“Bagels & Your Insurance Plans” featured in NE Boomer Ohio Magazine

What is your favorite bagel? Do you take for granted the hole in the middle of the bagel?

With the different forms of health insurance, life insurance, Medicare, and Supplemental benefits available, you think that it would be self-explanatory to just find your plan and be done. That can be the case, however, many of these plans have holes that need to be filled.

Let us start with the bagel flavor called life insurance. There’s whole, term, IUL, GUL, Final expense, burial insurance, guaranteed issue, and variable life insurance. The inevitable is you will pass away. What type of life insurance will fill the hole in your bagel? Not having an end-of-life plan and leaving the burden to your family, flying by the seat of your pants, bury me in the back yard, or using GoFundMe as your family’s life insurance plan, does not fill the hole in the bagel. Do you have assets that you want to leave to family members, a charity, or a friend? How do I protect and insulate the loss of income my family needs when I pass away? How healthy do I have to be to purchase life insurance? When is the right time to start estate planning? When do I start the conversation with my family about life insurance? The answer is now!! Having a conversation with a licensed insurance broker like me will help you understand and plan accordingly no matter what income level you are currently receiving. The first hole of this bagel and insurance is filled.

The next bagel flavor is Health Insurance and Medicare. The holes in this bagel can be large. What insurance carrier works for me? What out of pocket cost do I have? Is my doctor in the network? How much are my prescriptions? Can I travel with my plan? Do I have to have insurance? Can I choose a Medicare Advantage or Medicare supplement? Are health sharing plans worth it? All are great questions. Allowing a licensed insurance broker like us to shop, compare, and take out as much cost as possible for you is what we do for all our clients. Be prepared for changes coming into 2025. It is crucial that you review your summary of benefits and coverage with health insurance and your annual notice of change with your Medicare plan going into next year. The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act implemented in 2022 will be profound in your costs you pay at your providers, prescription drugs, Maximum out of pocket costs and higher monthly premiums. Also, there may be reductions in benefits and/or Insurance carriers potentially leaving the market entirely due to financial pressures post-COVID Era, new regulatory mandates, and lower returns from state and federal regulators. With it being said, it will be crucial for you to look at supplemental benefits to fill the hole in that bagel of Health Insurance and Medicare. What are supplemental benefits? Supplemental benefits may include dental, vision, hearing, accident, hospitalization, critical illness/cancer, short term care, and disability. The cost of these plans is very minimal monthly, however, providing you and your family with insulation from loss of income, a major catastrophic illness cost outlay, and lowering your exposure to a potential financial catastrophe. Many people do not know that the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States is unpaid medical bills. Filling this bagel hole will help you and your family pay for your necessary expenses such as housing, food, transportation, utilities, and out of pocket medical costs you are responsible for.

Let us be “Your Favorite Pane” when it comes to solving your insurance puzzle pieces.