Healthcare

Everyone hears the news and knows that healthcare in America is a hot topic with politicians. It's no secret that we need better insurance, more regulations on prescription drugs and reasonable healthcare costs. Regardless of your stand on this issue, Health Insurance is a valuable commodity to help avoid financial disaster due to illness or disease.

I'm sure you've all seen the AFLAC commercials advertising money to help pay bills if you're laid up. What that crazy little duck is talking about is Disability Income Protection Insurance.

DI is one type of insurance that can help protect your family from financial ruin. Based on your salary, and the amount of coverage you elect, DI coverage will allow monetary relief payable to you in the instance you are disabled either short or long term and is something you maintain, not your employer. Therefore, if you are receiving Workers Compensation, you can still receive your DI payments.

Credit Life and/or Disability insurance (CLD) that is normally tacked onto a loan or mortgage can also protect your family from financial disaster due to accidents or illness. Although it is more advisable to have term life insurance for large or long-term loans such as mortgages, adding credit life and/or disability insurance to a short-term loan (such as a car note) is always advisable.

I can name two personal instances where the option of taking CLD insurance made a huge impact. In 2002 my daughter bought a new car. I advised her to take the CLD insurance on the loan but, as children usually do, she decided not to and rejected it. In Jan 2004, she was taken off of work due to pregnancy complications. That CLD insurance would have paid her car note until she was released to return to employment in May. That is 3 months she paid a car note that, had she listened to her mother, she would have been spared. Especially considering that she couldn't even drive during those months.

More recently, in 2005 my husband and I refinanced the mortgage on our home. As the primary borrower, the finance company offered CLD insurance on my husband. Since we had plenty of term insurance on me where he could pay off the mortgage in the instance of my death but not vise versa, we accepted the insurance. The mortgage came out of rescission at 10:00 am on August 23, 2005. At 6pm that same evening, my husband was admitted into the hospital with Congestive Heart Failure. Had we not accepted that CLD, insurance, we may very well have lost our home by now, however, since we did take the coverage, we have yet to pay the first house note.

Based on these two incidents, you can see where taking the CLD insurance is a good decision to avoid financial adversity for your family, especially in those cases where you may not have enough coverage elsewhere to protect them.

Most major insurance companies offer this type of coverage, so whether or not you like the AFLAC duck, you can still get coverage