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Be Assured of an Insured Aloha

Jan 19

Posted by admin in Insurance

As a U.S. citizen, Hawaii travel insurance is not going to involve concerns about health insurance. If you’re already covered with health insurance on your home turf, you will likely be covered in Hawaii. What you’re going to want to look for in Hawaii travel insurance plans is what you’d look for in just about any travel vacation insurance – protection against the unexpected travel tragedy excluding medical emergency.

Hawaii travel insurance would be great to have in a number of instances. For example, if you booked a cruise and the cruise line went out of business. If they went belly up, bankrupt, shut down, and can’t take their cruise ships out of port you would be there holding your bags quite literally and an expensive but useless ticket for your cruise.

You are only going to get your money back in one of two ways. If you don’t have travel insurance coverage, you would have to go to bankruptcy court. In this instance often only the first few creditors, if any, are reimbursed. If you were one of them you would get your money back. Don’t count on it! The other reimbursement alternative for reimbursement of that ticket for your cancelled trip is Hawaii travel insurance. You would simply file and claim and voila, money back to you without a problem.

Another protection you would want coverage for by your Hawaii travel insurance is if your trip should be delayed. Perhaps your flight is cancelled or delayed for bad weather and you’re not home but instead at an airport where you need to change planes on a connection, or you might still be in Hawaii and trying to get back home. Often in these occurrences there is no immediate remedy and you might be stuck at your location a day or two. You would need a hotel stay, food and transportation to and from the airport to the hotel. In this day and age, the airlines rarely cover this, the right Hawaii travel insurance would.

What if your luggage is delayed, or worse yet lost or stolen? What are you going to wear? Who is going to give you the money to buy it? Again, this is what Hawaii travel insurance could cover.

What if you or another member of your travel party are in Hawaii and taken ill and require the care of your own physician? What if someone back home is gravely ill or passes away and you must return immediately? If you’ve purchase a restricted or non-refundable ticket you’re not going to be able to change your return schedule. It would be very expensive to fly home last minute. Where would this money come from? Hawaii travel insurance can cover for such emergencies.

Clearly, Hawaii travel insurance could be a financial and stress-related lifesaver in time of vacation emergency. If considering a trip to the beautiful islands, remember a small investment in such trip insurance coverage could pay off big in the long run.

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Government Measures to Help with Health Insurance

Dec 19

Posted by admin in Insurance

The rising unemployment rate is causing not just job loss but also the loss of valuable health insurance coverage for many people. In response, the federal government has enacted new legislation to help with COBRA coverage as well as state aid to families with children.
COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1986. Under COBRA, if you worked for a company that had more than 20 employees, then you are able to continue on the group health insurance plan for as much as 18 months. The downside of COBRA is that it can be quite expensive. In most states, recipients report that COBRA payments account for more than 75% of their unemployment benefit. However, under the recently passed Economic Stimulus Package, you could be eligible for assistance with 65% of your COBRA premium.
To qualify for the program you must have lost your job between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. Your income must be less than $125,000 for an individual and less than $250,000 a year for a family. If you did not take advantage of COBRA initially, you can still sign up for it. If you did sign up for COBRA coverage, you won’t get any money back for the premiums you have already paid, but you will be eligible for assistance from the point after the law has taken effect. Under the new law you will pay 35% of the premium, and the government pays the other 65%. Your assistance could continue for as much as nine months.
Another measure the federal government has taken recently to help people with health insurance coverage is to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or SCHIP. The law will provide $32 billion to the program over the next five years and expand coverage to from 7 to 11 million children. SCHIP is designed to provide health care coverage for children up to age 19 and pregnant women, in families whose income is low, but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid. A portion of the funding will come from an increase in the tax on cigarettes.
Under SCHIP, the federal government provides the states with matching funds to provide health care for families with children. To qualify, families could earn only up to 200% of the poverty level. Under the new law, families can earn up to 300% of the poverty level and still qualify for SCHIP. Each state has set up their program differently, so programs can vary from state to state.
If you find yourself out of a job and out of health insurance, two recent measures by the federal government may provide some assistance. The first are changes to the COBRA program in which the government could pick up to 65% of the cost of your health insurance premium. The other is the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Either of these options could provide short-term assistance with health insurance coverage.

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Home Owners Insurance Online – The Internet Proves To Be The Cheapest Source For Insurance

Feb 21

Posted by admin in Insurance, Real Estate

Shopping for home insurance online is easy. There are a ton of websites that make it so easy to enter the proper information in order to give you an accurate quote. The home policy has less required information than the auto policy. Auto insurance depends so much on extensive driver and vehicle information. The homeowner policy depends on some basic information. The most important calculation is the actual square footage of your home. When you shop online they will want this information. Insurance companies need this because they use various calculators to determine building costs per square footage. The online quote has a questionnaire that needs completed that will ask you some other valuable information that helps determine the replacement value of your home. Air conditioning and fireplaces increase property replacement values. The size of your deck or patio is also considered when determining the insurance amount. There are questions about your garage location. Finished basements increase the replacement value and the online quote will often ask you the percentage of your basement that is finished.

Prior insurance is important when shopping for insurance coverage for a home that you have been residing in for a while. You will be asked about your present insurance. Having insurance is a must when comparison shopping because it is stability and credit factor that will make the risk more acceptable for the insurance company. If you want personal items insured on a rider of some kind then you will most likely need proof of their value. Jewelry riders require recent appraisals and or receipts to prove their worth.

The online quote process may reveal something about your present coverage that you were unaware of. You may find that after you complete a replacement cost estimator with several companies that your home is either under insured or over insured. This is one of the great benefits of shopping online. It enables you to do some of your own research. Shop for homeowner?s insurance online. You will be pleasantly surprised.

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