Ask Colleen King

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a great way to pay for your health care when you have a qualified high deductible health plan. One big benefit is that any money you deposit into your HSA is deductible on your federal tax return. It’s also deductible on some states’ returns (but not in California, just yet.) [...]

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COBRA–good news or bad news? These days people are either losing their jobs, their health insurance or both. What do you do? I know people aren’t always thrilled with their group health insurance plans but it’s scarier to think of being uninsured if you’ve ever heard the costs one can incur. But then you find [...]

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Health Insurance–group health insurance or Individual health, it’s the bane of most peoples’ existence. One way you can save money is on how you use your prescription drug benefit. Most of you will already know that many brand name drugs have generic equivalents. Whenever you can get a generic, with or without insurance, generics are [...]

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Health insurance, life insurance, business liability, homeowners, auto, rental property coverage, umbrella policies, long term care insurance–Wow! And of course, there are more types. A lovely woman named Rose recently posed that question to me. There are a lot of detailed reasons, but I’ll try and make it brief. First, you have to differentiate between [...]

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Now that we have our new president in place and we’re all hoping things financially will improve, let’s talk about the reform of the health care/insurance system. It’s not going to be free, in fact it could be quite costly. Are you will to do it? Here is an excerpt from an article the Associate [...]

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First of all, Happy New Year! Here’s hoping 2009 treats people better than 2008. In the individual health and group health insurance arenas, medical insurance covers medical problems only. The thing we used to debate when I worked for a carrier years ago, is what’s the difference between what is and is not covered under [...]

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Health Insurance, life insurance, annuities, long term care insurance–okay, my usual topics are in. But today’s article is not to talk about insurance, I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. 2008 was a lousy year for many people, so kick it to the curb and get ready for 2009. As far as [...]

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Wow–time got away, and I’ve posted nothing in December! Other than the usual holiday stuff keeping me busy, I also had several group health plan clients whose renewals are coming up January 1st. My advice to you when your group health insurance renewal comes around is to attend to it early on, and not wait [...]

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Health insurance thoughts are usually more focused on what doesn’t work instead of people being grateful that they have it. Not all plans are good, but most are. The actual cost of care would wipe most people out if something significant happened to their health. But if you purchase your own coverage or you obtain [...]

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Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a great way to handle health care coverage for many people. In order to have one you need to have a specific type of health plan, referred to as a Qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). In order to qualify as an HSA eligible HDHP in 2008, plans for a [...]

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