Homeowners Needs to Take Another Look At their Insurance Coverage As Hurricane Season Starts

Homeowners needs to reexamine their insurance coverage annually, specially those who live in places that are heavily affected by tropical storms. They need to know if the cost of their premiums are shooting up, or if their deductibles have changed, or if they are entitled to new discounts.

This year it's really important to do that because it is expected that hurricane will be most active this year since 2012, according to forecasts released by The Weather Company.
These storms are already affecting the southeast United States. Tropical storm Bonnie battered the Carolinas over Memorial Day weekend, and Colin, which made landfall Monday and resulted in state of emergency declared.

Colin which packed a 50 mile-per-hour winds produces heavy rain, tornadoes and hail that battered residents along Florida's Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. The residents protect their property using sandbags. Officials distributed 13,000 sandbags to residents of Tampa, which has a history of flooding. Some residents have evacuated the area.

This why it is important to reevaluate their homeowners insurance policy. Let's assume that the replacement cost value of the property is correct, a homeowners policy will cover any wind damage caused by a hurricane. However, it will not cover damage due to flooding and homeowners need to be aware of whether they have a hurricane deductible.

Insurance companies sell policies with a hurricane deductible to limit their exposure to devastating storms. Usually, these hurricane deductible is much higher than the standard one for homeowners insurance policies. A total of 19 states have hurricane deductibles, and most of them don't have a set dollar amount but a percentage of the replacement cost value of a home. That can be huge depending on the damage incurred. 

Insurers don't choose to have a hurricane deductible. This deductibles are incorporated in homeowners insurance at the discretion of the insurance company and are activated under the terms of the policy, usually when the National Hurricane Center issues a warning or names a tropical storm.

The Insurance Information Institute issue this different hurricane deductibles across the 19 states that have and it is posted on their website, or consumers can refer to their respective state's department of insurance for details on them.

The states with special storm deductibles include: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Insurance Companies Join the Fight Against Opioid Epidemic

Health insurance companies are now joining the fight against Opioid addiction. Cigna, a health insurance firm that insures about 14 million Americans, is the newest major health insurance provider to fight the staggering opioid addiction numbers and deaths. The company is targeting what experts are saying the number one cause of the addiction, over-prescribing of prescription painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine.

Other insurance companies like Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield have also taken similar steps over the past several years to prevent deaths and pull down the numbers of people who get addicted to this drugs. It doesn't just save a lot of people, it also makes good business sense. According to research, it cost public and private insurance companies about $72.5 billion annually to deal with prescription painkiller abuse, treatment and “diversion” (when patients sell the medication instead of taking it).

Big health insurance companies do have access to prescription information for its customers. The have records every-time their customer fill a prescription using their insurance. Cigna’s new measure will be to flag customers who are deemed high-risk — either for getting large amounts of opioid medicines, for getting narcotics from different doctors or for being on the medicines for a long time and they will contact with those customers’ doctors.

The doctor can give their patients other treatment options if addiction is an issue. If the doctor feels the patient still needs to be prescribed long-term narcotics, Cigna can limit where the patient is able to pick the medicine up and which doctors are able to prescribe narcotics to them, so that the doctor is able to closely monitor whether that patient seems to be needing more and more painkillers.

Cigna is targeting to lessen the number of opioid prescriptions written to its customers by 25%, back to the number of prescriptions that were being written in 2006, which the insurer calls “pre-crisis.”

Smartphone Insurance 101

Smartphone are expensive and easy to lose, break or stolen, this is why smartphone or cellphone insurance is in demand nowadays. Smartphone insurance covers lost, stolen or damaged phones. However, you should take note of the following information about this kind of insurance:

1. Deductible can be as much as the cost of the smartphone - iPhone 6S with a 2-year contract from Sprint is priced at $199.99. The Sprint’s Total Equipment Protection insurance costs $11 per month. Unfortunately for you if you lost or break your smartphone the insurance deductible will be $200.

This happens since carriers heavily subsidize smartphone prices if you purchased it with a contract. The retail price for an iPhone 6S is about $650. Installment plans, which often require no upfront payment for the phone, they simply spread its cost out over your contract term.

2. The Insurance Company will Determine the Replacement Smartphone - Your insurance company will have the final say on the replacement smartphone it may be of the same make and model, it maybe of different color or type. It may also be refurbished.

3. Carrier companies can dropped you from your plan for making a claim - Most insurance providers limits customers to two claims in a 12-month period. This can be a problem for people that are particularly accident-prone. The trouble is, those are the people for whom cellphone insurance makes the most sense.

Here are Cellphone protection plans:

AT&T -
Monthly fee: $7.99.
Deductible: $50-$199, depending on device. They offer declining deductible program that can give you 25% to 50% less.

AppleCare+ -
Cost: $99-$129 for two years of coverage.
Covers: Damage (two incidents) and phone malfunctions.
Deductible: $79 or $99 per incident, depending on model.

T-Mobile -
Monthly fee: $10.
Deductible: $20-$175.

Sprint -
Monthly fee: $9-$11
Deductible: $50-$200, depending on device.

SquareTrade -
Cost: $119 for two years of coverage.
Covers: Damage and phone malfunctions.
Deductible: $99 for all claims.

Verizon -
Monthly fee: $7.15 (smartphones), $5 (basic phones, tablets).
Deductible: $99-$199 (smartphones), $49-$199 (basic phones, tablets).

Ride-hailing Insurance For Uber, Lyft and other Transportation Network Company (TNC) drivers

If you are an Uber, Lyft and other Transportation Network Company (TNC) driver you'll need more than your personal auto insurance because there are gaps in the coverage.

TNC services three Drive Period. 
Period 1:
App open – waiting for a match. 
Period 2:
Match accepted – but passenger not yet picked up (i.e. driver is on his/her way to pick up the passenger).  Period 3:
Passenger in the vehicle and until the passenger safely exits vehicle.

Ride-hailing coverage like that one that Mercury Insurance offer is design to fill the gaps and provide TNC drivers with insurance coverage that will protect them throughout the entire drive cycle. So if drivers get into an accident in any portion of the drive cycle and are liable they will be insured up to the limits of coverage purchased.

Mercury's ride-hailing insurance increases drivers' personal auto policies to cover Period 1 through Period 3 of the drive cycle, this will fill the gaps and gives the driver protection not provided by ride-hailing companies. Their ride-hailing insurance will also fix the insured's vehicle in a covered loss if those coverage have been purchased from Mercury.  In addition, if the policies provided by both the TNC and Mercury include coverage for the insured's vehicle, then the Mercury policy will pay for any "gap" between the higher deductible on the TNC policy and the lower deductible on the Mercury policy.

What To Do With Your Tax Refund?

You get tax refund when you overpaid the government it's not a bonus money since you earned it through hard work. After filing your taxes you'll find how much refund you're gonna get. If you have a huge tax refund, normally people will buy a new car or that new UHD TV that will blow your mind or a new game console. But if you're smart, just use it to pay off some of your debts. If you have no outstanding debts, then you can start or add some in your savings account.

You can also diversify your portfolio, save for your retirement, start a college fund for your children or add money to your emergency fund. However, you wouldn't want to gamble that money away. That will be a complete waste. Check out the Infographic below on "How to Make the Most of Your Tax Refund"

Click here for proceed to the Infographic

California Legislature approves $15 minimum wage increase, will be highest in the US

California lawmakers approved a sweeping plan on Thursday raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next six years. This will be the nation’s highest statewide minimum wage and it will take effect by 2022.

The Assembly passed SB3 with a 48-26 vote. The the Senate voted 26-12, people cheered the move and "Si se puede" can be heard from the gallery above. The legislation now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law after previously working out the plan with labor unions. Brown will sign the wage hike into law in Los Angeles on Monday.

Democrats who control both legislative chambers in California praised the move as a boon to more than 2 million of state’s poorest workers. Opponents complained it was rushed and did not include a wide group at the negotiating table. Business owners and economists fears that the yearly increases will be tied to inflation and will make California hostile to business.

The state of New York was considering a similar move.

Under the plan, California's hourly minimum wage would increase from the current $10 to $10.50 on January 1. Businesses with 25 or fewer employees would be given an extra year to comply. Increases of $1 an hour would come every January until 2022. The governor could delay increases in times of budgetary or economic downturns.

California’s current $10 an hour minimum is tied with Massachusetts for the highest among states. Los Angeles, Seattle and other cities have recently approved $15 minimum wages, while Oregon officials plan to increase the minimum to $14.75 an hour in cities and $12.50 in rural areas by 2022.

In New York, Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers continued to negotiate Thursday over Cuomo’s proposal to gradually raise the state’s minimum wage from $9 to $15 by the end of 2018 in New York City and by mid-2021 elsewhere in the state.

Long-Term Care Insurance Are Too Expensive

If you check out the prices of today's long term care insurance, I'm sure you'll ask who can afford them? They are just too expensive for the regular working class like us.

Long-term care insurance policies pay back policyholders a daily amount for services to assist them with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, transferring (to bed, chair, etc), housework, shopping for groceries or eating. Unlike traditional health insurance, long-term care insurance is designed to cover long-term services and supports, including personal and custodial care in a variety of settings such as your home, a community organization, or other facility.

In Pennsylvania, premiums have gone up as much as 130%, yearly rates have exceeded $8,000. So why are they so expensive? President of Rosenthal Wealth Management Group Larry Rosenthal said that nowadays, people are living longer and aren't necessarily living healthier. So insurance companies left the market since there are little or no profits and those that remain have increased premiums significantly to keep up with costs.

Here are some alternatives way to pay for Expensive Long-Term Care Insurance:

Short-term care insurance - this policy is like long-term care insurance, however the benefits are typically capped at one year. This policy is more affordable and they may also be available to older seniors or those who aren't otherwise eligible for long-term coverage.

Life + long-term care insurance - the combination of long-term care coverage and life insurance may help consumers avoid the type of rate increases currently being experienced in Pennsylvania.

Long-term care annuities - These annuities require a hefty upfront payment, but if you need long-term care, your overall cost may be lower than what you'd spend on insurance premiums.

Health savings accounts - For those who have an eligible high-deductible health insurance plan, a health savings account offers a way to put money aside tax-free for medical costs, such as long-term care.

Home equity - Retirees without significant investments may still own a valuable asset: their house. Tapping into home equity through a line of credit, taking out a reverse mortgage or selling a house outright are some of the ways people can use their property to pay for long-term care.

Pensions or Social Security - Depending on the size of your monthly payments and the amount of care you need, paying for services monthly out of a pension or Social Security benefit may be option.

Medicaid - if all else fail, and a person's income and assets have been depleted, the government will step in to pay for care. Medicaid won't pay for assisted living, but it will cover nursing home care and many states also pay for home health care services for eligible people.

2016 Car Insurance Rates Rankings by State

The state with the most expensive car insurance premiums in 2016 goes to Michigan, they bag the top spot for third year in a row in the Insure.com’s 2016 state-by-state comparison of auto insurance premiums. Michigan average car insurance premiums is at $2738.
The 2nd spot goes to Montana at $2297, while New Jersey is in third with $1905.

Florida is the 8th spot they are paying an average of $1,654 annually for insurance, $329 higher than the nationwide average of $1,325.

Maine grabbed the No. 1 spot for the cheapest car insurance at $808 annually.

The rates are based on the average for the 20 best-selling vehicles in the U.S. in order to present more accurate rates for the average driver, without high-end sports or luxury cars skewing the data.


National average     $1325
1     Michigan     $2738
2     Montana     $2297
3     New Jersey     $1905
4     Louisiana     $1842
5     Oklahoma     $1778
6     DC             $1773
7     California     $1752
8     Florida     $1654
9     Maryland     $1610
10     Rhode Island     $1608
11     Delaware     $1607
12     Georgia     $1559
13     Texas             $1510
14     West Virginia     $1456
15     Wyoming     $1421
16     Colorado     $1393
17     Connecticut     $1367
18     South Carolina     $1353
19     Arkansas     $1345
20     Alabama     $1337
21     Massachusetts     $1325
22     Pennsylvania     $1305
23     Kentucky     $1295
24     New Mexico     $1277
25     Mississippi     $1277
26     Oregon             $1267
27     Minnesota     $1257
28     Nevada             $1221
29     North Dakota     $1200
30     Nebraska     $1188
31     Arizona     $1188
32     South Dakota     $1168
33     Washington     $1168
34     Tennessee     $1145
35     Kansas             $1135
36     Indiana     $1113
37     Alaska             $1078
38     Utah             $1061
39     Missouri     $1056
40     New York     $1050
41     Hawaii       $1049
42     Illinois     $1035
43     Virginia     $1020
44     Iowa        $989
45     North Carolina     $987
46     Vermont     $942
47     New Hampshire     $941
48     Idaho       $935
49     Wisconsin     $912
50     Ohio        $900
51     Maine       $808

Donald Trump Health Care Reform Plan ( TrumpCare )

Donald Trump has repeatedly promised that he will not let people die on the streets. Today he has released his Trumpcare health care reform plan. His aim is to broaden the access of health care to the people. He is also for abolishing the individual mandate, which under Obamacare requires all Americans to have health insurance.

Donald Trump laid out his plan to reform the U.S. health care system after repeatedly pledging to repeal and replace Obamacare with something much better.

He posted his seven-point plan on his website (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/healthcare-reform). Besides, scrapping the individual health insurance mandate he also promised to allow competition over states lines for health care plans, and block grant Medicaid to the states, this will let them follow through on his prescription to "eliminate fraud, waste and abuse to preserve our precious resources."

He will also make individual health insurance premium payments fully tax deductible.

His plan clearly is in line with conservatives. He will also "reduce the number of individuals needing access to programs like Medicaid." "The best social program has always been a job and taking care of our economy will go a long way towards reducing our dependence on public health programs."

His plan also requires "price transparency" to let patients to "shop and find the best prices" for their medical care and removing the barriers to entry that currently make it more difficult for cheaper drugs from overseas to enter the American health care market.

He also calls for "reform our mental health programs and institutions in this country. Families, without the ability to get the information needed to help those who are ailing, are too often not given the tools to help their loved ones. There are promising reforms being developed in Congress that should receive bi-partisan support."

World's Largest Economies by 2020

Check out how the world's largest and fastest growing economies change over time from 2008 up to 2020. China is growing by leaps and bounds while the front runner the United States are steadily growing. By 2020 US GDP is estimated to grow to $22.5 trillion while China is estimated to grow to $16.2 trillion. At 3rd will be Japan at $4.9 trillion, 4th is Germany at $4.1.

Check out the CNN Graphics here


Estimated; Data: IMF, World Economic Outlook; Updated Feb. 11, 2016

Farmers Insurance Discontinue Coverage Of A Insurer after Filing Tornado Claims

Farmers Insurance cancelled the coverage of Richard Perry, a Moore, Oklahoma resident after he filled two claims for tornado damage. He got a letter from the insurance company stating that they would be canceling his policy, effective in April.

In an interview he said it doesn't make sense to him, he called his local agent and the agent to him that the company would be more than happy to continue coverage on their vehicles but, due to the location of his home in a high risk area, it would be too high a risk to cover it.

The letter reads: "Unfortunately, we are unable to continue coverage, because the number of losses you have experienced exceed our acceptability limits."

The family filed claims on two occasions following tornadoes. Their first claim was in 2013, when the insurance company paid $1,615 for wind damage. The second came in March of 2015, when Farmers paid $7,746. Perry said most of that claim was paid out on his truck, which was damaged in the storm.

Under state law, an insurance company can't drop a policyholder for filing a single claim. But, companies can take action if a policyholder files two claims or more.

It's hard to trust an insurance company that will drop you like a hot potato when things are hard on you.


Farmers Insurance is Rated Worst!

Flood Insurance Policy: Tool to Estimate Flood Damages to your Home

With the recent extreme weather condition that battered the country a lot of homeowners have to deal with flooding. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have repeated over and over, pitching flood insurance to homeowners.

If your house got flooded, usually there is a 30-day waiting period on most flood insurance policies, so you should really have one in place already. If you’re right on the water and you don’t have a mortgage, you should probably get flood insurance to cover yourself.

You should also make sure that your policy is rated properly, if your policy is not rated correctly and an adjuster find it out, you could have your claim adjusted to pay back for insurance that you should of been paying for, so double check with your insurance agent to make sure that you are rated properly.

All it takes is a few inches of water to cause major damage to your home, your appliances, and other contents.

If your home got flooded you can use this tool to estimate the damage caused by the flood inch by inch:



Also check "What does Standard Home Insurance cover?" and "Flood Insurance Policy"

UnitedHealth May Ditch Obamacare

Despite of UnitedHealth Group Inc. efforts to cut down on sign-ups their 2016 Affordable Care Act exchanges enrollment has surge and this caused the company significant losses.

UnitedHealth, which is the biggest U.S. health insurer said, they are expecting losses of more than $500 million on its 2016 Obamacare plans, compared with previous projections that amounted to $400 million to $425 million in losses.

The company has done some steps to reduce their exchange business exposure in anticipation of losses, like cutting down on marketing and slashing commissions to health-insurance agents.
However, enrollment still grew, widening their exposure. UnitedHealth Group Chief Executive Stephen J. Hemsley said the new projection reflected “prudence,” as the company sought to ensure it had covered all possible losses.

On Tuesday, the UnitedHealth reported their financial outlook for 2016, they expect $7.60 to $7.80 in adjusted earnings per share and at least $180 billion in revenue. Its shares closed up 3% at $112.58, as investors shrugged off the exchange comments amid strong results elsewhere in the company’s portfolio.

But UnitedHealth’s move comes amid continued worries about the exchange business—concerns that the company jump-started in November, when it disclosed expected 2016 losses and said it would consider withdrawing from the health-law marketplaces, a decision expected to be made later this year.

What would an exit by UnitedHealth Group mean for Obamacare?

It would mean higher premiums as well cost sharing for consumers, particularly in small markets where UnitedHealth is a big player.

Car Owners Don't want Insurance Companies to Track Them Even it they give Discounts

Car insurance companies like Progressive, Allstate, and State Farm are offering big discounts to car owners on their insurance however, it comes with a catch. They will place sensors in your car so that they can track your every move and driving habits.

The sensors will give insurance companies comprehensive data about how you drive your car, how far motorist drive, how often you hit the brakes, and record every time you exceed the speed limit. These data will give insurance companies information to identify safe drivers who are less likely to file a claim.

Insurance companies wants to create a database of these information about drivers to be able to accurately evaluate risk and customize each insurance policy to fit individual drivers. Unfortunately for them they will need customers to consent to having a tracking device in their cars, and a lot of people don't want it.

Insurance companies are temping car owners with plug-in devices and smartphone applications. They are also working with car manufacturers to be able to use their in-car computers as tracking devices. They also offer big discounts as high as 30%.


If you ask me, this is really creepy, if they can track your every destination they will know everything about you. Where you work, where your kids attend school, where you get your lunch etc.