Health, Life and Medicare Insurance for Dallas, TX and Dallas-Fort Worth, DFW area
Our Guarantee
At Howell Health & Life Insurance Company, serving Dallas and North Texas, we promise to help you custom design a quality health insurance plan that meets your needs and your budget. We promise to represent insurance plans that are "A" rated or higher and pay their claims on time. We promise to educate you on all your health and life insurance options and to disclose "the good, the bad, and the ugly" about the insurance plans we represent. That is our guarantee to you.
Timely Texas Insurance Services
Howell Health & Life Insurance is dedicated to a no-nonsense approach to health insurance for Dallas, Texas residents. We focus on giving you the health and life insurance coverages that you need in a timely and cooperative manner. We provide personal service by coming to you at a time and a place that are convenient to you.
Not connected with or endorsed by the United States government or the federal Medicare program
-
Senior Insurance
-
Seniors 65 years and older probably realize that Medicare may not cover all their medical expenses. Fortunately, Medicare supplement insurance or Medigap can help ease their worries by filling in some of the gaps left by Medicare coverage. Senior Medicare Supplemental Insurance provides great protection for people 65 years and older. Nine out of ten Medicare beneficiaries obtain additional insurance coverage to supplement their Medicare benefits.
-
-
Health Insurance for Individuals, Families, & Self-Employed Professionals
-
Our company provides quality PPO medical insurance plans for every need and budget. We specialize in affordable health insurance solutions for Texas individuals, families, self-employed persons and small businesses (up to 50 employees). We offer you the peace of mind in knowing that your health insurance plan is covering you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, on or off the job.
-
-
How to find an individual health plan
-
Your first step in researching health coverage is look at coverage options an dprice quotes online or to contact an insurance agent in your area. You should discuss with your agent your own particular health insurance needs. Think carefully about what coverage you must have. Is your doctor in the network? How much will you pay out of pocket for a routine check-up? How much could you pay out-of-pocket if you have a hospitalization? Are well-child visits included? Do you need Rx coverage? What about dental coverage too? Last, but certainly not least, is what is your premium threshold? In other words, what is the most you are willing to pay for health insurance? Have a budget range in mind before you talk with your agent.
-
-
Your employer doesn't have to provide health insurance
-
There are no state or federal laws requiring private employers to offer health benefits to their workers. However, many employers offer health insurance as a way to attract and keep workers. When group health plans are offered, they are then subject to a variety of state mandates about what benefits must be included, unless the employer is self-insured (meaning it pays the claims costs itself, not an insurance company).
Although health insurance mandates make coverage more broad, they can also pump up the cost. State mandated benefits do not apply to individual (private-market) plans that you'd buy on your own.
Call 1 (866) 875-7775 to speak with Bob Howell
Bob Howell
Licensed Agent
Health Insurance Basics
Unless you are independently wealthy and can pay for your health care out of pocket, health insurance is a crucial purchase. The time to buy it is before you have an accident, suffer a serious illness or discover you're pregnant.
Individual health insurance doesn't cover health care for medical problems or conditions that start before the date you were issued a policy, although there are now Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans available from the government. Finding adequate coverage might seem overwhelming, but knowing the basics can help make your search less daunting.
Much of the information below will change in the coming months and years as health reform laws kick in. Here is a health reform timeline of what to expect.
Bridging the insurance gap
The federal COBRA law (Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act) could provide you with a much-needed short term safety net. COBRA allows workers to keep their group health coverage if they lose their jobs, provided they pay the full premium and a small administrative fee. It applies to those firms with 20 or more workers and generally lasts for 18 months.
Another federal law that offers some protection to workers switching group health plans is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPPA imposes limits on the extent to which some group health plans can exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions. For instance, if you've had "creditable" health insurance for 12 straight months, with no lapse in coverage of 63 days or more, a new group health plan cannot exclude your pre-existing conditions. It must cover your medical problems as soon as you enroll in the plan.
Other ways to buy health insurance when you are between group health plans include short-term health insurance and major medical health insurance.
If you can't buy group health insurance through work, you may be shopping for a private-market health plan. Unlike group plans, in which the costs and risks associated with health care are spread among many people, individual health policies are "medically underwritten" to take into account your personal health history, occupation, age and gender. Any "pre-existing" condition such as heart disease, diabetes and even pregnancy can nix your chances of acceptance or boose your premiums. Some state require individual health insurers to offer everyone a plan regardless of their health conditions, a mandate known as "guaranteed issue". In Texas, it is the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool.
Once you have individual health plan, don't expect your premiums to remain sthe same. Health insurance companies often seek permission to raise premiums. Additionally, some state allow health insurers to "file and use" rate increases, which means the insurers only have to submit their increases in writing and then they may immediately begin charging more. Unless state regulators determine the rates are excessive, the insurers are allowed to keep charging the higher premiums.