Breast cancer is a devastating disease. A good friend got it when she was just 30; she lost both breasts to the disease, but survived. Breast cancer knows no age limits and doesn't respect wealth or status. In the US, as many as 1 in 8 women will find themselves in a struggle with breast cancer. That could be your mother, your sister or your best friend. It could be you.

If it's in your family history, it will affect your insurance rates.  

As a result, I think many heaved a sigh of relief when studies revealed that a low fat diet could reduce your risk of this deadly disease. We may even have thought that we'd found the silver bullet -- or dodged a bullet. Hey -- maybe I could get my insurance rates to go down by being good and eating healthy!

In a story in the Toronto Star, new research shows that diet may have less effect than you might wish. A seven year study showed that a low fat diet high in vegetables and fruits didn't pay off as expected. There was no benefit in extra fruits and vegetables over the recommended 5 servings a day.

Previous studies have not been as rigorous as the current study.  

The study was funded in part by a $5 million grant from the late Wal-Mart heir John Walton with an additional $30 million in support from the National Cancer Institute.

What does this mean for women shopping for health insurance or life insurance? Your insurer will continue to look for a family history of breast cancer to assess risk to them. Your lifestyle won't count for as much as that history when it comes to breast cancer, but it will still reduce your risk overall -- so don't give up! Just because your vegetables won't necessarily reduce the risk of cancer, doesn't mean they aren't good for you!

As with any kind of insurance, shop around. Even if there is some indication of breast cancer in your family history, one insurer may evaluate that risk differently than another.

For more information on getting insurance quotes, or to access some of the site's sponsors, click on this link.  

Monique L. Attinger 

Here's one way I won't be travelling anytime soon: Ken Couch got into a lawn chair attached to 105 helium-filled balloons, and took off for Idaho. While he didn't make it, he did travel 310 kilometers from home before he touched down on the earth again.

This has to be every kid's dream. What one of us hasn't dreamed of floating up into the air hanging onto a helium balloon? I am just a little envious, in fact: the trip Couch said, "It was beautiful -- beautiful."

Apparently, this was Couch's second lawn chair and helium balloon adventure. The first time, he flew for 6 hours. That time, he used a BB gun to break balloons in order to bring him back to the ground -- but had to use a parachute to rescue himself from a too-rapid descent. On this trip, he still had the parachute, but he also had ballast in the form of water and a better configuration that allowed him to release helium without popping balloons. The parachute went unused this time.

I have only one question: Did he have travel, liability or health insurance to cover any injuries?

The likely answer, of course, is no. I wonder if any insurance company would have covered this stunt. Couch did still manage to hurt himself on this current trip, although it was only rope burns. However, he lost his unusual aircraft after he  jumped out, which means that he also lost his video recording of his trip.

We'll see if there is a third trip.

Monique L. Attinger 

Well, we have another writing project from Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings. This month's topic, "What I learned from travel", has travel insurance written all over it.

Do you buy travel insurance? In most cases, you shouldn't. I certainly learned that from my travels.

In fact, I learned this from buying travel insurance specifically for a long trip from Canada to Australia. I was going to be out of my home country for almost a month, and I decided (despite the fact that I was a relatively healthy 34 year old) that I needed to have health insurance. I mean, you never know what will happen, right?

At least, that's what the travel agent told me.

What the agent didn't tell me is that there are really 4 kinds of travel insurance: travel medical; trip interruption insurance; travel cancellation insurance and insurance for your baggage and personal belongings. Some kinds of travel insurance could be very useful for you, depending on your circumstances. I've actually developed a grudging respect for things such as trip cancellation insurance (which is generally for medical reasons) and trip interruption insurance. But I steer away from trip health and insurance for my baggage and personal belongings.

Here's something that you should be careful of: if you buy travel health insurance, make sure that your primary insurance coverage doesn't have to pay for any claims first before you can claim on your travel health insurance. On my big trip to Australia, that was one detail I overlooked. The end result was that I actually had to go to the doctor in Australia for a nasty inner ear infection (don't ever fly with an inner ear infection), and I paid for the doctor visit out of my own pocket. That was what my policy required. When I got back to Canada, I put in a claim for the cost of the doctor visit. I believe it was at least three weeks later that I got my documentation back with a letter that said I had to submit the claim to the provincial health insurance before I could claim anything from my insurance! In other words, the insurance was only good for costs that were above what my primary insurance would already cover for any medical attention.

Heck, if all I was buying was the equivalent of deductible insurance, I never would have purchased it! Once I'd been through the hassle of getting the claim paid by my regular insurer (who couldn't seem to figure out the whole business of conversion from Australian dollars to Canadian dollars), my allowable amount to claim from my almost $200 insurance policy was about $8. I didn't even bother.

So, here's my quick reference for when and what travel insurance to buy:

1. Are you a senior? Do you like extreme sports? Get good travel health insurance. Your risk of a problem is much higher than the regular traveller who hangs out in museums or lays on a beach.

2. Do you have close family members who are elderly or ill? Get trip cancellation insurance that will cover you for a quick cancellation if one of those family members gets critically ill. Otherwise, you could find yourself on a plane out of country just when you want to be home.

3. Are you on an extended trip? Will you have connecting flights to make on any particular leg of your trip? Consider trip interruption insurance or "missed connection" insurance.

4. Do you have a gold or platinum credit card? Book your tickets using that card, and you likely don't need any baggage insurance. However, if you don't have such a credit card and you'll have connecting flights, consider extra baggage protection, especially if you are travelling with expensive personal belongings or gifts.

There's what I learned from travel.

Monique L. Attinger 

We're back after a "driving holiday", when we were just one of millions of others who went to see relatives and let the kids run around in the fresh air far from the city. We own a minivan; when we bought it, I was pleased that we owned one that is well rated in crash tests. I even blogged about getting an insurance friendly vehicle.

Then I saw this morning's news online. In an article on FoxNews.com, an insurance industry study shows that the head restraints in many SUVs, pickups and minivans are not providing the right protection against neck injuries.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested a number of vehicles in simulated rear crashes at a low 20 miles per hour. Many of the large vehicles failed to protect from neck injuries.

Neck injuries result in 2 million insurance claims every year, so failing to protect passengers and drivers from such injuries is a significant problem. Injuries mean more expensive claims; more expensive claims means more expensive car insurance.

In today's "stop and go" traffic, low speed rear impact crashes are the most likely traffic mishap. Car manufacturers have to step up to the plate to address this challenge. In the current study, of 87 vehicles reviewed, a disturbing 54 were rated marginal or poor, the two lowest ratings of the four. Only 12 got a score of acceptable. The remaining 21 got the best rating. 

The 2007 results are better than the 2006 results. In 2006, only 6 of 44 SUVs got a top rating while this year, 17 of 59 SUVs got a rating of good.

Want to pick the right make and model for your SUV? Look at the following models: Acura MDX and RDX; Lincoln MKX, Ford Edge and Ford Freestyle; Honda CR-V, Element and Pilot; Hyundai Santa Fe; Jeep Grand Cherokee; Kia Sorento; Land Rover LR3; Mercedes M Class; Mitsubishi Outlander; Subaru B9 Tribeca and Forester, and Volvo XC90. If a pickup is more your style, look at the Toyota Tundra. It was the only pickup to get a top score. However, if a minivan fits your family best, check out the Ford Freestar, Hyundai Entourage and the Kia Sedona.

I'm sorry to say that our family's minivan is not on the list. It rates well for frontal crashes, but doesn't seem to have the neck protection for rear crashes.

Monique L. Attinger 

This is a question that many of us have: just how much life insurance do I need?

There are a ton of answers out there, from 5 times your salary as a basic rule of thumb to complex equations that include your current debt load and the anticipated cost of your children's Harvard education. Many of the methods for determining how much life insurance you need depend on a level of prescience only claimed by those advertising 900 numbers for fortune telling.

It doesn't have to be that hard or that unpredictable. It does take some thought.

How much exactly will you purchase to ensure that your dependents are properly cared for?  First of all, you have to review all your current debt. If you die, your debts should ideally be paid off. If you have young or non-working dependents, don't assume that the value of your estate should pay your debts; get them paid out through insurance. In this way, your family and its home is protected.

While I don't normally advise life insurance on your mortgage, it does guarantee that your home is paid off immediately, without any penalty. This can be a good move, especially if you have a non-working spouse. 

Once all your debt is paid as a starting place, then you have to think about less-defined needs. How much does your spouse need in order to maintain your family's current lifestyle? Do you assume that you provide for 2-5 years, and then your spouse will have managed to increase his or her earnings to fill the gap? At the least, if you have young children, allow for an amount of money that will pay for child care expenses.

Include enough benefit to pay for your funeral and burial costs. No family should have to take out a loan to bury a loved one.

Do you have savings for your children's education? If you have a savings plan, you might want a benefit that would continue that savings plan for at least a couple of years. If you don't have savings for your children's education, include at least $100,000 for each child under 10. If your children are all over 10, figure out how much would be required to educate them now, and add at least that much to your insurance requirements.

You can probably see how financial advisors often say that you should have about 5 times your current gross salary. In most cases, that's about right although you may opt for a bit more or a bit less, depending on your unique situation.

Of course, you have to keep cost in mind. At my age (46), I find it expensive to try to keep the recommended 5 times my current salary in insurance. However, I do have at least a reasonable amount that would help my husband to pay off the mortgage, and ensure that he could get competent child care. However, I also know that his salary will continue to go up and his career options are many, because he's a programmer. So, I assume his salary will increase and that he'll do well.   

One last thing to consider: life insurance by-passes the current tax laws, and allows your inheritor to receive a pay-out tax free. This money will also be paid out relatively quickly, whereas your estate could take some time to be settled. So, insurance can be the right way to go, in order to make sure that the people left behind will have the money to cope with immediate situation, without stress.

Looking for life insurance? There's lots of information on our site. Start your research with us. Then check out some of our site's sponsors for quotes.   

Monique L. Attinger 

Hold onto your health insurance: according to an article in the Toronto Star, if you are gay and deaf, you are less likely to have had the information on safe sex and HIV risks communicated to you.

Statistics indicate that as many as 2 to 10 times as many deaf people are affected by AIDS as compared to hearing people. At issue appears to be the nuances of the safe-sex message, as well as the risk of using injectable street drugs. Coupled with the challenge in getting the message to the deaf community is the fact that deaf people are more likely to have a history of substance abuse; 1 in 7 deaf people will struggle with drugs compared with 1 in 10 in the hearing majority. Intravenous drug use and sharing needles is a significant risk factor for HIV.

The issues surrounding those who are both deaf and gay are interwoven and many. There is the discrimination that the deaf experience; then there is the additional discrimination that the homosexual experience. Add to this the complexity of HIV transmission, and you have a situation where too few are getting the message.  

Schools for the deaf are as ambivalent about getting out the safe sex message as any hearing school. Other professionals, including doctors, may not know ASL. As a result, many deaf and gay people fall through the cracks.  

The Toronto-based Deaf Outreach Program is trying to stem the tide. Spokesperson, Kevin Canning, is a one man show, traveling around North America, informing audiences in ASL. The message can be communicated clearly in ASL, says Canning, because it is a visual language and the concepts can be demonstrated as part of the communication.

One person is just not enough. This is a message that needs to get out to more people now, before there are more casualties.  

There is more bad news. In my experience, insurers are quick to pick up on these kinds of risk factors. If you are deaf and seeking health insurance, be prepared to encounter arguments for higher premiums until this trend can be reversed. In the meantime, be sure to make use of my 5 tips to get the best health insurance. And practice safe sex, please.

Monique L. Attinger

An article on Insurance Journal states that Governor Bob Riley has blocked legislation that would have required drivers in Alabama to carry higher liability limits. At issue was the wording of the bill, which would have made the new car insurance requirements mandatory from the moment the governor finished signing the bill!

Apparently, Riley will support the bill on a couple of key conditions --  a long enough implementation period for insurance companies to prepare new policies and for motorists to buy them. In fact, Riley supports the bill in theory, but needs to see that the market has time to respond.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Roger Bedford, is disappointed with turn of events. Bedford believes that insurance companies could have sold new policies to drivers immediately when their old policies expired, without forcing drivers to change coverage before their yearly renewal. Bedford also said that any issues with implementation of the legislation could have been dealt with as an executive amendment or in the Legislature itself before the current session ended. 

At issue is that drivers in Alabama would have to pay for at least $25,000 in coverage for 1 injury or death, $50,000 for multiple injuries or deaths, and at least $25,000 for property damage.  This increases single injury or death coverage by $5,000, multiple injury or death coverage by $10,000 and property damage coverage by $15,000.

Is liability insurance really an issue in Alabama? Seems more like the respective legislators are simply looking for another way to get into the press. After all, the two largest companies in the Alabama market have indicated that most of their customers already meet or exceed the proposed limits.

That makes sense to me. If you want to have good liability coverage in today's litigious environment, I'd recommend at least $500,000 in coverage across these categories. These proposed limits are very low, and don't reflect the reality of the kind of damage that can result from an accident. In fact, in some cases you can be better off with umbrella liability policies that protect in a wider set of circumstances and can help to pick up where the available liability on your car insurance leaves off.

Monique L. Attinger 

Well, I'm not a fan of the yearly (or bi-yearly) physical, but I hadn't had one since well before I got pregnant with my daughter, who is now 16 months. Given that I conceived her somewhere around April 2005, and considering my usual reluctance to visit a doctor if I'm not sick, I figured I probably hadn't had an overall review of my health since at least early 2004. So, it was time for a "tune-up".

That got me thinking about how important it is to review your health insurance coverage from time to time.

When young and very healthy, we might tend to get just basic health insurance with limits on the coverage. After all, you're never sick, right? If you are single and taking precautions, you're not thinking about prenatal or obstetrical care. No one who is under 30 is thinking about cancer or other serious illness. So, the basic insurance is all you have.

While this is likely a reasonable position to take, it does make sense to review your coverage and think about where you might be in 5 or 10 years -- and plan ahead. Before you ever get pregnant, you should have insurance that will provide the right kind of care. In another example, you might want to consider getting coverage for glasses and eye care, if you are approaching 40. (Bifocals -- as I've reluctantly discovered -- can be in the cards for a large majority of us, once we pass the magic age of 45.) This is where thinking ahead can help.

It's not all about health insurance either. The younger and healthier you are now, the less it costs for other types of insurance, like life insurance and critical illness insurance. For instance, the sooner you apply for life insurance, the cheaper your premiums and the more likely that you can lock them in for a longer period, without a medical examination required. However, it's not just about coverage for your dependents if you die; it's also about coverage to benefit you and your family if a health crisis arises. If you are a stay-at-home parent, and don't qualify for disability insurance, critical illness can provide needed cash to cover daycare for the kids and other illness related costs.  

The doctor told me he had no concerns about my health at this time. I'm definitely on the right track with diet and exercise. My weight is decreasing; my blood pressure is 120/80; and my various parts all seem to be working to the "manufacturer's specs"! While I'm still this healthy, I may just look into some additional coverage for me -- in case there's a time when I'm not so healthy, and I need it.

Monique L. Attinger