In a recessed economy, your insurance coverage is even more important than in good times. You may want to make slight adjustments in coverage on a homeowner’s policy to reflect any reduction in home values; this could result in small savings until values again rise. Maintaining basic insurances like auto or accident insurance, life insurance and funeral insurance is an essential move to protect you against unexpected large expenses that can occur no matter what the economy is doing. The costs of medical care, funeral and burial expenses and repairs rarely are reduced, even in the worst economic times. In fact, they may rise as the economy recovers and the economic outlook improves.
In fact, a recession may be the right time to add to your insurance policy coverage. For example, many other people will drop or not pay their auto insurance. If you get into an accident with one of those people, your only recourse for recovery may be your own insurance coverage. It follows that maintaining your own medical coverage is equally important in a recession. When times are bad, that is not the time that you want to have to deal with excessive bills for repairs and medical care because you lowered your insurance or dropped it completely due to a bad economy.
Medical insurance is an area where cutbacks occur when a person loses their job. These people have the option to continue to pay for medical insurance for 18 months under COBRA, or they can convert a policy to a personal policy. When money is tight, the large expense required by medical insurance may look impossible to continue, and the family goes without. If an illness or injury occurs, the family is faced with ever increasing costs of medical treatment and care. Continuing the family’s medical insurance is a necessity, but can look less important when balanced against the need to provide the family with food and shelter first.
Another reason to maintain insurance coverage is in the event there is a lapse in coverage, the person wanting to reinstate their coverage may be faced with punitive charges due to the lapse. Getting renewed coverage may also involve increased premium costs due to aging; you could lose some discounts you may have previously had for longevity with a company and other factors.
Life may have its ups and downs during economic high and low periods, but it continues without disruption. If you have an accident, you will have expenses. Without insurance, you are on your own for what are sometimes astronomical expenses for repairs and medical treatment. If you die without insurance, your family will bear the brunt of the impact, not only for your loss of income, but related funeral, medical and burial expenses at a time when they have no access to extra money to pay for those expenses.
Losing a job means more than not going to work. It means readjusting an entire lifestyle to try to live on reduced income or no income, bills that pile up unpaid and figuring out what to do about many things, including insurance coverage. It is wise to keep any insurance you can maintain active by continuing to pay the premiums. In the end, you can only do so much, but do not discount the importance of insurance coverage where it counts, on vehicles, on lives and on medical care. These are more important than credit card insurance to keep your credit score high, or payments to keep your cable TV or cell phones turned on.
When times get tough, the tough get tougher. Managing money wisely means having the right types of insurance active at all times. The chips may be down, but you do not want to be out of insurance coverage if a disaster or catastrophe occurs. Guardian Insurance is key in a recessed economy; do not let the important ones lapse.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
