My Broker’s Advice About My Discontinued Policy

In August of 2012, my health insurance company, Anthem, sent me a letter telling me that my policy had been discontinued. Naturally, I panicked. I need health insurance, and this was the only plan I could afford. Later, they sent a letter telling me they were raising the premium cost. What to do? Here’s what my insurance broker advised. After several unsuccessful attempts to find affordable health insurance, I went to see an insurance broker. This brilliant woman found me a plan that was comprehensive and that had a premium that was low enough for me to afford. If I … Continue reading

Heart. Broken.

The holidays will never, ever be the same for the families whose loved ones were tragically gunned down yesterday in Connecticut. Life will never be the same for them. If you are a parent, life is also likely different for you following Friday’s mass murder madness. It can be. It should be. That is, if you are able to gain perspective from the senseless act of violence. It’s one of life’s cruelest ironies:  To gain perspective we must often lose something incredibly precious. In the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, more than two dozen families lost their … Continue reading

Top Reasons to Use an Insurance Broker

Have you ever used an insurance broker? There are so many good reasons to do so! Using an insurance broker to find a good, affordable, health insurance plan is a great idea. Here are the top reasons to go ahead and seek out the assistance of an insurance broker. Insurance brokers are experts. They know more about the current and upcoming laws, rules, and regulations that affect health insurance than you will. An insurance broker can tell you if the health insurance policy you are considering buying will not be considered to be a sufficient plan in 2014. They can … Continue reading

Insurance Blog Week in Review – April 1-7, 2012

The Insurance Blog Week in Review brings you a quick and easy way to “ketchup” on everything that hit the blog in the past week. There are always somewhere between 12 and 14 blogs that appear here, and it is easy to accidentally miss something that you wanted to read. What did you miss this week? What Do Insurance Brokers Do? This blog will clear up any confusion you might have about what insurance brokers do, how they get paid, and how they are connected to insurance companies. The Insurance Podcast Roundup went up on April 2, 2012. This week, … Continue reading

What Do Insurance Brokers Do?

Recently, my husband and I visited with an insurance broker. Our purpose for being there was to find an affordable health insurance plan for me. My insurance broker was extremely helpful! Before I visited with her, I didn’t know much about what insurance brokers do. Here is what I have learned. I picked up this pamphlet that was created by the National Association of Health Underwriters, (NAHU). The NAHU is a group that represents more than 100,000 licensed health insurance agents, brokers, consultants, and benefit professionals, across the United States. One of NAHU’s primary goals is to do everything they … Continue reading

My Insurance Broker was a Big Help!

I am still searching for affordable health insurance. All my attempts to find it so far have resulted in being accepted for policies that were too expensive. Today, my husband and I met with an insurance broker. She was incredibly helpful! At this moment, I have absolutely no health insurance coverage. I am seeking an individual policy. I don’t happen to have the type of job that offers employer sponsored health insurance, (which would be a group policy). I am also seeking health insurance for myself, only. My husband has health insurance coverage through Medicare. Today, we went to see … Continue reading

Insurance Brokers’ Fees are Not Medical Care

It is now official. The fees that private health insurance companies pay to insurance brokers cannot be included into their medical care expenses. This is good for consumers, but, it isn’t an ideal situation for brokers. This decision is probably not going to make insurers very happy either. In 2010, there was a health reform law passed that required all health insurance companies to spend at least 80% of the money that they get from premiums on medical care and quality improvement. They could no longer spend more than 20% of their profits on administrative costs. Insurers of large groups … Continue reading

Go for Broke

My sweet little baby wants nothing more than to not be my sweet little baby. According to my six going on 16-year-old daughter, she is the only one in her entire first grade class to have every single one of her baby teeth intact. Being a Recess Mom, I know that she is not exaggerating. She really is the only one in her class who has yet to loose a tooth. However, I am secretly thrilled she hasn’t. Personally, I think the gap-toothed look is hard to rock. Loosing pearly whites changes the entire landscape of one’s appearance and brings … Continue reading

Mending Broken Trust

Marriage takes a whole lot of trust. You go into it trusting that the person you’ve chosen will always be there for you, will be faithful to you, will be careful of your feelings, will help you attain the things you need to be happy. When something happens to break that trust, you may feel misled, alone, abandoned, shattered, deceived—there are countless words to describe the emotions you might have. I think the greatest of them all is “hurt.” A loss of trust is not only an emotional hurt, but it can cause a deep, physical pain as well. For … Continue reading

Do Health Insurance Brokers Have A Limited Future?

The health care reform laws that are due to begin in 2014 might make insurance brokers obsolete. This is going to leave a lot of currently employed people out of work in just a few years time. Some might compare what is expected to happen with insurance brokers to what happened with travel agents not too long ago. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 434,800 insurance brokers in the United States right now. The majority of insurance brokers sell health insurance. You might think of insurance brokers as the middlemen between you, the person who wants to … Continue reading