Showing posts with label Insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insurance. Show all posts

Driving without car insurance? Soon, they’ll lock you up and throw away the key!

Driving without car insurance? Soon, they’ll lock you up and throw away the key!
See, a couple months back a young married woman ran a red light (accidentally) and smashed into my car. Astonishingly enough, she had 2 weeping children by no driver’s license to her side. As she frantically scrambled for her phone to call her husband, he arrived shortly with the insurance information scribbled on a crumpled piece of scratch paper.

Being the nice guy I wrote down the information and then reluctantly reported the incident to my insurance company that I am.

My insurance agent rang back within a couple of hours, and guess what I hear next? The information that this nice woman that is young me was totally bogus! The woman who totaled my car was did not have car insurance. What!

I couldn’t believe this. I was had! All of us hard working, law abiding, car insurance paying citizens fork over hundreds of dollars a month in order to comply with our car that is mandatory insurance. It seems we cannot immediately see, touch, smell, or hear like we are paying the bills to push back our dismay at spending large sums on something. Soon enough everybody shall be forced to acquire car insurance.

California legislators are now debuting a plan that is three-phase on uninsured motorists. California legislators are creating this plan for people like you and me like me, for people that do pay insurance, for people that don’t make bogus claims, for people that are law abiding citizens. This plan will be enforced with the sole intent on making uninsured motorists pay the price that is ultimate.

Get ready uninsured motorists, here comes the bad news! As of 1st, insurance agencies are required to electronically submit evidence of financial responsibility to the DMV january. This means, if your car insurance faults at any time, the DMV will be notified immediately. What does this mean for uninsured motorists? The DMV will send you a nasty little note along with your registration renewal notice requesting that you submit proof of financial responsibility before they will ever renew your registration again. This is a must people. There is no getting around this one.

Alright people, let’s do the math that is simple. That you left your car insurance card in your house really going to fly with the authorities if you get pulled over on or after July 1 of this year, do you really think that the excuse? Come on. These are the kids that are fat high school who you used to pick on. It’s payback time in their eyes. As of right now, law enforcement has the same access to the current status of your insurance just like the DMV. Don’t fret, because I have good news for everybody. Read on.

The cut that is final will come on October 6th as when the California DMV will be required to suspend the registrations of uninsured motorists. Wait, what does that mean? That means there is no getting around it. It means there is no where to go. It’s your end that is dead buddy. Insurance is a must.

Now, I’m a nice guy. I’m a very understanding person. I’m willing to look at both relative sides of the fence here. Given, some people just outright choose to not have car insurance; however there are the few out there that simply cannot afford the car that is sky-high premiums that are simply out of budget and quite frankly out of reach for some motorists.

No worries, the continuing state of California has the bases covered for most. See, as of April 1, the California Low Cost Auto Insurance Program is being offered to drivers that are low-income Alameda, Fresno, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties, previously only available in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

This cost that is low is available from any licensed insurance agent at a cost of just over $300 per year. Lower-income drivers who meet the qualifying guidelines will be able to protect themselves and their families while complying with the law. More information about the  program is available at the state department of insurance website.

If you drive into Los Angeles County today, look around you, because it is estimated that one out of four people on the road are driving without car insurance.

When the new laws kick in, sorry Charlie, but you must get car insurance, and you must get car insurance right now.


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Everything You Need To Know About Choosing A Health Insurance Plan

Everything You Need To Know About Choosing A Health Insurance Plan
The purpose of health insurance is to protect you from the alarming cost of medical care by providing you with insurance coverage for specified health and care that is medical. Generally, you will pay a monthly premium, a deductible, and co-payments for services you receive. The cost for insurance is significantly less than if you had to pay for medical care out of your pocket. There are three basic types of health insurance, fee for service, consumer-directed, and managed care. These basic types of insurance plans cover hospital, medical, and surgical expenses, and depending on the particular plan you choose, possibly prescription drugs, mental/behavioral care, and dental.

A fee for service plan means the  health care professional you choose will be paid a fee for each service provided to you. You can choose your doctor that is own and insurance claim can be filed by either the doctor or the patient. A care that is managed will provide coverage to their members and offers incentives for patients who choose doctors participating in the plan's network. The 3 types of managed care plans are HMOs, PPOs, and POS plans.

An HMO allows you to receive care that is medical a network of participating physicians. You will generally select a primary care doctor, who will then refer you to a specialist when necessary. A PPO combines various features of an HMO and a fee for service plan. Members can choose from network doctors and pay lower upfront expenses, or choose any doctor they desire and pay more out of pocket expenses. A consumer-directed health plan gives members more choices and options for making health care decisions. Consumer-directed plans include a ongoing health account or fund designated for health care expenses. At the end of each year, unused funds will roll over to the next year.

A health insurance premium is the fee paid to the insurer to purchase health coverage. Premiums can be paid monthly, quarterly, or annually. Deductibles are the amount you will pay for covered services within a time that is certain, according to the terms of your plan, before you will be entitled to insurance benefits. Members with a high deductible may have to pay the first one thousand dollars of yearly medical expenses before the insurance would begin to pay, and those with a higher or lower deductibles would pay more or less, depending on the particular amounts specified in their plan. A co-payment is a stated amount or percentage that must be paid by the member along with each doctor visit, medical procedure, or prescription. For example, if your specified co-payments are $25, you will pay the first $25 of each doctor visit and your insurance would cover additional charges. Most insurance plans specify a different co-payment amount for prescriptions, doctor visits, and hospital or care that is surgical.

In choosing which type of health insurance plan is right for you, you must consider the affordability of doctor visits and hospital care, the amount of the monthly premium, the amount of the deductibles, and the amount of the co-payments. Make sure the plan you chose offers coverage for services you will actually use such as doctors, prescriptions, laboratory costs, treatment for preexisting conditions, and care that is out-of-network. Check the rating of the insurance company in question, the number of patient complaints in the past year, doctor drop out rates if the insurance plan includes a network, and the number of members who have dropped out of the plan in the past year. Health insurance that is subsidized by your employer is generally the least expensive, but if your employer does not offer health insurance, you should consider an health insurance policy that is individual. The cost of medical care is far too expensive to risk not having health insurance.


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