#2 in Our Series About Preparing for 2017

To Our Clients, Their Families, and Friends,

Several of our readers received this article earlier this year but in light of recent announcements about carrier withdrawals, rate increases, and shrinking provider networks for 2017 I am sending an updated version of this article.

If you are in good health, without pre-existing conditions, you may want to give your Obamacare coverage a second look. It’s possible that you are grossly overpaying for benefits that you may never use. Now there is an alternative to Obamacare that could reduce your costs by thousands of dollars in monthly premiums and in out-of-pocket costs for large claims. A short-term major medical plan may be a great alternative to Obamacare. These plans provide $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 in major medical benefits without the frills of Obamacare plans. There are some precautions of which to be aware because these plans are different from Obamacare: They do not guarantee acceptance. You will need to answer 4 or 5 questions in order to qualify (no exams or lab tests are required). They do not cover pre-existing conditions. They do not cover preventive care or maternity costs. They are available for 6 to 11 months at a time so you will need two policies to get through a calendar year. They do not satisfy the government’s requirement to own health insurance which means that you may be subject to a tax penalty also known as a shared responsibility payment. But….if the above precautions don’t present a problem you could find yourself thousands ahead, even after payment of the tax penalty (which is increasing again in 2017). Take a look at this 2016 example (2017 Obamacare plans have not been released): 40 Year Old, Male Non-smoker- Maricopa County, AZ – earning $36,000 per yearr   “But what if I make $60,000 per year?” There still isn’t much difference. Your fine for not having compliant coverage will increase by $480 but your annual savings versus a compliant plan will still be nearly $2,100 for the year and that is for a plan that provides $3,500 less in out-of-pocket costs for you in case of major claims. One other thing to consider is that if you choose short-term major medical insurance you have the option to return to an Obamacare plan at annual open enrollment. Acceptance is guaranteed and pre-existing conditions will be covered right away. Like I said, short-term major medical insurance is not an alternative for everyone but, for certain people, it can provide a significantly better option than high-priced coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. CAUTION: The federal government is aware that short-term major medical insurance is a very attractive alternative to Obamacare and certain regulators are attempting to limit these policies’ duration to 3 months in order to discourage participation and force individuals into Obamacare plans. We will keep you informed. To find out if short-term major medical insurance is for you contact us at (800) 955-0418 or info@h-ie.com. Thanks for reading. BONUS: Wondering where Trump and Clinton stand on healthcare? click here. Thanks for reading. Sincerely, Alan Leafman, President 847-559-9699 x 222 480-654-1200 x 222

Never too Early to Prepare for Next Year

If you are responsible for providing your own health insurance and you are currently covered on a plan that is offered through the health insurance marketplaces, the time to prepare for 2017 is now. Early reports from around the country on marketplace offerings for next year are not looking good. Carrier exits, smaller networks, higher premiums, and higher out-of-pocket costs are all forecast or already announced.

For example:

• In Illinois, one of a handful of health insurance cooperatives that were still left from the 23 that were originally created after passage of the Affordable Care Act, recently failed. It does not even have the monetary reserves to insure its members through 2016.
• In Arizona, BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona will not be offering plans in the Phoenix area, by far the state’s largest population center.
• In Texas BlueCross BlueShield of Texas has requested a 53.7% rate increase for 2017.
• UnitedHealthcare announced early in the year that they do not intend to offer plans in nearly any jurisdictions in 2017. Aetna and Humana are reconsidering their marketplace involvement as well.

This article is the first in a series that will explain alternatives to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, and to the health insurance plans that are offered by the public marketplaces.

Today’s article is devoted to Health Care Sharing Ministries, one of the primary alternatives to the ACA. Health care sharing ministries are organizations, some of which were formed as early as the 1980’s, that are comprised of like-minded religious individuals who share in each other’s medical expenses. Members must adhere to common ethical or religious beliefs. The guidelines of the ministries restrict benefits for services such as pregnancy out of wedlock, contraception, and other medical practices that may violate religious doctrine.

Members of these ministries are encouraged to lead healthy lifestyles and form good health habits. Consequently, the costs of “sharing contributions” are often significantly lower than comparable health insurance premiums because members incur fewer and less severe claims.

Under the Affordable Care Act members of health care sharing ministries are exempt from the “fines” otherwise known as Individual Shared Responsibility Payments for persons without health insurance for more than two months of the year.

For information about the federal exemption for members of a health care sharing ministry click this link.

 Health care sharing ministries are not for everyone because of the obvious religious requirements, but there are other things to consider as well before switching to this form of health care. Some, but not all, of these limitations are:

• Coverage is not guaranteed. Applicants must complete a medical questionnaire and be approved in order to qualify.
• Pre-existing conditions often have limited, or gradually increasing coverage during the first few years of membership.
• Most of these plans limit the dollar amount of coverage per medical condition.
• There are usually limited benefits for routine preventive care.

One possible way of offsetting some of these limitations is to add supplemental coverage in the form of accident plans, critical illness plans, telemedicine services, and medical indemnity plans, some of which can add up to $5,000,000 of additional coverage. More about these plans will be the subject of future messages. Since health care sharing ministry plans are often 25% to 65% lower in cost than Obamacare plans there is often room in the health care budget for one or two of the low-cost supplemental plans.

In light of the exploding rates and shrinking networks for Obamacare plans, a health care sharing ministry may just be an affordable and sensible solution for your health care needs in 2017 and beyond. For more information contact us at info@wwins.com

Thanks for reading.

Alan Leafman, President/Blogger
Toll Free: 800-955-0418
E-Mail Info@h-ie.com or info@wwins.com

How Do You Keep Yours?

During my very first week in the insurance business my training manager asked the class to define insurance. We had a lot of bright people in my class and there were immediate responses from quite a few of us….
 
“Insurance is the pooled sharing of a common risk in order to…blah, blah, blah…”

“Insurance is the application of actuarial science to a quantifiable risk…blah, blah, blah…”

And so it went.

When we were all through showing off our brilliance, the manager looked at us and said, “Insurance is a promise to pay. Nothing more, nothing less.” And he was right. When you cut through all the math and legalities, every insurance policy says the exact same thing: “If you suffer this type of a loss, we promise to pay.”

Which got me thinking….

As an employer (even if your only employee is you), as a spouse, as a parent or grandparent, as a member of a community or a house of worship, as a member of a service organization, we are all connected to others in dozens of different ways. Some of those connections put us in positions of trust or responsibility (or both)…positions that cause us to make promises. Promises to our kids, spouses, employees, and others. Promises to ourselves, too.

For example, parents want to promise financial security for their children. Employers often want to promise medical security or paycheck security for their employees. A self-employed person wants to promise herself that she’ll be financially secure if she can’t work or wants to retire. Sometimes, we even promise something of value to a favorite charity, house of worship, school, or membership organization when we’re gone.

How do you keep your promises?

Keeping promises can be a very expensive proposition, and sometimes your promises need to be fulfilled at the worst possible moment, long before we ever thought they would come due.

So we can sit here and do an intellectual analysis of the “promise process”, actuarial science, and the technical, legal aspects of insurance policies, but in the end, my responsibility, our responsibility at Health Insurance Express and WorldWide, is to make it a little easier for you to keep all the promises that you make to the important people in your lives. The rest is mere details.

Thanks for reading.

Alan Leafman, Agent/Blogger
Toll Free: 800-955-0418
E-Mail Info@h-ie.com or info@wwins.com

The Choice is Yours

This week I am going to talk about the differences between buying insurance from an independent broker versus buying from a “captive” or one-company insurance agent. It’s really as simple as the difference between “take your pick” or “take it or leave it”.

When I first began my insurance career I worked for a “captive” life insurance company, one of the very big, very well-known companies. Their program for new agents entailed a three-year training curriculum with daily one-on-one meetings with a sales manager and weekly group meetings with the sales managers and the general manager. In fairness, much of the training that I received was very professional and informative. I use much of what I learned to this day. But more of that “training” was all about “hitting the numbers” for the home office. We had quarterly quotas and if we got near the end of the quarter and were falling a little short our sales managers’ orders were always to “sell a policy to your brother, sister, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, or even your son or daughter, but you better make your numbers or you’re out.” A great deal of my training more closely resembled indoctrination into the company’s proprietary insurance products, peppered with a large dose of company cheerleading and propaganda. Now, granted, many of their products were very good, but no company’s products are the best in every category of coverage, for every client’s situation, and this company’s products were no exception. As a new agent I called on young families and small businesses, nearly all of whom were in or near my old hometown, Chicago. It took about exactly one month in the business for me to realize that we had a LOT of competition, particularly in my areas of interest, health insurance, employee benefits, and life insurance. Now, every new agent in my position, at some point reaches a crossroads…do I work for my clients or do I work for my company? In my case it was an easy decision. If I was to make a career of this business I was going to work for my clients. After all, prior to entering the insurance field I had enjoyed a 15-year career in retailing, at one point owning a small chain of clothing stores. Retailing is 100% about customer service and wide merchandise assortments. I believed then, as I do to this day, that the same applies to the insurance business. As an agency, we are now in our 27th year. We offer products from nearly 100 different insurance companies, and when new, innovative products or companies enter the market we have the flexibility to bring them to you too. There is nothing wrong with buying from a captive agent who represents a single company, but in nearly every case it is possible to find better values from possibly lesser known insurance companies whose pricing doesn’t include a large chunk for advertising. That is why, as we move forward, we will always offer coverage from multiple companies and we will always seek the highest value products for you, our customers. Thanks for reading. Sincerely, Alan Leafman, President Toll Free: 800-955-0418 E-Mail Info@h-ie.com or info@wwins.com   Check out Health Insurance Express on Yelp

The Advantages of LifeLock

I’m sure that most of you hear and see stories about identity theft and identity theft protection plans every day. However, unless identity theft has happened to you or someone you know the messages don’t always hit home. Maybe it’s time to take a look.

Now that vacation season has arrived, identity theft activity is on the rise, particularly among travelers. When you travel your routine is disrupted, your credit cards are often “on display” more frequently, and you may stay in accommodations that are not nearly as secure as your home. Just one small lapse, forgetting to pick up your credit card in a restaurant, leaving your wallet or purse exposed at poolside,  could cause a series of events that cascade, making your life spin out of control. Recovery from identity theft can often take months, even years.

At Health Insurance Express and WorldWide Insurance Services we represent the number one identity theft program on the market, LifeLock. We have represented them for years, been approached by many other plans to represent them as well, but LifeLock has remained the gold offer all of our clients, their families and friends a 10% discount on each of LifeLock’s three levels of protection.

standard in identity theft protection. As a national distributor for LifeLock products we are proud to

Why Choose LifeLock?

Count on the industry leader to provide comprehensive protection. LifeLock:

DETECTS

Go ahead, live free knowing we are searching over a trillion data points every day looking for potential threats to your identity.

ALERTS

When we find something suspicious, we'll let you know through our patented LifeLock Identity Alert® system.

RESTORES

If you do become a victim, our Member Services Agents are available 24/7 and a Certified Resolution Specialist will handle your case every step of the way.

Affordable? LifeLock offers a plan for every budget. There are three packages available, starting with our discounted rate of just $9.00/month. That’s a lot of peace of mind for about 30 cents a day.       You have your choice of:

LIFELOCK STANDARD^TM, LIFELOCK ADVANTAGE^TM, and LIFELOCK ULTIMATE PLUS^TM

Depending on the package that you select you will be protected for many or all of these benefits:

·         LifeLock Identity Alert® System

·         Lost Wallet Protection

·         Address Change Verification

·         Reduced Pre-Approved Credit Card Offers

·         Black Market Website Surveillance

·         Live Member Service 24/7/365

·         Fictitious Identity Monitoring

·         Court Record Scanning

·         Data Breach Notifications

·         Online Annual Credit Report & Score - 3 Credit Bureaus

·         Credit Card, Checking and Savings Account Activity Alerts

·         Investment Account Activity Alerts

·         Checking and Savings Account Application Alerts

·         Bank Account Takeover Alerts

·         Credit Inquiry Activity

·         File-Sharing Network Searches

·         Sex Offender Registry Reports

·         Monthly Credit Score Tracking

And remember, every LifeLock plan, from Standard through Ultimate Plus comes with their            $1 Million Total Service Guarantee.

To learn about how LifeLock’s plans can make a significant difference in your life just call us at         (800) 955-0418 or click here for details and an online application. Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Alan Leafman

President