We've Moved...

All our articles remain here, but come on over to our new site at 

The San Diego insurance Blog

In Canada, I simply call my doctor and make an appointment

My husband & I live in Canada but are in Arizona for 3 months this winter. We took out Blue Cross travel insurance. I have had 2 medical emergencies...the first one Blue Cross paid but I had to pay the second one.

When I paid the $125 to see a doctor I thought "for some families this would be like making a decision to go to the doctor when you needed medical attention or putting food on the table for your family."

In Canada, I would simply call and make and appointment to see my Dr. If it was an emergency, I'd be in the same day - otherwise it would be a case of waiting till the next day. Then I would receive care, a prescription or whatever. We never see a bill or know the cost involved. 18 years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had surgery within 2 weeks of my diagnosis and then had radiation, took Tamoxifin for 5 years. I picked up a 3 month supply at our local cancer clinic and went on my way.

No bills, no stress or wondering if I would be covered. And EVERYONE has care...it's worth the extra we pay in taxes for such piece of mind!!

Anonymous

Arizona
Cross posted from http://healthcare.democratsabroad.ca/

Write a letter to your Congressperson

This post is from Bob Haiducek, who is responsible for the website www.medicareforall.org and who runs the Million Letters for Health Care campaign. Bob's website allows you to do what he calls "sign up to stand up for single-payer, Medicare for All", so I recommend that you sign up to be counted as a supporter in whatever your U.S. Congressional District is in the U.S. Bob sends 1 helpful e-mail each month with a fresh set of suggestions that you can use directly or for an idea to personalize your letter.

Any American in any country can participate. If you don't want to pay for the overseas postage to actually send the monthly letter, you could do a copy and past each month of your letter to your U.S. Representative into an e-mail and do a cc: or bcc: to bob@medicareforall.org. Bob will get your letter to your U.S. Representative ... in an envelope in the U.S. Mail if the donations to his website allow him to be able to handle that expense.

Following are excerpts of one of Bob's monthly helpful reminders. You can use ideas from the list below, write your own letter, or go to www.medicareforall.org to download a sample letter.

==== SUGGESTION: select one of these to write or use as an idea for what you write ====

September 2009

People in other free-market countries wonder why we have not implemented low-cost high-quality health care for all like they did. It's time for us to act!

We know from President Obama's position in 2003 that he will sign if people communicate in every Congressional District. We are now communicating!

People need to automatically have full health care for their entire lives to improve the quality of life and help people have good preventive care.

People need to automatically have full health care for their entire lives to improve the quality of life without having any major medical bills.

We want this one action that will save families up to $8,000 per year in addition to possibly saving up to $2,500 per year with additional actions.
==============================


For Your Reference in Conversations --------

If you are among fellow activists, please consider bringing up the subject of the contents of this "Help Get Care" document:
http://www.medicareforall.org/files/helpgetcare.pdf
or its corresponding web page.

If you are among people who are supportive of single-payer and would like to know more, please consider these documents:
http://www.medicareforall.org/files/benefits.pdf
or its corresponding web page
and
http://www.medicareforall.org/files/twochoices.pdf
or its corresponding web page.

How to Review Your Homeowners Insurance Renewal Statement

For most of us, our home is our single largest and most important investment. Many of us have poured thousands of dollars and countless hours into maintaining, improving and (hopefully) paying off our homes. Many people own their homes free of any mortgage. These assets are pure equity. Certainly its worthwhile to invest 15 minutes a year to be sure it's properly insured.

Thankfully, the insurance company offers you a perfect reminder and opportunity in sending out your annual renewal statement. Even if your insurance is paid by your mortgage company as part of your impound account, the insurance company still mails you a statement of renewal every year to update you with your current coverage limits and deductible.

Here's a few important steps you can take to be sure that HOME SWEET HOME is properly protected.

1. Check the basics. Check your name, address and any other description of the insured property. Make sure there's been no change of vesting or ownership that needs to be updated. Check your address to be sure no numbers are transposed.

2. Check the mortgagee clause. Here's where you can be sure that the current mortagee on your home is listed correctly. Check the lender, address and your loan number. Be sure there's no old information there. Maybe you had a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) or a second mortgage that no longer applies. Be sure to get them removed.

HEADS UP: Whenever you have a significant claim, the mortgage company will be one of the payees on your claim settlement check. Just that alone can be an inconvenience. But it becomes a major hassle when one of the institutions listed no longer has a vested interest in your home. The insurance company is bound by contract to include the mortgage company on all settlement checks beyond a stated threshold.

*3. Check the coverage on your home (dwelling or building). This is without question the single most important coverage to examine, consider and adjust whenever necessary. Having been an agent during the two raging firestorms in San Diego, CA in this decade, I can tell you that underinsured homes are just NO FUN! Two of my clients lost their homes in the 2003 fires and fortunately they were both adequately insured. (we call all our homeowner clients once a year to review their coverages and suggest improvements and adjustments) But I can tell you that there were literally hundreds of people in the area that were not so fortunate. Many were underinsured by over $100,000! Contractors were giving rebuilding bids on homes for $400,000 with insurance policies with limits less than $300,000. See if that doesn't tweak your financial well-being just a little. Here's the solution.

Get an accurate rendering of the square footage of your home. Check county records, take a look at zillow.com, call your favorite Realtor, or get a tape measure and do your thing. Usually you don't include the garage in this calculation. Once you get your square footage, then you need to determine the building cost per square foot in your area for a home like yours. Call a local contractor for a quick estimate or you can call your insurance agent. Average costs in San Diego run about $200 per square foot. With that, a 2000 square foot would take about $400,000 to rebuild. Custom homes can be significantlly more. For a more complete discussion of this, check out: How Much Homeowners Insurance Do You REALLY Need?

Your contents coverage is usually 75% of the amount you have on your home. For example, if you have $400,000 on your home, you'll have an additional $300,000 to cover your personal property (furniture, clothing, dishes, TV, collections, shoes, tools, etc) Usually this is enough, but think through it anyway. If you have antiques, art, collections of any kind then you may need more. Ask your agent for help if you need to.

4. Look at your Personal Liability Coverage. This is the coverage you need when you get sued. Little Johnny runs across your front yard and trips on one of your sprinklers and ruins his chances to become America's Next Top Model and his parents sue your for $250,000. Make sure you don't scrimp here. It's not too expensive to get $500,000 or even $1 Million of liability coverage. If you have $100,000 or less, you could be setting yourself up for a mess just waiting to happen. Put a really big checkbook between your assets and someone who sees an injury as a lifetime paycheck. You might even consider a Liability Umbrella.

5. Check your 'special limits'. This is a REALLY BROAD subject that I just can't do justice to here in this post. Simply stated, there's limits on many things such as cash, computers, cameras, jewelry, furs, goldware, silverware, tools, etc. Call your company and ask for a review. You can increase many of these limits for just a few dollars a year. Sometimes the available increase isn't enough. That's the perfect time to consider a Personal Articles Floater (or it's called many different names) It's a policy that's designed to place stated amounts of coverage on many items from jewelry, business tools, iPods, hearing aids, cameras, musical instruments and on and on. If you have more than 'the average Joe' of ANYTHING, then check this out FOR SURE!

6. Check your deductible! This can be a tremendous cost-control tool in your insurance spending. Simply stated: The larger your deductible, the greater your savings. Usually you can save close to $100 per year just by going from a $500 deductible to $1000. Pick the largest number you can stand without losing sleep at night and ask your agent or company the savings you'd realize by changing. If you have a $250 or smaller deductible, it's definitely time to change it UP! Keep in mind that you usually hit a point of 'diminishing returns' once you get to $4000 or more. This means that you'll save less and less for each additional $1000 you choose. It might make sense to go from $1000 to $2000 if you save $85 a year by doing so, but not from $5000 to $6000 if you only save another $21 by making that jump.

Monitoring your insurance costs and coverages can result in a lot of savings AND peace of mind. Be sure you keep notes and file your thoughts and changes from year to year. These recoreds will make your annual call quicker and easier each year.

Feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions.

Till next time...


It's a Good Life !






Dennis Volz Insurance Agency
10791 Jamacha Bl, Suite 1, Spring Valley, CA 91978
OFFICE: (619) 670-1000 - FAX: (619) 670-1121
eMail:Dennis@DennisVolzInsurance.com
Websites: Company Site: DennisVolzInsurance.com