This is Part 4, of 7-part series, read the other parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. Medicare Supplemental Insurance, or Medigap for short, is optional insurance that you can buy separately from a private insurer to cover many out-of-pocket costs of traditional Medicare. As I described in my previous Medicare articles, traditional Medicare [Learn more...]
Insurance & Risk Management
Medicare Part B: A great health care companion, but it doesn’t like to be kept waiting
This is Part 3, of 7-part series, read the other parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. In this article, I discuss Medicare Part B – sometimes referred to as retiree “Medical Insurance”. Part B purportedly focuses on the services, diagnostic tests, and medical equipment that doctors provide or prescribe, as opposed to those services that [Learn more...]
Medicare Part A – Is it Really Free?
This is Part 2, of 7-part series, read the other parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. In last month’s newsletter, I gave a summary of Medicare, the Federal government insurance program that covers a large portion of health care expenses for seniors and people with certain disabilities. In that article, I said that Parts A and B form the core [Learn more...]
Health Savings Accounts: A sensible way to save for health-related expenses
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were signed into law in 2003 by George W. Bush. HSAs are bank or brokerage accounts that allow you to save for qualified medical expenses. Many people do not fully understand how these accounts function or how they may be beneficial, even though they have been available for nearly 15 years. I’ll describe how these plans [Learn more...]
Digesting the Alphabet Soup of Medicare
This is Part 1, of 7-part series, read the other parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. This article is the first in a series on Medicare, the Federal government insurance program that provides health care to seniors and people with certain disabilities. In this article, I provide an overview of Medicare and its component Parts. Future [Learn more...]
What is umbrella liability insurance and why might you need it?
I have a confession to make: When I was 17, I took the family car one day to visit a friend who lived across town. I was a relatively new driver, having received my driver’s license – or maybe it was just a learner’s permit– only a few months prior. As I rounded a 30 mph curve at roughly double that speed, two children around the ages of 5 and 7 were walking their bicycles [Learn more...]
Assessing Long-Term Care Insurance
In case you missed the May 1, 2015 Wall Street Journal article on long-term care insurance (Long-term Care Insurance: Is it Worth it?, by Leslie Scism), it was an exposé of sorts on the declining allure and questionable value of long-term care insurance. The main points of the article were: LTC insurance carriers have significantly increased prices and reduced benefits in [Learn more...]
