Recent economic conditions have underscored the importance of knowing your life insurance provider’s financial rating. While some companies have slipped, many remain strong. Use this list of top 50 life insurance company ratings to find a solid provider. All scores come from A.M. Best, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch — the four top financial rating institutions.

The best life insurance companies of 2010 according to A.M. Best are:

• New York Life: A++, stable outlook
• Mass Mutual: A++, stable outlook
• State Farm: A++, stable outlook
• Geico: A++, stable outlook

Stable A+ companies include: Metlife, John Hancock, Mutual of Omaha, and Jackson National.

*Company ratings as of 07/24/2009. Subject to change without notice.

** A dash (-) indicates that the company wasn’t rated or ratings were out-of-date.
A.M. Best Rating Explanations

Moody’s Rating Explanations

S&P Rating Explanations

Fitch Rating Explanations

Nordgren’s situation is not unusual. Fewer than a third of employers that offer health insurance make it available to their part-time workers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is a program of the foundation.) And even if health insurance benefits are offered, part-timers, who often work in lower-paid retail, restaurant and service jobs, may not be able to afford them.

The health-care overhaul will greatly improve insurance prospects for part-time workers — but not right away. Starting in 2014, the state-based exchanges, designed to help people find affordable health insurance, will offer a choice of subsidized health plans with different levels of coverage for part-timers and others who don’t get insurance through their jobs. The law also expands the Medicaid program to permit adults with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level (for an individual, that’s $14,410 this year) to qualify for coverage.

But 2014 is more than three years away. In the interim, part-timers may have limited options. In Nordgren’s case, she signed up for a program through the restaurant that allows her to get primary care services for $60 a visit through Piedmont Health Services, a network of six community health centers.

“It’s not insurance, but it’s accessible and affordable for ongoing needs,” says Briggs Wesche, the general manager of A Southern Season, the gourmet market that houses the restaurant where Nordgren works.

Community health centers are a good option for part-timers and others without insurance. The centers serve all comers, and fees are generally charged on a sliding scale based on income. Center locations can be found on the Health Resources and Services Administration Web site, http://hrsa.gov; local public health departments and primary care associations may also list affordable programs.

Businesses are only beginning to grapple with the changes that the new health-care law will bring. Starting in the fall, health plans are required to eliminate lifetime limits on coverage as well as most annual limits on specific services. This could spell trouble for the many businesses that offer so-called limited-benefit plans to their part-time workers.

The YMCA of Greater Rochester in New York offers this type of plan to its 450 part-time workers. The plan pays for five in-network doctor visits a year, with $10 co-payments. It covers $11,000 annually for hospitalization. Prescription drug coverage maxes out at $500 a year. For these and other services, individuals pay $968 annually, and families pay $2,804.

Patient advocates have criticized such limited-benefit plans for offering skimpy coverage at a high price. Only 29 workers have signed up for the YMCA plan, according to Fernan Cepero, vice president of human resources at the Y. However, the Department of Health and Human Services may be thinking that these plans are better than no coverage at all. Guidance explaining the rules for eliminating the annual and lifetime limits says limited-benefit plans may request a delay.

Starting in 2014, businesses may face penalties if they don’t cover full-time workers, but they won’t be penalized for not covering employees who work less than 30 hours per week. In a recent survey of 800 employers by human resources consultant Mercer, more than half of those that don’t provide insurance to workers at that threshold said they would consider reducing workers’ hours.

Fortunately, even if employers trim workers’ hours, the exchanges will offer an alternative for part-time workers.

That can’t happen too soon for such workers as Cheneta Forest, who works 20 hours a week at a restaurant in New Orleans. Forest, 42, has diabetes. Her job doesn’t offer health insurance. She goes to the emergency room two or three times every week because she feels sick or needs insulin. At $45 a visit, plus $50 for the insulin, her monthly ER expenses would easily cover a health insurance premium. But no one will insure her. “I’m a sickly person, and I need health insurance,” she says. “It’s a big problem.”

Life insurance

Life insurance is an essential part of your family’s financial plan. This is especially true when you have dependents relying on you. The primary reason people buy life insurance is to replace the income that would be lost with the death of a wage earner. Imagine the challenges your family would face just maintaining your family’s current lifestyle if you were no longer there. Adequate life insurance protection could spare your family from having to make some very serious financial sacrifices.

However, as important as life insurance is, you don’t want to pay too much for it. Life insurance premiums vary widely between companies for the exact same benefits. Pilots have the added concern that most life insurance companies just don’t understand the actual risk of flying and charge excessive aviation surcharges for their policies. If the policy does not have the surcharge, it normally will contain an Aviation Exclusion Rider that makes the policy void if the insured dies in an aircraft accident.

The Pilot Insurance Center has worked closely with leading insurers to develop underwriting criteria that allows us to obtain pilot’s life insurance coverage at preferred rates that are not available from other agents or associations offering aviation coverage.

How are we able to do this?

The principals of the Pilot Insurance Center, Randy Williams and Bill Fanning, have many years of both aviation and life insurance experience and are respected as experts in this unique field. Because of our expertise, several of the largest life insurance companies in America rely on our judgment in the area of aviation underwriting.

Why buy from PIC?

Coverage from some of America’s top insurers. The Pilot Insurance Center has worked closely with leading insurers to develop underwriting criteria that allows us to obtain pilots life insurance coverage at preferred rates that are not available from other agents. This is full life insurance coverage from A+ rated companies. You will be covered for all of your present and future aviation activities.

We promise to keep your personal data absolutely private. We will not release your data to any other party other than for the purposes of obtaining your life insurance coverage. See our privacy policy.

Our guarantee to you. We want you to be completely satisfied. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with the policy we obtain for you, we will refund 100% of your premiums during the first 30 days after receiving your policy.

Our application process is quick and easy. We have developed a shorter and more streamlined process to make the application process convenient for you.

We make it easier for you. Upon request we will obtain and release your insurance exam and lab results to you. Many agents and companies will not do this because they want to make it as difficult as possible for you to move your business elsewhere.

Health Insurance Reform and Health Care continues to dominate the news out of Washington. It is a topic of conversation no matter who we talk to and no matter where we go. Why is that? I would like to suggest of few of the reasons:

1. Most of us wish to live long, fullfilling lives and have a vested interest in staying healthy, or curing our illnesses and healing our injuries.
2. The cost of this care is very expensive for many reasons. For example, when you are sick or hurt and your doctor wants you to have an MRI rather than an old fashioned X-Ray, do you say no? Of course not. We want the advantages that technological advances afford us.
3. The health care system and therefore it’s cost is very complicated. Many hands in the cookie jar. Patients, Doctors, and Hospitals. Drugs Companies, Lawyers and Insurance Companies. The most significant complicating factor is government. The state and federal regulations placed on this industry are unprecidented.

The importance, the cost and the complicated nature of this issue bring it to the fore. All of this prior to the application of the political forces. No matter what direction the political winds end up blowing in Washington in the coming weeks, “REFORM” will not reduce the importance, the cost or the complicated nature of Health Care. Infact, reform may increase them all.

As per the definition, a health insurance policy is a legal agreement drawn between the insurance company and her customers. It differs from Life insurance from the fact that in the latter a person may purchase guaranteed renewable policy for a whole life at a constant premium rate. Health Insurance is not renewable and can only be purchased in a yearly basis.

The Insured or the customer usually enjoy the benefits of avoidi9ng the high medical costs like the doctor visits, lab tests, hospital stays, diagnostic tests, etc. The medical expenses are taken care of provided the customer pays his premium regularly. The rate of premium is influenced by the age and coverage required:

Recommended cover

• 25 – 35 (year) – Rs 1- 2 lakh
• 35 – 45 (year) - Rs 2-3 lakh
• Above 45 (year) - Above Rs 3 lakh

Some of largest Indian Health Insurance provider Companies:

• ICICI Lombard – Private
• Bajaj Alliance – Private
• New India Assurance Co. Ltd.- Public
• Life Insurance Company of India – Public
• National Insurance Company Ltd.- Public