10 juillet 2007
Health Insurance and health care
Health insurance is something that everyone needs
today. The rising cost of visiting a health care provider or a hospital
stay makes it imperative that everyone have some type of health care
coverage. Government statistics estimate that over 40 million people in
America are not covered by any type of health insurance on any given
day. That's an enormous number of people who really are taking a
financial risk.
Even if you're on a tight, limited budget, it's very important that
you pick up some kind of affordable health insurance. Even if you only
have a plan that covers unexpected hospitalization, your peace of mind
will be greatly enhanced. Keep in mind that a catastrophic health
insurance policy can come with a high deductible before their coverage
kicks in. They don't pick up the cost of preventive physician visits or
emergency room visits to get a few stitches.
Some questions to ask when considering affordable health insurance.
1) Can your and/or your family afford to pay ALL your medical expenses if you're sick or injured?
2) How much is the deductible?
3) How much are the premiums?
With a little searching and comparison shopping you find the best rate for your personal affordable health insurance.
Health Plans
Choosing a health insurance plan that is best for
you and your family is one of the most important decisions you'll ever
make. Choosing between health plans is not as easy as it once was.
Although there is no one best plan, there are some plans that will be
better than others for you and your family's health needs. Plans
differ, both in how much you have to pay and how easy it is to get the
services you need. No plan will pay for all the costs associated with
your medical care, some plans will cover more than others.
Most
Americans have health insurance through their employers, and every year
more employers offer insurance coverage by managed care organizations
(MCOs). Today, Americans are in an era of managed care. It's a new
experience for most people. Managed care companies may decide what
doctor you will see and when, and what treatments will be covered. It
requires you to make some important decisions because not all managed
care plans are the same.
In choosing a health insurance plan,
you have to decide what is most important to you. All plans have
tradeoffs. It is worth asking yourself a few questions such as:
•
How comprehensive do you want coverage of health care services to be? •
How do you feel about limits on your choice of doctors or hospitals? •
How do you feel about a primary care doctor referring you to
specialists for additional care? • How convenient does your care need
to be? • How important is the cost of services? • How much are you
willing to spend on health insurance premiums and other health care
costs? • How do you feel about keeping receipts and filing claims?
You
might also want to think about whether the services that a health
insurance plan offers meet your needs. Call the plan for details about
coverage if you have questions. It is worth considering the following:
•
Life changes you may be thinking about, such as starting a family or
retiring. • Chronic health conditions or disabilities that you or
family members have. • If you or anyone in your family will need care
for the elderly. • Care for family members who travel a lot, attend
college, or spend time at two homes
Most health insurance plans
provide basic medical coverage, but the details are what count. The
best plan for someone else may not be the best plan for you. For each
plan you are considering it pays off to find out about a range of
things from physical examinations and health screenings, care by
specialists and prescription drugs to vision care and dental services.
It is also important to find out about the various offered services
such as medical counseling as well as what is on offer.
Ask if a
certain service is limited or not covered. You should find out if what
is provided is what you require and if there are special programs for
certain types of illness. It is also worth finding out about medicines
and equipment that may be needed. Find out what types of care or
services the plan will not pay for. These are usually called
exclusions. Few indemnity and managed care plans cover treatments that
are experimental. Ask how the plan decides what is or is not
experimental. Find out what you can do if you disagree with a plan's
decision on medical care or coverage.
Finally you should think
about the location of services and how far you may be prepared to go
for care. On this subject you should consider whether or not the plan
handles care when you are away from home.
After you review what
benefits are available and decide what is important to you, you can
compare plans. Many things should be considered. These include services
offered, choice of providers, location, and costs. The quality of care
is also a factor to think about.
Why Our Healthcare System Isn't Healthy
Most people are well aware that an estimated 45
million Americans currently do not have healthcare, but is the crisis
simply the lack of health insurance or even the cost of health
insurance? Is there a bigger underlying problem at the root of our
healthcare system? Although the U.S. claims to have the most advanced
medicine in the world, government health statistics and peer-reviewed
journals are painting a different picture -- that allopathic medicine
often causes more harm than good.
People in general have always felt they could trust doctors and the
medical profession, but according to the Journal of the American
Medical Association in July 2000, iatrogenic death, also known as death
from physician error or death from medical treatment, was the third
leading cause of death in America and rising, responsible for at least
250,000 deaths per year. Those statistics are considered conservative
by many, as the reported numbers only include in-hospital deaths, not
injury or disability, and do not include external iatrogenic deaths
such as those resulting from nursing home and other private facility
treatments, and adverse effects of prescriptions. One recent study
estimated the total unnecessary deaths from iatrogenic causes at
approximately 800,000 per year at a cost of $282 billion per year,
which would make death from American medicine the leading cause of
death in our country.
Currently, at least 2 out of 3 Americans use medications, 32
million Americans are taking three or more medications daily, and
commercials and advertisements for pharmaceutical drugs have saturated
the marketplace. Although our population is aging, exorbitantly
expensive drugs are being marketed and dispensed to younger and younger
patients, including many children who years ago would never have been
given or needed medication, for everything from ADHD to asthma to
bipolar disease and diabetes. Clearly, the state of health in this
country is not improving even though there are an increasing number of
medications and treatments. Between 2003 and 2010, the number of
prescriptions are expected to increase substantially by 47%. In recent
years, numerous drugs previously deemed safe by the FDA have been
recalled because of their toxicity, after the original drug approvals
were actually funded by the invested pharmaceutical companies
themselves.
According to the media, thanks to advances in U.S. drugs and
medical procedures, Americans are living longer statistically, but they
are living longer sicker, with a lower quality of life, and often
dependent on multiple expensive synthetic medications that do not cure
or address the underlying causes, but only suppress symptoms, often
with a plethora of dangerous side effects to the tune of billions of
dollars for the drug industry. Considering that the U.S. is supposed to
have the most advanced technology in the world and the best health care
system, it is at odds that we spend the most on healthcare, yet are the
most obese and most afflicted with illness outside of the AIDS epidemic
in some third world countries.
Unless you have an acute emergency that requires emergency room
care, being admitted to a hospital environment may also be more
dangerous to your health than staying out. In 2003, epidemiologists
reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that hospital-acquired
infections have risen steadily in recent decades, with blood and tissue
infections known as sepsis almost tripling from 1979 to 2000. Nearly
two million patients in the U.S. get an infection while in the hospital
each year, and of those patients over 90,000 die per year, up
dramatically from just 13,300 in 1992. Statistics show that
approximately 56% of the population has been unnecessarily treated, or
mistreated, by the medical industry.
Additionally, as a result of the overuse of pharmaceutical drugs
and antibiotics in our bodies and environment, our immune systems have
become significantly weakened, allowing antibiotic-resistant strains of
disease-causing bacteria to proliferate, leaving us more susceptible to
further disease. Not surprisingly, incidences of diseases have been
growing at epidemic levels according to the CDC. Now diseases once
thought conquered, such as tuberculosis, gonorrhea, malaria, and
childhood ear infections are much harder to successfully treat than
they were decades ago. Drugs do not cure. They only suppress the
symptoms that your body needs to express, while they ignore the
underlying root cause. Side effects of synthetic and chemical drugs,
which even if they are partly derived from nature have been perverted
to make them patentable and profitable, are not healthy or natural, and
usually cause more harm than any perceived benefit of the medication.
Where "physician errors" are concerned, these may not be entirely
the fault of the doctors, as they are forced to operate within the
constraints of their profession or risk losing their license, but
doctors have become pawns and spokesmen for the drug companies, and the
best interest of the patient has become secondary. In the name of
profit, physicians are also under great pressure from hospitals to
service patients as quickly as possible, like an assembly line,
increasing the likelihood of error.
In conclusion, increases in healthcare costs are not just the
result of frivolous law suits, but are primarily the result of a
profit-oriented industry that encourages practices that lead to
unnecessary and harmful procedures being performed, lethal adverse drug
reactions, infections, expensive legitimate lawsuits, in-hospital and
physician errors, antibiotic resistance due to overprescribing of
antibiotics and drugs, and the hundreds of thousands of subsequent
unnecessary deaths and injuries. Many people do not realize that there
are healthier natural options, and anything unnatural or invasive we
are exposed to is likely to cause either immediate or cumulative damage
over time.
06 juillet 2007
student health insurance
When we're kids in high school, we
typically don't have a care in the world. In fact, we sometimes think
we're invincible. Where do we get these super-human feelings? It must
be a youth thing. After the high school years are over, many of us take
off to college. This is always an exciting step stone in our lives. We
finally achieve some sort of freedom. The idea of making it on our own
and not having to answer to parents sounds pretty ideal. However, when
we approach that inevitable adulthood, we commonly disregard our
health. Since we're young, we don't foresee any problems. This can be a
big mistake. If you're heading off to a University, you might want to
check into student health insurance. When we become adults, the burden
is relieved from our parents and placed on us. It is always prudent to
attain some sort of student health insurance when taking that next step.
The life of a college student can be a blast. You no longer have a
curfew, you can date as you please, and you can essentially enjoy that
first taste of autonomy. However, this also can be rather stressful.
Can you pay the bills? Can you afford your tuition and your text books?
Yes, college is expensive. Luckily most Universities offer some sort of
student health insurance to their full-time students. When I attended a
University, I wasn't sure how I would afford insurance with all of my
other expenses. After doing some investigating, I found that as a
full-time student, health and dental insurance were taken care of. I
simply paid a small fee each quarter. This paid off big time when I had
to get a crown after cracking a tooth. With the coverage I had through
school, I was able to afford the bill.
If you're anxious
to bolt off to a college, and soak up the campus life, this is typical,
but go prepared. Check into student health insurance plans before you
start school. Your much anticipated University probably offers some
kind of plan. Check online to get a better grasp on student health
insurance, coverage, and what kind of rates to expect. It's never to
early to get a jump start on your future. The Internet will provide you
with many answers to your questions. We certainly live in a world of
unpredictability, therefore don't assume that your youth will keep you
safe from any and all of life's mishaps. Be ready with a student health
insurance plan when you venture off to college.