The Market Outfit

The Health Savings Account (HSA) is an amazing tool that a lot of people have been talking about. It is meant to help you save money on insurance and make your life simpler, maybe even help you be healthier.

But do HSAs work just as well for older Americans? The answer depends on your age.

Let’s start with someone older than 65. Once you turn 65, you are eligible for Medicare, and that means you can no longer contribute to an HSA. If you had an HSA before you turned 65, a very interesting thing happens.

The HSA, which was basically an account that could only be used for medical expenses, suddenly becomes an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). It instantly changes status when you turn 65.

This is a very intriguing concept for all of us who are younger than 65. You already know that there is no “use it or lose it” condition for an HSA. You keep accumulating that money forever, you do not lose it at the end of each year.

So, if you’re not sick very often, you may accumulate a lot of money in the HSA. Then, once you turn 65, you can start pulling money out of it each year as income. Your withdrawals are taxable, but won’t it be nice to have another stream of income when you retire. Think of it as your “Healthy Life Reward Account.” The healthier you are in your life, the more money you’ll have left in your HSA. It could be tens of thousands of dollars!

If you are over 55 but younger than 65, you get even more benefits for your HSA. You are eligible for something called “catch up contributions.” This means that you can put more money into this tax-deferred account than those of us under 55.

In 2005, you can put $600 more than you health insurance policy deductible, and the amount of that catch-up contribution increases every year until it hits $1,000 in 2009. If I were you, I’d take good advantage of those catch-up contributions. Tax-deferrals are always nice to have when tax time comes around.

Daryl Kulak is the author of the book “Health Insurance Off the Grid - A Wonderful Way to Use Alternative Medicine and Save Money on Insurance Using the New Health Savings Account (HSA).” The book provides a nine-step plan to get your self-employed or small business health insurance costs under control using a unique approach you won’t find anywhere else. The book is available for sale as an e-Book or paperback at the Website http://www.healthoffthegrid.com

One of the most popular forms of life insurance is the variable life insurance policy. With variable life, one gets permanent insurance (like whole) along with the opportunity to isolate specific investment opportunities at which premiums are directed.

One can invest in any number of opportunities with a variable life insurance plan. In essence, the insured is able to control the investment of the policy’s cash value instead of relying upon the pre-established rate of return provided in a whole life solution. This makes variable life insurance very attractive to those who believe the rates of return offered by more traditional insurance policies can be easily outstripped with superior investment strategies.

However, variable life insurance policies carry with them a level of risk directly proportional to the skill of the investor and the quality of his or her decisions. Although variable policies create an opportunity for tremendous growth, they also allow a market decline to decimate the cash value of the policy. Fortunately, there is some safety net, as variable life policies will retain a death benefit that will not fall below the amount of insurance initially purchased. As such, even an errant investor cannot decimate the true insurance value of the policy, even though he or she may do tremendous harm to its cash value.

Absent consideration of the investment component, variable life policies are quite similar to whole life policies. In both cases, death benefits remain fixed, regular premiums are fixed and the insured can borrow against the cash value of the policy. Also, in both policy types the cash value accumulated by the policy is tax-deferred. The investment component inherent in variable life insurance policies requires they be considered a security by the federal government and a prospectus is issued for all variable life insurance policies. This “security” labeling does not significantly alter the behavior of the plan when compared to other insurance plans, however.

Variable policies provide an opportunity to retain appropriate levels of death benefits while having the simultaneous opportunity to invest premiums on one’s own in hopes of generating a higher cash value for the policy. This creates a tremendous potential upside for variable life insurance policies, but also opens the door for potential losses in cash value depending on investment performance. Although one will not see a change in death benefits if investments fail to adequately perform, they will see a decline in cash value that can significantly reduce the policy’s utility as a source of supplemental retirement income or as a means of handling financial emergency.

Alternatively, a savvy investor can use a variable life policy to create a sizeable retirement nest egg while deferring taxes until dispersal. Successful investment can produce a cash value for the policy that could conceivably dwarf the value of whole life policies. The flexibility of variable life insurance plans and the possibility of generating significant cash value gains makes them a very popular life insurance for those with the skills or insight to invest wisely.

Evan C. Davis works in Medicare customer service and is the webmaster and owner of Easy Insurance Finder. Find out about variable life insurance and online life insurance quotes at http://www.easy-insurance-finder.com.

Temporary health insurance, also known as short-term health insurance plans or short-term medical insurance, is an insurance policy valid only for a limited period of time. Health insurance is defined as a type of insurance plan whereby the insurer covers the medical expenses of the insured when he/she becomes sick due to covered causes, or due to accidents.

Temporary health insurance provides ideal protection for persons who are in-between jobs, employed part-time, waiting for permanent health insurance to commence, attending school or recently graduated, and temporarily without health insurance for any reason.

Temporary plans provide a person the freedom of selecting any doctor or hospital. They also have a deductible scheme for the individual as well as the family. A person under 65 years of age and children under 19 or 25 (if a full-time student) are eligible to apply for temporary health insurance. The insurer may be a government organization or a private agency. Normally, the temporary health insurance can be purchased for periods as short as 30 days or up to 360 days.

The important point to remember when considering this type of insurance plan is that the insurance should not be seen as an alternative for standard, long-term health insurance. The plan is only intended to provide treatment for unforeseen illness or injury. Temporary health insurance is also exempt from Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which means that the plan does not have any guarantees. Once the limited time frame of the insurance ends, the insured may or may not be able to purchase extra health insurance, depending on his health at that occasion.

Temporary health insurance plan is a good option for those to whom a full insurance plan is not available. There are also low-cost health insurance plans, which are affordable plans designed for healthy people who are temporarily without health insurance.