INDIVIDUAL PLANS
There are many types of individual plans available for a variety of different purposes. If you are self-employed, between jobs, recently graduated, or your COBRA benefits have ran out you might want to check into an individual program. Below you will find VERY BRIEF descriptions of some different types of programs. You will also find links to some of the individual companies that we represent. Call our office at (314) 438-0222 or send an email for help with your particular situation. We have many carriers that we deal with and all information is treated as confidential.
Have questions? Message us with Yahoo
|
Ratings for Ins. Co.'s & Attorneys |
||
|
Individual Health Insurance - An individual health insurance plan is usually fully underwritten. This means that you must complete a health history questionnaire. INDIVIDUAL PLANS ARE NOT GUARANTEE ISSUE. NEVER CANCEL YOUR CURRENT PLAN UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED IN WRITING THAT A NEW PLAN IS APPROVED AND YOU HAVE REVIEWED THE POLICY. If you have recently graduated or are in-between jobs an individual program may be a better option for you than COBRA if you have no health conditions. |
|
|
|
|
|
Guaranteed Health Insurance - Guaranteed health coverage is available if you have used up your State Continuation, COBRA, or youre your employer has terminated the group insurance program. If you have lost coverage under a group insurance program and are unable to obtain individual health insurance you can get a guaranteed health insurance plan under the HIPAA laws. (HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act) The benefits for this type of plan may not be the same as the plan you initially wanted and the premiums are quite a bit higher. The reason for this is because the insurance carrier knows that they will be taking on an insured that is likely to have large claims in the future. The rates are set every year by the claims experienced by the insured pool. |
|
|
|
|
| Temporary Health Insurance These programs are generally issued for a maximum period of six months. The premiums are lower than traditional individual health insurance because the carrier will not pay for anything that is related to a condition you had prior to your effective date. In addition at the end of your elected time frame your coverage ends unless you are confined in a hospital on the end date. In the event you are hospitalized on the ending date of your temporary coverage the carrier will continue to insure you until you are discharged. The moment you are discharged your coverage will end. Some temporary insurance programs will let you apply for a second policy after the first one has ended but the same pre-existing conditions apply. For instance, if you had a short-term policy for six months and two weeks before your policy ended you broke your arm. Your policy would pay the benefits you elected. Then after your policy ended you purchased another short-term policy and three to six weeks later you went to the doctor to have your cast removed. The charges for your cast removal would not be covered because they would be related to an accident/illness you had prior to the effective date of the new policy. |
|
|
|
|
| Health Discount & Reimbursement Plans These should not be confused with health insurance plans. They generally will help get your bills discounted or will reimburse you a set amount for a service you have received. They generally do not pay your provider directly. With the reimbursement plans when you obtain services you show your identification card the carrier provided you with and the provider will discount the amount they bill you. With a reimbursement plan usually you must pay for your services and then send your itemized receipt in to the carrier to obtain your benefit. There are some reimbursement plans that do cover a percentage of some bills but they have a limited benefit, such as $10,000 a year. |
|
|
|
|
| Individual Dental Plans There are two types of individual dental programs available, #1) you must select your dentist at enrollment or #2) any dentist is covered. These can be a great addition to your individual benefit program or if you employer does not offer dental insurance. The premium for a plan where you must select your dentist at enrollment is substantially lower than the plans where you can see any dentist; although the premiums for both programs are reasonable. Usually when you must select your dentist at enrollment there are no waiting periods for any type of care. The downside of these programs is the selection of dentists is small but if your dentist is on their list then it is an upside. When you have a dentist that you like and want to continue using, a plan that covers any dentist would be the one for you. The downside of these plans is you will have waiting periods for different levels of care. |
|
|
|
|
| RX, Dental, & Vision Discount Plans These plans are just what they say. They are discount plans not insurance plans. The premium for these plans is low because the carrier does not process any claims. They provide you with an identification card and if you use a provider that they have negotiated a discount with, then that discount for service is passed on to you at the time of service. RX discount plans may be a good addition to a plan that does not cover prescriptions. |
|
|
|
|
| Adoptions If you are adopting a child from another country you will want to review your current insurance program very thoroughly. Some health insurance plans may not cover you when you travel outside the United States and if they dont you might want to look at a travel insurance program. Another issue to check is when your current policy will start covering your new child. Sometimes the adoption is not final when you start traveling back to the United States with your new child so you might want to check on a travel plan for the child. The travel plans work pretty much the same way as temporary insurance plans with a few additional benefits, such as repatriation. |
International Medical Group offers travel insurance, trip insurance, and international medical. For Spanish version click here. |
|
Travel Insurance - There are many different types of travel insurance available. In todays world this is a very valuable plan. When you travel outside of your home country please don't forget to check your medical insurance plan to see if you will have coverage outside of your country. It can put a damper on your vacation if you have an accident or illness and then find out your regular insurance won't cover you. With international medical insurance you can give yourself some peace of mind. But be sure to understand what your policy covers. You want to make sure that it covers doctor visits, hospitalization, prescriptions, lab work, x-rays, and repatriation. |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal Plans There are a few different programs available for this valuable coverage. Some programs are prepaid legal plans and some are discount plans. Some plans cover you nationally and others are regional. Make sure you will have access to attorneys when you need it. You will want to have a company that has attorneys in every field because you don't want to talk to an attorney that specializes in estate matters if you have a question about traffic violations. Be sure to read your contract so that you know your benefits. Most of these plans are available for individuals, families, self-employed person, home based businesses, employers, and as voluntary benefits thru employers. Pre-Paid Legal Plans do for legal issues what medical insurance does for medical issues. In some states these programs are considered insurance and other states they are memberships. |
|
|
|
|
|
Identity Theft vs. Credit Card Identity Protection A lot of credit card companies offer a type of Identity Protection. Identity theft is much more than someone stealing your credit card and making charges on it. When someone steals your identity they can buy things like houses and cars in other states, they can take a loan against your current residence, they can even get a drivers license in your name. Sometimes someone who has stolen your identity may even be charged with a crime and they are using your name! If that happens and you get pulled over in your car you could even go to jail while trying to prove that what you are being charged with really had nothing to do with you. When you purchase coverage for Identity Theft you need to check and make sure that the company monitors your credit reports every day and notifies you if there are any changes. It is important that they do more than monitor it. You also want to make sure that it covers more than just your credit card. This is one of the most talked-about and fastest growing white-collar crimes in history, identity theft is a problem you can't afford to ignore. |
Send me information on Identity Theft protection
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RX (Prescription) Plans There are some insurance programs available that offer insurance coverage for prescriptions. One of the things to check for is the list of drugs and what tier of coverage they will fall under. Most of these plans do a review of the drugs and their cost twice a year. When the review is completed sometimes a few of the drugs will be changed from one tier of coverage to another tier of coverage, new drugs can be added, or some drugs can be removed. It all boils down to cost and the negotiated price the insurance company can get from the pharmacies. |
|
|
|
|
|
Specified Benefit Plans - Specified benefit plans can be found all over the place. I have talked with some people who actually think they have regular health insurance when they took one of these plans out. BE SURE TO READ YOUR CONTRACT. These plans are designed to cover specific injuries, illnesses, and situations. If you have an accident policy they will pay you a specified amount for accidents only. These are a GREAT ADDITION to your coverage but should not be relied on to cover all of your situations. |
|
|
|
|
|
Life Insurance - When you are looking for life insurance there are many things to consider. First of all, how much life insurance do you need? Then how long do you need that life insurance? After you have decided the answer to the above two questions then you will know if you need temporary insurance which is called TERM INSURANCE or PERMANENT INSURANCE. If you need term insurance then you will need to decide how long you need it for. Term insurance premiums will increase either annually or on a pre-determined amount of time such as every 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. When you have a pre-determined time you can budget for the plan easier. Term insurance programs do not accumulate any values so if you miss a premium payment your coverage will cease. Term insurance is a good way to add additional coverage at a low cost while you have children at home, a mortgage, or to cover a business loan. Permanent insurance will cost you more but you will have the advantage of accumulating cash values that you may be able to use for short term loans at a lower interest rate. There are several types of policies that can be used as permanent insurance: whole life, universal life, and variable life. Check with your agent to determine what would be best for your particular situation. An added advantage with permanent insurance is that you may only have to pay premiums for a period of time and then have coverage until age 95 or 100. Another type of insurance is ACCIDENTAL DEATH insurance. Most of the time this is marketed thru the mail and the cost for this coverage at first glance seems reasonable but then when you consider that less than 5% of the population dies in an accident and they only pay off if you have an accident you might be better off getting a regular term policy that will pay off no matter how you die. |
Request
a life insurance quote
Don't think you can get life insurance? |
|
|
|
|
Mortgage Insurance - When you have a mortgage you are generally offered insurance that will pay off your mortgage in the event of your death. I think this is a good concept except for one thing. Every month the premium is added to your mortgage payment and the actual benefit goes down. If you had a separate term insurance policy you could have the same premium every month along with the same benefit. Generally the cost for an individual term policy is lower than the mortgage insurance. Please check with your life insurance agent to save yourself some money. |
Request a term insurance quote by email. When requesting a term quote by email please provide your age and phone number. You can also request a quote with our online form. |
|
|
|
|
Cell Phone Insurance - This is an amazing product to me. For a monthly fee of about $3.00 - $12.00 if you lose your phone you can get a replacement, usually within 3 days. If you don't lose your phone you will end up paying more in premiums than the phone is actually worth in a few months, especially since the price of cell phones is going down all the time. |
|
|
|
|
|
Ratings - Many providers ask independent companies to rate them and they use that information in their advertising. Please note that not all companies as for this so not all companies will be listed. You can check what the ratings of insurance an insurance company mean at one of the following: AM Best Weiss Moody's Learn what an attorney rating means at Martindale-Hubbell |
|
|
|
|
|
Agent Only Information - Would you like to offer some of these programs to your clients? Contact us by phone or email and we would be happy to help you with this. If sending us an email be sure to include your name and phone number where you can be reached during normal business hours. |
PH: 314-438-0222 Health Insurance for International Travelers Provide Pre-Paid Legal Plans or Identity Theft Shield to your clients. |
