All Insurance Articles

In today's tough times, many families are looking for ways to save beyond clipping coupons and skipping morning lattes. Medical expenses are an often overlooked area where you can cut costs. While Congress debates future health care reform, here are four ways to trim your family's medical bills right now. Enroll in FSAs, HSAs and HRAs Enrolling in a flexible spending account, or FSA; Read more...

As Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Herb Kohl is charged with investigating many of the issues that affect older Americans. Everything from long-term care, the rights of older workers and affordable senior housing falls under the committee's purview. Of course, health care is another major issue for seniors. Medicare and lowering health care costs in general have been the Read more...

Whether you want to cut your auto insurance costs because your budget has gotten tighter or because you don't want to spend extra money for what you don't need, there are some smart and some not-so-smart strategies to reduce this household expense. What is a good idea for one household may be a lousy idea for another. Let's take a look at five common strategies to save money on auto insurance to Read more...

With gas prices zooming up and down like a roller coaster and financial cutbacks continuing, many drivers are looking for ways to save a few bucks. Whether it's reassessing your insurance needs, reducing fuel consumption or simply putting off that new vehicle purchase for another year, here are 10 good ways to save money behind the wheel. 1. Drive your car longer. The easiest way to save Read more...

More than 6 million Americans have lost jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and for many, the loss of a job means the loss of health insurance benefits. Even for those who still work, many companies are dialing back health benefits for employees. For instance, about 58 percent of small U.S. employers offered health insurance for their workers five years ago, but that number has Read more...

A visiting cantor was invited to sing traditional Jewish songs at a Marlboro synagogue. After the services he was bragging that Lloyd's of London has insured his voice for $750,000.00 to members of the congregation. Mrs. Siegel, an older lady, said, 'So cantor, what did you do with the money?' Read more...

The high-profile deaths of actors Heath Ledger and David Carradine -- both of which initially were thought to be suicides -- have brought attention to a serious financial question: Can certain factors (such as suicide) invalidate a life insurance policy? In some cases, the answer is yes. The trouble starts with a few words known as "an exclusion" that may be found in a life Read more...

CHICAGO -- When it comes to health care spending, an ounce of prevention is seldom worth a pound of cure. Take Mrs. Jones, a hypothetical 55-year-old obese woman at risk for diabetes. It costs $900 a year to hire a personal lifestyle coach to help her lose weight and prevent diabetes. Suppose that the coaching works for Mrs. Jones, and she is spared diabetes and all the resulting health Read more...

As the economy sours, more employers are cutting back on health insurance benefits, if not outright eliminating them. Add these workers to the hundreds of thousands of uninsured and underinsured Americans, and there's little doubt that consumers should expect to shoulder more of the burden of paying their own medical costs. The U.S. government predicts that consumer out-of-pocket health care Read more...

Medicare will not pay for so-called virtual colonoscopies, concluding that there is inadequate evidence to support the cheaper, less intrusive alternative to the regular colonoscopy. Some experts had hoped that popularizing the X-ray procedure would boost screening for colon cancer, the country's second leading cancer killer. Screening to spot early cancer or precancerous growths has resulted Read more...

Long-term care insurance is a tough sell, yet it's something middle-income people with substantial nest eggs should consider since the need for personal care can quickly deplete financial reserves. A relatively new partnership program adopted by many states may make this insurance more palatable to more people. Why consider it? The likelihood of filing a claim for long-term care is higher Read more...

A man is unfortunate enough to be hit by a 10-ton truck and lands in a hospital's intensive care unit. His best friend comes to visit him about a week later.The patient struggles to tell his friend, "My wife visits me three times a day. She's so good to me. Every day, she reads to me here at my bedside.""What does she read?" the friend asks.Responds the patient, "My life Read more...

Insurance innovations aren't usually glamorous or trendy. But recently, a handful of major insurance companies have "gone green," at least in their product offerings. Those who own hybrid vehicles or green-certified homes can benefit from lower premiums on their property. And those who aspire to own a greener home can choose coverage that, in the event of a loss, will pay for Read more...

If you're like most people, you're taking more responsibility for and picking up more of the tab for your health care. A growing number of Web sites can assist your efforts by showing how the price and quality of care offered by different providers measures up. 1. Insurer sites Many health insurers have member sites, says Carlton Doty, vice president and research director with Forrester Read more...

The reality of losing a job and the health insurance that went with it is daunting for people accustomed to employer-sponsored plans. It's a challenge self-employed people struggle with all the time, but going it alone on the open market is becoming more common as employers bow out of the health care business. Karen Pennington, Ph.D., an associate professor in the nursing program at Regis Read more...

Three men are on a deep-sea fishing boat off a Caribbean island and they get to talking how they chose that island for a vacation. "I had a terrible fire and lost everything," the first man says. "Now the insurance company is paying for everything. That's why I'm here." "I had a terrible explosion and lost everything," the second man says. "My insurance Read more...

Our carbon footprints are calculations of the greenhouse gases we're individually responsible for. Reduce yours, and you can take some satisfaction in having done something, however small, to reduce emissions and slow global warming. Now might be a good time to start thinking about our health care footprints. Serious reform and belt tightening can't happen without new policies from Read more...

Think it's difficult for big companies to shoulder rising health insurance costs? Try doing the same thing on a small-business budget. "For our very small businesses, it's probably the most challenging circumstance under which people buy insurance," says Kim Holland, an executive committee member of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and state insurance commissioner Read more...

After many years at sea, a pirate decided it was time to retire. Since he had suffered injuries on the job, he thought that he could also collect disability insurance. He had a wooden leg, a hook where his right hand should be and a patch over his right eye. The agency assured him that he would be compensated if the injuries were work-related. "How did you get the wooden leg?" asked Read more...

When it comes to saving money these days, even those expenses normally thought of as fixed are fair game -- like auto insurance. The cost of insuring your car remained fairly stable in 2008, with average increases of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, according to Carolyn Gorman, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute, or III. But that doesn't mean you can't find ways to cut your Read more...