Georgia to Allow Out-of-State Health Insurance Policies Starting July 1

  Georgia to allow Out of state Health Insurance Policies Starting July1

A new law in Georgia will allow state-licensed health insurance companies to sell policies offered across the nation that provide less coverage than the state requires. The new law is set to take effect on July 1 and is said to be among the first of its kind to be offered in the United States.

Policies Only for Individuals, Not Employer Groups

Under the new law, individuals in the state will have access to a larger number of policy options since they will be able to purchase from additional states. However, individuals who are currently insured by their employers fall into the category of group coverage and won’t have access to the policies.

Independent policyholders currently comprise only about 4 percent of the market in Georgia, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Because they are underserved, state lawmakers want to open up opportunities to this group.

It’s unclear how many insurance companies operating in the state will eventually offer plans. Currently, none are able to because the state insurance commissioner’s office has to write and adopt regulations that will govern the policies–a process that could take several months to complete.

Critics Say Law Could Open the Door for Watered-Down Policies

The debate of whether or not to offer health insurance across state lines has existed for many years. Most recently, Republican lawmakers proposed to have this provision added to health care reform prior to the law’s passage in March 2010. Their proposal was turned down.

Now that the law has been passed in Georgia, experts say it could drive prices down by introducing new competition and allowing roughly 20 percent of residents in the state to find a policy they can afford.

But critics of the law complain that taking this route could open doors for watered-down policies that don’t cover important services like mammograms, diabetes care or even regular checkups for young children that are required under Georgia policies.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Matt Ramsey, says he is working to build in consumer protections that will address these concerns, including requiring out-of-state plans to carry a benefits chart outlining exactly what Georgians are getting for their money.

In addition, he says those who purchase the plans will still have access to the state’s dispute resolution process and Georgia courts, giving them the protections they need if they decide to take on an out-of-state plan.

Wal-Mart to Offer Free Legal Support to Medicaid Patients

         Wal-Mart to Offer free Legal Support to Medicaid patients

The nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, recently announced  it will provide free legal support for Medicaidpatients and their families. This is the first time in the company’s history that it will be interacting with the government’s public health insurance system in this way.

Wal-Mart Partners with Arkansas Children’s Hospital

Wal-Mart has announced it will be partnering with the Arkansas Children’s Hospital to provide legal support to Medicaid patients free of charge. In the arrangement, Wal-Mart’s lawyers will take on the government and other entities to help sick children gain access to programs, equipment and services that they may have been denied under the program.

Jeff Gearhart, Wal-Mart’s general counsel, recently announced the company’s in-house team of 142 lawyers will help patients with a variety of issues associated with Medicaid. For instance, he noted lawyers might tackle Medicaid’s administrative and bureaucratic hurdles–the red tape patients encounter when visiting a hospital for care.

He explained lawyers will also be trained to help families navigate Medicaid in basic ways like filling out the right forms, as well as for more complex matters like procuring insurance for expensive treatments or medical devices like specialized wheelchairs.

Because the bulk of the cases attorneys will work on will be resolvable through due diligence and rarely require litigation, Gearhart said the company can work for a few hours of pro bono legal time.

Services Could Expand Medicaid Options for Families

Currently, the program is only being offered via the pilot project with the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Gearhart said if the pilot is success, the company could expand the partnership nationwide so that it works with other hospitals, companies and law firms in a similar way.

This could be of great benefit to the large number of Medicaid patients who reportedly don’t have access to the same treatment options as patients with private coverage.

A report released in June by researchers in Illinois found that medical specialists were more likely to deny treatment to patients on Medicaid than those with private insurance largely due to the low reimbursement rates and delayed payments. The same was revealed a month earlier in a study conducted on dentists.

Wal-Mart has expressed hope that issues like this can be resolved through its free legal support while simultaneously providing patients with the knowledge necessary to make the most of their Medicaid coverage.

69 Percent of Single Parents Lack Life Insurance

           69 percent of single parents Lack Life Insurance

Obtaining life insurance is a huge challenge for 69 percent of single parents, according to a new study conducted by Genworth Financial. The study found that unmarried parents, especially those with children living in the home full-time, are the largest group of people without life coverage.

Single Parents Struggle to Buy Coverage

Parents who are unmarried or divorced struggle the most to secure life insurance for their families. According to the survey, in addition to the high number of single parents struggling to buy coverage with children in the home full-time, 59 percent of single parents with children in and out of the house are without life insurance.

This is compared to 45 percent of married parents with children in the home that carry coverage and 49 percent of the entire U.S. adult population that covers some type of life insurance coverage.

The survey found that the number of uninsured households tends to increase as the number of children increases. This is especially true for single parents earning lower incomes. For families with five or more children, the likelihood of being uninsured drastically increases.

Securing Coverage Harder for Unmarried Male Parents

Genworth Financial found that of those surveyed, 79 percent of unmarried men who are not homeowners, have children in the household earning up to $250,000 per year are without a life insurance policy. This is compared with 66 percent of women who earn less than $50,000 per year.

The reason that many men, and single parents as a whole, don’t secure coverage is because they are too busy and sometimes too afraid to make the purchase. Also, some say many individuals are not educated enough about life insurance and therefore, lack the confidence to buy their own.

If you are interested in getting insured but feel uneducated in this area, start by learning the difference betweenterm and permanent life insurance. By understanding these types of coverages, you could determine which route is best for you then start shopping for companies that meet your needs at an affordable price.

69 Percent of Single Parents Lack Life Insurance

           69 percent of single parents Lack Life Insurance

Obtaining life insurance is a huge challenge for 69 percent of single parents, according to a new study conducted by Genworth Financial. The study found that unmarried parents, especially those with children living in the home full-time, are the largest group of people without life coverage.

Single Parents Struggle to Buy Coverage

Parents who are unmarried or divorced struggle the most to secure life insurance for their families. According to the survey, in addition to the high number of single parents struggling to buy coverage with children in the home full-time, 59 percent of single parents with children in and out of the house are without life insurance.

This is compared to 45 percent of married parents with children in the home that carry coverage and 49 percent of the entire U.S. adult population that covers some type of life insurance coverage.

The survey found that the number of uninsured households tends to increase as the number of children increases. This is especially true for single parents earning lower incomes. For families with five or more children, the likelihood of being uninsured drastically increases.

Securing Coverage Harder for Unmarried Male Parents

Genworth Financial found that of those surveyed, 79 percent of unmarried men who are not homeowners, have children in the household earning up to $250,000 per year are without a life insurance policy. This is compared with 66 percent of women who earn less than $50,000 per year.

The reason that many men, and single parents as a whole, don’t secure coverage is because they are too busy and sometimes too afraid to make the purchase. Also, some say many individuals are not educated enough about life insurance and therefore, lack the confidence to buy their own.

If you are interested in getting insured but feel uneducated in this area, start by learning the difference betweenterm and permanent life insurance. By understanding these types of coverages, you could determine which route is best for you then start shopping for companies that meet your needs at an affordable price.

22 States Reach Life Insurance Agreement with Boston Insurer

         22 States Reach Life Insurance Agreement with Boston Insurer

John Hancock Life Insurance Co. has reached an agreement with nearly two dozen states to settle a dispute over how the Boston insurer pays life insurance policies and annuities. The move comes after 35 states and the District of Columbia audited the company, alleging that it abuses its policies and contracts, not paying properly after a person dies.

John Hancock Mismanaged Beneficiary Funds

The insurance company is required under its contracts to properly pay beneficiaries after a policyholder dies. If the insurance company cannot find the beneficiaries, states like California have an unclaimed property program that has businesses send lost or abandoned financial accounts to after three years of inactivity to safeguard them from being spent or lost.

According to reports, the company didn’t send beneficiaries money and didn’t shift the funds to the unclaimed property program.

In one case, John Hancock reportedly used the cash value of a life insurance policy to pay an individual’s premium over a seven-year period. The person died in 1999, yet the beneficiaries never were sent any payments and benefits were never sent to the controller’s office.

Company Vows to Improve Claims Practices

To settle the dispute, Jonathan Chiel, executive vice president and general counsel for John Hancock, says the company will now improve its claims practices.

Under the agreement, the company is now required to do a better job of identifying deceased policyholders and also notifying their family that they have money waiting for them. In California alone, the values of more than 6,400 accounts dating back to 1992 will be restored.

According to the California controller’s office, John Hancock was one of many insurance companies audited. It was just the first to be held accountable for its actions.

The other states involved in the settlement were Kentucky, Texas, Georgia, Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Maryland, South Dakota, Michigan, Utah, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

Texas Seeks Oversight of Life Settlements

                Texas seeks Oversight of life Settlements

Securities regulators in Texas are pushing for greater state oversight of the life settlement industry. This push comes after regulators began their effort to shut down at least six companies that buy these policies from seniors.

Investors Losing Money by the Millions

Individuals who have invested money into life settlements, (life insurance policies companies purchase from senior citizen policyholders based on their life expectancies in an effort to become their beneficiaries and collect the full sum of their payout upon their deaths) are losing it by the millions, according to the Texas State Securities Board.

Those offering to set up settlement opportunities for retirees are advertising returns of 20 percent or more per year so that they will invest millions into their policies, regulators say. The more money placed into the policies, the larger the amount of cash payout is promised to retirees when the policy is settled.

Unfortunately, Texas regulators say that despite 2,200 retirees putting $220 million into policies over the past two years for life settlement cash outs, many have lost some or all of their money. This is largely due to underestimated life expectancies and other issues.

Regulators Seek Oversight of the Settlement Industry

A major lack of meaningful oversight is said to be blamed for retirees being taken advantage of by the companies that have yet to be named. It’s for this reason that the state is looking for the ability to govern the industry like other states that officially recognized life settlements as investments subject to regulation.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin has urged lawmakers to consider tighter regulation of the business, noting in a statement that “Even though the settlement industry is relatively young, it has produced a substantial amount of harm to Texas investors.”

The only problem for regulators is that there is less than one month left in the regular session of the Legislature and, so far, no legislation has been introduced in either of the state’s legislative chambers. With little time to spare, the likelihood of regulators gaining control of the industry soon is very slim.

Should I Get Term or Permanent Life Insurance?

                  should i get Term or permanent life Insurance?

Deciding what type of life insurance to purchase can be challenging to those who want to make sure they buy the very best coverage for their family. The two main types of coverage to purchase are term and permanent. Which is the best choice for you? Since making the right choice depends on your circumstances, let’s take a closer look at how you might decide.

The Difference between Term and Permanent Insurance

First let’s take a look the two types of coverage. Term life insurance is a predetermined sum of money people pay to cover their death if occurs during the specified period of time. For instance, if you buy a 10-year term policy, the payments you make cover you as long as you died within the next 10 years.

While you may be able to purchase additional life insurance riders like Accidental Death or the Disability Waiver of Premium, the term policy in and of itself typically doesn’t come with additional benefits. At the end of a term policy, it is necessary to purchase another one to be covered.

Permanent life insurance is coverage meant to financially protect loved ones upon your death, no matter when you die. This means, if you purchase the coverage at the age of 30 and die at 85, as long as you keep up with payments, you will never have to purchase a new policy.

One element of permanent life coverage that makes it unique to the term policy is its savings component. Because you are likely to spend 30 or more years paying into permanent life insurance, making it more of an investment, the policy is treated as such.

Permanent premium payments go toward death benefits, investments (money market securities, bonds, mutual funds or even applied to a fixed interest rate) and cash payouts that can be used as money left over for your family upon your death, or even extra cash you take prior to your death.

There are three standard types of permanent coverage:

• Traditional Whole Life: Guarantees annual premiums, cash values and death benefits.
• Variable Life: Few premium and benefit guarantees but more potential for cash-value increases because investments are riskier.
• Universal Life: A flexible coverage option that allows premiums to vary from year to year.

It’s good to note that because permanent coverage offers so many more features than term coverage, it typically comes with a higher premium.

Deciding the Type of Coverage to Choose

To help you decide which type of coverage might work best for you, let’s look at life circumstances and desires that might sway your decision in one direction over the other.

(Click on the image for a larger version)Keep in mind that the above circumstances should not solely be used to decide whether term vs. permanent life insurance is best. Instead, it is meant to give you an idea of the type of coverage that might better suit your personal circumstance.

In order to make the best choice, it’s important to shop around for coverage with different life insurance companies and learn about their policy options (which could to surpass the options mentioned above).

Also, you want to look specifically at the company to decide whether it is reputable before signing on any dotted lines. The more research you conduct on coverage options and insurance companies, the better your chances will be of finding the perfect policy for you.

Stacey Bumpus started writing as a youngster, creating little fun newsletters to distribute to her elementary school friends. But it wasn’t until she completed her bachelors and masters degrees in communication that she realized her fun pastime could become a career.

After spending years in corporate communications, she discovered that freelancing was her cup of tea and fell in love with finding the latest financial news. Now, providing news and tips about taxes, mortgages, banking and even logging her efforts to save toward retirement, she’s not only fulfilling her childhood passion, but also helping others manage their finances responsibly.