To survive in this up and down world, you need tools. Tools that help you achieve your goals. These goals can be varied. Long term, short term, cutting cake, keeping warm and be healthy.

If your goal as a woman is to overcome risk and be on the front foot against matters such as ill health, accidents and other unforeseen dangers you should consider insurance. Insurance is the tool for the on-the-go woman of today. The great thing about coverage is that it can be used to help your loved ones during the challenging parts of life like your unexpected illness or death. It is known women live longer than men and therefore might have to stretch their retirement income far longer and this comes with a higher probability of needing long-term care assistance.

Making ends meet for women on social security is a struggle considering factors such as inflation, taxes and other economic pressures. For some, it comes down to deciding between rent, food or medicine merely because they cannot afford the whole trifecta of it. You or the women in your life should be on the front foot to ensure that those golden years are spent with as little hassle as possible. Here are a few things you should know.

Insurance

Insurance involves receiving financial protection or reimbursement from an insurance company by signing a contract (represented by a policy). To make payments more affordable, the insurance company pools the clients’ risks. The risk of financial losses arising from damage to property or liability caused by damage to a third party is hedged using insurance policies. Some common types of insurance include life insurance, homeowners insurance, health insurance, and auto insurance. Most people in the United States have at least one kind of insurance policy. Auto and health policies are both currently required by law, as the majority of the risks Americans face concerns vehicles and health. Understanding how insurance works is an essential first step towards selecting a suitable policy for you.

The components of insurance plans are premium, policy limit, and deductible. A policy’s premium is its price, usually as a monthly cost. The insurance company determines a plan based on your unique risk profile, including creditworthiness. For example, if you own expensive cars and have a record of reckless driving, you will most probably pay more for an auto plan than someone with a single vehicle and a flawless driving record. However, different insurance companies may charge various premiums for comparable plans; so, getting the price that is suitable for you requires some work.

The policy limit is the maximum amount an insurer should pay under a plan for a loss under the cover. Maximum limits may be set per duration (e.g., annual or policy term), per injury or loss, or over the policy’s life. Typically, higher premiums go with higher limits. For a general life insurance plan, the maximum amount the insurance company will pay is known as face value, which is the amount paid out to a beneficiary upon the insured party’s death.

The deductible is a set amount the policy-holder must pay before the insurance company pays a claim. Deductibles serve as repellants to large volumes of small claims. Deductibles may apply per-policy or per-claim and depends on the insurance company and the type of plan.

Policies with unusually high deductibles are most likely less expensive because the expense generally results in fewer small claims. Regarding health insurance, people with chronic health issues or are in need of regular medical attention should search for policies with deductibles that are lower. Though the yearly premium is higher than a similar policy with a deductible that is higher, less expensive access to medical care for the whole year may be worth it.

Health Insurance

Health insurance coverage is an essential factor in making health care for women more accessible. Women with health insurance are more likely to acquire the much-needed health care services and have better access to the latest technology in women’s health. Among the 98 million women aged 18 to 64, many have some form of insurance coverage. However, the labyrinth of different private and state-funded programs in the U.S. results in one in five women without insurance. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 includes several steps that are evolving the status of women’s coverage as the law is implemented to the maximum.

Sources of health insurance coverage

Employer-sponsored insurance covers 58% of females between the ages of 18 and 64. Women are more likely than males to be not insured through their job and more likely to receive coverage as a dependent. Medicaid covers 12% of women under 65. Usually, only pregnant women of very low-income, women with children living at home, or women who have a disability have been eligible for the program.

Only 7% of women utilize individually purchased insurance. Medicare and other state-sponsored health insurance cover a small proportion (4%) of females under age 65. For young women, coverage is only for women who either are disabled (Medicare) or are provided coverage through the military (TRICARE). Women without insurance account for 19% of females aged 18 to 64. They are usually not eligible for Medicaid, do not have employer-sponsored policy access, and are either too expensive or do not qualify for individual policies.

Employer-Sponsored Insurance: An estimated 57 million women in the U.S. receive their health coverage from their employer or their spouse’s. Historically, full-time employment has provided the most significant opportunity for obtaining job-based coverage.

Women in families with a minimum of one full-time worker are more likely to have job-based coverage (71%) and less likely not to be insured (15%) than females in families with only part-time members who are employed (33%) or without any employed members (28%).

Women are more vulnerable to lose their insurance coverage compared to men, as they are usually covered as dependents. A woman is placed at risk of losing coverage in the event of her becoming divorced or widowed, or the employer of the spouse drops family coverage or increases premium and out-of-pocket costs to levels which are not affordable.

In 2013, insurance premiums averaged $5,884 annually for individuals and $16,351 for families, almost two times the cost over the past decade. Workers currently pay for 18%, on average, of premiums for individual cover and 29% for family-wide cover. Individual Insurance: Almost 7 million women purchase insurance by themselves. This kind of insurance often gave more limited benefits than job-based coverage and was expensive. In many states, through what is known as gender rating, insurers charged females more than males for the same coverage levels. Also, pre-existing medical conditions began coverage denials in the market for individuals, depending on the insurance companies and state regulations.

Historically, these policies did not cover some services that are meaningful to women, such as care during maternity, prescription medication, or treatment for mental health matters such as depression. It is expected that a lot of people are now covered by these policies will purchase Health Insurance coverage.

Medicaid

Medicaid program statistics state that, in 2010, 19.3 million women with low-income (18 to 64 years) were enrolled in Medicaid. Women are two-thirds of the adult Medicaid demographic, but only low-income women with pregnancies, mothers with children who are 18 years or less, disabled, or over 65 are eligible for Medicaid. Women with no children and with disabilities usually have not been eligible regardless of how low their income is, but this changed in many states in 2014 when Medicaid eligibility was broadened to a higher number people.

Among every insurer, Medicaid disproportionately bears the weight of covering the poorest and most sick population of women. An estimated 82% of young women on Medicaid have incomes lower than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). One out of three (33%) women on Medicaid gauge their health as fair or poor, compared to 10% of women with low-income covered by insurance which is employer-sponsored and 15% of low-income, women who are not insured.

Medicaid finances almost half of every birth in the U.S. accounts for 75% of every public-funded family planning service and nearly half (43%) of every long-term care assistance spending.

Over the past ten years, numerous states (31 states) have expanded programs that utilize Medicaid funds to cater for the costs of family planning for low-income women and every state has established Medicaid programs to provide for breast and cervical cancer treatment for varied low-income women who are not insured.

Uninsured Women

Approximately 19 million women in America are not insured. Uninsured women are least likely to have adequate access to care, get a high standard of care during their stay in the health system, and have less successful health outcomes. Compared to insured women, women without insurance have lower use of essential preventive services such as mammograms and Pap tests plus they are two to three times more prone to go without medical services due to issues concerning cost. Women who are younger, come from a low social- economic background, and of color (particularly Latinas) are especially at risk for being uninsured. The ACA inserted a provision enabling dependents to be covered up to age 26, and it is approximated that more than 3 million young adults have been injured due to this policy. Approximately six in ten (59%) females who are uninsured are in families with a minimum of one adult working full-time, and 77% of women who are uninsured are in families with a minimum one adult who works part-time or full-time worker.

The variance is considerable at state-level in uninsured rates across the country, ranging from 30% of females in Texas to 4% of females in Massachusetts.

Car insurance premiums are prone to be less costly for women for some reasons which include:

Women drivers are involved in fewer crashes than men drivers and thus, make fewer vehicle insurance claims.
Women have on average fewer traffic violations and are, generally, more vigilant drivers.
Traffic crashes that women are involved in are prone to cause less damage than accidents that involve and are caused by men.

Taking to account that car insurance companies tweak premiums in terms of risk categories, it’s no surprise that women’s vehicle insurance is generally less costly than for their male counterparts’. Plus, if the primary policyholder is an older woman, a premium can be reduced further, as experienced drivers are considered less risky due to their experience on the road.

Life insurance

Aines, Carter & Associates offers a variety of life insurance policies and retirement annuities aimed to fit your diverse needs and aid you in achieving your goals. As an organization, Aines, Carter & Associates can help you build financial security for yourself and their loved ones.

Term life insurance provides life insurance protection for a set duration of time. It can be utilized to cover temporary needs, to contribute to already existing coverage, or as a means of starting a life insurance program when permanent insurance proves to be too expensive.

Whole life insurance is also known as permanent life insurance protection, suitable for needs arise now and those that continue or grow throughout life. Over time, it generates cash value that can be utilized in different ways, including to add to your retirement fund.

Universal life insurance (Flexible Premium Adjustable Life Insurance) provides the safety of permanent life insurance and also has flexibility.

The ways, values, and goals of women are changing so much, more so in the past three decades. The modern woman is much different than her ancestors, and most are not being given offers that are meaningful to them. Insurers must align themselves towards acquiring an all-around customer view of women prospects in order to target this demographic.