Monthly Archives: September 2015

What Type of Health Insurance Is Best for College Students?

Much like everyone else, college student must maintain health insurance coverage in order to avoid paying a penalty. More importantly, college students must maintain health insurance to ensure they have access to healthcare when they need it. Unfortunately, understanding what’s available can be challenging for anyone who isn’t familiar with health insurance. The following are a few options college students should consider in order to determine the best option for healthcare insurance.

Continuing on Their Parent’s Insurance

One of the cheapest options for healthcare coverage for students is remaining on their parent’s insurance. Most of the time, college students have the option of remaining on their parent’s insurance coverage while they are in school until they reach the age of 26. Marriage, living at another address, and the ability to enroll in an employer’s plan doesn’t disqualify college students from remaining on their parent’s insurance.

A Student’s Health Plan

Most colleges understand the importance of offering their students a discount health plan. With the ability to reduce the cost of care, many college students will get the treatment they need and reduce the transmission of infectious diseases. Most colleges partner with health insurance companies to offer their student’s an affordable health insurance plan.

Purchasing a Health Plan in the Marketplace

The Affordable Care Act makes it easy for college students to purchase health insurance, as well. Most college students who purchase healthcare do so during open enrollment; however, there are qualifying events that allow college students to get coverage outside of enrollment dates, including:

  • Getting married
  • Having a baby
  • Adopting a child
  • Gaining citizenship

In most cases, qualifying events allow students to enroll for coverage.

Purchasing Health Insurance from an Insurance Company

Insurance companies are a great option when it comes to purchasing health insurance coverage. Most insurance companies offer insurance from many different companies, allowing college students to choose between competitively priced coverage options.

College students around Lakewood, CO who are interested in getting more information about the types of coverage options Colling Insurance Services Inc. offers should give us a call.

Sinking Porch: Will My Homeowners Insurance Cover Repairs or Replacement?

Sinking Porch: Will My Homeowners Insurance Cover Repairs or Replacement?

Colorado has something to offer everyone, whether you’re a skier who could spend all day and evening at Vail or someone who would rather spend your day and evening shopping till you drop at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

Unfortunately, with all that snow comes some flooding and wet soil during the spring months. This can damage the foundation of your house and actually cause your foundation and porch to start to sink.

When you purchase homeowners insurance, most people do not read the fine print nor do they ask if their policy covers sinking foundation or a sinking porch. The answer to those questions is generally no, but there are a few exceptions.

Why Does My Homeowners Policy Only Cover Certain Causes for a Sinking Porch or Foundation?

Even though your foundation and porch are part of your house, if they start to sink, they are usually not covered under your homeowner’s policy because of the reasons why they sink, including:

  • Flooding
  • Drought
  • Wet soil
  • Dry soil

In addition, homeowners insurance does not cover the following:

  • Shrinking or expanding foundations
  • Cracked walls
  • Cracked ceilings or floors
  • Driveways, walkways, or fences that become damaged

When Will Homeowners Insurance Cover a Sinking Foundation or Porch?

  • Burst pipes
  • Underground mines that cause damage to your foundation
  • Underground drains and state or city owned sewage lines that cause damage to your home

Although, Colorado is not a state that is prone to earthquakes, you can purchase a separate rider that will cover the cost of foundation and porch repairs and replacement. Of course, the damage has to have been caused by an earthquake for the insurance to pay for it.

On the other hand, Colorado is prone to flooding, therefore a separate policy for flooding is highly recommended and will cover the cost of any repairs or replacement to your sinking foundation or porch caused by the flooding.

The law requires that everyone have homeowners insurance if you have a mortgage auto insurance coverage. However, you can easily work with your Colling Insurance Services agent to work out additional coverage that will provide even more protection when disaster strikes!