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Florida Health Insurance Rate Hikes and Quotes

Feb 24th, 2010
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Florida Health Insurance Rate Hike

Florida Health insurance premiums have touched new heights! Every Floridian has the common knowledge that most annual health insurance contracts will endure a rate increase at the end of the year. This trend is not new and should be expected. Every time this issue pops up it seems as though the blame game starts. Floridians blame Health insurance companies; Health insurance companies blame Hospitals, Doctors and other medical care providers, Medical care providers blame inflation and politicians, well, we really don’t know what they do to help the issue… No one seems to be interested in finding the real cause of the health insurance premium rate increase. Most individuals, self employed, and small business owners have taken Florida Health Insurance Rate Hikes as the inevitable evil. Hard Facts

What are various reports telling us? Why do Health insurance premium have annual rate increases?

Rate of inflation and heath insurance premium rate increase.

America’s health expenditure in the year 2004 has increased dramatically, it has increased more than three time the inflation rate. In this year the inflation rate was around 2.5% while the national health expenses were around 7.9%. The employer health insurance or group health insurance premium had increased approximately 7.8% in the year 2006, which is almost double the rate of inflation. In short, last year in 2006, the annual premiums of group health plan sponsored by an employer was around $4,250 for a single premium plan, while the average family premium was around $ 11,250 per year. This indicates that in the year 2006 the employer sponsored health insurance premium increased 7.7 percent. Taking the biggest hit were small businesses that had 0-24 employees. There health insurance premiums increased by nearly 10.4%

Employees are also not spared, in the year 2006 the employee also had to pay around $ 3,000 more in their contribution to employer’s sponsored health insurance plan in comparison to the previous year, 2005. Rate hikes have been in existence since the “Florida Health Insurance” plan started. In covering an entire family of four, a person will experience an increase in premium rate at every annual renewal. If they would have kept the record of their health insurance premium payments they will find that they are now paying around $ 1,100 more than they paid in the year 2000 for the same coverage and with the same company. The same item was found by the Health Research Educational Trust and the Kaiser Family Foundation in their survey report of the year 2000. They found out that the premiums of health insurance that is sponsored by the employer increases by around 4 times than the employee’s salary. This report also stated that since 2000 the contribution of employees in group health insurance sponsored by employer was increased by more than 143 percent.

One business man predicts that if nothing is done and the Health insurance premiums keep increasing that in the year 2008, the amount of health premium contribution to employer will surpass their profit. Professionals within and outside the field of Florida health insurance, think that the reason for increase in Florida health insurance premium rates are due to many factors, such as high administration expenditure, inflation, poor or bad management, increase in the cost of medical care, waste etc. Florida health insurance rate hikes affect whom?

Rising rates of Florida health insurance generally affects most of the Floridians who live in our beautiful state. The highest affected individudals are the minimum wage and low wage workers. Recent drops in the renewal of health insurance are mostly from this low income group. They just can’t afford the high premiums of Florida health insurance. They are in the situation where they can not afford the medical care and they can not afford the medical insurance premiums that are assosiated with adequate coverage. Almost half of all Americans are of the opinion that they are more worried about the high health insurance rate and high cost of health care, over any other bill they have on a monthly basis. A survey also finds that around 42% of Americans can not afford the high cost of health care services. There is one very interesting study conducted by Harvard University researchers. They found out that 68% of people who filed bankruptcy covered themselves and their family by health insurance. Average out-of-pocket deductibles for people filed bankruptcy were around $ 12,000 per year. They also found some co-relation between medical expenditure and bankruptcy. A national survey also reports that main reason for people not to take health insurance is the high premium rate of health insurance.

How to reduce Florida’s high health insurance cost? Nobody knows for sure. There are different opinions and experts are not agreeing with each other. Health professionals believe that if we can raise the number of healthy people by improving the lifestyle and regular exercise, good diets etc. than naturally they will need less medical care services which decreases the demands of health care and hence the cost.( This year in Florida the smoking rate has increased by 21.7 percent) One Floridian sarcastically suggested that there are ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ in health care that are needed to reversed. That the state of Florida is to ‘high’ in cost of medical care compare to other States and ‘low’ in the quality of health care.

Florida Health insurance rate hike has attracted many frauds. These frauds float many bogus insurance companies and offer cheap health insurance rate which attract many people to them. These companies usually through assosiations that are based in other states.

Meanwhile reputable Florida health insurance companies provide different types of health insurance like employer sponsored group health insurance, small business health insurance, individual health insurance etc. to vast number of employees and their families. Still there are many people in Florida that lack any health coverage. Today the employer also has found it challenging to decide how to offer employer sponsored group health insurance to their employees, so that both of them arrive at some point of agreement.

For Floridians it is very important to shop around for a quality health insurance program that doesn’t break the bank.

You need to find an agent or web portal like Florida Health Insurance Web, www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com that offers a variety of products. There you will most likely be able to get quotes, compare plans, and apply online.

Florida Health Insurance Consultants can help you!

Morgan Q. Moran is a licensed insurance agent in the state of Florida and is the managing partner of The Moran Financial Group http://www.floridahealthinsuranceweb.com. His strong background in financial management includes: insurance, annuities, and asset management. He has proven methodologies to help his client with all aspects of financial risk management. Morgan holds a B.S. degree from the University of Vermont in Business Administration with concentrations in both marketing and finance.

Finding A Health Insurance Plan In Florida

Feb 24th, 2010
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Some strategies on finding affordable health insurance in Florida.
I’ve been a health insurance agent since 1985. I help Connecticut residents find health insurance and have for the last several years have also managed a website that helps people in other states including Florida find health insurance. You can find a health insurance broker in Florida by requesting quotes through my site.
Health Insurance Plans of Florida — Tips to Help You Pick the Right Policy
Choosing the best health insurance plan involves the following:
Finding a policy with or without using a health insurance broker in Florida who can offer you the lowest cost (but only with respect to the other two criteria)
Finding one of the health insurance plans of Florida that has a network that meets your needs
Finding the Florida health insurance plan with coverage that meets your needs
Choosing the right medical insurance policy involves finding the best rate quote amongst the Florida health insurance plans that meet your needs as to network and coverage. Choosing the lowest price is of course very easy. Determining whether the health insurance plan’s network of doctors meets your needs is only a little more difficult. Choosing a health insurance policy that covers you well can be complex. You may want to enlist the aid of a licensed health insurance broker in Florida. Most of this article focuses on the basics of determining how well a policy covers you.
In a perfect world, everyone would read and understand their insurance policies. However, I realize that many people will find a health insurance broker in Florida that they feel comfortable with and will want his or her recommendations. However, whether you use a broker or not, I strongly recommend that you contact the Florida office of Insurance Regulation in Tallahassee, FL (850) 413-3140 and make sure that any health insurance plan is approved by them. Insurance Departments cannot ensure that you get the best policy for your individual needs, but they do their best to make sure that each health insurance plan and each health insurance broker meets certain minimum standards. Be sure to work with companies and brokers that are in good standing.
Choosing the Florida Health Insurance Plan with the Right Network
Health insurance carriers usually have websites that will list the MDs and medical facilities that accept their plans. All that I’m aware of will have a printed list that they can mail to you. The right plan will have your physician on their list or at least physicians who are located a convenient distance from your home. If you travel it is important to find a plan that covers you well in other geographic areas as well.
Choosing the Florida Health Insurance Plan with the best coverage for you
Health insurance policies may be the most complex of the insurance contracts offered to individuals and families. Understanding how your medical plan will pay for your medical bills can be difficult. Fortunately most of the brochures and outlines of coverage that you may receive from a health insurance provider will have a similar structure. They will have sections similar to the following:
What is Covered?
Health Plan Exclusions and Limitations
What is Covered?
This section will detail what medical procedures your health insurance policy will cover. The policy should have a phrase like “reasonable and customary” or “usual, reasonable and customary” or something similar when describing how much they will cover.
Watch out for health insurance policies with:
Monetary limits for each procedure
A long list of procedures that the medical insurance policy will cover
Better health insurance policies will not list dollar amounts for each procedure. They will pay using a formula that is based on what other physicians and hospitals will charge you in the same geographic area. A phrase like “usual and customary” indicates that they use such a formula. The cost of medical care rises so quickly that a dollar amount that seems impressive today may not fully reimburse you even a year from now.
Solid health Insurance policies will not have a long list of procedures that they will cover listed on the policy. The long list seems impressive because the list takes up a lot of space. Look at the statements below. It should be easy to choose between one and two.
“Our health insurance plan will cover you for everything except for expenses caused by self-inflicted injuries and substance abuse.” (“I’ve been to every city in Florida except Orlando.”)
“Our health insurance policy will cover your nose, your ears, your toes, your hands, your right lung, your calf and your knee” (“I’ve been to Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami Beach”)
Health Plan Exclusions and Limitations
This section will tell you what is excluded. Typically plastic surgery will not be covered. Also experimental procedures and expenses caused by self-inflicted injuries will not be covered. You should understand each of these limitations before you commit to a policy. Most policies will not include maternity insurance, so if you want to get pregnant, make sure that you know how your policy will cover maternity expenses. Unfortunately, maternity insurance is not available in many states except as part of a group insurance plan.
To summarize:
Determine what health insurance plans will cover you in your area
Determine which health insurance plans offer adequate coverage
Choose the plans that offers the best value based on price and coverage
The health insurance options Orlando residents have are similar to the health insurance options Miami residents have, since the plans will work in similar ways throughout the state.
This article can be copied and reprinted but only in its entirety and with the links intact. The article was originally published on https://lovetherates.com/articles/health-insurance-broker-florida-article.htm. The article starts with the heading “Hospitalization Only Insurance” and ends with this sentence.

Alston J. Balkcom has been a licensed insurance agent since 1985. He manages several insurance-based websites including https://1800insuranceCT.com and https://lovetherates.com.

Low-cost Florida Health Insurance Scarce – Health Insurance Higher Than Minimum Wage

Feb 24th, 2010
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Florida residents who can afford health insurance pay an average of $11,480 per year for family coverage, which is about what the average minimum-wage earner brings home. Premiums are up 87% according to Kaiser Family Foundation. The days of “low-cost” health insurance are all but gone unless you have help from a professional insurance consultant.

The cost of caring for “disease” continues to rise faster than inflation according to an article this month in Newsweek magazine. It said “over 47 million Americans don’t have health insurance at all”. Those with low-cost health insurance usually get these from employers, but with costs rising, it is obvious that the health insurance situation in Florida is getting worse.

Taking care of employees is the primary concern of a good employer. But that has been perceived as “expensive” by some companies as it means providing the employee with vacations, bonuses, incentive pay, and of course, health insurance coverage. In the future, Florida businesses may be able to offer low-cost health insurance to residents who are willing to make a few changes in lifestyle.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a major study on health insurance recently that said low cost insurance rates may be made available to those willing to go through a certified “health risk assessment”. These health risk managers look at your lifestyle, and your current state of health, and certify that the person is “healthy” and a “low-risk” which can qualify the applicant for lower insurance rates. The only other way to get low-cost health insurance in Florida is to get it from your employer as part of their group health insurance plan.

There are many health insurance consultants out there who can help Floridians find low-cost insurance, such as Florida Health Insurance Web – www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com – insurance consultant, Morgan Moran said, “Change a few things about your lifestyle, and lower rates could be available”. The insurance industry believes, most people would change a few things to get lower insurance rates, and assure living a longer happier life. These changes may include a better diet, more exercise, and less high risk behavior like “skydiving” or “bungee jumping”. Until now, insurance plans rarely took behavior into account.

Many Floridians are looking for a quick fix. If they can take a pill or have a stint plugged into their heart they would, rather than change their lifestyle, after all, it does sound easier. The New England Journal confirmed what other research showed— that angioplasties and stints don’t prolong life and don’t even prevent heart attacks, yet $30 billion was spent on those last year. Mutual of Omaha found that almost 76% percent of people eligible for angioplasty or heart bypass surgery were able to “safely avoid it by making the comprehensive lifestyle changes”, saving almost $30,000 per person. It is plain to see that changing lifestyle is more cost effective than surgery.Low-Cost Insurance Consultation

In an effort to find affordable health insurance rates, many are turning to health insurance consultants for help. In a phone interview, consultant Morgan Moran said, “The best way to find affordable, low-cost health insurance is to have an employer-sponsored group health insurance plan.” Group health insurance plans are the most affordable, low cost health insurance plans out there, aside from state-sponsored health insurance plans. If you can obtain health insurance from your employer, you will pay even less for your health insurance than you would if you purchased a group health insurance plan on your own.

Most employers have certain requirements an employee must meet before he or she can be a part of the employer-sponsored group health insurance plan. These requirements range from the number of hours the employee works, to the employee’s status, i.e., whether the employee works full-time or part-time. Employers sometimes have time requirements as well. This means the employee must be with the company for a certain amount of time before he or she is considered eligible for the employer-sponsored group health insurance plan.

Employer-sponsored group health insurance plans are usually the most affordable, low cost health insurance plans for a variety of reasons. If you have an employer-sponsored group health insurance plan, the health insurance premiums are either divided between you and your employer, or paid completely by your employer. This means one of two things. Either you are required to pay half of the health insurance premiums plus a low cost co-payment or you are only required to pay an affordable co-payment.

Employer-sponsored group health insurance plans like this have become even more affordable and low cost when you factor in your spouse and children. Rather than purchase individual health insurance policies for each of your family members, or pay out-of-pocket for health care costs, you can add your spouse and your children to your employer-sponsored group health insurance plan.

Rates on health insurance policies change daily, and vary from carrier to carrier so it’s a good idea to speak to a consultant like Moran. Their fees are paid by the carrier without passing the cost along to the consumer. Find out more at www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com

Zane Durant — News Correspondent for several independent new sources. Contact Zane in Maui, Hawaii (808) 214-2032.

E-Mail Address:renoseo@sbcglobal.net

Reducing Florida Auto Insurance Costs

Feb 21st, 2010
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Florida auto insurance costs have become ridiculously expensive and unaffordable for many with a strapped budget.Not everyone has the privilege of obtaining a scooter and eliminating insurance costs. Here are some common logical ideas which may help in reducing insurance costs in the state of Florida.First you need to understand insurance is a custom fit product, one size does not fit all. You may be living in Miami or Fort Lauderdale and have 2 cars which may run somewhere around $1800 for six months of insurance.Meanwhile the person living next door not more than 20 feet away also has 2 similar cars and pays $900 for similar or the same insurance.Auto insurance is rated on many different factors. First there is your credit score. Why should your credit score determine the cost of insurance? Simply put, statistically it shows a persons responsibility to pay bills on time and be more aware for their actions while driving. Person with a high credit score will have more fear to get behind the wheel of a car if they are intoxicated than one with a low or no credit score. Credit score is something people want to keep and retain as it brings benefits and discounts in many different financial areas.Then there is the old driving record. For those who wear seatbelts, don’t speed or at least don’t get caught at it and are lucky enough not to have any collisions with other fellow motorists or objects, receive a huge reward from insurance companies by not being surcharged for reckless behavior.Other factors which determine rates are length of driving history. Operators from certain countries outside the USA are surcharged because the insurance company can not check your driving record.Marital status believe it or not has also an effect, if you’re a single female your rate could be higher than if you were married.Florida Insurance companies are insinuating single females may have unknown friends or boyfriends which at sometime may borrow their car, this becomes a higher risk for the carrier. And of course zip code has a major role. Insurance carriers hire bean counters. People who’s job is strictly to read statistics.They create reports on every zip code in Florida state illustrating the number of accidents, speeding tickets, deaths, DUI’s, vandalism, etc. If you’re lucky enough to be in one of the congested zip codes you will enjoy the benefits of the higher cost of insurance.

Another factor why florida auto insurance is so high is due to high loss exposure. Florida is well known for its riff raff of stolen cars, stolen parts, and accident scams. While many scammers take advantage of the Florida insurance companies assets the good paying consumers who avoid trouble have to pay for these losses and expenses. So the insurance keeps rising as cars keep increasing in value and claims grow consistently.

With all this said what is it you can do to decrease the cost. Obviously some have realized when the fantasy of owning that dream car fades the monthly payments combined with the insurance becomes a scary reality.

1.Know what your buying.

Different cars have different risks attached and are charged by the Florida insurance companies appropriately. A SUV may cost 10 to 30% more in insurance due to the fact that SUV’s have a greater risk of flipping over.Insuring a Lexus in Florida may cost more than insuring a Honda due to the value of the Lexus is substantially greater to the Honda.Choose several types of vehicles and get a preliminary quote on each one to compare how this in turn will fit into your monthly budget. Never buy in the moment, rationalize your income and expenses, too many of us buy in the moment only to regret it for the next few years.If you are leasing or borrowing money understand the vehicle belongs to someone else until you pay it off. During this time the leasing company or bank will require you carry certain limits of insurance which may be more expensive then you realize. Check your contract before you buy or sign. Unlike marriage a lease can not be broken without huge cost.

2.Minimize cost.

There’s not much discounts you can count on anymore when your buying a car because they are all included and are automatic like an alarm system. However an auto theft recovery device or Lojack can save you a significant amount on your insurance. As much as 10 to 30%. It may cost more to add it to the vehicle but the savings on insurance will pay for itself over time.Other Florida auto insurance discounts you should be aware of is homeowners discount, marital or spouse discount.It may be wise to have an insurance agent you can trust who can advise you on discounts and also possibly decreasing coverage’s to meet your financial needs.Check your driving record, you can request a copy of your driving record by using our link found at: flauto-insurance . com in the info section of our site. Often enough you may have incorrect infractions on your license which you my be able to remove by visiting your local DMV.

3. Making changes.

To get the cost down sometimes it takes some drastic changes. If you’re driving an auto 10 years or more consider removing the comprehensive and collision coverage. First research what the current value is, use the link found at http://www.flauto-insurance.com  info section to determine the current value. Also consider upgrading older vehicles because they may not receive certain discounts like dual airbags, or antilock brakes. These are safety features the insurance company will discount for. If you have a child in the household who recently obtained their drivers license this can cause your Florida auto insurance premium to increase by 300%. This can continue until they are 21 yrs of age and as high as 25. An option would be to consider purchasing a late model vehicle for them with their own separate insurance policy. This way you may be able to get them a policy with lower limits than yours which meets their needs and allows them to build up their driving record. At the same time you will help by providing a valuable insurance lesson at an early age.

Another way to reduce cost is if you have a spouse not licensed or does not drive, get them licensed. Insurance carriers in Florida will usually surcharge a spouse in the same household who may not be licensed due to the risk this spouse may have to drive in an emergency and will lack proper driving knowledge without a license.I have also seen other drastic measure taken on by people such as relocation to a different zip code. One of my clients moved from Miami to Orlando and saved $1500 on his Florida auto insurance.You need to shop around websites such as http://www.flauto-insurance.com where there is an instant insurance quoting system set up with Progressive.

Keep in mind if you change to a Florida auto insurance carrier who is small and not well known, this may not be worth the money you may save. Today customer service is key and small companies just can’t or don’t want to spend the money for proper customer services. When you’ll need them it won’t be worth the money you’ll save from the frustrations and stress they can give you.Hope some of these ideas may help. If you have any other suggestions or comments please go to our site at: http://www.flauto-insurance.com and use our contact form.

Happy motoring.

David DegenPrincipal BrokerFLAuto-Insurance

about the author. David Degen

David Degen of CheckUp Financial Inc. has been in the insurance business since 1996.

Originally from NY, Mr. Degen relocated to south east Florida after 9/11/2001 and established CheckUp Financial. A Florida based Property and Casualty agency where Mr Degen brokers property insurance throughout the entire Florida state and teaches the insurance fundamentals to hundreds of homeowners. Through the companies referrals and websites they are going through a fast growing process poised to become one of Florida?s leaders in Property and Casualty insurance.

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