Everyone with a driver’s license knows the value of affordable auto insurance. It’s not only one of the monthly bills you have to deal with, it may be your help line, if you’re in an accident.  But not many people realize the value of having cheap commercial insurance, as well.  It may be confusing to find a good, cheap company, but your commercial insurance is a business asset that you should research fully before making a decision.  It can impact you as well as your business a great deal in the future.

If your business involves deliveries, pickups, or shipments, you’re going to need to invest in commercial trucking insurance.  This is not optional, and it can be pricey – but it’s really helpful when you’ve got an accident or other damage on your hands.  Because commercial truck insurance can cost a lot, you need to do your research and make sure you’re saving as much money as you can.

One thing you need to do is make sure you’ve got the right kind of insurance for your company.  It may sound silly, but a lot of people are paying for services they simply aren’t ever going to use.  By making sure your insurance matches your needs, you’ll ensure that you’re not paying for redundant or useless services.

Another thing you can do to keep your payments at a minimum is to decrease the number of damages and accidents.  You can do this by making sure your drivers have a good, clean record.  You can increase the quality of your drivers’ training, or hire only those with a meticulous reputation on the road.  It will also help you to properly maintain your equipment.  The better care you take of your vehicles, the less likely they are to break down.

When you are looking for an insurance company, be certain to shop around.  By getting commercial insurance quotes from lots of different companies, you can compare prices with quality and make sure you’re not getting ripped off.  Some companies will have policies against certain kinds of business risks, so they’ll charge you more than others.  Some companies may drop their prices if you’ve got a clean history on the road.  By getting quotes from many different companies, you can tell who is going to overcharge you before you get caught paying their bills.

So before you start signing checks (and contracts,) make sure you know what you’re getting into, and be certain you’ve looked at every available way to save money.  It’s a hassle now, but it’ll save you money later on.

The author, Ted Wolk, has over 30 years experience in the life and health insurance industry, looks at the National Health Care Bill and shares his thoughts on the core problems related to this Issue. PART 4

Business sense and common sense needs to prevail.

(Basic common sense class 101=.Refer back to economics 101)

You cannot be taxing the medical suppliers and raising taxes on insurance companies (as indicated in this Bill) and having another layer of government agencies involved and expect the insurance premiums to go down. Even the simplest mind has to realize that those costs will have to be passed through to the consumer. (Of course, our elected leaders never attended Economics 101) Their operating economic policies are called (Economics deep pockets 101), meaning they can just continue to tax the people to make something work. No scientific data needed here.

Another big bucket of our money for the Washington Boys to play with

But here is the really big concern. If this health bill passes, all we have done is give the thieves in Washington another bucket of money to play with and they will use to meet deficits and then tell us they need to raise taxes again. Just like social security and Medicare, they used those funds till they broke the bank and now they have no way to pay that back. And they now want to add another entitlement program. Are we going to really let them do this to us at such a critical time in our economy? They have never run any of those programs in a business-like manner. Why, because we just let them keep taxing us, taxing us and taxing us, because they know they can get into the taxpayers deep pockets by just raising taxes. What part of the word stupid don’t we understand?

To quote Margret Thatcher “socialism is a great idea till you run out of other people’s money.

Well guess what, this is really what is happening today. We are screwing our next generation big time. The government is already printing bogus money, borrowing billions from China, (Our Leaders have given already China a first mortgage on our country’s assets last year.)

They are now looking to create another tax bucket, as well as creating new ways to tax the free enterprise community, etc.  Why, because they cannot make due by taxing the entire working force. So they move to the next level and then the next level and so on. They can’t get enough money from the entire working population, so let’s tax, the rich, let’s tax the business community, and let’s penalize those who won’t play our health care game, and so on.

The way for real change

Yes there needs to be changes in the health care system. But how we are approaching it is the absolute wrong way. Our culture towards the health care delivery system must change. We need to streamline health care in our society. The insured’s, the doctors, hospitals, lawyers and insurance companies need to sit down and come together and start taking accountability for the problems that each segment is creating. If not, this national health bill concept will tax us to levels beyond our imagination.

Remember, there is only 100 cents in a dollar.

Our Country, our morality, our integrity, our freedom, our American way is being given away piece by piece, day by day and these politicians cannot see it, because they live in their world and not ours. Please speak up and write or E-mail this article or any parts of it to your senators and congress people if you agree with any of this.

We need some other people to chime in on what they think. Let us know your thoughts.

Thanks…Ted

See Part 1 on the National Health Care Bill

The author, Ted Wolk, has over 30 years experience in the life and health insurance industry, looks at the National Health Care Bill and shares his thoughts on the core problems related to this Issue. PART 3

We are not identifying the real problems facing our health care.

These so called politicians are just that, and they have no business sense or economics sense. They are on a feeding frenzy like a pack of sharks. They are selling us hype. They are all dealing under the mob mentality syndrome. (If you don’t know how that works. Please look it up on the internet) and they are now wanting to add another bucket of money to their coffers and drag us, the taxpayers into it.

Why do we have a bill that is over 2100 pages in length? Because you have over 400 politicians writing a bill, and they have to all protect their own interests instead of the interests of all the American citizens. Otherwise it would probably be limited to 10 percent of those pages.

As usual our government leaders are dealing in a reactive way rather than a proactive way. Think about it, they are attacking the problem from the wrong direction. They are treating the problems rather than fixing the problems. Just like someone having to clean water out of their basement every time it rains, rather than fixing the crack in basement wall. The problems need to be fixed first.

And herein lays the problem, no one wants to be accountable and attack or control the real core problems. No one is even discussing how we remove or control all the issues that are creating the higher costs. If we could make them more manageable and control them, then insurance companies could probably offer more lucrative coverage, which would result in the spreading of the risk, (more people owning and paying) which would then result in more people affording it. The National health Bill is trying to somewhat do this, but they are approaching it from the wrong direction. Their concept and approach only adds more fuel to the fire.

Some more problems

It is a known fact that certain doctors continue to have and refer patients for unneeded tests and procedures. Who is suppose to slap their hands and say stop that. And how many specialty clinics do we really need to have?  These just continue to drive up doctor’s overhead and operating costs.

Hospitals and doctors’ offices can sometimes over bill or double bill patients. Who watch’s out for the patient? Who audits the bill? When they send the patients bills to the insurance companies, the patient don’t care what’s on that bill as long as it is paid. Who takes ownership of these problems?

Additionally, each and every doctor sends out their own bill and there is no uniformity. Because of this, unless the patient is a CPA, they cannot figure those bills out. (Been there, done that. it’s a nightmare)

Malpractice need to be brought under control. There needs to be a common sense approach to this issue. Should someone age 50 who is earning $40,000 a year be given a $12,000,000 (million dollars) settlement, when they may only have the ability to earn another $700,000 in their life time?  Maybe they should be given $2,000,000 and have all associated medical costs taken care of during their life time. If insurance companies had a cap on malpractice they could start dealing with a known factor vs. an unknown factor and that would help reduce rates.

These and other unknown factors are a serious problem.

When you start to add or include additional unknown factors into the health insurance premium equation (such as pre-existing conditions, fraud, unethical claims, malpractice lawsuits) then the health insurance companies must deal with these unknown factors. We cannot continue to have these ongoing core problems persist and think National Health care will solve them.

Remember economics 101.  You need to accept the reality that there is only 100 cents in a dollar.

As an analogy…Let’s say you fill your gas tank in Rapid City, knowing you can drive from Rapid City to Sioux Falls on Interstate 90, based on the exact mileage of 329 miles. But let’s say, along the way, you run into a detour and you have to go off the interstate and travel down to Nebraska to get to Sioux Falls, then this unknown factor you had to deal with is going to require you put more gas in your tank to get there. Then you run into a ditch and have to get towed out. So because you had to deal with all these unknown factors that you had no control over, it costs you more money, so the price to get there goes up.  This is same problem Insurance Company’s face.  Unknown factors (“There is only 100 cents in the dollar.”)

See Part 4 on the National Health Care Bill

See Part 1 on the National Health Care Bill

The author, Ted Wolk, has over 30 years experience in the life and health insurance industry, looks at the National Health Care Bill and shares his thoughts on the core problems related to this Issue. PART 2

So who is really at fault for higher premiums?

Is it really the health insurance company’s fault that premiums have gone sky high?

Let’s look at the real business world and not the fantasy world. Health Insurance premiums rates are based on claims and morbidity rates, in other words, hard undisputed realistic data. Life insurance companies use mortality tables and health insurance companies use morbidity tables. These are very accurate actuarial tables, actuarial tables that are built on proven and scientific data.

However, when you continue to throw in unknown variables such as increasing malpractice claims, fraud, illegal claims, double billing, etc., it throws everything out of whack, so unless these issues are brought under control, how will you ever be able to lower or get health insurance costs under control? You never will.

What do insurance companies really do?

Insurance companies only pay claims that are submitted to them by the clients, patients and the doctors and hospitals. They have no control of these claims. Let me say that once more. Insurance companies only pay claims.

What do I mean by no control?

As an example, they have no control of all the malpractice claims that they must pay. They have to pay out all the large malpractice claims that are allowed under our current laws. Insurance Companies have no control of these claims or the amounts, or when they will have to be paid.

And because they have to dish out money for malpractice claims, they have to raise the rates for doctor’s malpractice insurance and guess what, the doctors then pass these increases along to you. It adds to their overhead and expenses. This then results in a pass through expense to your health insurance company, thereby raising your premiums. (Remember 100 cents in a dollar)

So in reality, both of these factions, (insurance companies) and (doctors/hospitals) are in a catch 22 situation – no win situation.

So again, I ask, how does it become the insurance companies fault if they have to raise rates to make ends meet at the end of every year, when they have no control of issues like this?

Who gets the Bad press for trying to keep insurance premiums down?

Insurance companies that want to keep the costs down always  end up getting bad press when they will pay only so much for certain procedures. Why? Because those payments are based on actuarial tables or on sound business principles.  No one ever seems to jump on the hospitals and doctors. It is always the insurance companies fault. Why is that? Because most people don’t know what type of coverage they really have till they are in the hospital. (Note: It would b nice if insurance companies could get rid of all that small print, but that won’t happen till all these lawsuits gets under control.

See Part 3 on the National Health Care Bill

See Part 1 on the National Health Care Bill

The author, Ted Wolk, has over 30 years experience in the life and health insurance industry, looks at the National Health Care Bill and shares his thoughts on the core problems related to this Issue. PART 1

National Health Insurance

To quote Margret Thatcher “socialism is a great idea till you run out of other people’s money.”

Statements from Washington like “Pass the bill today and we will fix it later” scare the daylights out of me and reflect the mentality of how our leaders solve problems.

Yes there needs to be changes in health care delivery, however our politicians are not approaching the problem in a business-like manner. They are ignoring the core of the real problems that have created our dilemma. They are doing this more to satisfy their own ego.  If this national health concept is suppose to be such a great idea, then why are they forcing it down our throats and then telling us if we don’t want to play their game, we are going to fine you, penalize you, etc. “ (Free Choice!!!!”Was that a privilege we once enjoyed?)

Let’s examine some of the underlying core problems we have with this health care reform bill being discussed.

But before we move forward, we need to understand some basic and simple economics:

So let’s go to Economic Class 101>>>>.Here is Lesson number one—Please write this down in your notebook.  “There is only 100 cents in a dollar.” Yup, that’s what I said, there is only 100 cents in a dollar, and I know it is hard to believe. If there is anyone out there that can dispute this fact, please let me know. So let’s please keep this fact in mind as we continue on, unlike the people in Washington who totally ignore this basis fact.

Many people continue to badmouth the health insurance companies

Certainly the big issue today is the high cost of health insurance, and the fact that people cannot afford it, which results in so many uninsured. But are the health insurance companies really creating the problems we have today. The answer is no.  Our politicians seem to want to ignore the core issues of this dilemma. Slapping a band aid on the real problems is not a solution. So let’s take an in depth look at the health insurance companies and why our health insurance premiums have gone up. Just so everyone knows the increasing premiums are not created by some CEO that felt like raising the rates.

Insurance companies are only the messenger

Personally, I think we need to quit putting all the blame on the health insurance companies. They are only the messenger. The message they are delivering (higher premiums) is because of all the other problems in our health delivery system and our society.  Those core problems should be addressed first, before we start talking about any national health care.

See Part 2 on the National Health Care Bill

Using the internet to help you obtain annuity insurance leads is one of the best ways to help jump start your insurance business. If you plan to use annuity insurance leads to jump-start your business it is important to learn how to get the leads and how to properly use them.

One of the first things that you need to do when obtaining annuity insurance leads is to make sure you are getting exclusive insurance leads. If the leads are not considered exclusive then you will be competing with a lot of other insurance business, so you will not get the jump-start you are looking for. When you obtain exclusive leads, you are paying for leads that no other insurance company is going to get. Purchasing these leads gives you a chance to obtain the business of these customers before somebody else has the chance too. When purchasing annuity leads to help jump start your business you will need to make the decision if spending the money is worth it or if you should go about generating your own annuity insurance leads.

Before you start to use annuity leads that you have purchased you need to make sure that they are worth the expense by doing the basic math. To figure out if it is worth purchasing the annuity leads to help jump start your insurance business you need figure out how many leads you are buying and how much they cost per lead. You also need to determine how much you make per new client and plus how many leads you successfully close. Look at the numbers and figure out what adjustments you can make to help improve the number of leads that you are closing so you can get the most out of your money.

If you plan to generate your own annuity insurance leads, the first thing you will need to do is create a website for your insurance business. You will want to create an engaging landing page so that when people get to your website they are enticed to stay. To get the people to visit your website you will need to have a solid internet marketing plan in place to help draw people to your website, placing ads on other websites is a good start to gain traffic.

Another way to draw traffic to your website is to offer affordable auto insurance along with annuity insurance and other types of insurance. As auto insurance discounters, you can draw customers to your website because you can offer great rates on auto insurance. You can also help draw people to your website by becoming an auto insurance specialist. Once the people come to find out about the auto insurance savings they often ask about other types of insurance that you offer, which is known as up selling. By advertising yourself as an auto insurance specialist, you are gaining a competitive advantage for your insurance business because you can increase the amount of leads that you successfully close.

The one thing to remember is that your insurance business needs to include all types of insurance, not just annuity insurance or auto insurance. You also need to remember that even if you are getting exclusive leads from a reputable lead provider chances are they are not going to be exclusive because the customer is likely to shop at different sites to help compare rates, so be sure to follow through on the lead immediately.

When looking for affordable auto insurance, there’s a hard way and an easy way. The hard way is the old-fashioned method of contacting individual insurance agents, either by phone or by dropping by their physical offices. Each contact results in having to listen to a sales pitch from the agent. It is also possible to go to individual insurer’s sites, but with this method, you’re not really saving much time over the old way – it’s still a piecemeal way to gather information. Fortunately, with the internet, there is no need to use such time-consuming methods.

The easy way is to go online and use a site that helps you compare the offerings of auto insurance discounters. These sites have various setups, but most will show you several possibilities for your auto insurance needs. There will also be a form you can fill in to get quotes. Sometimes, you can choose which companies to get quotes from. Otherwise, the site will simply send your form information to the insurers they think will be able to provide the best match to the requirements you’ve given.

These sites are also a great way to find providers of types of insurance that aren’t too common. Short term auto insurance is one of these types of insurance. Using the old-fashioned method of calling agents, you could call several before you found one that even was willing to provide a short-term policy, let alone do so at an affordable rate. But using an insurance quote site, you can simply enter the term length as a criterion, and the site will automatically return only those insurers who provide these policies. You can then get quotes only from those affordable automobile insurance providers that offer the specific term you need.

Finding the best auto insurance discounters online is fast and easy. Instead of wasting hours or days calling agent after agent, you can get it all done with just a few clicks. With no unwanted pitches to listen to, you can compare the offerings quickly yet without pressure. Check out an insurance quote site today and see how much nicer it is to find your policy using their services.

During this period of economic turmoil, particularly as most Americans are looking to decrease household spending, finding affordable auto insurance that is still high quality is important. When considering the purchase of acceptance auto insurance, there are many reasons to find and consult with an auto insurance specialist before making a decision. The creation of numerous auto insurance discounters has forced major carriers to be more competitive in their pricing, and an auto insurance specialist is in the unique position of being able to highlight the differences in coverage levels, service levels, and ease of use while not adding significantly to the overall cost. Ultimately, given the high cost of any kind of acceptance car insurance, the reasons to explore all the options far outweigh reasons not too.

The three main reasons to consult with an auto insurance specialist prior to making a decision are 1) to get a truly accurate price comparison, 2) to receive help when comparison-shopping to ensure similar products are being evaluated, and 3) to ensure that each carrier is providing its most aggressive quote. On the first issue, while most individuals are able to invest the time to compare a handful of acceptance auto insurance carriers, an auto insurance specialist will have done most of the leg work and, often, will have established relationships with major carriers. This will ensure that the snapshot an individual is presented with is a true across-the-board comparison and not a random collection of quotes.

On the second issue, because a specialist is familiar with acceptance car insurance, he or she will be able to easily communicate the differences in coverage offered by different carriers at different price points. It is important to ensure that one understands not only which company is the low-cost provider, but what tradeoffs may be involved in getting the more attractive price. If one is receiving low quality for low cost, then that should be an intended choice.

Lastly, because the various carriers have established relationships with many specialists and are aware that those specialists are able to drive business to them, the quotes they give to specialists may be more attractive in some cases. It is important when making a price-driven decision, to be sure that the best prices are being compared, not simply the most expedient. Overall, the benefits of using a specialist are significant and should not be overlooked.

Affordable auto insurance is entirely possible as there are many insurance providers ready to give coverage. To find the best insurance quote out of the multitude of providers in the market will need some research. This is certainly worth the effort as the difference between companies can amount to a few hundred dollars at times. If the car owner can follow the steps shown below he will be able to get the most affordable insurance cover for his vehicle.

Details regarding the car and the owner: Providing the insurance company with all relevant details of the car and yourself is important to get the most affordable insurance quote. If you do not provide the necessary details the calculations will be done by default and this can prove to be expensive.

Check out all option: This way the car owner will be able to find out the most suitable insurance provider. Different providers will give varying deals and finding the best and most affordable of these is important in the long run.

Raise deductibles: By raising the amount of the deductibles the premiums can be lowered. This may very well mean hundreds of dollars when taken on an annual basis. But, a car owner who does use this should also be prepared to pocket out the necessary finances in case of an emergency as this means additional risk being assumed.

Mileage:  This is also a factor that will make the premiums come down. Less than 40 miles a day will easily qualify the car owner for a reduction in the premium. Therefore, carpooling when possible and taking the train or plane for long trips might be a good idea.

Driver of the car: This is a factor that is considered by insurance providers. The rate of the premium is different for males from females. Meanwhile, the insurance provider will need to see that teenagers or young drivers are registered with a safer car.

Car safety: If this can be guaranteed in certain acceptable ways to the insurance provider it will definitely qualify the car owner for a big discount and thus make the insurance coverage more affordable. Anti-theft devices are a good way to lower premiums. In addition to this the driver can get a defensive driving certificate. A car with a lower profile will be eligible for better discounts than a more expensive car.

Low risk categories: Certain occupations are considered to be low risk categories and others such as young drivers are considered to be high risk categories.

Membership of certain organizations: If you belong to certain organizations like a professional association or an auto club it will enable the driver to qualify for more affordable auto insurance.

Combination and renewal of insurance plans: These are two ways in which the auto insurance can be made more affordable. If the car owner has more than one type of insurance from the same company he will definitely get a better rate. Apart from this, the insurance provider will also give a better rate for those who are renewing the insurance cover. This will definitely save hundreds of dollars for the car owner.

It is best if the car owner can take into consideration all these details before buying a car as it will be easier to find a vehicle that only needs lower insurance premiums. Getting the advice of an auto insurance specialist will give a good idea as to how to balance the insurance premiums with the type of car you want to buy.