money in exchange for some plan restrictions on your part, and they often do just that.
A Medicare Advantage Private Fee–for–Service plan works differently than a Medicare supplement plan. Your doctor or hospital can continue to treat you if it agrees to accept the insurance company’s terms and conditions of payment, and thus may choose not to treat you, with the exception of emergencies.
If your doctor or hospital does not agree to accept our payment terms and conditions, they may choose not to provide health care services to you, except in emergencies.
Contact Weber’s Insurance about your Medicare Supplemental insurance needs. We can help. Call us at 928-445-8720 or, if you prefer, just email us.
Weber Launches New Web Site
August 9, 2009 by Weber's Insurance · 1 Comment
Weber’s Insurance has launched its new Internet service initiative by implementing a new web site that will allow customers more convenient access to their insurance needs.
“Few businesses today function without an effective online presence and we are at the beginning stages of creating a better set of web tools to service our customers and, of course to attract new ones,” said Bill Weber, President of Weber Insurance Services, Inc.
Weber’s Insurance hopes to create a web site that ultimately contains many user-friendly tools that will enable the agency to communicate more effectively with its customers.
The site will allow online insurance applications, documents, articles and other tools that customers will be able to utilize without necessarily needing to come the Weber’s Insurance office.
Weber’s Insurance launched the site on August 26, 2009.
Types of Life Insurance
August 9, 2009 by Weber's Insurance · Leave a Comment
There are four basic types of life insurance from which you can choose. Before seriously considering a policy, it’s important to understand what these four types are and what they entail.
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance is very straightforward. When you choose this type of coverage you pay for a specific duration of time. During that period, your chosen beneficiary receives the benefits of your policy in the event of your death. You should know that there are subcategories that fall under the category of term life insurance.
For example, you may choose an annually renewable term life policy. Obviously, this would be a policy you choose to renew (or not to renew) each year. Because the price of the policy and premiums may go up as you get older, consumers may want to choose to avoid the annually renewable term life policy in favor of something like a guaranteed level term life insurance policy.
This type of policy stays the same price for a specific time period of time that can range from 5 to 30 years depending on what you’ve chosen
The newest type of term life is called ROP or return of premium term life insurance. It pays out the value to you at the end of the term if you are still living. If you die during the term the funds go to your beneficiary.
Whole Life Insurance
Whole life insurance covers you for your entire life rather than a specific term. A whole life policy will cost more on average and have higher premiums than term life policies, however, the investment potential and lifelong coverage are appealing to some insurance shoppers.
Whole Life policies may not be suitable for your needs and they have fallen out-of-favor with the general public. However, there are still cases where this type of life insurance may be helpful to you and your objectives.
Universal Life Coverage
With Universal Life coverage you can actually add your preferred amount to the minimum price of the premium. The insurance company then invests the funds with returns that are put into the premiums, or left to accumulate.
One subcategory of universal life insurance is universal variable life which lets customers choose what they want to invest in rather than the insurance company choosing for them.
Variable Life Insurance
Variable Life is another one of the main basic types of life insurance. With variable coverage, you have more investment opportunities, which includes stocks.
This policy type is similar to universal coverage because the returns are either used towards premiums or allowed to accumulate in an account. Your beneficiary receives either the value of the policy, or the value of the policy, in addition to a portion of, or the full cash investment returns account.
