insurance

(noun)

A means of indemnity against a future occurrence of an uncertain event.

Related Terms

Examples of insurance in the following topics:

  • Health Insurance

    • Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring personal medical expenses.
    • Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring personal medical expenses.
    • Two types of health insurance exist in modern society, private health insurance and publicly funded health insurance.
    • A deductible is the amount that an insured individual must pay out-of-pocket before the health insurer pays its share.
    • A co-payment is the amount that an insured person must pay out of pocket before the health insurer pays for a particular visit or service.

  • Health Care in the U.S.

    • Healthcare in the United States is provided by separate legal entities, often private facilities with governmental insurance for citizens.
    • The U.S. system is primarily one of private insurance, with governmental insurance provided for citizens on the healthcare fringe.
    • Some Americans who do not qualify for government-provided health insurance are not provided health insurance by an employer, and are unable to afford, cannot qualify for, or choose not to purchase private health insurance.
    • Although some are healthy and choose to go without it, others have been rejected by insurance companies and are considered "uninsurable. "
    • This image shows the income distribution of Americans who did not have health insurance coverage in 2007.

  • Contractual Saving

    • Contractual saving institutions are insurance companies and pension funds.
    • Insurance companies provide protection for people who buy insurance policies.Insurance policy prevents financial hardship, such as a medical emergency, car accident, or the death of a family member.Insurance companies are financial intermediaries because they link the funds from the policyholders to the financial markets.Policyholders make periodical payments to the insurance company called premiums.Insurance company will invest the premiums in the financial
    • markets.For the insurance company to earn a profit, the amount of interest earned in the financial markets plus the total amount of premiums must exceed the amount paid for claims.Largest insurance companies include Allstate, Aetna, and Prudential.Most states established commissions that regulate insurance companies.Commissions may limit premiums, minimize fraud, and prevent the insurance companies from investing in risky securities.
    • Insurance companies use the law of large numbers as they insure a large number of people.On average, statisticians can predict an insurance company's pay out in claims because they, on average, accurately predict the rates of death, illness, injury, and property damage for an entire country.Statisticians do not know which specific individuals will experience hardship, but they can predict how often it occurs.Unfortunately, insurance companies have two problems, when selling insurance policies: Adverse selection and moral hazard.Adverse selection means a person buying insurance has more information than the insurance company.For example, a person knows he has a heart problem and decides to buy a very large life insurance policy, and he hides this information.Moral hazard means people buying insurance becomes more careless than when they did not have insurance.For instance, a person buys theft insurance for his home,and this person stops locking his windows and doors when he leaves, increasing the risk a burglar will break into his home.
    • First type of insurance company is a life insurance company.These companies purchase long-term corporate bonds and commercial mortgages because they can predict future payments with high accuracy.Furthermore, the insurance companies are organized in two ways: Mutual company or stock company.Insurance policyholders own a mutual company because the insurance policy functions as corporate stock, while a stock company is a corporation that issues stock.Thus, the shareholders own the company, while the insurance policyholders do not.Stock company is more common because a stock company has more funding sources.They receive funding by selling stock to shareholders, and receive revenue by selling insurance policies.Most policies issued are called term life policies.Person buying the life insurance must pay the premium for the rest of his life.These policies are popular because the policyholder can borrow against the value of the life insurance policy, when he retires.Borrowing against insurance is an annuity.An annuity pays a retired person a specific amount of money each year.

  • Gender Inequality in Health Care

    • More women than men are insured in the United States.
    • In one study of a population group in a low-income urban community, 86 percent of women reported having access to health insurance through publicly assisted or private options, while only 74 percent of men reported having any health insurance at all.
    • Gender discrimination in health care manifests primarily as the amount of money one pays for insurance premiums—the amount paid per month in order to be covered by insurance.
    • This is largely due to regulations of private insurance companies.
    • Fewer than ten state governments prohibit gender discrimination in insurance premiums.

  • Social Insurance

    • Social insurance differs from welfare in that the beneficiary's contributions to the program are taken into account.
    • Medicare is an example of a social insurance program, while Medicaid is an example of a welfare one.
    • In the United States, Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance are among the most well-known forms of social insurance.
    • Unemployment insurance provides a monetary benefit to workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own.
    • Social Security is one of the best-known social insurance programs in the United States.

  • Current Issues in Health Care

    • Most Americans with private health insurance have it provided by their employers.
    • The insurers negotiate rates with hospitals for different procedures.
    • This results in insurers refusing to insure these patients.
    • Antitrust: Previously, insurance companies were immune to antitrust laws.
    • The ACA will only work if both healthy and sick people alike buy insurance: if the healthy choose to pay the fine for not having insurance and only the sick buy insurance, then costs will increase.

  • Health Care Reform Under Obama

    • In March 2010, President Obama gave a speech at a rally in Pennsylvania explaining the necessity of health insurance reform.
    • This means that what insurance companies gain from avoiding the sick greatly outweighs any possible gains from managing their care.
    • As a result, insurers devoted resources to such avoidance at a direct cost to effective care management, which is against the interests of the insured.
    • Some analysts have argued that the insurance premium structure may shift more costs onto younger and healthier people.
    • The studies suggest that making insurance mandatory rather than voluntary will tend to bring younger, healthier people into the insurance pool, shifting the cost of the Act's increased spending onto them.

  • Physical Health

    • For many employees who do not have health insurance benefits through their job, the cost of insurance can be prohibitive.
    • Without insurance, or with inadequate insurance, the cost of healthcare can be extremely high.
    • Consequently, many uninsured or poorly insured individuals do not have access to preventative care or quality treatment.
    • The largest group of insured Americans consists of middle and upper class employees who receive health insurance through employers.
    • As of 2007, 16% of the population had no health insurance coverage and, thus, had greatly limited access to healthcare.

  • Health Care Reform

    • The issue of health insurance reform in the United States has been the subject of political debate since the early part of the 20th century.
    • The issue of health insurance reform in the United States has been the subject of political debate since the early part of the 20th century.
    • Obama's plan required that parents cover their children, but did not require that adults buy insurance.
    • The system preserves private insurance and private health care providers and provides more subsidies to enable the poor to buy insurance.
    • Most people will be required to obtain health insurance or pay a tax.

  • The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)

    • As the insurer and regulator of federally chartered credit unions, the NCUA oversees credit union safety and soundness, much like the FDIC.
    • The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) is the federal fund created by Congress in 1970 to insure member's deposits in federally insured credit unions.
    • On July 22, 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law and included permanently establishing the NCUA's standard maximum share insurance amount at $250,000.
    • All deposit insurance resources reflect this higher level of coverage.
    • Credit unions may also offer an array of additional financial services which are not covered by federal insurance.