Despite the weak Canadian dollar, winter-weary snowbirds and March breakers are still heading south for vacation. If you’re one of these people, you probably understand that you need to pack more than just sunscreen for protection. Even if your travel budget is tight, spending a bit extra on travel insurance could save your family thousands in medical expenses related to illness, injury or death while beyond the border.
Step one in shopping for travel insurance is to check if you’re already covered in the first place. If you are a part of a group employee health plan, this likely includes some form of travel insurance. And most travel rewards credit cards offer travel and medical insurance as a cardholder perk. However, both of these options typically cover only accidents, not illness, and as for credit card insurance, your coverage is usually limited to travel costs that were paid for with that card.
So if you think you have sufficient travel insurance, it’s best to consider the following before heading out of town…

Q: My mother is 97 years old, in excellent health and living independently in her own home. For a very lengthy period of time, she’s paid for a whole life insurance policy. The premium is $121, paid semi-annually. Does she really need to continue to pay premiums on this policy or can she cease paying and just leave the policy alone?
—Chris R., Waterloo, Ont.
A: She is 97? Fantastic! What is her secret? I want to meet her. And I want to be her. Wait. Sorry. You asked me the question. I’m afraid my answer requires you to follow up with your broker to understand some math.
Lorne Marr of LSM Insurance says you’ll need to call and find out, “if the annual dividend exceeds the annual premium and if so have them apply it to the premium.” The dividend fluctuates based on interest rates and the profitability of the insurance company. Marr goes on to say that, “if the annual dividend is not sufficient, she might be able to take the difference from the accumulated paid-up additions…

In this article we examine what the phrase “health insurance” actually means. We first highlight the difference between government-managed healthcare systems and private health insurance. We then compare and contrast the two types of health insurance available to Canadians: employee benefits and individual health insurance plans.

Mergers, acquisitions, private equity and venture capital deals from Canada and around the world

When Canadians think of health insurance one thing that usually does not come to mind is travel insurance protection. Yet many Canadian health insurance plans do offer some levels of travel medical benefits, depending on the type of health insurance and the carrier that is offering the plan. Read on for further details.

About 575 RBC employees will move to Aviva and others will remain with the Royal Bank

OTTAWA – The period of time between graduating from school to landing a full-time job with benefits can stretch on for months or years for young Canadians, meaning they lack extended health and dental benefits since they’re too old to be covered by their parents’ plans.
And with the growing use of contract employees who don’t receive benefits, that means young Canadians must fend for themselves and buy their own supplemental health and dental insurance.
Provincial health insurance doesn’t cover everything. Whether it’s a prescription for penicillin, a crown that needs to be replaced or an ambulance ride to the hospital, if you don’t have insurance, you’ll end up paying out of pocket.
Loretta Kulchycki, vice-president of group marketing at Great-West Life, suggests consumers start their hunt for health and dental benefits by deciding how much coverage they’re going to need and researching their options online.
“If you are young, you will tend to be healthier, and in that case would probably have lower premiums than somebody who, say, is planning for a retiree product,” she said…

As thousands of new university students move on to campus, their parents are left to worry about all the things they’ve forgotten – like insurance coverage.
What happens, for instance, if something – fire, theft, illness, or an accident – goes wrong after school starts?
As long as your children are full-time students and expected to return home during the summer, their belongings are usually covered by your property insurance policy, assuming they live in residence.
However, there may be a limit on the coverage on property used by students while away at university.
Also read: The Ins and Outs of Insurance>
Existing Home Insurance May Not Be Sufficient
That cap may not be enough to cover valuable items that they might be taking with them like bikes, laptops or tablets, for example. In that case, you’d need to arrange for additional coverage for these items.
Most policies don’t cover anything that they buy for their room that they won’t be taking back home with them – furniture, for example…

Catastrophic benefits offer coverage for prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, home care and nursing services. Benefits commence only after the maximums for a given health insurance plan are reached, and coverage is designed to protect insured Canadians from a catastrophic financial situation due to illness or accident. Read on for more information.

WASHINGTON – The government stored sensitive personal information on millions of health insurance customers in a computer system with basic security flaws, according to an official audit that uncovered slipshod practices.
The Obama administration said it acted quickly to fix all the problems identified by the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office. But the episode raises questions about the government’s ability to protect a vast new database at a time when cyberattacks are becoming bolder.
Known as MIDAS, the $110-million system is the central electronic storehouse for information collected under President Barack Obama’s health care law.
It doesn’t handle medical records, but it does include names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, employment status and financial accounts of customers on HealthCare.gov and state insurance marketplaces.
“It sounds like a gold mine for ID thieves,” said Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group focused on technology…

Canadian disability insurance 101 here! We discuss the two main DI types (short-term and long-term), along with disability insurance providers (i.e. DI sources). We also touch upon first, second and third level payers and how they tie into “all sources maximum”.

The federal government’s plan to play a reduced role in Canada’s housing market is clearly starting to take hold.
Driven by a series of measures to tighten mortgage lending criteria and reduce taxpayer exposure, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Agency reports that it’s now insuring a scant 50 per cent of new residential mortgages.
The national housing agency insured 175,169 new home loans last year worth $41.7 billion, representing roughly one out of every two mortgages issued. As planned, the total value of mortgage insurance held fell $14 billion in 2014 to $543 billion.
CMHC expects that this number will shrink by a further $10 billion in 2015 as borrowers repay their loans faster than it sees itself underwriting new ones.
Also read: How Will New Mortgage Amortization and Refinance Rules Affect Me?>
Mortgage Insurance Harder To Come By
With home prices surging in Canada, Ottawa has been working hard to limit CMHC’s credit exposure, capping the agency’s potential book of loans at $600 billion through a series of measures designed to make it more difficult to obtain government-insured mortgages…

Many seniors reach a point where they can no longer carry out all of their daily living activities. This is when homecare services become important, since they allow the elderly to continue living in their own home with dignity. But do health insurance plans offer coverage for home care and nursing? Read on to find out!

This article compares and contrasts whole life insurance plans to term life insurance plans. We discuss their pros and cons and also suggest some situations that these life insurance plans are best suited for.

Sometimes employee benefits can be outside of a company’s operating budget. Does this mean that health, dental and drug coverage is not possible for those employees? The answer to this is “no”! Read on and use these helpful tips to reduce your group insurance premium costs.

Overview
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Small growers
While there are scores of interesting stocks in the tables, those that got double-As stand out. They are: Empire District Electric (EDE), FBL Financial Group (FFG), Hurco (HURC), Kaiser Aluminum (KALU), and Viad (VVI).
Empire District Electric (EDE) is a regulated electric and gas utility with operations in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The firm pays a 4.1% dividend yield, but income investors should be aware that the company cut its dividend in 2011.
FBL Financial Group (FFG) is based in West Des Moines, IA, and its primary subsidiary provides life insurance to families via Farm Bureaus. The firm almost doubled its book value per share over the last five years after it was hard hit by the crash of 2008.
Hurco (HURC) of Indianapolis, IN, produces computer control systems and computerized machine tools for the metal working industry. It’s one of the smallest on our list, but the firm started to pay dividends in 2013, which is a good sign…

WASHINGTON – Aides to top House Republicans and Democrats are trying to negotiate a bipartisan compromise to permanently revamp a law that annually threatens cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, including a 21 per cent reduction set to take effect April 1.
As part of the talks, bargainers are considering budget cuts that could offset part, but not all, of the measure’s costs, according to lobbyists following the negotiations. The estimated 10-year price of repealing the annual Medicare cuts is roughly $175 billion.
The lobbyists said Wednesday that the package also might provide money for a children’s health program that would otherwise run out of money Oct. 1. A four-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program would cost about $10 billion.
The lobbyists, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information gathered from congressional staff, said the talks are continuing and details could change. They say lawmakers might have to settle for a temporary bill, which they have done many times before…

Overview
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Mid-cap stocks have gained more than large stocks over the long term and they’re generally able to weather economic shocks better than smaller firms. That’s why many investors like to look for bargain stocks with market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion. The 10 U.S. stocks listed alphabetically in the table to the right were too large to make it onto our Small Cap 100 list, but we think they offer similar potential. These mid-caps got at least one A and one B according to the value and growth tests we used for our small-cap stocks. In an effort to encourage diversification, each one is from a different industry group ranging from electronics to apparel and insurance.

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Chiropractic has come a long ways since it was first practiced over 100 years ago. Chiropractors can often treat the cause of a physical ailment, as opposed to just treating that condition’s symptoms. And more good news: Canadian health insurance plans provide chiropractic coverage! Read on for more information.