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Some people feel anxious at the very thought of having to compare health insurance plans, let alone the idea of determining the right policy. Indeed, the topic can be overwhelmingly complex and particularly so if you’re on your own wading through prices and coverage details.

Happily, we can make this difficult process astoundingly simple. You can use our website to compare insurance rates online; our tools are streamlined and easy to use. Or you could call our toll-free number. We’re available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Calls to us are always fast, easy, and friendly. And at all times we have on hand local experts who can converse with you in Spanish if you'd like.

We pride ourselves in being able to direct people to the best insurance plans for their specific needs and circumstances. Plus, if you're currently working a low income job, we can suggest the most affordable policies available and explain how you can get government assistance. And we’ll ensure that any company we recommend to you will offer you a free quote.

Indeed, we can help you get quotes from the most esteemed insurance companies in operation. Examples of our affiliated health insurance companies are Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, GHI, HIP, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare Oxford, AARP, Aflac, USAA, Progressive, Kaiser Permanante, Medicare, Nationwide, and Metlife.

Furthermore, we endorse such auto insurance brands as Allstate, Geico, State Farm, Progressive, and Nationwide. And we guide our callers to top-notch dental insurance companies like Delta Dental, United Concordia, DentaQuest, and Cigna.

Having the proper insurance is crucial to your financial stability. It's a way of making sure that an accident, natural disaster, disease, or other catastrophe won’t wipe out your savings and put you in debt.

Despite the complexities of the modern insurance market, the basic premise of insurance has always been straightforward. Each month you pay a certain sum, the premium, to your insurance company. Then, should you ever face an emergency, that company will award you a payout to cover some or most of the costs of that setback. Before you receive that payout, however, you’ll have to pay a portion of those expenses out of your own pocket. Your payment is the deductible; you and your insurer will agree on the amount of your deductible before you start paying your premiums. Roughly speaking, the larger your deductible is the smaller your premiums will be.

As an important note here, many people discover that it’s easy to forget to pay their insurance premiums each month. For that reason, you must be especially diligent about making those payments; you stand to lose your coverage if you miss one.

A huge variety of insurance plans are available. There are even insurance companies that will pay customers if they're ever abducted by aliens. And celebrities often have various body parts insured. The singer Mariah Carey, for example, has her legs insured for an enormous amount of money.

But the truth is that most people only require a certain set of insurance plans. To wit, you’d be remiss if you lacked health insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, and home insurance. Let’s explore those five types of insurance one at a time.

Health insurance, often misunderstood, is particularly vital. Consider all of the medical expenses that the average person has to pay during his or her lifetime. And whenever someone acquires a serious illness or suffers a major accident, medical bills can be crushing. However, the right policy will greatly alleviate those costs.

Medical coverage comes from different sources. Some people get it from the federal government -- namely, from Medicare or Medicaid. Medicare plans are available to people who are 65 or older and to some younger people who have disabilities. People who suffer from End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), which is a chronic kidney condition, are likewise eligible.

There are actually four different kinds of Medicare. Part A covers hospital stays. Part B pays for preventative medicine, regular doctor visits, and various outpatient procedures. Part C is a form of private insurance by which the insurance company is under contract with the Medicare program. And Part D covers prescription drugs.

For its part, Medicaid is a federal program that provides free medical services to low-income Americans: families, expectant mothers, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. Among the services it covers are routine physicals, immunizations, and hospital stays.

Many people receive their health plans from their employers. If you own a business, it’s important to know the laws regarding small business health insurance. As of January 1, 2015, if you run a business with at least 50 full-time workers, you must offer medical insurance to every employee who works 30 hours a week or more. If you fail to do so, you'll have to pay penalties, and those penalties will increase as years pass.

Fortunately, many insurance providers offer a range of small business insurance plans. Of course, you must make sure that the small business plan you ultimately choose is affordable for your staff in terms of premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

If you're self-employed, you must find health coverage for yourself. An individual health plan is one that you can purchase for yourself and for your family. An insurance company will require that you provide medical information about yourself and any family members you’re seeking to insure. If you are in good health and you eschew risky behaviors like smoking, your monthly premiums are likely to be significantly lower than would otherwise be the case. Note too that as of 2014, most insurance companies will be required by federal law to cover applicants even if they have a serious preexisting condition such as cancer.

A group health plan is one in which a pool of people are covered by the same provider. If you receive your health plan from your employer, you have a group plan. Group insurance premiums are almost always lower than individual insurance premiums, and group plan benefits are usually more extensive. Equally helpful, a person's spouses and dependents are typically covered under a group plan.

Whatever kind of health coverage you have, it’s advantageous if you’re pregnant to have maternity insurance. Maternity insurance is not a separate plan. Rather, it’s a benefit or a package of benefits that you obtain from your regular medical insurance provider. Proper maternity insurance will considerably lessen the amount that you’ll pay for prenatal care and obstetrics. Try to choose an insurance plan with maternity coverage before you become pregnant. If not, you may still be able to obtain from your insurance company a maternity rider, but a rider is a more expensive option.

Finally, it’s difficult to discuss healthcare these days without discussing the Affordable Health Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare.” Obamacare is a package of laws intended to improve medical services across the United States and to offer millions of Americans the access to health coverage that they never had before. Many people who are looking to buy individual health plans will find that, thanks to the Affordable Health Care Act, their premiums will be lower than they would have been before these laws went into effect. That’s because Obamacare has established large pools of new insurance customers. Even so, the Affordable Health Care Act remains controversial; critics charge that Obamacare represents an unwelcome federal intrusion into matters that are better left to individuals and the private marketplace.

Now it's time to delve into a matter that no one enjoys thinking about. If you were to die, you’d want your spouse and your children to receive a significant amount of money to ease the financial burdens that would come with the loss of your salary. Thus, it’s critical that you purchase a good life insurance plan. After all, you wouldn't want to compound your loved ones’ grief with monetary worries.

If your employer does not provide you with such a plan, you can obtain one on your own. This kind of insurance comes in two primary forms. A term life policy will pay your family if you happen to expire within a fixed period of time, a period known in the industry as the “relevant term.”

A permanent life policy, on the other hand, covers insured individuals indefinitely. And with a permanent plan, you receive as a bonus a "cash value," a separate sum of money that builds over time. You can borrow from your insurance company a portion of your cash value at any time. You will have to pay interest on that loan, however. And if you choose to surrender this policy, you get to keep the entire cash value. Two different kinds of permanent life insurance are available: universal and whole. A universal policy is customizable, allowing you to set your rates. A whole policy, by contrast, involves fixed premiums.

Another indispensable kind of insurance is auto insurance. This insurance category, by the way, includes insurance for various modes of transportation. In addition to a car, you can and should insure a motorcycle, boat, or RV if you operate any of those types of vehicles.

You cannot lawfully drive in most states without adequate auto insurance. This insurance not only covers damage to your automobile, but it also pays for damage to property and to other people’s vehicles. And it covers medical expenses related to automobile accidents. Without car insurance, therefore, taxpayers would have to pay the emergency medical bills of people injured in car accidents and unable to pay for their own care. Further, your car insurance might even help fund any legal bills that you accrue as a result of an accident.

Home insurance, alternately known as property insurance, covers your home; you cannot secure a mortgage without such a plan. The most expensive form of property insurance is comprehensive property insurance. You’ll receive payouts no matter what happens to your home with that kind of policy. Basic home insurance, meanwhile, only covers certain kinds of threats -- in most cases, these include thefts, fires, and a number of weather-related events. If you have basic home insurance, you can supplement it with one or more other kinds of property insurance such as flood or earthquake insurance. Be aware as well that renters insurance is available. This form of insurance protects all of the belongings inside a rented home.

Finally, there’s dental insurance, which many people also get from their employers. This insurance is valuable not only because it covers preventative dental care -- like cleanings -- but because it pays for emergency dental services. And if you were ever to face periodontal disease, a major oral infection, or another crisis involving your teeth or gums, you'd surely be glad to have a policy to reduce the amount you'd need to pay.

It's crucial to realize that you can't just sign up for a dental insurance plan when you're dealing with a dental problem. That's because there's a waiting period to get benefits from this kind of insurance. That is, usually an insurance company will refuse to pay for a minor dental procedure like a filling until a few months after a customer signs up. And don't expect your insurance company to pay for a major dental procedure such as a tooth extraction until a full year passes.