Jumat, 03 April 2009

How many are staying uninsured ?

Two years ago, before we were hit by the credit crunch, the wave of foreclosures and the loss of jobs, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 47m people have no health insurance. That's a rise of almost 5% as against the estimated number of uninsured made in 2005. So what does this actually mean? The results confirm that these people have no health insurance plan through their work (including the military) or union membership, and no access to federal or state programs including Medicare and Medicaid at any time during a twelve month period. This reflects a growing reality that the average employer no longer offers health insurance benefits. As a result, the statistics show 10.8% of whites, 15.5% of Asians, 20.5% of African -Americans, 34.1% of Hispanics were uninsured. It also confirms the sad reality that nearly 12% of children had no insurance in 2006.


Now, ignoring the politics and focussing on the practical realities, there are two reactions. You can give up on the search for affordable health insurance and wait until the problem becomes sufficiently severe to justify treatment at your local emergency room. It is pointless making any judgemental comments about exposing yourself and others to the risk of more serious injury by delaying treatment. If the premiums demanded by the health insurance industry are always going to be outside your budget, this is not your fault. If anyone or anything is to blame, it is the political system that permits a for-profit system to operate in the health market. Once you introduce the profit motive into any service, costs rise to maintain or maximise profits. Numbers in the accounts maintained by the hospitals and health insurance companies do not translate into the faces of the children who are denied treatment.


But there is another way. You can use this site and others like it to get comparative quotes. Then use every legitimate way of reducing the quoted premiums. Start with a family plan because the cost per individual member is usually less than the cost of one policy per family member. You should also look at term insurance. The rates are usually less than for equivalent cover under a permanent policy. This means spending time actually talking with the health insurance companies and their agents. Only when you talk to people and ask the right questions about discounts and the different types of plan and policy, do you begin to find something affordable. The more passive you are, the more impossible it becomes to get access to lower rates. As one of the middle class, you may come more easily to this process. But no matter what your background, you need to overcome your fears and start negotiating the best deal for your family. If this is too discouraging, do not let pride get in the way. Ask at your local church or a charity for someone to help.

Weight Loss and Fat Loss Are Not The Same

Some people tend to confuse weight loss with fat loss taking that this is the same notion. However they are not the same and when you're reducing your weight you can actually lose not your fat but your health.


A lot of people confuse weight loss with fat loss. Frankly speaking it is a huge mistake as two of those hardly have anything in common. You can lose weight and still keep the fat. But it should not be the primal concern of yours as it is always wise to stay healthy instead of chasing the idea of losing a few extra kilos.


But lets start from the beginning. It is necessary to come to terms with the idea of water loss. You can lose water of your muscle masses. There are a lot of weights to lose water. And be assured that this is exactly how most of the famous weight loss programs work and become successful. Losing water weight is as simple as gaining it back - drinking more fluids will take you back to where you started.


Losing muscles masses will help you drop a couple of kilos too. But it is not something a good trainer or doctor would advice. Muscles are known to be compact. Your muscles mass can easily be reduced while the amount of fat will stay the same, without changing the body weight. No way will this ever make you look skinnier. There is another thing to muscle masses: they can help you burn the calories and it will not be difficult to get "heavier" if you lose your muscles.


The concentration upon the fat loss idea is a big deal. Everything is quite simple. You have accumulated the energy in your body as fat. When the energy consummation is reduced to minimum, the calories will start getting burned and so this will make you lose all the unwanted fats in your body. Once again we have returned to the problem of calorie counting. If you want the end result to be satisfactory you should know for sure that your body receives enough energy for your metabolism. In the other case you might end up losing your muscle mass and burn the protein and curbs in the muscles that is not a good thing to let happen. Muscle-building process is of vital importance when it comes to losing fat. Exercises could help you keep your body strong. Working out has always been an advantage. You should do the exercises everyday if you want to see a good result. Diet would be appraised as well.


If you trust drugs to help you stay away from food that makes you gain unwanted weight - try Phentermine HCL. It will save you from the hunger stroke and won't hurt your body at all. At the end of the day - everything that is not damaging you is worth it. So is phentermine.

What happens when the uninsured go to the emergency room ?

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that an increasing number of people are now unable to afford medical insurance. Some 47 million people do not have medical insurance. When they begin to fall sick, there is nothing that can be done if money is short. When it comes to a choice between food on the table and treatment, most people decide to eat. They hope they will get better. When health does not improve, there is no improvement in the choice to be made. If treatment remains unaffordable, they have to wait until their sickness worsens to the point it can be considered an emergency. At this point, people decide to go to the emergency room at their local hospital.


Federal law is very clear. Hospitals are under a positive legal obligation to treat everyone who walks in through the door. It does not matter whether the emergency is real, in the sense of a traffic accident inflicting unexpected injury, or to some extent manufactured, where the condition only becomes an emergency because of a deliberate delay. People must be given treatment.


The difficulty is that most of the uninsured cannot afford to pay their bills. The hospitals can and do issue invoices for the treatment given and drugs supplied. This is also a part of the law. People have a responsibility to pay for their treatment. But hospitals are realistic about their chances of collecting. Continued pursuit for payment usually results in bankruptcy and the creditors only get a few cents in the dollar. So, hospitals make a rational decision. They spread all the unpaid bills among all those who can pay.


In other words, whether you are paying out of your own pocket or you are relying on your own health insurance to pay for your treatment, a percentage of every hospital's bill is a provision against bad debts from the uninsured. The irony is that everyone who is insured is also insuring all the uninsured for their emergency room visits.


If you have been wondering why your own health insurance premiums have been going up so sharply of late, it's because there is a wave of uninsured people going to the emergency rooms around the country. The health insurers are having to pay more and this additional cost gets passed on in the premiums. Is it going to get any better? No. It's actually going to get worse. Ever more people are finding health insurance unaffordable.


Even with sites like this which allow people to find the cheapest insurance around, many still find the premiums too much. That does not mean you should give up. Using this site will get you offers. Then it's up to you to negotiate directly with the insurer or its agents to get the best actual premium for the cover. It's not worth the risk of being uninsured. If at all possible, get some cover.

Cheap Health Insurance - What Do You Know About It?

If you need a cheap health insurance, then you better start looking online. While others call nonstop and try to get the best possible deal, you could just send an email and fill the profile form. The rest will come your way.


Health Insurance is confusing for most people. The best way to make sure you have what you think you have is to talk to an agent who understands the policy. It is important to ask all the questions you have before you sign in for the deal. Here is a list of questions you might want to know the answers for:



  1. How do you get permission to go to the hospital?

  2. Does the policy pay for maternity?

  3. What is the lifetime maximum benefit?

  4. Are prescription drugs included?


Is there a separate deductible? Is co-payment a part of the deal?


Personal cheap health insurance may be more expensive than the group insurance people usually have. It happens to be so because of the fact that you company is paying for you as long as you are a member of the team. So even if it was vice versa it would not make any difference to you as you would not be paying the bill.


Here are most of the popular health insurance plan people meet:



  • Traditional Health Care Coverage is the individual health insurance many people prefer because it gives them the chance to see any doctor and go to any hospital without having to use a primary care doctor first. That is always an advantage when it comes to spending money.

  • HMO Insurance plan is much lower in cost than the group insurance plan. This coverage happens to be cheaper than the Traditional health care plans so people start using those more and more. The primary care doctor is responsible for referrals to any specialist, including a doctor for double-check.

  • Indemnity plans are plans that pay you directly. Today indemnity plans are available that pay either you or the hospital for both illness and accident.

  • Catastrophic Care, Cancer and other focused plans: catastrophic plans are plans that pay only for a major illness. The most common catastrophic plans are for cancer, intensive care, heart failure and kidney disease. We hope you'll never need in it, but you're still need to be protected.

Rabu, 01 April 2009

Women are victimized

According to the latest news, there is a real difference in the premiums paid by men and women of the same age for the same health insurance terms. The differences can be many hundreds of dollars. Even in an economy that was booming, it would be difficult to justify this price discrimination. But as the US appears to be entering a more difficult time and some people are even using the "r" word, the victimization of women in this way should be an urgent priority for the new administration to address when it takes over the White House in 2009.


It's not enough to talk in general terms about the rising costs of health insurance at a time of rising employment. Various proposals talk of offering tax credits or other assistance to help in buying or maintaining private cover. But this does nothing to address the historical injustice. Giving a woman the same tax credit as a man simply means she continues to pay more than a man.


When challenged, medical insurance companies tend to assert that women make more use of medical services and make higher claims. But the evidence shows that most medical insurance policies exclude maternity care - in fact, maternity care is usually offered for a substantial increased premium. So what does it come down to? It seems women take more care of their health. They visit their doctors more often to have regular check-ups, are more conscientious when converting their prescriptions into medication and then actually take the drugs. Whereas, men care less about their health and resist having treatment. No matter where you live, women are charged higher insurance rates.


The rates vary from one state to the next with some companies demanding up to 50% more for the same cover. Because of the general problems affecting the economy, it becomes all the more important to shop around before picking a new medical insurance company or deciding to renew an existing policy. Just as important is the need to join a political campaign to prevent health insurers from using sex as a factor when fixing the premiums. There are anti-discrimination laws to protect people in the workplace and other areas of their lives. The same should apply when everyone seeks medical insurance.

More about family health insurance policies

If you have a good health, you live for the now. Some have the qualifications to find employment including health insurance in the compensation package, but most take what is available and let things drift until responsibilities come along. Then you start asking questions about what you want in the future. It starts with a partnership or marriage. It gets more urgent when children appear on the scene.


If you found a job with a health insurance package, you can usually add your new partner or spouse to the plan. The first issue is whether that plan gives all the cover you need. Should there be gaps, you buy top-up cover. Then as the family grows, does the plan include children and any other dependents? Overnight, you become experts in the detail of the employer's plan and carefully research what the private health insurance companies offer to give the additional cover.


If you're starting with no health cover, you will find there are major differences in the premiums quoted. When you use sites like this, you get instant quotes from multiple health insurance companies. By using two or three sites like this, you can rapidly accumulate a daunting array of information about different policies and quoted prices. The first step is take a cold-blooded look at the family finances. This is not a time for sentimentality or blind hope. You need hard figures on what you can afford to pay not just now, but in the foreseeable future. Remember your credit score drops if you start a policy and then find you cannot afford the premiums.


The next step is to decide exactly who is to be included in the policy and what range of cover you want - just basic treatment options working up to long-term care insurance. Remember the larger the group and the wider the age range of the people to be included, the more the premium is likely to be. The way to lower the premiums is to accept a higher deductible or copayments. But this needs a careful calculation. How much will you pay each year as self-insurance through the deductibles or expenses, against the saving in the annual premium. Weigh the benefits against foreseeable costs to make the right decision on which family health insurance policy to buy.

Online Health Insurance Quotes

Making the comparison of online health insurance quotes may be one of the most annoying things you can do for you health care well being. It brings you straight away to where you will stand and what you will pay once you get the insurance.


You probably are not aware of it, but even when the benefits of most health insurance plans are standardized, the prices aren't. Prices are set to meet market demand and if you are a wise buyer, you can economies money by searching for various health insurance quotes online and comparing them.


The Correct Health Insurance Plan


It is tough to figure out which insurance is right for you. If you have a big family, it should include interests of every member of it, beneficing you as much as possible. You need to think well about your lifestyle, age, habits, goals and plans for the future. Think about maternity benefits if you are planning a family, insurance for children and their accidents, prescription coverage and other events that may not be on the schedule or in your life plan.


If you are thinking about an individual plan, remind yourself of different accident that take place every single day - those that are not programmed. What if you broke an arm? It can happen to anyone. If you are young and full of energy - do not let yourself get blinded by ideas of your youth. You do need insurance as well. The main concern of the health insurance plan is your well-being. Unforeseen accidents are not rare in the world of today. Don't think you can save on insurance. If something goes wrong you will end up paying twice more for the hospital and your treatment.


Don't let it scare you. Health care insurance should not be too expensive, but it worth paying for it and sleeping good at night knowing you are protected from any health problems. Think about it!

What is Ultram ?

You have probably heard many times about Ultram and how good it is for relieving pain. But do you know what Ultram really is and how you should use it to make it really effective?


Ultram is an orally taken pain reliever that is prescribed for people with low back pain. Ultram is also known as Tramadol. It was proven to be the drug that helps you to get rid of the sensation of pain.


Ultram is different from the rest. Being a narcotic medication is doesn't let you build up a tolerance with the extended usage. Ultram will not give you addiction and it is easy to stop taking it, though you should always talk about it with your doctor first. The narcotic effect of Ultram is not as tough as the narcotics of the similar type with the same motivation to ease up the pain.


Ultram pain reliever for back pain


Ultram is prescribed to control moderate to moderately severe low back pain or chronic pain, or as an intermediary step between over-the-counter pain relievers such as Tylenol or ibuprofen and narcotic pain killers. Other indications for the pain reliever Ultram may include:


Order Ultram - it is meant to keep the pain under control. It doesn't matter if the pain you feel is strong or moderate - Ultram will stop it anyway. Ultram works with chronic aching as well.


The regularly prescribed dose is one or two 50mg tablets every four to six hours, not to exceed eight pills a day. Exceeding the prescribed dose may lead to potentially serious complications, such as respiratory depression or seizures.


Ultram potential risks and complications


Being a strong medication, Ultram has several side effects that people should know about. First of all there should not be any other medications in your treatment schedule while you are taking Ultram. Doubling-up the dose will also harm you instead of doing you better.


It is forbidden to use alcohol while treating yourself with Ultram.


Women that are about to plan a family and conceive a child or did so, should not go for Ultram.


Another important point: Tolerance. When you order Ultram you have to understand that it is not well tolerated by everyone, and some people report feeling "spacey" or "unusual" while on the medication.


Check the history of addiction first. Try to recollect how you and drugs interact. If you know you are easily addicted, do not take Ultram.


You can order Ultram almost everywhere. Ultram requires a prescription. Please check the list of good online drug stores to get more information on Ultram.

Propecia - the Hair Loss Recovery Drug

It is not news lots of men lose hair. Fortunately for them, there is a treatment that will definitely improve the situation for the better. This drug is called - Propecia.


Propecia is a prescription medicine that has been licensed for the cure of the problem regarding male pattern baldness. Women and children are not recommended to use it.


Hair loss factors: There are a few causes that could lead to hair loss for men and women.



  • Genetics -- genetic baldness (baldness that "runs in the family") is usually due to the male pattern baldness gene.

  • Hormones -- many different hormones, including testosterone and thyroid hormone, have an effect on hair loss.

  • Medications -- hair loss is a common side effect of many medications.

  • Cancer treatment -- chemotherapy and radiation can cause hair loss.

  • Infections - there are some temporary infections can cause hair loss.

  • Pregnancy - it is common to start losing hair after giving birth.


How Propecia Works


Propecia works by blocking the enzyme Type II 5a-reductase. This enzyme is responsible for converting the male hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is the hormone most related to male pattern baldness. By decreasing DHT levels, Propecia helps to stop hair loss related to male pattern baldness. Propecia is not a savior for baldness, and hair loss is known to return within a year of stopping Propecia. So if you want to "keep it" on your head - advice your doctor about the use of the drug for a long period of time.


Propecia and Kids: Most of the time doctors do not advice parents to treat their kids with Propecia. They warn the latter about the risks and affection of certain hormones. The drug might not be worth the trouble gotten later on.


Order Propecia: If you don't have enough time to run around the pharmacies looking for a good deal on Propecia, there are many online pharmacy stores that could save you time and provide you with the same service. The major thing here is to find a good trustworthy online store. Mainly patients stay satisfied with this type of option.