Ask The Money Coach

Archive for the ‘Health Insurance’ Category

This great opinion piece is from PrescriptionforChange.org:

Thanksgiving meals, Christmas parties and trick-or-treating aren’t the only traditions Americans share each holiday season. Small businesses, families, and entrepreneurs also huddle around kitchen tables, carefully bracing themselves, as they attempt to absorb health insurance rate increases that have become an annual nightmare.

Pundits and opponents of fair practices have deceptively painted health reform’s new consumer protections as the reason for this year’s premium increases, effectively asking families to ignore the long history of astronomical rate hikes by insurers. But experts and even some insurers estimate that the impact on premiums of important new benefits like ending lifetime limits and extending dependent coverage to age 26 will be minimal – between 1 and 2 percent.

Click to read the rest of this article.

Related articles

• Obama Administration Pushing to Have Health Insurers Justify Large Rate Hikes (theloop21.com)
• Govt. Polices Health Rate Hikes (abcnews.go.com)
• UPDATE 4-US health insurers face new rules over price hikes (reuters.com)
• Health Premium Hikes Get Scrutiny (online.wsj.com)

Related Questions:

• holiday tradition that we can without

Here are a few things to remember after watching this interview:

During open enrollment season, you’d also be wise to ask about these corporate perks:

• gym membership
• commuting rebates
• employee discounts
• emergency funds
• tuition

Most health plans come in two categories – FSA offerings or HSA plans.

The FSA plan, or Flexible Spending Account, is a “use it or lose it” proposition. A Health Savings Account, or HSA, is not. However, both are tax advantaged. Can you change your mind? Unfortunately, no. You’re usually forced to stick with the same health plan until the next open enrollment season, unless you experience a change in your family circumstances, such as getting married or divorced or having a baby, naturally or via adoption.

Continue reading: 4 things you must know about open enrollment on Walletpop

Related Questions:

• cancelling health insurance during open enrollment
• how to choose health benefits
• is a health savings account a use it or loose it proposition
• open enrollment health insurance how to choose
• questions to ask during open enrollment

It will take multiple steps to help you eliminate your medical debt. But here are six strategies you can use to knock down those hospital bills and improve your credit rating.

Examine Everything

Start by going over all your medical bills with a fine-tooth comb. Question charges that seem inflated (like that $20 bottle of aspirin). Also, ask for explanations from your healthcare providers regarding invoices for services you don’t recognize or understand. Simply forcing them to account for everything may result is certain charges being waived or reduced.

Find Out About State Freebies

Lots of states offer their residents free mandatory coverage or health insurance with small co-pays and low deductibles. If any of your treatment should have been covered by a state program, see if state resources can fill the gap and pay what you’ve been charged.

Ask Directly for Discounts

Ask the hospitals, clinics and healthcare professionals that serviced you whether or not you qualify for any discounts, charity, or write-downs of your total bill outstanding. Don’t be ashamed to let the hospital(s) know about your entire financial predicament. They may be more lenient if they know that you’re not working, are not insured, have lots of other debts, are a single mom, etc.

Request a Payment Plan

If you can talk to a kindly, flexible billing representative/hospital administrator, or even better, the doctor(s) who treated you, ask if you can get on a payment plan. Try to stretch out the plan for as long as reasonable in order to give yourself time to pay off all that you owe. If they agree to discount $2,000 of your original $5,000 in bills, then you’ll have $3,000 remaining to pay off over time. If you can commit to pay that off in two years, that means you’ll have to pay $125 a month ($3,000 divided by 24 months).

Negotiate to Improve Your Credit Rating

Also, while you are negotiating, request upfront that the hospital agree to delete all negative references to your credit files. They may only do it once you’ve completed your repayment plan. But that’s better than letting the late payment or collection information sit on your credit reports for seven years. Get any agreements in writing.

Get a Medical Advocate

Don’t give up on negotiating down that medical debt, or to improve your credit standing. Sometimes you have to go to multiple people or write numerous letters. But it will be worth it in the end if you can rid yourself of thousands of dollars of medical bills. If your own efforts don’t get you anywhere, get help from a third party, such as Access Project (http://www.accessproject.org) or Medical Bill Advocates (http://www.billadvocates.com). For those with hefty hospital bills, The Access Project’s Medical Debt Resolution Program can guide you through the maze of negotiating with insurance companies, medical providers and public programs to resolve your medical debt.

Related articles

• How to Handle Overdue Hospital Bills (ybpguide.com)
• Can I get a medical collection removed from my credit report? (askamoneyexpert.com)

Related Questions:

• who can help me pay my medical bills
• help me pay my medical bills
• agencies that help with medical bills
• who can help me for hospital bill
• who could help me with medical bill?
• is there an agency that can help pay medical bills
• where do i go to get help paying my hospital bills
• how can i get help with medical bills
• where can i get help to pay medical
• how can i get a discount on my hospital bill
• who can help me pay my medical bill
• get goverment help in paying medical bills

Q: I am Almost 63 Years of Age and Thinking of Retirement. What Should I Do at the Present Time to Make this a Reality in 2 or 3 Years? I am a Registered Nurse Working Full Time in a Hospital.

A: Retiring in two to three short years from now means you’ve got to ensure that your financial affairs are in good shape, and that you will have enough money on hand to last you another two or three decades. Many financial planners create plans for their clients on the assumption that the client will live until 90 or 100 years old. So you have to consider whether, if you retired at age 65 or 66, you would have enough money to last for potentially another 30 years.

Max Out that Retirement Plan at Work

Start by looking at what you’ve saved in your retirement plan at work. If you haven’t been aggressively saving in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, by all means start doing so. Perhaps your employer offers a match to boost your retirement plan. Under federal law, most employees can put up to $16,500 into a qualified retirement plan in 2010. However, since you are over 50 years of age, you can also put into another $5,500 in “catch up” payments if you’ve been a late starter, in terms of saving. You can also sock money away into an IRA, or Individual Retirement Account. The 2010 limit for regular IRAs and Roth IRAs is $5,000, plus another $1,000 in allowable contributions for those 50 and above. Assess also any pension income or retirement benefits that will be provided directly by your employer. Then find out how much money you will be entitled to from Social Security. You can find out your expected Social Security payments by visiting the Social Security Administration’s website (http://www.ssa.gov).

Two Steps To Assessing Your Retirement Readiness

In summary, to make sure you are on track to retire when you want, you should follow these two steps:

Step 1: Calculate Your Retirement Needs
Think about what how much money you’ll need in retirement, on a monthly and annual basis. Take into account your projected monthly expenses, any debts you’ll have, along with the possibility of healthcare or medical costs, travel, as well as inflation. A good tool to use is the “Ballpark Estimate” retirement calculator from the American Savings Education Council at: http://www.icief.org/retirement/illustrations/ill_ballpark.html

Step 2: Estimate Future Benefits
After consulting your Human Resources Department or taking a look at any employer-provided pension income you may be expecting, go get an estimate of your Social Security benefits at http://www.ssa.gov./estimator.

If you don’t like what you see in the results, all is not lost. You have the option of working a bit longer, perhaps investing slightly more aggressively if you are comfortable doing so, or even using products like annuities that can offer you a steady income stream or make up for any financial shortfalls you may face.

Related articles

• Making the Most of Your Social Security Benefits (askamoneyexpert.com)

Related Questions:

• retire at 63
• retiring at 63
• Retirement at 63
• can i retire at 63
• should i retire at 63
• retiring at age 63
• am i ready for retirement
• What to do at age 63
• how much do i need to retire at 63
• retirement at age 63
• am i ready to retire
• what to do at 63