Health Savings Accounts save money

If you were to spend every penny on health insurance out of your pocket, two things would happen. First, you'd be more interested in your medical treatment, questioning the cost and necessity for every procedure. And, second, you'd take better care of yourself, knowing that being overweight, or smoking, or not exercising is bound to be very costly to your own financial future, as additional health care is going to hit you in the pocketbook.

Health Savings Accounts let people keep the money they don't spend on medical care -- in an account that grows tax-deferred every year to pay for future medical expenses. And the money they do spend for medical expenses is paid out on a pre-tax basis.

The account is combined with a high-deductible health plan that costs less than traditional health insurance policies, but covers major medical expenses. Employers may use some of that savings to contribute to workers' HSAs.

In 2007, individuals can set aside a tax-deductible contribution to the HSA of up to $2,850, or $5,650 for a family.

Florida Auto Insurance

Four Florida Auto Insurance Companies have now stopped accepting new car insurance customers in Florida because of changes in state law and an emergency freeze on rate hikes and policy cancellations.

Auto-Owners Insurance Company will accept no new business in Florida, including not just home policies but personal auto insurance coverage as well.

State records show that the Michigan based insurance carrier already was cutting back its Florida business.

Minimum Health Insurance Requirements

The board charged with getting Health insurance Companies to come up with affordable health care plans will consider a proposal that would allow health insurers to offer health plans that don’t include prescription drug coverage.
The goal is to encourage health plans that offer solid health coverage and also affordable by anyone earning at least three times the poverty rate.

A key sticking point has been whether those healthcare plans should require drug coverage.
Health Insurers say drug coverage would drive up monthly premiumsand make the goals unattainable. Health care advocates say drug coverage should be a key part of any health insurance plan.

Another Health Insurance Plan

John Edwards has asserted that if elected president of the United States he would make health insurance available to all Americans and would support a tax increase on the wealthy to help pay for the expanded health coverage.

Edwards said he will present a health plan today that would extend health insurance to the 47 million uninsured Americans, would contain health insurance costs for the middle class, and encourage more competition among health insurance carriers.

Previewing his universal health care plan, Edwards said he would expand Medicaid -- -- and a federal health insurance plan for children, to make both more widely available.

To help play for the plan, Edward would "get rid of George Bush's tax cuts for people who make more than $200,000/year."

Universal Health Insurance

Private health insurance costs are out of control, New Jersey has joined a growing number of states - including Pennsylvania - that are hammering out plans for universal health insurance.

Gov. Jon Corzine and legislative leaders say that once they finish their property-tax overhaul, the issue will take center stage in Trenton. But as with tax reform, insuring the uninsured is a concept that is widely praised - and difficult to execute.

In preliminary proposals, all New Jersey residents would be required to have health insurance coverage - and could enroll in plans subsidized by the state.

The more than $1 billion price tag alone could be a deal breaker. But the costs of not overhauling the state's health-care system are much greater.

Separate legislation would be aimed at insuring around 600,000 residents who cannot afford private health insurance coverage but make too much to qualify for FamilyCare or Medicaid.

Bush's Health Plan - Holes

George's health plan would taxes workers' "gold-plated" health insurance benefits. These tax revenues would supposedly offset the cost of helping Americans buy their own health insurance coverage. This plan will fail politically - even though parts of it are sound.

The tax system can't fix the health care system. Fiddling with the tax code will not meet most every social need, especially the health care sysytem

Employer sponsored health insurance is now entirely tax-exempt. Health coverage bought outside the job is not. Bush's proposal, mentioned in his State of the Union Address, would do the following:

Employees would be taxed for health insurance coverage costing more than $15,000 for a family or $7,500 for an individual. Families that buy their own health policies, meanwhile, could deduct $15,000 from taxable income. Individuals could take off $7,500. It doesn't matter if the actual cost of the health insurance is less.

The deduction would be a boon to the 27 million Americans who already buy health insurance outside of the workplace - and a matter of fairness. As Bush correctly noted, it would "level the playing field" for people who obtain health coverage outside of their employer.

This tax deduction is more about helping real-estate agents and free-lance consultants than dishwashers.

Atlantic Mutual #1

Atlantic Mutual earned the top spot in the 2006 New York Auto Insurance Report for having the lowest rate of auto insurance consumer complaints in a report issued by the New York State Insurance Department.

The ranking is based on the ratio of upheld complaints to premiums in 2005. Atlantic Mutual had zero complaints upheld.

Among all companies included in the report over the past five years, Atlantic Mutual has had the fewest total number of upheld complaints.