Health and Life Insurance Open Enrollment Season

The Open Enrollment Period is from

October 1, 2014 – March 13, 2014 for Qualified Health Plans. For overage beginning in November, the enrollment period is from November 15, 2014 until February 15, 2014. The employers will be searching for Supplemental benefits at that time as well. Employees can apply for their health coverage on the Internet.

You may be hearing the buzz at work about what your employer intends to do with the current benefits or what programs he /she is desiring to add to or subtract from the current benefits package. The employer will carefully consider the benefits package to determine if the package is adequate enough to attract and retain employees.
Open Enrollment is a time when employees can apply for health coverage or supplemental benefits at the workplace without underwriting, which would limit the type and amount of coverage that the employee applies for based on his/her health. This period also protects the insured from lapsing coverage due to employees trying to optimize on the amount they are paying for coverage or purchasing coverage when they are sick and cancelling when they are well. This keeps the insurance companies from experiencing financial risk and insurance premiums from increasing.

Besides health insurance, employers will allow employees to purchase life insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance, or health insurance supplements. An open enrollment is a great time to review the benefits one may have or add benefits to one’s personal program of insurance coverage.

It is important to note that if an employee misses the dates for open enrollment, he/she will have to wait until the next one which will take place one year later. The only exceptions are employees experiencing life changing events in the family, such as a divorce, birth of a child, or If an employee no longer qualify for Medicaid insurance. Some may also be able to apply after the enrollment period if there was a glitch in the system which caused the employees not to enroll for coverage. Anyone can apply for Medicaid or CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Plan) anytime of the year.

In conclusion, the Open Enrollment season for Health Insurance and Supplemental Health insurance programs is approaching and every employee should use this time now to enroll in their coverage.

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Life Insurance Awareness Month – September 2014

It is Life Insurance Awareness month again and with the students returning to school, it is time to re-examine your financial security. Life insurance is a product which few consumers understand. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a competent life insurance agent to support you in making a wise decision to protect your family.

Approximately 95 million people are without life insurance protection which means that their families are at risk for financial calamity due to the untimely death of a head of the household. Many families today are headed by a single parent which would leave the family even more at risk. If the parent dies, prematurely, the children would be orphaned. Therefore, single parents need to consider who they would appoint as a guardian to the children. They would also need to provide an income to raise the children. Many families today are ill-equipped to assume the responsibility of one or more children in addition to the family which they may already have. Therefore, the best way to provide an income would be to purchase life insurance.

Typically, employees opt to acquire life insurance at a group rate at work for themselves and for the family, because it is inexpensive. Paying for life insurance weekly or bi-weekly seems to be more feasible for most employees. They can also purchase a separate life insurance policy from an insurance agent outside of work. In this case, employees will have to determine how long the life insurance will cover them and if the policy is portable, i.e., if coverage remains in force if the employee retires or leaves the company.

Employees would be wise to purchase a separate policy away from work to ensure there is life insurance coverage during gaps in employment or when the employee retires. Some life insurance policies will reduce coverage upon retirement, and some policies are not portable. These are all questions which employees should be asking their life insurance agent to investigate while they are considering purchasing life insurance protection. Consumers should review their life insurance every two years to ensure here is adequate protection for the family in the event of a catastrophe. Countless people have discovered, when it was too late, that their life insurance policy was inadequate to pay for final expenses or to protect the family.

Throughout the month of September, there will be articles available to help educate consumers on the importance of protecting the family with life insurance. Subscribe to this blog to keep up on latest developments.

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