by motherearth36 » Mon Jun 07, 2010 04:01 pm
I am looking for a small policy, my Father just passed away and we are just now finding out Mother has less than $1000.00 in life ins for herself. There is no nestegg to pull from either. She is in good health, only issues are she has had back surgery for cmpression fracture. No hypertension, diabetes or anything. She is very active.
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:06 am Post Subject: insurance
I just want to 'add' something to your post. I work with the Elderly. ALOT of my 'clients' have had their Medicare/Medicaid benefits cut because of this Healthcare Reform Bill. ALOT of their Co-pays (on medications) are going sky high!! Some are trying to use their Life Insurance policies to cover Medical costs. I know the Medical part, in my post, has nothing to do with Life Insurance..but, here's my point. I DO have a 'client' who was able to use her Life Insurance to pay off some Medical things. She was told it wouldn't "effect her policy at all." NOW....she has NO Life Insurance at all and she is being told she "cannot" get another policy because of her age, etc."
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:51 am Post Subject:
Motherearth36, my guess is that ANY life insurance policy on your mother is going to cost a fortune that she doesn't have. However, she should be able to get a 'final expenses' policy much cheaper, and that's pretty much what you're looking for isn't it? A way to take care of the costs that will be incurred? You might get on line, and get a few quotes for this product.
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 01:55 pm Post Subject: insurance
It's really heartbreaking to see my 'clients' without Life Insurance. One of my 'clients' (another one) had used all of the 'cash value' that was built up to pay for other things. Sometimes I feel really helpless that I can't help these people. :(
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 10:08 pm Post Subject:
This should really be a separate thread as it does not relate to the OP's question.
ALOT of my 'clients' have had their Medicare/Medicaid benefits cut because of this Healthcare Reform Bill. ALOT of their Co-pays (on medications) are going sky high!!
I'm going to take exception to this statement. The healthcare reform legislation does not take effect in its present form until 2014. It HAS NOT had any effect on Medicare or Medicaid payments (which are two different systems of payments, both using Social Security resources received under Medicare contributions from employees and employers).
On the other hand, there is a specific formula Congress authorized a number of years ago which is tied to the Consumer Price Index and is used to set allowable charges by Medicare-approved providers. Reimbursements to providers for some services have gone down in 2010 (as they should have in each of the last four or five years, except for Congress mucking things up by ignoring their own legislation). This does not cause higher expenses for Medicare beneficiaries unless they are using the services of a non-approved provider, who may bill up to 115% of Medicare's allowable expense for any service. This makes the outof pocket expense higher than the usual 20% share of Part B expenses for a Medicare bneneficiary.
Medicaid is mostly a different story. The federal government supplies most of the money, and the state determines what it will spend the limited resources on. That can reduce the level of benefits Medicaid beneficiaries have come to expect. Again, it has nothing to do with the health care reform legislation recently signed into law, but with Congress' allocation of trillions of dollars to other purposes -- like the futile efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, bailouts of homeowners with "toxic" loans, TARP, and other fiscal boondoggles that are ruining the economy. Sadly, there are a number of Medicare beneficiaries also receiving assistance from Medicaid for things not covered by Medicare. Go figure.
As to "copays" for medications, if the discussion is about Medicare Part D, there is a formula that determines certain drug copay limits and what a person's "out of pocket" expenses can reach before "catastrophic" coverage begins, which are subject to statutory copay limits, which can involve a percentage sharing arrangement -- if the drug is more costly, the out of pocket expense will be higher. Nothing to do with health care reform legislation.
Insurance companies are free to determine which drugs are in which "Tier" of formulary coverage (generics, name brands, non-formulary). The "Tier" determines the copay. While the copays can vary some from one insurer to another, it's mostly the physician's choice of medications that causes the patient to experience higher out of pocket expenses, not the insurance companies. When you look at the formularies of competing plans, they are, by and large, very nearly the same in order not to be at a competitive disadvantage.
I DO have a 'client' who was able to use her Life Insurance to pay off some Medical things. She was told it wouldn't "effect her policy at all."
And who told her this? Her agent? A friend or family member? If she can prove that an agent told her this, the agent is in BIG trouble. If a friend or family member, well, caveat emptor.
Be that as it may, the only way to lose her insurance is to not pay the premium. Was it a Universal Life policy or a Whole Life policy? With WL, paying the premium guarantees coverage is in force. With UL, paying the scheduled (minimum) premium can be a problem, but the insurer must still provide at least 30 days advance notice of a pending lapse (many give 60 days notice), and allow the policyowner to pay sufficient premiums to avoid a lapse.
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