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- BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD

Health insurance – also referred to as medical insurance or healthcare insurance – refers to insurance that covers a portion of the cost of a policyholder’s medical costs. How much the insurance covers (and how much the policyholder pays via copays, deductibles, and coinsurance) depends on the details of the policy itself, with specific rules and regulations that apply to some plans.

If you don’t have health insurance and you end up needing medical care, you can be left with insurmountable medical bills or even face situations in which medical providers refuse to treat you.

If you’re self-employed or without insurance from your employer – in other words, you’re looking for individual or family health insurance in Texas – you might be looking for Affordable Care Act insurance, what's often called Obamacare. However, we want to make you aware of the whole range of individual and family insurance products we have available in your state.

Looking for health care plans on the Marketplace? UnitedHealthcare Individual and Family Marketplace plans offer affordable, reliable coverage options from UnitedHealthcare of Texas, Inc.

A temporary medical insurance plan like short term health insurance  underwritten by Golden Rule Insurance Company may provide:

• Budget-friendly monthly payments
• Health care coverage while you search for a long term option

TriTerm Medical Insurance,  underwritten by Golden Rule Insurance Company, is short term health insurance that offers coverage for preventive care, doctor office visits, and prescriptions.

• Apply once for insurance coverage terms that equal one day less than 3 years.
• $2 million lifetime maximum benefit per covered person on most plans.
• Eligible expenses for preexisting conditions are covered after 12 months on the plan.

Accidental injuries and critical illness happen when you least expect them. Those unexpected expenses can strain any budget. Accident insurance5  and critical illness insurance5  can help by paying cash benefits for covered injuries or illnesses.

The Accident Pro series of products, underwritten by Golden Rule Insurance Company, combines accident insurance with critical illness, hospitalization, and accidental death and dismemberment coverage all in one. Some plans are guaranteed issue, meaning your application won’t be turned down for preexisting conditions.

Dental and vision insurance plans, underwritten by Golden Rule Insurance Company, have no age limit restrictions.6  They offer coverage for the dental and vision services many medical insurance plans don’t include.

From Houston to Austin, Dallas to San Antonio, explore these Texas health insurance options and more that may be available now.

Life insurance is a contract between you and an insurance company. Essentially, in exchange for your premium payments, the insurance company will pay a lump sum known as a death benefit to your beneficiaries after your death.

Your beneficiaries can use the money for whatever purpose they choose. Often this includes paying everyday bills, paying a mortgage or putting a child through college. Having the safety net of life insurance can ensure that your family can stay in their home and pay for the things that you planned for.

There are two primary types of life insurance:  term and permanent life. Permanent life insurance such as whole life insurance or universal life insurance can provide lifetime coverage, while term life insurance provides protection for a certain period.

In addition to being the most affordable type of life insurance, term life insurance is the most popular type of life insurance sold (71% of purchasers) according to the Insurance Barometer Report.

Term life insurance provides coverage for a certain amount of time and the premium payments stay the same amount for the duration of the policy. Typical choices are policy lengths are 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years.  If you pass away within the term of your policy, your beneficiaries can make a claim and receive the death benefit money, tax-free.

• Whole life insurance offers a fixed death benefit and cash value component that grows at a guaranteed rate of return. Many whole life insurance policies pay out dividends that can be used to reduce premium payments or can add to your cash value.
• Universal life insurance often offers more flexibility than a whole life insurance policy. You may be able to alter your premium payments and death benefit, within certain limits. With a  universal life insurance policy, the cash value will build depending on the policy type. For example, an indexed universal life insurance policy will have cash value tied to an index such as the S&P 500. A variable universal life policy will typically have investment options that you can choose and manage.
• Burial insurance is a small whole life policy with a small death benefit, often between $5,000 and $25,000. Burial insurance is designed to cover only funeral costs, and final expenses.
• Survivorship life insurance or “second to die life insurance”  insures two people under one policy, usually a married couple. When both spouses have passed away, the policy pays out the death benefit to the beneficiaries. 

Life insurance covers all causes of death, with one main exception: Suicide within the first two years of owning the policy. Apart from that exclusion, life insurance covers death from illness, disease, accidents and homicide.

Regardless of the cause of death, a life insurance company could deny a claim if it believes there was misrepresentation on the life insurance application, especially if the death is within the first couple of years of owning the policy. For example, if someone lies about their health or other information on the application, the life insurance company could deny a claim by the beneficiaries.

In other extremely narrow cases, a life insurance claim could be denied if the beneficiary killed the insured person, or if the claim is disputed by someone who says the policyholder was coerced into changing the beneficiary.

An annuity is a retirement financial tool. Unlike many retirement tools, though, annuities are contracts between you and an insurance company, rather than with banks or investment companies.

You can buy an annuity in two ways: either by making a lump-sum payment to the insurance company or by paying into it regularly (say once a month). As you give the insurance company money, it may invest it (depending on the type of annuity), although usually at a rate lower than what you could potentially earn by investing in stocks and bonds.

When it comes time to retire, you can choose to “annuitize” the plan, which will switch it from its “accumulation period” (when you pay in) to its “amortization period” (when you get paid). For some annuities, you can receive these regular payments throughout the rest of your life, and maybe even into the life of a beneficiary.

In general, there are three basic types of annuities.

• Fixed annuities guarantee that you’ll earn a certain amount of interest (usually less than you could earn in the stock market or with mutual funds), but also offer a guaranteed payout.
• Variable annuities allow you to choose your risk level with different investment options. Choose wisely, because you could receive a substantial payout — or lose the money entirely — depending on the investment option you select.
• Indexed annuities earn a return pegged to a market index (commonly the S&P 500) so that if your annuity performs well, your monthly payout in retirement could be higher.
• Immediate annuities start paying you back within a year after purchase, so they can be a good option to buy during retirement.
• Deferred annuities start paying you back at a later point specified in your contract — for example, after you’ve already paid into it for many years, as if it were a retirement savings account. While immediate and deferred annuities are both tax-deferred, with deferred annuities your money can grow tax-deferred for longer because you won’t pay the IRS until you receive the money as income down the road.

Indexed universal life (IUL) insurance is permanent, which means it lasts your entire life and builds cash value. An IUL policy allows for some cash value growth through an equity index account, unlike other universal policies that only grow cash value through non-equity earned rates. Like with all universal life policies, once you've built up enough cash value, you can use it to lower or potentially fully pay for your premium without lowering your death benefit.

As a type of permanent life insurance, indexed universal life insurance works similarly to universal life policies, except in the way they build cash value. IUL cash value allows for growth based on a stock index (a set grouping of various stocks) instead of only through non-equity earned rates. Like universal life, IUL offers the flexibility to adjust your premium as the cash value grows, with the potential to eventually achieve a zero-cost policy in which all premiums are paid for by your built-up cash value.

IUL policies allow you to grow your cash value by putting a portion toward an equity index account like the S&P 500 or NASDAQ. Rather than only relying on non-equity earned rates, an equity index account grows based on the index of an entire market or market sector. The interest rate will still be variable, like with other universal life policies. And as with all universal life policies, your IUL cash value will have a minimum interest rate that it will always earn, regardless of market performance. Your IUL may also have an interest rate cap.