Monthly Archives: November 2009

Health Insurance and Pre-Existing Health Conditions

According to the new health care bill introduced by Congressional Democrats, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny people coverage because of their pre-existing conditions in 2013.  Until that time, people who are seriously ill or lose their health insurance because of their health will have to rely on the federal government to pay for their health insurance.

President Obama promised those who can’t get insurance that they would immediately get health coverage through a new high-risk pool.  However, in the health care bill that was approved last month by the Senate Finance Committee, people in the high-risk pool would have to wait 6 months until they could receive coverage.  The reason for this 6-month waiting period was to reduce the number of people who dropped their private insurance to receive help from the government.

Alternatively, the bill from the House of Representatives did not include a waiting period, but instead require insurance plans to pay into the federal high-risk pool if they cancel coverage for seriously ill patients.  This revision does solve the problem for people who are seriously ill and cannot wait 6 months to receive coverage, yet, there still seems to be a problem with the financing of this high-risk pool.

In both of versions of the health reform bills, the government will set aside $5 billion for the high risk pools.   The $5 billion is supposed to cover the uninsured for 3 years until private insurers can no longer turn consumers away.    Currently, 30 states have high-risk pools for those who cannot get insurance from private insurers, which covers 200,000 people at a cost of around $1 billion a year.  According to experts, there are an estimated 1 million uninsured citizens that are in poor health. If all of them signed up for the federal program, that $5 billion could be exhausted in just one year.

Which is worse bankruptcy or foreclosure?

In this financial crunch, when millions of people face foreclosure or declare bankruptcy, it is really important to know which is worse foreclosure or bankruptcy. Both bankruptcy and foreclosure will have negative affects on your credit score. So which you should opt for will depend upon your situation.

Foreclosure is considered as the worst financial situation that a man can face. Foreclosure will have huge negative affects on the credit report and after you face foreclosure, you may not even get approved for a loan in coming 7 to 10 years and your credit score will be dropped by 250 to 300 points. So we should always try to avoid foreclosure as much as we can.

Though bankruptcy will have huge negative affect on the credit report and it is not desirable to face bankruptcy, but bankruptcy is actually a relief for those people who are facing foreclosure. Bankruptcy is actually the last option to avoid the foreclosure and to save yourself from the harassment from the creditors. But the thing is that if you want to file bankruptcy then also you need to get approved to file bankruptcy to avoid fraud.

So even though both foreclosure and bankruptcy both have huge negative affects on the credit, people like to choose bankruptcy as it also gives some relieves too.  Search foreclosure listing properties in your city and state.

Advantage of Refinancing Mortgages

Refinancing means you are paying off your existing mortgage loan and getting a new mortgage loan with different rates and terms; generally better rates and terms than your existing mortgage loan. There are numerous advantages of refinancing a mortgage but it is better to check out whether those advantages can be applicable for you in your situation.

When you are refinancing you are getting all together a new rates and the new interest rate must be lower then your existing mortgage loan. So you can save a huge amount of money. With refinancing you can also change your mortgage terms also. Like you can increase or decrease the loan period according to your needs. If you decrease your loan period then you are paying lower amount as the interest for the loan and if you are decreasing the loan period then your monthly mortgage payment will be lower.

So with refinancing you can be able to fulfill your needs. If you have huge money in your hand at this point of time or expecting to be so then you can afford to decrease the loan period and you will naturally be paying lower amount as the interest; but if you are struggling to make your monthly payments then you can increase the loan period to make the amount of monthly mortgage payment lower.

There are many lenders and mortgage institute in the market but you should choose the lender wisely. Go for a bit of research about them and you may also have a talk with them before going for the refinancing and check out how much helpful they are actually and can they really be able to provide you the best rates and terms in the market.