Category: Insurance

A few months ago I had gone to visit relatives in Washington D.C for a few days ahead of a work trip to New York. When I got to Dulles airport, just outside D.C., I rented a car from the Budget car rental at the airport. The total for the…

Few people enjoy the idea of discussing how much life insurance they need and what the ideal policy is for them. However, the truth is that having a good life insurance policy in place is very important. In fact, it can make the difference between your loved ones being able…

[Update] - I got my policy rebate today! It’s paid monthly but still nice to see some money back in my bank accounts. As part of our Apron Relief Program, we issued you a premium credit on 05/11/2020. Your credit amount was $17.84. This amount represents a 20% credit of your…

Congressional leaders and the President have now approved a $900 billion stimulus plan that includes funding for extending federal pandemic programs (PUA, PEUC) and providing another supplementary unemployment benefit (FPUC) of $300 per week for millions of unemployed or underemployed Americans. This new $300 payment will be made to eligible recipients between December 27th,…

The Senate has announced their health care plan -  the BETTER CARE RECONCILIATION ACT (BCRA) - which is in line with the house bill, with key changes being made to appease more moderate Republicans. NPR had a nice summary comparing Obamacare, AHCA (House bill) and BCRA (Senate bill) shown in the graphic below.…

[Latest Update] The repeal and replacement of Obamacare via the American Health Care Act, the Ryan-Trump administration proposal, is officially on hold following a lack on unity across the Republican party to get the AHCA bill approved in the House. With no Democrat member support, it had to be passed by all…

Tis' the holiday season and that means sales everywhere you look. This includes sales and discounts in the ultra-competitive auto insurance industry, where with only a few minutes of online clicking and typing you could literally save hundreds on your next auto insurance policy. During the holiday season auto insurance companies really…

Around this time of year many people get renewal notices for their auto insurance. More often than not they will briefly scan the notice and if the premium hasn’t increased substantially from the prior period they’ll just file away the renewal paperwork and let the auto-payment on file continue to…

[Update] - The Obama administration announced that it will give Americans who buy health insurance through the new online marketplaces an extra six weeks (until March 31st, the end of open enrollment) to obtain coverage before they incur a penalty. With all the news around the glitches plaguing the Obamacare website…

The Premium Tax Credit (PTC) allows you offset the monthly premium costs of health care plans purchased via official exchanges or government health insurance marketplaces. For nearly 5 million households, the PTC completely offsets their monthly premium (free health insurance!). Another 10 million benefit with reduced health care premiums. The PTC…

Despite ObamaCare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, having been around for several years now there is still considerable uncertainty around the various tax credits and subsidies on premiums, deductibles, co-payments, and coinsurance. The value of these credits and subsidies are generally dependent on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) and family…

President Obama's signature health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act, is very much in place now and in the next few months a number of Americans are going to see a lot more of the regulations and laws come into place. This includes: Penalties for No Health Insurance. Beginning in…

It's that time of the year again. Open enrollment. It's also fall, but as this is a personal finance blog, weather is not the focus. My current employer, a Fortune 500 firm, recently released their employee contribution rates (i.e health insurance premiums) for it's employees and once again rates are…