Now's the Perfect Time to Buy Medipac's Early Bird!
You decide!
Medipac Travel Medical Insurance is home to many avid readers of financial forecasts. From commodity and oil price movements to import-exports and a string of international news sources to medical innovations, treatments and costs, nothing escapes our notice. We also follow Canada's government statistics to a great extent. All these make up the bulk of the travel medical insurance business.
To come up with reasonable insurance rates and competent Medipac travel insurance products, we thoroughly assess and predict two things: the behaviour of the Canadian-dollar exchange rates and inflation's impact on hospital and doctor prices across the globe. The United States is certainly our focal point since that is where a great number of Canadians fly off to.
Medical inflation rates in the United States have dropped to between 4 and 5 percent over the last few years. There was a year when all prices plummeted and another with plus 20 percent. And then Obamacare entered the picture and it comes as a shock that many in the United States do not understand how the program has anything to do with health care. The idea was that the marginalized sections of society will now have access to proper health care. Contrary to its goals, however, more and more people are now losing their health care. We can only hope that this problem is only temporary – but we can never tell for sure.
This large bureaucratic agency descending upon the lives of individuals in the medical field has wrought terror and fear (predictably enough), which explains why hospitals are dramatically increasing their prices. Either they are anticipating the government to coerce them into treating new patients in accordance with “government” budget or they fear being coerced into cutting back costs (since it would be more preferable to lay the highest rates on the table before commencing negotiations). Yes, Medipac had to pay price increases of 20 to 30 percent, something which occurred fairly often last year.
Considering this year's travel insurance plan, what inflation rate is most suitable for medical costs in the United States?
“We now anticipate the loonie to trend materially lower over the next year,
dropping to as low as USD$0.90 in early 2014.”
That quote from a major Canada bank reminds us of the time when we will be paying our snowbird claims! According to another major bank, look forward to a $0.85 loonie early next year. Our lifestyle may take a toll and our claims may well be on the rocks. But these happened before and now we are all right. Other predictions say $0.95 and likely up to parity. We never know whose predictions will win out in the end but it is plain to see the occasional changing of minds.
Medipac Travel Medical Insurance is committed to staying the course as far as pricing and premium rates for our Early Bird program are concerned. Even in this highly volatile and uncertain era, we will strive to keep informed and adjust rates upward. In an effort to take in the currency risk for the sake of our Early Bird clients and offset the medical inflation in the United States, we follow a steady and modest rate increase system. No prediction for now for our main season rates but some large increases may be in the works if we take account all of the statistics.
This winter, I am south-bound. To get away from winter, you can go in all directions except north! So what are you waiting for? Decide whether to buy the Early Bird travel insurance. This is the perfect time to do so!