Insurance Solutions: Plan Well Live Better: A Workbook for People with Chronic Illnesses or Disabilities [Paperback]

Esq. Laura D. Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2002

Readers will learn how to look at various insurance options — including life, disability, health, and long-term care — from a new perspective. They will discover that they do have options for reliable insurance and ultimately financial security. Cooper offers practical advice on finding insurance, evaluating its coverage, and avoiding pitfalls.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...an invaluable workbook for people with chronic conditions or disability... very strongly recommended. -- Wisconsin Bookwatch, February 2004

About the Author

Laura D. Cooper is a nationally known attorney whose primary activities are in the disability and consumer health law areas. She is currently legal consultant to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and lectures widely on the topic of financial planning for people with disabilities.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Demos Health; 1 edition (June 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888799552
• ISBN-13: 978-1888799552
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,002,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Totally useless for a person already on disability ..., October 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Insurance Solutions: Plan Well Live Better: A Workbook for People with Chronic Illnesses or Disabilities (Paperback)

In my opinion, I found this "workbook" to be totally useless for a person who is already on disability, as most of the ideas presented are not applicable unless you are still employed. The title is, therefore, misleading and should instead state that it is for those with a chronic disease or disability "who are still employed."

Basically, this workbook contains approximately 120 pages of worksheets and spreadsheets. You, the reader, are to fill in the worksheets and then transfer the data to the spreadsheets, in order to determine your insurance needs and areas of insurance weaknesses.

Here's the problem -- most of us already know what insurance we have and what we need, without having to first compile the extensive amount of data requested in the first 120 pages of this workbook. Our problem is how to "afford" and "obtain" what we need if we are already on disability. And - if we are still employed - our problem is still, in many cases, how to "afford" the insurance we "need."

However, if you are still employed, do not know what insurance you need (or already posses), have lots of disposable income, *and* you have the endurance to complete the exhaustive worksheets and spreadsheets, then maybe this book is for you. If nothing else, it may give you some food for thought and may even provide you with a bit of information that you did not already know.

After the initial approximately 120 pages of worksheets and spreadsheets, the remaining 60 pages or so contain information and situations that are not always realistic, in my opinion. However, if you are still employed, you may find a few ideas that could possibly be helpful to you, depending on your personal circumstances.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I found this workbook to be totally useless to me, personally, as a person who is already on disability.

By the way, in response to the two (or, one and the same reviewers above), I am not attempting to "redeem myself since I am already on disability." Nor am I living on "paltry government benefits." In fact, I have never received government benefits. But there are many out there who do and should not made to feel badly because they do. Also, I am proud to say that I *am* living in the "right" country and am proud of my country as well.

All that I am doing is voicing my own personal opinion (and last I heard, I was allowed to do so in *this* country. And my opinion stands in that this workbook is totally useless if you are already on disability and of very little use if you are still employed and already have a very basic idea about what you will need "if and when" you "may" become disabled and unemployed. Buyer beware -- save your money.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to examine health, life, disability and care plans, January 5, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insurance Solutions: Plan Well Live Better: A Workbook for People with Chronic Illnesses or Disabilities (Paperback)

Insurance Solutions is a very strongly recommended workbook specifically designed for businesses with employees having chronic conditions or disabilities and is especially valuable for its importance as an effective financial planning and problem solving management tool. Insurance should cover all disability-related costs, but it's important to understand differences between insurance policies and benefits. Readers learn how to examine health, life, disability and care plans for long-term usefulness.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, and I am already disabled, October 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Insurance Solutions: Plan Well Live Better: A Workbook for People with Chronic Illnesses or Disabilities (Paperback)

I complete disagree with the other review. I doubt this was ever meant to be a book about how to redeem yourself if you are already on disability and didn't do any planning so are living on paltry government benefits. Instead, it is a book about hot NOT to end up that way even if you are already diagnosed with something. If all you want is to have all the insurance or benefits you need handed to you, then this is not the right book for you -- nor the RIGHT COUNTRY! If, however, you are willing to do some serious work then this book will let you see beyond your employer benefits and anything else you may have and make sure you don't get "bit" by the "American system." It does assume that you would be willing to pay reasonable premiums. But, I completely disagree that it offers nothing to people already out on disability. The hospital indemnity strategy alone could be worth fortunes, and the sicker you are the better it would seem to work. It does have a lot of forms and worksheets, but if you are a serious planner this can only be helpful. I especially like the single worksheet where she summarizes all of the insurance coverages in one place in a "risk analysis" format. It is about time that somebody treat people with disabilities as if they weren't all poor or incapablem and I really like it that somebody is trying to do something for people with disabilities in the free markeplace rather than just telling us all to rely on the government for everything.