Archive for October, 2009

Health Care Reform Fairly Contentious Still

Americans are quite unhappy about what they have been hearing and seeing in the media about the health care reform package. The nationwide anger has delayed the proposed bill. The legislation is now just sitting quietly for now, until something is done that addresses health care user’s concerns.

People are suspicious about the fact that no uninsured American would get health insurance until 2013, the next presidential election. The Congressional Budget Office also warns the numbers of uninsured will increase before the major provisions go into effect. What’s wrong with that picture?

Americans are also not happy about the proposal to restrict the ability to buy private insurance. This is because the bill would make it illegal to buy health insurance from any company outside the new proposed system – meaning it would be the government’s way or not at all.

Check out the proposals for yourself and you can make up your own mind about what you think may be happening. How do you feel about it?

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The Senior Dilemma and Health Care Coverage

Most seniors are aware of health care reform proposals, but their major concern is if their plans will be taken away and what they will cost, and what they might lose as benefits. It’s not much wonder seniors on a limited budgets would jump at the chance to save money on reasonably priced health insurance if it were offered to them.

The point is there is a great deal of confusion over the existing Medicare system, over what will happen to it with the proposed changes in 2010, and will it improve Medicare or not. Now is the time to speak to an expert insurance broker who has a good grasp on what the changes may mean for those on Medicare. Planning now for the future is the small thing to do.

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Seniors Health Care Scams

Why do some insurance companies prey on seniors? The answer is they have no place to go and sometimes no family support, usually have money saved up for a small nest egg and aren’t technologically savvy or that aware of what goes on around them, especially if they have cognitive difficulties. This makes it very easy for someone to spin them a yarn and tell them they’ll save money.

Scammers and schemers have made fleecing seniors a veritable art, done with the smoothness of years of practice. It’s incredibly easy to get money out of older Americans when it comes to their health care concerns. What senior doesn’t need health insurance? Doesn’t want to save money and get a great plan for themselves? It’s done by causing confusion for the senior, which is not hard to do because many don’t have a clue how their policy works or how much they pay, and when and for what. Pay attention to anyone asking you to buy health insurance from them for dirt cheap; something is wrong.

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Health Care System Over Taxed and Failing

Unfortunately, the resources of our health care system are very limited in many ways. This isn’t a great surprise given how many people use it, sometimes daily. The costs are still escalating, even as you read this and it isn’t going to slow down unless there are some top down solutions to resuscitate the health care system.

As it stands, ERs in most major cities are jam packed with people that should be dealing with a GP, not emergency room doctors. The people using ERs, as a matter of recourse, are those without health insurance. Find a way to provide health insurance coverage for them and other segments of society who are uninsured, and you just may have a solution to rising costs and overcrowded waiting rooms at hospitals, etc.

The more we abuse the health care system, the more it suffers with physician burn-out, rising malpractice errors and out of control costs. It’s time we took responsibility for our own health care.

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What Health Care Actually Costs

Do you know what you actually spend on health care costs? Most people don’t and when they find out, they are suitably shocked. It might teach you something about not running to the doctor for every ache and pain and runny nose. Simply put, we have to be more prudent using the health care system.

What if you have three kids and they all get hit with a virus of some sort? Off you go to the doctor and shell out the really low co-pay amount. You don’t really know how much that visit actually cost. What if you found out that it was at least $150 for the doctor to see each child and say, “It’s a virus that has to run its course. Drink lots of fluids, sleep lots and come back in a week.”

You just spent $450 for something you could have taken care of at home. The health care system is there for “serious” illnesses, not colds and runny noses.

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Health Care Cooperatives Scary

To access affordable health care through a health care cooperative proposed by the government, those requiring medical help are “assigned” a team of primary care practitioners. You have zero say in the matter.

If you can’t see a doctor right away, you see a nurse and that is also not negotiable. Keeping costs down for a health care cooperative run by an insurance company may mean cutting corners and not ordering the expensive tests, or not going the extra diagnostic mile. Deathly ill patients would not be a preference in a situation like that.

Furthermore, drugs and procedures, how medicine is practiced, and health insurance coverage decisions are made by the insurance company. So, Group Health isn’t really “group health,” it is an insurance company with a bottom line to stay in business and make money. Staying in business by cost cutting medical care is a scary idea.

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Health Care Cooperatives?

How does the nation get affordable health insurance for everyone without giving something up or taking something away? One proposal is health care cooperatives, which are likely a not so subtle stab at creating “more” insurance companies.

The example usually given of how a cooperative would work involves a company called Group Health. Group Health is actually an “insurance” company that reinvests its yearly revenues, not redistributes them to members. While it may be run like a cooperative, it is only one in name alone.

Group Health’s fees are lower than other insurance companies because records are computerized and physicians get performance based salaries. Performance based salaries usually means the doctors have to keep the costs down to make the insurance company financially viable. This doesn’t bode well for health care for those who are really ill simply because they would require too much care and thus become “too expensive.”

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Medicare a Single Payer Government Plan

Whether you realize it or not, Medicare is a single payer government plan for those 65 and over. While it might not be the “perfect” plan, many seniors are happy with it and how it works for them. The trouble is that there is no other plan like this for others who need help facing health care expenses. This huge gap between the haves and have nots is what health care reform is supposed to remedy.

Without another option for other people in need (low income wage earners and middle income wage earners) what would stop the government from raiding Medicare? The answer is not much would stop Medicare from being raided and those in Medicare may yet see a decrease in funding to that program and even more difficulty accessing the health care that they want.

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Overcrowded ERs Still a Reality

It’s a well known fact that ER rooms at hospitals are overcrowded, and the waiting times are ridiculous and sometime deadly. Those who can’t afford health insurance are using hospitals as doctor’s offices because hospitals cannot refuse to treat sick people.

If poorer people had access to health care, it would keep them from having to use hospital emergency rooms. That would free up the health care system to do what it was originally meant to do – take care of life’s catastrophes like broken legs and heart attacks. The waiting time would drop and the expenses for the health system would begin to drop. That would be a good start.

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Universal Health Care on Hold for Now

Since the universal health care reform bill now seems to be on hold for some solutions to the problems it is facing, give some thought to expanding health care insurance to a wider proportion of society, and about how that may be accomplished. If you stop and think about that for a minute, expanding means including other sectors and one of those is people living in poverty. This group of people has no safety net in the event of a health care problem.

Unfortunately, many individuals without health insurance face absolute financial ruin if they need medical care. It’s that or bankruptcy. The prevailing opinion is that these people deserve the same kind of safety net others with health insurance have if they are faced with medical bills. The difficulty is that Medicaid, which should be able to help those in dire need, doesn’t guarantee insurance or health care to those living in poverty. Beefing up Medicare would change the face of the health care system.

To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.