Omega Files

Workplace disabilities are on the rise. It’s making employers and consumers take a look at handling both stress and health problems. Many of these problems are caused by high stress, lack of exercise, plus a workforce that is getting older. This drives the number of folks who are entitled to long-term disability up annually, per the Council for Disability Awareness.

This issue worries more than just older workers. The U.S. Social Security Administration projects that nearly a third of workers under 21 will become disabled before they reach their late 60s. Women, especially, are at risk at a time when disability claims filed by women is reaching levels almost twice the rate of men.

Particularly daunting is the council’s finding that only about 36 percent of workers presently are covered by long-term disability insurance. Clearly, preventive steps are in order to protect workers, the self-employed and businesses alike.

Today’s high stress workplace, in which the traditional 40-hour work week is giving way to 50- and 60-hour weeks, has been linked by more than a dozen studies in recent years to increasing rates of depression, high blood pressure and obesity from lack of exercise ‘ all mental and physical health issues that can lead to long-term disease and disability.

4 Smart Ways Businesses Can Stave Off Climbing Disability Rates

1. Revisit long-term disability insurance coverage to stave off the later, higher costs of employee replacement.

2. Promote stress-reducing policies such as implementing mandated breaks every two hours and regularly scheduled wellness campaigns that focus on stress-reducing help from outside professionals.

3. Give attentive caring to ergonomic factors like lights, and seat and desks.

4. Encourage your staff to take part in activities that reduce stress. Feeling powerless on the job is a rising factor in the high price tag of lost productivity and rising employee turnover rates blamed on workplace stress.

4 Smart Ways Professionals & Employees Can Avoid Becoming Another Statistic

1. You can raise the state of your health as a main-stay of your career. How healthy you are will prove of greater importance to your earnings and how long you can work. Exercise and eat healthy to avoid the long-term damage to your career from obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, diabetes and other disabling diseases.

2. Combat stress at work and at home. What stressful situations can you avoid, change or better accommodate? Try turning off your cell phone and your computer several times a day. Take frequent exercise and mental breaks.

3. Take back control of your days. Write your plans down. That form of commitment will help you exercise, work on stressful components and be healthier every moment of each day. Lack of control is a major contributor to stress. You can commit to keeping track of and being responsive to daily stress.

4. Consider purchasing long-term disability insurance on your own. The advantage of this is that, in an era where changing jobs often has become the norm, you can take your protection against long-term disability from job to job. The insurance council has established a new Web site at www.disabilitycanhappen.org with good information on this subject.

With more aging workers, and more workers expected to work well into their 60s and 70s in today’s economy, long-term disability rates will continue to climb. Self-employed professionals, business owners and employees can take smart steps now to avoid stress and adding to these rising statistics.

Ruth Klein is an award-winning business owner, best-selling author and marketing and time management consultant whose clients range from solo entrepreneurs to the Fortune 500. Sign up to receive Ruth’s 7 Part Mini-Course on Branding and Productivity. http://tinyurl.com/25tqo5

Most people who have yet to attain the age of fifty will hardly have cared about long term health care insurance let alone spent any time researching as well as finding more information about it. This happens in spite of the fact that it is very common for people to insure everything tangible such as homes and vehicles. At work, the health insurance is most likely going to be provided by the employer. Given the fact that studies point out that most people today will expect to live longer, it really is about time for one to consider having long-term health care insurance.

People Are Living Longer Today

Advances in medicine have also resulted in people becoming more conscious about their health, and the baby boomers of yesterday will soon become the seniors of today. With the expected longer longevity of these baby boomers, the need for medical, home as well as nursing care is bound to become a subject to be dealt with without much delay. Long term medical care protection is necessary, and when you consider that Western cultures do not discuss taking care of their aged relatives, it is something that should not be ignored; rather, timely action is called for.

Long term medical insurance should be discussed, and the sooner the better because as anyone who has had to take care of the elderly will vouch, this is something that requires a deft touch and much pre-planning. Long term medical care insurance will come in handy especially when the elderly suffer from chronic illness, or are struck down by a major accident.

Long term medical care protection will give to the insured all the required assistance to help them with their everyday daily activities such as bathing, dressing as well as eating. With such insurance, the elderly would be protected as a nursing home, or health care professional skilled in providing such health care would be provided for. The benefits of long term care insurance, even though they may not cover expenses of non-hospital as well as nursing or home care, will still cover for hospital care, visits by the doctor as well as for prescription drugs.

So, before you decide on long term medical care insurance, make sure that you do a considerable amount of research and make your plans well in advance. Having such a policy will provide you with a good deal of independence, and it can also help free other members of your family from being financially burdened, and also provide relief from emotional strain.

Roland Jefferson is an online researcher based out of Los Angeles, Calfornia. For free resources covering Long Term Health Care Insurance, please visit our Long Term Health Care Insurance Resource.

‘t a new home buyer in this country who doesn’t ask “How much is home owner insurance?” when they are purchasing their new home. It does, after all, add to the cost of buying a new home. There are several factors that affect the price of home owner insurance. One is the geographical location of your home. Where your home is located, both city and state can have an impact on the cost of home owners insurance. In general major cities and metropolitan areas usually have higher rates. Different states also have different laws on the books that affect the types of coverage’s you are required to get which can also affect the cost. Another factor that can have an impact on how much home owners insurance will cost is the real estate market in which you are purchasing a home. In the hot markets where home values are higher then the national average the cost of insuring those homes will be much higher. There is one other aspect of location that may affect the home owner’s insurance rates. Different parts of the country are prone to different types of natural disasters. For instance if your home is located in a flood plain you may be required to purchase additional flood insurance. What many people don’t realize is that conventional home owners insurance does not cover flood damage. Probably the best way to find out how much home owner insurance is going to cost you is to get a few quotes. With the proliferation of home insurance websites there is no reason not to get several free quotes before making a final decision. And you can do this from the comfort of your own home, which is an added bonus. Once you receive your free quotes and you are thinking that they still may be a little to much there are several things you can do to try and get a lower rate. 1. Raise your deductible. This is probably the easiest and quickest way to lower your home owner’s insurance premium. 2. Combination home owners and auto insurance. Many companies will offer up to 10% off if you combine both these coverage’s with them. 3. Get a security/fire alarm system installed. Most insurance providers will give a discount if you have a security system that is hard wired to a central call center. 4. Get more quotes. The more quotes you get the greater the chance of finding a premium that fits into your budget. As a rule of thumb you should get a minimum of 4 free quotes. As you can see there are many factors that go into determining how much home owners insurance will cost you. In the end the two biggest factors will be the location of your home and its current market value.

To find out more information about how much home owners insurance will cost please visit the web site Home Insurance Quotes by Clicking Here.

You don’t own a home, so do you need renters personal liability insurance? The answer is yes! This insurance protects your assets if someone is injured on your property or if you or a member of your household accidentally injures someone or damages their property.

Only Rich People Need Personal Liability Insurance, Right?

Actually, personal liability insurance is not just for the rich. Accidents can happen to anyone. Consider these scenarios:

* Your mail is accidentally delivered to the wrong house. A kind neighbor brings over the mail but then slips and falls on your porch.

* Your child invites a friend over after school. They are jumping on the trampoline in the back yard and the friend breaks an ankle.

* You’re backing up out of a friend’s driveway but you mistakenly put the car in forward gear instead of reverse. You crash through their garage door.

In each one of these cases, you can be held liable for payment. You could even be sued and end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

How Do I Get Personal Liability Insurance?

Your renters insurance policy provides you with a basic amount of coverage, usually $100,000 to $300,000. If you decide you need more protection, you can buy extra coverage as part of your policy.

You might need extra coverage if …

* You have many visitors to your home

* You have a long commute to work or take a lot of car trips

* You have children, especially teenagers who are driving

The easiest way to get a renters policy that includes personal liability coverage is to go through an insurance comparison website where you’ll get quotes from different companies. You can get your insurance quickly and, since you will get several quotes to compare, you’ll know you’re getting a good rate.

If you don’t have renters insurance, take steps now to protect your financial assets from accidents and injuries.

Where Can I Get Cheap Renters Insurance?

Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/renters-insurance.html or click on the following link to get renters personality liability insurance quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can get more tips and advice in their Articles section, and get answers to your questions from an insurance expert by using their online chat service.

The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written a number of articles on renters personal liability insurance.

Are you a resident of California? Texas? Mississippi? Louisiana? Florida? If you can answer yes to any of those then you’re all too familiar with the difficulties people face obtaining homeowners insurance when they live in a high risk area. Insurance companies are often very reluctant to insure homes in an area that presents a high risk of actually having to file a claim, and as a result there are thousands of homeowners left homeless and heartbroken after a natural disaster strikes.

The government, after paying out billions of dollars in storm damages under federal disaster programs, has finally established a series of mandates intended to protect houses in high risk areas through the development of a “shared” market, a series of involuntary homeowners insurance plans and guidelines that ensure that everyone has the protection they need, regardless of where in the country they happen to live.

Voluntary Homeowners Insurance

If you’ve purchased a homeowners insurance policy through a company such as Allstate or State Farm you’re already familiar with the concept of voluntary homeowners insurance. Voluntary homeowners insurance is a booming business in the U.S., made even more so by the fact that most homeowners are required to have insurance if they are renting or have not yet paid off their mortgage.

Voluntary homeowners insurance is exactly what it sounds like-voluntary. Companies offer this type of coverage because they choose to, and because of this they have an almost limitless freedom to decide what they are and are not going to cover under their standard policies. Earthquake and flood coverage tend to fall into the “not” category, making it difficult for homeowners in high risk areas like oh, say, California or the Gulf of Mexico (earthquake and flood zones, for anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of watching their bookshelves dance at two in the morning or taking a swim down Main Street on a summer’s afternoon) to find the coverage they need.

Involuntary Homeowners Insurance

Because most homeowners insurance providers don’t want to find themselves saddled with a property they can almost guarantee is going to cost them money in the long run the government has stepped in and established the involuntary insurance market-i.e. guidelines stating that certain individuals in certain areas are required to be covered, at a reasonable cost, and certain insurers are required to provide that coverage. This can take the form of the FAIR plans or the Beach and Windstorm plans available in some areas, along with other state funded programs, or go through FEMA (as in the case of the National Flood Insurance Program).

There are many people who don’t believe that the government has the right to force insurers to provide coverage, claiming that the costs don’t justify the returns; however, without involuntary homeowners insurance programs there are thousands of individuals from coast to coast who would find themselves without a home or any hope for their financial future after taking care of the damages. Sometimes, it’s a very good thing that big brother is watching.


Clifford F. Berman is the CEO of QuoteScout.com. Since its launch in 1996 the company has specialized in matching consumers requests for insurance quotes with both local agents and national insurance carriers. For more information, please visit them on the web at QuoteScout.com.