‘Financial Help’ Archives
Understanding Your Health Insurance and Medical Bills
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Understanding your health insurance policy can be an exercise in crazy-making. Very few of us have insurance policies that cover everything. What isn’t covered shows up in medical bills. A little knowledge can help make sense of it all. INSURANCE PLAN TERMS Premium: This is what you pay to have insurance. Insurance through your employer is deducted from your paycheck. Otherwise, it's a regular bill like auto insurance. Copay: A fixed amount you pay for a medical procedure or an office visit. The copay amount may be different for different services. Not all insurance plans have a copay. Deductible: This is the amount of medical bills you must pay 100% before your insurance kicks in to pay expenses. This amount can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Knowing how much your deductible is will help you plan for medical expenses. Coinsurance: After you have satisfied your deductible, your coinsurance kicks in. Typically, plans will [...]
Got Heat and Electricity?
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Can you imagine life without electricity and heat? During a Minnesota winter we’d be going to bed at 4 pm in December and sleeping under a pile of smelly bear skins. We take our access to electricity and heating for granted, but there is a lot happening on the other side of our utility meters that impacts the what, where, and how we get that access. Regulation Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is charged with regulating policies, rates, and services for utilities like electricity, natural gas, and landline phone service. This includes approving rate increases for our energy. The PUC members are appointed by the governor and their responsibilities are determined by state law. Most of the regulated utilities are for-profit entities whose purpose is to maximize return to stockholders - like CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy. You can imagine, then, the pressure they exert on the PUC to allow rate increases. Learn more about the PUC at: [...]
Tax Time!
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Tax season creates a lot of anxiety, even if you expect a refund. Filing seems to get harder every year. You’d think Congress would like to make it as easy as possible for us, but the poor IRS has been woefully underfunded for years, leaving the agency with seriously outdated technology and far fewer employees to process the hundreds of millions of tax returns they receive each year. Add a pandemic into the mess and… Hopefully this information can ease some of your anxiety. A Few Tips To Help Manage Tax Filing Whether you are doing your own taxes or having someone else prepare them, gathering all your information in advance will speed up the process. Find a list of most common info needed at https://prepareandprosper.org/free-tax-preparation/what-to-bring/.File electronically for faster processing.Choose to receive your refund by direct deposit to get it a month or more sooner.File early to beat the rush, and more importantly, to help prevent tax [...]
