Insurance Online

Insurance may be considered a game of risk in which individuals and businesses protect themselves, their families, and their property from possible losses resulting from unpredictable events such as storms, fires, accidents, and illnesses. The first rule of the game, devised centuries ago is “share the risk.” To play by this rule, many people take a small loss in place of one person’s taking a large one.
It is a simple idea: An individual pays a small amount of money called a premium to an agent who acts on behalf of an insurance company, or underwriter, which holds the individual’s premium and the premiums paid by thousands of others. The individual receives an insurance policy, a promise that if there is a loss to the individual as defined in the policy the insurance company will pay for it. The funds will come from the individual’s premium, the premiums paid by others who did not have losses, and money from the company’s investment of all the premiums. An individual who does not have a loss loses the premium money but purchases what insurance underwriters call “peace of mind.” It is a gamble for both the customer and the underwriter, but it is built on the first rule of risk: those losses are small when shared by many.
The insurance industry has a large range of jobs that service various parts of the business. In addition to underwriters, who decide whether or not a risk should be insured, and agents, who sell the coverage, the industry employs many kinds of engineers, who inspect property and offer advice on making property safer. When a loss occurs, claim adjusters investigate its cause as, for example, in a fire and decide how much the insurance company owes its policyholder.
The industry has developed specialists called actuaries, who, through mathematical and statistical analysis, help underwriters determine the rates applied to life insurance premiums. The industry also employs a wide range of physicians, lawyers, computer experts, mathematicians, and others to support all the major players in the game of risk.
In the later part of the 20th century, general industry has developed its own insurance specialists who specialize in purchasing insurance for their corporations. These risk managers must be acquainted with all forms of insurance and are generally in charge of deciding what insurance a corporation should buy and how much it should pay.
Insurance comes in many varieties. Categories include property, liability, homeowners’, automobile, medical, life, workers’ compensation, and marine.

Property insurance is the modern form of the fire insurance that was sold by early insurance companies. The name has changed because the coverage has changed. No longer are just the losses resulting from fire protected by property insurance. Such losses as those from windstorm, theft, vandalism, and water damage are also covered.
Liability insurance is the most important kind of business insurance. A liability is a duty one person owes another, or is liable for, for some special reason. Liability insurance pays an individual or a business for liabilities that result from unforeseen situations.
Homeowners’ insurance is a combination offering both property and liability coverage. Usually it includes protection for a person’s home, any other buildings on the property, and for the buildings’ contents and personal belongings except automobiles and pets. The policy can be written to include the property of guests. If disaster strikes, homeowners’ insurance usually pays a family’s living expenses until they get settled at home once again.
Car insurance is the most complicated kind of insurance purchased by individuals. It combines several kinds of property and liability coverage. The standard automobile policy includes collision insurance, covering property damage to a car when it is struck by another vehicle, and comprehensive insurance, covering general property damage that occurs when an automobile is damaged by something other than another vehicle.
Medical insurance pays the costs of hospitalization and physicians’ fees for insured individuals who are injured or become ill.
Life insurance is designed to insure lives, though it frequently includes coverage for major disabilities such as the loss of limbs or organs. There are basically three kinds of life insurance that may be purchased by individuals for themselves or others or by employers for their employees.
Workers’ compensation is a special state-controlled insurance purchased by employers for the benefit of their employees. Like general liability and medical payment liability insurance, it pays for medical treatment required by employees of a company according to a state-regulated schedule of benefits. The object is to prevent employees from the need to sue their employers if they are injured and to compensate workers for losses from accidents on the job.
The oldest form of insurance that scholars have been able to document, marine insurance now includes much more than the shared risk of ships’ cargo. It might best be called transportation insurance because variations of the coverage include protection for ships, trucks, railroads, and aircraft. Underwriters generally divide it into two types: ocean marine, which deals with every kind of water conveyance, and inland marine for truck and rail cargo.

America is in the middle of a national healthcare crisis. Over 41 million Americans are uninsured and many of those who are insured are underinsured. Insurance premiums have been increasing and they are expected to continue to rise. This has led many Americans to go without insurance and hope for the best for their health. As a result, there are approximately 13% of women who become pregnant each year who are not insured, which results in pregnant women receiving inadequate prenatal care.
Another challenge uninsured pregnant women face is the notion from many insurance plans that pregnancy is a pre-existing condition. Medicaid, a federal funded program for low income persons, will accept women who are already pregnant. However, if you are not eligible to receive Medicaid it can still be a challenge to pay for all the prenatal visits and delivery. The estimated cost of delivery alone is $6,000 – $8,000 for a normal pregnancy and the cost increases if it is a high risk pregnancy.
This is the crisis that many pregnant women find themselves facing when they learn that they are pregnant. The excitement of being pregnant is quickly dissolved by the worry and anxiety of financial burden.
GOVERNMENT FUNDED PROGRAMS
Medicaid is a state run program that is federally funded. Medicaid provides medical assistance for low-income families and individuals.
You may find that there are other options, depending on your state, which provide additional programs for women who are pregnant such as Medi-cal from the state of California. You can check with your local department of health at Health Departments by State for information on local programs that may further assist you.
WIC is a federal agency that serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants and children under the age of 5. WIC provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating and referrals to health care. To get more information you can go to Women, Infants and Children.
HEALTHCARE DISCOUNT PROGRAMS
There are many alternatives to traditional health insurance and Medicaid. These alternatives offer a discount on your healthcare and may help you out. Make sure to check with your health care provider to find out what discount you would receive if you paid cash. Take monthly fee’s, deductibles and premiums into account. Here are a few examples of discount programs.
MaternityCard™ is a discount health program that can save you up to 60% on doctor’s visits, lab work, sonograms, your hospital stay and much more. MaternityCard is not insurance but it works with a National Preferred Provider Maternity Network. For a low monthly fee, MaternityCard can provide you with a comprehensive maternity plan. You can receive these benefits even after you have found out that you are pregnant.
AmeriPlan is a discount plan that is currently available in all states except Alaska. AmeriPlan saves people up to 50% and more on their health care services. Benefits include physician, hospital, and ancillary services (i.e. lab work, tests, x-rays). Since AmeriPlan is not insurance, all pre-existing conditions are covered (except orthodontic treatment in progress), there are no deductibles, no waiting period, no claim forms and no annual limits. For more information on this discount program you can go to: http://www.ameriplanusa.com.
Smart Health Care Solutions is not insurance but an affordable alternative to the soaring costs of health care. All pre-existing conditions are accepted. As an Association, Smart Health Care Solutions is committed to providing members with access to healthcare providers at reduced rates that are both nationwide and affordable regardless of any pre-existing health conditions
OTHER OPTIONS FOR MANAGING HEALTHCARE COSTS
Here are some additional ideas for helping you manage the costs related to prenatal care and birth:
If you are delivering at a hospital you can contact the account office and talk to someone about setting up a payment plan or ask if they offer a sliding scale. Many hospitals do offer these, but they are not utilized because people do not know what is available to them.
If you are having an uncomplicated pregnancy you may want to consider giving birth at a birthing center. The estimated cost of a delivery and prenatal care at a birthing center is about $3,000 – $4,000. This is half of what it would be for a delivery at a hospital. Many birth centers also provide sliding scales, payment plans and accept Medicaid.
If you are a single parent you can go to Single Parenting: Making It Work and Doing It Alone for other ideas on how to save a little extra money.
Remember to enjoy this time and don’t allow the financial burden to take away your excitement.

The worldwide Insurance Industry will engage in a series of bold transformations over the next 15 years, creating a dramatically different set of products, services and business process, all in the name of value creation and long-term growth, according to a newly-released IBM global study.
Pay-as-You-Live Insurance — which deals with life ‘as it happens,’ Active Risk Management — reducing claims management and costs by placing emphasis on preventive actions, and new business processes that lower costs and broaden product appeal, will replace the decades-old insurance models. Long-held industry standards are about to reach the point of diminishing returns and will fail to deliver lasting value. These new scenarios leverage today’s emerging technology as well as technology anticipated in the near-term future.
These concepts and others were unveiled in a year-long global study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), “Insurance 2020: Innovating Beyond Old Models,” that provides a new perspective on the challenges insurers will confront in 2020 and strategies for successful innovation. The findings are the result of discussions with more than three dozen global insurance industry executives, who run the world’s premier Insurance organizations as well as other influential stakeholders from around the world.
The research examines disruptive forces that will influence the industry over the coming years, including technology, complex regulation, and competition from an increasing number of sources. In addition, changes in customer demographics, the proliferation of online information sources, and the impact of globalization are creating a host of new industry challenges. Study participants overwhelmingly agreed that the industry must evolve to meet the needs of a changing customer base — and that current modes of operation would threaten the industry’s ability to innovate.
The pursuit of a new model is actually the opening of a new era, or at the very least, it is the undertaking of a new course for the industry. The task ahead is as much a battle for a change in direction as it is a battle for a change in mind-set among the industry’s existing players.
Optimizing the current business model, although an important strategy for many insurers, can no longer be the proxy for innovation that matters to the insurance industry. The industry is evolving toward an era of experimentation and innovation - tomorrow’s insurance value proposition will be based on the ability to provide financial services and risk mitigation in ways that are adaptive and customized to meet individual needs.

Mega Trends

Survey respondents and data analysis revealed four mega-trends that underscore the need for innovation and will pave the way to consistent value creation for stakeholders by the year 2020:

– Technology virtualizes the value chain and lowers barriers to entry.
The rising tide of technology will enable an increasing number of niche
service providers from inside and outside of the traditional value chain.
Within the 15-year timeframe, a number of partial and even totally virtual
companies will surface to meet the needs of consumers and businesses.

– Active, informed consumers across demographic groups reward non-
traditional operators. The impact of modern information networks and the
ongoing transfer of financial responsibility to end customers will drive
attitudes regarding increased services and convenience. Applicants and
policy holders from a range of demographic groups will shift loyalties to
carriers that consistently meet their expectations.

– Mainstream insurance products are dynamic and provide more consistent
business performance. Dealing with a global population that eagerly
consumes and thrives on communication and personalization will drive
carriers to develop products that are flexible and adaptable. Technology
will empower insurance companies to bring their products closer to real
time interaction via sensor networks and enlightened privacy regulations.

– Regulatory coordination and the use of affirmed industry standards
broaden to global scales. The globalization of all industries and the need
for efficiency will drive the coordination of consumer and business
protection across geographies, increasing automation and underscoring the
demand for industry standardization.

Survey participants noted that they could achieve success by sticking with today’s modes of operation, which have served them well for decades, but that these systems will hamper growth moving forward. Industry innovations that address changing customer demographics, new technology, regulatory changes and other factors that will arise in the years ahead will be the basis for growth.
They predict that over the next decade there will be a significant increase in the flexibility of insurance products, and that increased use of pervasive computing technology will make this a reality. Calculating the cost of a specific risk will make use of inexpensive sensors tied into the next generation internet. Data provided by these sensors will support real-time calculation of risk, and keep a running tally of premium costs based on the actual risk presented — serving both life and property policies.
Similar technology will also support a broad range of policy duration products such as “just-in-time-insurance,” where each step of a journey would represent a different risk, such car-to-train-station, train-to-city, station-to-office, etc. A “pay-as-you-live” scenario would trade some location and time of day privacy data for lower insurance bills overall. And in the spirit of active risk management, the same network of sensors could also provide convenient information, i.e. avoiding an overloaded expressway, relayed on the appropriate device such as the car audio system, a phone, and then in email or as a phone call in the office.

Technology is creating a new playing field for this industry. Customers have access to virtually unlimited information - once the domain of the carrier. They’re savvy and informed, and know they have choices. These same information sources are enabling niche players to enter the game from a variety of sources and they are creating an interesting competitive landscape.
Another imperative identified in the research is a switch to customer versus product centricity. In the highly connected world of 2020, policyholders will have much greater access to products and the ability to make decisions on their own. The concept of agency will eventually succumb to the power of advocacy, so individuals will look to financial services advocates to provide advice as they navigate insurance and financial services markets. The traditional agency channel will not be gone by 2020, but it will look different in the face of smart software and the salaried advocate model.
Today, it’s crucial to work as a team with the individual customer’s best interests as the goal. With so many options and choices - many just a mouse click away - it is critical to provide the user with a personalized experience including innovative products and services. Bringing the customer into the equation helps eliminate some of the old myths and perceptions about the industry. Technology, demographics and other factors will change, but one constant remains - focus on the customer will always be key.

The full research results and whitepaper are available at: http://www.ibm.com/bcs/insurance2020

Lots of people asked for this type of insurance, which is evidence that the middle-class segment has already taken shape in Romania. On the other hand, because the interest rates for financial instruments have decreased, the only possibility to obtain profits higher than the inflation rate is to place the amounts on the internal capital market and, after 2007, on the European capital market.
The Romanian insurance company Generali Asigurari said that in the first three months of 2006 it subscribed insurance premiums worth 66.88 million lei (19 million Euro), life insurance policies having a 14.05 per cent quota of this value.

Non-life insurance policies reached 57.48 million lei (around 16.4 million Euro), up by 190 per cent compared to the similar period in 2005, while life insurance policies grew by 133 per cent, to 9.39 million lei (around 2.7 million Euro).
The start of the year was very good for Generali and by the end of June the revenues from non-life insurances will reach the level of underwritten premiums for 2005, when they totaled around 110 million lei. For the life insurance segment, the company anticipates revenues of 36 million lei, compared to 20.7 milion lei recorded in 2005.
Also last week, Interamerican launched the CASCO Light car insurance policy, a product, the company said, positioned between the compulsory car insurance (RCA) and the optional comprehensive car insurance (CASCO). They consider that the car insurance market has an accelerated growth in Romania, and, implicitly, a huge potential, that is why they have chosen to invest in developing this product. On the international markets, CASCO Light is a product which is over 20 years old. In Romania, it is an innovative product, which meets the market demand.
The company officials also announced that in the first quarter of 2006 its life insurance underwritten premiums went up by 38 per cent, compared to the same period last year, reaching a total volume of around seven million lei.
On the unit-linked segment, Interamerican recorded an increase by 198 per cent, also compared to the first quarter of last year, the value of premiums standing at 777,680 lei. On the non-life insurance segment, the company reported that the total volume of gross underwritten premiums exceeded nine million lei. In total, the value of underwritten premiums stood at 16.64 million lei.
Interamerican is part of the Eureko group, which posted a turnover of over six million Euro last year.

After an accident, the insurance adjuster calls with the bad news: Your car has been totaled. The insurance company will cut you a check for the value of your car–minus the deductible on your collision coverage–and sell it for salvage. Will you get enough money to replace the car?
Yes, you probably will.
Insurance adjusters typically use several sources to pinpoint the retail value of your car (what you could have bought it for before the accident). They look at used-car price guides, consult specialized services and software, call dealers and even peruse local classified ads. Then, they come up with a range. Where your car falls depends on its condition, mileage and options. That’s where subjectivity comes into play and disputes can arise.
If your car was a pampered, low-mileage cream puff, make your case. Insurers concede that when a collectible car or specialized vehicle is involved, it’s hard to find enough comparable models to get a broad sampling of value. “If the consumer can provide information to help us, all the better,” says Greg Poling, a State Farm auto consultant. If you can’t persuade the adjuster to increase the settlement, appeal to his or her manager. If push comes to shove, call your state’s department of insurance. State law often prescribes a grievance procedure.
Do the math. In most states, your car is considered a total loss when the cost of repairs plus the probable salvage value exceeds the actual cash value of the car.

Shopping around for car insurance could save you more than €1,000.
A major cost survey, which compared the cost of coverage for a range of male and female drivers, showed big savings for drivers nationwide.
Regardless of driving experience and age, it really pays to shop around for the best type of insurance policy.
This survey featured drivers of all ages, from 26 to 75 years of age.
Many young people find it too costly to get their own insurance in the first few years and are named on a parents’ policy so in this issue we feature the costs for someone with eight years driving experience and looking for their own insurance for the first time.
The main findings of the survey, which features drivers in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny and Laois, include:
Named drivers seeking their own insurance for the first time can make considerable savings on their insurance costs. A 26-year-old male driver in Dublin, who has been a named driver under his parents’ policy for eight years, could pay between €700 and €1,800 for third party fire & theft insurance.
A 40-year-old male driver with a provisional license and a 1-year no claims discount could save around €550 on his motor insurance. A female driver with the same age and driving experience could also save up to €500 on third party, fire and theft cover.
Drivers may have more difficulty getting quotes for convertible cars. Two insurers surveyed would not provide a quotation, but convertible drivers could still save between €520 and €870 on their insurance costs.
The survey also shows insurance costs for a wheelchair-user with an automatic car with hand controls. Savings for this driver range from €280 to €330.

Insurance for those leaving abroad is the second popular at swindlers. In this area doctors swindle more often, for example, foreign doctors quite often enter the arrangement with heads of tourist groups. The last ones collect insurance policies from tourists, and the doctor writes out the bills for ostensibly rendered services. After payment the doctor shares the income with the representative of tour agency. They do it in Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Greece. The most known swindle of the last year became «the case of turkish doctors». The combination was played in the best traditions of east market when the required cost of medical services was couple times more expensive than the real one.
Travel agencies do not stay behind in swindle.
So, for the convenience of the clients the insurance companies make plastic or cardboard cards which carry all the most necessary information - number of the policy, phone of service, data which is necessary for informing the dispatcher in approach of an insurance case. The travel agency gives the cards to the clients, informing, that the policy is written to a group and the guide has it. And actually there is no any policy, tourists leave for the resorts with useless scraps of paper. If someone of them will get sick or will be injured, in the service company will answer: «Excuse us, you have named a nonexistent number of the policy ». To hush up the case the tour agency usually compensates the client his expenses on treatment. But the tourist does for himself a conclusion, that insurance is nothing but a fiction, and all insurers - swindlers.
Less popular ways of swindle - falsification of the medical documentation for reception of payments on insurance upon accident, a performance of death for reception of payments on the life insurance, targeted murders of people, insured in favor of the criminal. The basic danger for the insurance companies is represented with cases of arrangement between its representative and the swindler. They open weight of opportunities before swindlers: the overestimated amount of damage, unreasonable payments.

You should consider flood insurance now, when the start of hurricane season is a few weeks away.
Insurance against flood is available only through the National Flood Insurance Program, started by the federal government in 1968 and administered through private companies, including most of the big insurers.
You may need flood insurance even if you don’t live on a flood plain — although many people do even they don’t know it. But it’s also not necessary for everyone.
How do you know if you need a policy and how much coverage should you carry? Start by finding out if you live in a FEMA-designated flood area.
Many homeowners know if they live in such an area because mortgage providers often require flood coverage before making a loan. Realtors are also usually required to disclose relevant flood information to prospective buyers.
You can also enter your address on the agency’s website at www.floodsmart.gov. If your location comes up as ‘’high risk,'’ it means you’re in a hazard area.
Even if your home isn’t in a flood area (the website will say “low to moderate risk'’), you need to get the facts. Ask your local planning agency and fire department about past flooding, find out if your neighbors have policies and consult your insurance agent about appropriate coverage.
‘’If you’re anywhere near the flood plain, you ought to think about it,'’ says Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America. Coverage is also significantly cheaper if you live in a lower-risk area.
Currently, a little under 5 million homeowners have policies, a number that has not changed much since Hurricane Katrina, according Butch Kinerney, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the insurance program.
Policies are restricted to $250,000 of coverage on homes and $100,000 on contents — sold separately but with a discount if you buy both. No extras, like replacement-cost coverage, are offered.
Rates are set by the government so premiums are the same no matter whom you buy through. You can find premium estimates on the website www.floodsmart.gov/.
Aside from raising your home on stilts, there aren’t many cheap ways to lower the premiums.

Insurance is one of the most important needs for a small business, yet it’s one that many owners skimp on. Whether it’s business interruption insurance or casualty and property coverage, owners tend to forgo it or not get enough, even though that can put their companies and their livelihoods at risk.
Another problem is that business owners don’t re-evaluate their insurance needs as their companies grow — it’s easier to just pay the premium and get that item off their to-do list.
One of the biggest lapses is in the area of business interruption insurance. This kind of coverage, which you might need to buy separately from a standard business insurance package, can be critical after a natural disaster, fire or power failure that shuts your business down. Business interruption insurance covers lost profits and operating expenses, such as salaries, that must still be paid even when a company can’t operate.
Many people don’t think of the loss of income they would suffer if there was a fire on their premises that would disrupt their business operation. Among other things, business interruption insurance can cover the expense of operating out of a temporary location.
Another common, and serious insurance mistake is made by owners of home-based businesses, who believe that their homeowners’ policies will cover accidents that happen in the course of business. Not true — if a delivery person falls and is injured on your property while dropping off a package for your business, you’re not protected unless you purchase a separate commercial liability policy. Home-business operators can, however, get endorsements on their homeowners’ policies that will cover some equipment, such as computers.
If you use your family car for business purposes, you can face the same situation with your consumer auto insurance policy.
If you want to learn more about business insurance, there are some good primers online. The insurance institute’s Web site has a section on business insurance information at www.iii.org/individuals/business. The site includes a checklist of the kinds of insurance a business needs to consider. And the Small Business Administration Web site has a detailed explanation on business insurance at www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-28.doc.
Books on starting up a business can also give you an overview of what you’re likely to need.
At its most basic, you need property insurance to cover losses to your premises and equipment, and you’ll need liability insurance to cover personal injuries. Depending on what kind of building your business is located in, or what kind of business you have, you might need extra coverage for certain fixtures or for your specialized equipment. And, if it’s at all likely your business could be damaged in a natural disaster, you’ll need to buy separate flood or earthquake insurance.
But, depending on the industry or profession you’re in, you might need special coverage for your business activities.
For example, if you’re about to get into the export business, you should consider getting export credit insurance to protect your company in case a foreign customer doesn’t pay. Or, if you’re in the food business, you’ll need coverage for spoilage in the event of a power outage.
If you’re manufacturing something, you’ll likely need product liability insurance. And if you’re in a profession, your state may require you to carry a minimum level of malpractice insurance.
Some companies decide to buy policies for possible employee-related issues, such as coverage for sexual harassment charges.
If you’re not sure of what kind of specific policies you should be getting, it’s a good idea to contact a trade association, or other business owners in your industry or profession. They can not only inform you, but can also direct you to a good broker.
Getting a good insurance broker is critical for a small business. That means someone who understands your type of business and what your needs are. It also means someone who’ll be a step ahead of you, asking you periodically about changes in your company that might affect your coverage, and then upgrading your policy for you — a big help for that owner who just wants to pay the premium and move on.
Equally important, a good broker will also stop you from making mistakes, such as underinsuring yourself to save money.
So make sure your business is safe – insure it!

Life insurance policies designed for people infected with HIV have been attracting attention from various quarters in the world since the Johannesburg-based AllLife (Pty) Ltd. began marketing them last December in South Africa.
Inquiries are coming in from countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States for the product, which is the first of its kind in South Africa, and most probably in the world as well.
South Africa had an estimated 6.3 million HIV-infected people in the year 2004, according to the South African Health Department. The country has the highest number of HIV sufferers in the world. More than 1,000 are said to be dying of the disease each day.
The company had noticed through conducing market research that in South Africa there were policies that cover funeral expenses and that one-third of those who bought them were HIV positive. But the cost was so expensive that not many people could afford the products.
The findings prompted the company to design the policies for HIV-positive people.
In order to be eligible to buy this life insurance, an HIV-positive person’s CD-4 count, which is the barometer of one’s immune system strength, should be higher than 200, which means in medical term he or she has not developed AIDS yet.
The policy holder also has to go for blood test once every six months, and once CD-4 count drops under 200, the holder will have to keep taking anti-retroviral drugs, which treat AIDS-related symptoms.
The premiums range from 200 to 700 South African rand ($30-$107) per month for every 100,000 rand of coverage, and the largest amount sold so far is 1.7 million rand, while the average size of a policy has been 350,000 rand.
The policies are sold only in South Africa for the time being, but the company hopes to expand sales to the neighboring countries in Africa, India, the United States and Europe in the future when their products become successful, he said.
AIDS used to be practically fatal disease until ARVs were developed and it is known now that ARVs can prolong many lives of HIV patients who develop AIDS. But it has been a generally established opinion in the insurance industry that it is very difficult for a life insurance policy designed for HIV patients to be profitable.