Dealing with Procrastination

Procrastination is a poison to the person looking for health insurance. Over the years I have sat with, spoken to, too many people that have put off buying a health insurance policy only to have a tragic event occur and thus rendering them uninsurable.

Case in point, I remember the time I sat with an older couple and spent over two hours with them discussing the benefits and reasons why they should get the health insurance policy, and in the end, they did buy. Feeling good about the sale I went home. Two days later the wife called me to let me know that her husband was admitted into the hospital for what later was diagnosed as a stroke. If they had waited, if they had turned me away, he at least would be uninsurable.

Let’s discuss the number one reason not to procrastinate when looking for a health insurance policy.

The number one reason is the unknown. There is a problem that plagues us, humans. I call it the Unknown. It is the future. We do not know what tomorrow brings. We don’t even know what the next hour will bring. It is the unknown factors that we guard against. It is the reason we lock our doors at night. It is the reason we prepare our houses for a big storm. It is the reason we buy insurance. Not knowing the future is only a problem if you are not prepared.

The fix, then is to be prepared. When you are shopping for a deadbolt to put on your door, do you pick the cheapest, least effective lock on the market? No, you choose a lock that will withstand anything thrown at it. It is your family that you are protecting, so you buy the best lock on the market.

Likewise, when a major storm is approaching, do you leave all the windows and doors unprotected? Do you leave yard items in the yard to blow around? No, you put the storm shutters on the windows and doors, the yard is picked clean, and everything that can be tied down is.

If you prepare for the storms and the burglars that might come your way, then doesn’t it make sense to prepare for the health storms and burglars that can rob you of your good health and eradicate your bank account? Health Insurance does just that. Health insurance protects you and your family just as much as that lock and the storm shutters protect you and your family.

My suggestion, don’t procrastinate. Get the best policy that you can get to protect your family. I guarantee that you will sleep better at night knowing that you have protected your family against the dangers of the unknown.

The HSA, What is it?

The HSA stands for Health Savings Account. Simply put it is an insurance policy paired with a savings account. Personally, I love them. To me the HSA is a great insurance policy for people of all walks of life.

If you a sickly person the HSA is appropriate, because it reduces your out of pocket costs to your deductible, On the other hand, if you are a healthy person that rarely sees the doctor, it provides a tax break on your health insurance costs, and it allows you to build up a savings account to cover any medical costs up to the deductible amount.

A typical HSA has a deductible that can range from $1100.00 up to $10,000.00 depending on the company that you choose and your personal preference on premiums and deductibles. Typically after you meet the deductible, the HSA then covers your health care costs at 100%. There are exceptions to this, in that, some companies offer the HSA with 80% coverage after the deductible is met.

That is the gist of the HSA. Complicated? No. It is very simple. Now there are additional benefits for the HSA that are not commonly in your traditional 80/20 plans. The additional benefits are in the form of your money.

You contribute in a HSA to a savings account that you set up concurrently. You can choose any approved HSA savings account to invest into, on a monthly basis.

Say for example that you have an HSA that pays 100% after the deductible. Your deductible is $2850 for the year, and you contribute $300 per month into the savings account.

If you are a sickly individual that sees doctors each month, then the deductible will be exhausted rather quickly and then for the remainder of the year your health care is then covered at 100%. You continue to contribute every month into the savings account, and that gives you a leg up on meeting next year’s deductible. What is the benefit to this? There are many; small deductible that is easily achieved and paid for using the savings account, a generous tax break at the end of the year, should something else happen your have 100% coverage, and you are still building the amount in the savings account so that you will have the deductible covered with less out of pocket than the year previous.

If you are healthy and have no medical expenses throughout the year, then you reap the benefit of accumulating $3600.00 into the savings account for use on future claims. This plan is a huge winner on all accounts.

Check IRS publication 501 at irs.gov to find over 40 pages of deductions that use can use your HSA savings account.

The HSA, it can change the way you look at health insurance.

Memorial Day

I'll admit it this holiday is one of my favorites. The reasons are many. Cookouts, family, spending time relaxing, and others that I could name, but the real reason that I enjoy this holiday is because of why it was created in the first place.

Memorial Day, to me, is a day of thanks. I am grateful to the thousands of men and women who have laid down their life, so that, I can live mine freely. I am grateful to the hundreds of thousands of men and women that are now standing in the gap to continue to protect my freedoms and, if necessary, die so that my children will continue to have those freedoms.

On this coming Memorial Day, I encourage you to do as I do. Take a moment and reflect on how blessed we really are to be in this great country, and thank God for the brave men and women who continue to protect us.

Warmest regards,

Tim

Insurance...Will Drive You Crazy

Not trying to be obvious, but in truth Insurance will drive you insane.

The purpose that I will try to achieve on this blog is to educate you the reader/consumer on the insurance industry, and give you some insight that you can use to your advantage in your every day life.

I'll also try to keep everyone interested with odd ramblings that I may find interesting every now and again.

Thanks for checking me out, and it is my hope that you will visit often.

Tim