Five ways life insurance can help you in retirement
By RAY CAUCCI

As retirement draws near, it’s only natural to look at your life insurance coverage and wonder whether any changes should be made. After all, you might have first purchased life insurance half a lifetime ago. Back then, it offered a great way to safeguard your income during your prime working years, particularly if you had young children to raise or decades of future mortgage payments to consider.

Some examples of how life insurance can offer advantages in retirement include:

1. Wealth transfer to heirs: Life insurance is one of the most effective methods for creating an orderly succession of assets to future generations and establishing a legacy via charitable bequests.

2. Access to cash: If you believe the same level of coverage will no longer be needed, you can access the cash value of a permanent life insurance policy to help fund your retirement.

3. Support for a widow/widower: Perhaps you want to ensure that a surviving spouse is able to pay certain expenses after one of you passes away.

4. Protection from the onset of chronic illnesses: Many life insurance policies allow people to access the death benefits for chronic illness before death.

5. Charitable giving: Life insurance can be used in several ways to support an individual’s charitable giving strategy as retirement approaches.

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The Democratic Party is riding to President Trump's rescue on healthcare with talk of repealing Obamacare and eliminating private insurance in favor of a government system that has drawn the skepticism of American voters.
by David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner

The move could offer a political lifeline to Trump. His stubborn commitment to “repealing and replacing” Obamacare, once a winning message, has left him vulnerable on healthcare — a key voter priority. A Democratic nominee who also proposes junking Obamacare, albeit by different means, could hand the issue back to Trump and strengthen his hand in critical electoral battlegrounds.

Democrats struggled for nearly a decade after Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law to gain the upper hand on healthcare, finally being rewarded by the voters in the 2018 midterm elections after years of suffering electoral losses. Now, a few of the party’s leading presidential contenders propose junking Obamacare and the private insurance market under the guise of “Medicare for all.”

Liesl Hickey, a senior Republican strategist who has watched her party’s fortunes rise and fall on the healthcare issue and keeps close tabs on suburban voters, where support for Trump is soft, said Democrats would be foolish to squander the political high ground. Hickey predicted a Democratic nominee who runs on abolishing private insurance and putting Washington in charge of healthcare would be doing exactly that, reviving the president’s fortunes with disaffected Republicans in the process.

"Democrats are totally overreaching and it will backfire. Americans are mostly happy with their private insurance. To just scrap the whole thing? Nobody is there," she said.

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Sally Pipes: Joe Biden’s ‘no’ on 'Medicare-for-all' is a ruse
By Sally Pipes | Fox News

Former Vice President Joe Biden has reiterated his opposition to any health reform plan that would scrap ObamaCare, including "Medicare-for-all." According to the former vice president, "starting over" on health care would be "a sin."

Instead, Biden proposed expanding ObamaCare to include a "public option," wherein individuals could buy a government-sponsored health plan. Moderate Democrats have seized on the public option as a less disruptive brand of health care reform than Medicare-for-all.

But there's nothing moderate about a public option. It may take some time, but Biden's preferred plan would ultimately lead to a government takeover of health insurance.

Because the public option will be less expensive than private plans, they'll almost certainly prove popular. One study found that a national public option would enroll more than 40 million Americans in its first year alone.

But the public option can only charge less than private plans because it has the ability to dictate the prices it will pay doctors and hospitals. In most cases, public option proponents envision reimbursing health care providers at or around the level Medicare does.

And that means underpaying them. On average, hospitals receive just 87 cents for each dollar they spend treating Medicare beneficiaries each year. All told, Medicare underpaid hospitals by nearly $54 billion in 2017.

Hospitals charge private insurers more to make up the difference. But if enough people were to switch from private coverage to the public option, that pricing strategy would fall apart.



This Market-Based Health Insurance Alternative Has Increased 600 Percent Since Obamacare
By Lauren Fink / The Federalist

Do Christians have a little edge on health care in the United States? Health-care sharing ministries (HCSM) are exploding—membership has increased 600 percent in nine years—as these unregulated oddballs maneuver freely in an industry that today is tethered by more rules and bureaucracy than ever before.

For nine years, as Obamacare tore through American households and clinics and hospitals, HCSMs quietly grew—twice, thrice, and now nine times their size. Today there are 1.2 million HCSM members, and their medical expenses covered by sharing ministries exceeds $1 billion annually. Membership is expected to reach 1.68 million by 2020.



Chatbot Market Predicted to Reach USD 470 Million By 2025: Zion Market Research
GlobeNewswire / YAHOO FINANCE
According to the report, the global healthcare Chatbots market was valued at approximately USD 123 million in 2018 and is expected to generate around USD 470 million by 2025, at a CAGR of around 21.2% between 2019 and 2025.

Zion Market Research has published a new report titled “Healthcare Chatbots Market by Deployment Model (Cloud-Based and On-Premise), by Component (Services and Software), by End-User (Healthcare Providers, Insurance Companies, Patients, and Others), and by Application (Medical Guidance & Appointment Scheduling and Medication Assistance & Symptom Checking): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2018—2025”.

According to the report, the global healthcare Chatbots market was valued at approximately USD 123 million in 2018 and is expected to generate around USD 470 million by 2025, at a CAGR of around 21.2% between 2019 and 2025.

Chatbots are artificial intelligence systems capable of conducting a conversation using textual or auditory methods. Chatbots pass the Turing test as they simulate human behavior during a conversation. A chatbot yields a response based on feedback from a user. Healthcare chatbots help in reducing the burden on physicians in primary care. Healthcare chatbots can connect patients with doctors for diagnosis or treatment.



USI Insurance Services Acquires JRG Advisors, LLC
JRG Advisors to Join Forces With Wholesale Employee Benefits General Agent, Emerson Reid
GLOBE NEWSWIRE

USI Insurance Services (“USI”) today announced the acquisition of Wexford, Pennsylvania-based employee benefits services firm, JRG Advisors, LLC (“JRG”). The company’s existing operations will be combined with Emerson Reid, USI's employee benefits wholesale brokerage division. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Commenting on the announcement, Richard F. Galardini, chief executive officer for JRG, shared: “We look forward to joining forces with Emerson Reid by combining our resources and expertise to best position our associations, broker partners and clients for success. For more than a decade, JRG has been focused on delivering innovative product and service solutions and cultivating strong, long-term client relationships. Our partners will now have access to Emerson Reid’s My Benefit Advisor platform, specialized departments, and in-depth healthcare reform and compliance resources."

Emerson Reid President, George A. Rosiak, added: "We are thrilled to welcome Rick and Jessica Galardini, and the talented professionals from JRG to the Emerson Reid team. This partnership further strengthens Emerson Reid’s footprint and expertise in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Through the alignment of our core business strategies and the synergies between both companies, we will continue to deliver unparalleled service and support to our association and broker partners for years to come.”



Unum’s new benefit expands accident, critical illness coverage
By Evelina Nedlund / ebn

Every 10 minutes, more than 750 Americans suffer an injury severe enough to seek medical help, according to the National Safety Council. A full 75% of people with health insurance say the amount they were charged for copays, deductibles or coinsurance was more than they could afford.

That’s why Unum added a new accident and critical illness features to its health benefit offerings, which can help ease the financial pressure caused by out-of-pocket expenses when an accident, injury or illness occurs. The insurance includes benefits for X-rays, hospital stays or prescription drugs after an accident, along with increases for common accidents including fractures, dislocations and emergency dental services.

The critical illness offering gives employers more flexibility in how they offer the benefit to workers, so can be structured to cover a person during a specific life stage. Coverage for more illnesses and reoccurrence is also included, and there is no limit to the number of payouts a covered person can receive, either for the same of different conditions.