health insurance in pakistan

Feeling comfortable in the knowledge that if something was to happen to a family member their medical costs will be taken care of, is important to us all. Our expert consultants can advise on the most suitable level of coverage for families, individuals, groups, travelers, and teachers expatriate health insurance.

Expatriate Health Insurance Pakistan

Pacific Prime is an expatriate insurance broker specialising in providing overseas medical insurance for Pakistan nationals living, working or holidaying abroad. If you are a non Pakistan national and moving to Pakistan we can also provide plans that meet your specific requirements.

The policies that we can provide are guaranteed renewable for life and globally portable, so even if you should relocate away from the country your plan will continue to cover you. With a number of extra benefits including maternity coverage, emergency evacuation and repatriation, dental treatment, out-patient consultations, alternative medicines, complimentary therapies, and specialist consultations, you can be assured that an international health insurance Pakistan plan will give you the coverage that you need. For more information about the products and services that we can offer, or to receive a free quote.

Professional Service you can trust

Pacific Prime Insurance will be with you for the duration of your policy. We offer additional customer services that include claims advice, emergency contact numbers and medical advice lines. We also maintain a comprehensive list of Pakistan hospitals/doctors. Most of our clients are expatriates we maintain a list of Embassies in Pakistan.

As a leading broker of medical insurance in Pakistan we keep up on the latest insurance trends and Pakistan Insurance News.

We can offer expatriates in Pakistan dedicated international health insurance plans that will provide comprehensive coverage in the East and around the world. Plans that we can offer will usually have a number of benefits that a policyholder is able to tailor to suit their specific requirements. With coverage options including out-patient, dental, maternity, and emergency evacuation, you will be assured of receiving the highest levels of quality treatment anywhere in the world.

Health insurance service

California Health insurance for families and individuals

If you are self employed in California or your employer does not offer group health insurance, you can get private health insurance. Individual and Family health insurance can also be lower in cost due to the underwriting procedure. MattsInsurance4CA.com can help you find a California health insurance plan that fits you and your family’s needs and help you save money by comparing health plans from several carriers with one easy quote. You can get an Individual or Family Health insurance plan here.

Child only health insurance

If you’re looking for an insurance plan to cover your child you have come to the right place. Child only health insurance can help pay for office visits to a Pediatrician, immunizations, prescriptions, hospitalizations, and more. Find out how affordable a plan can be with our unique California Health Insurance quoting tool.

Californian Group health plans for health business

Whether you’re a Small Business Owner looking you a group health plan for you employees or if you’re a Large Corporation with hundreds or even thousands of employees, we can help. Our Group Health Insurance quote tool makes it easy for you to compare plans and prices from every carrier available here in California. Simply input your census and your Group Health Insurance Quote is delivered to you immediately. No waiting. Once you have your quote you can download and print out all the necessary forms and applications to get started.

SHORT TERMS HEALTH INSURANCE

If you’re between jobs, just graduated from college, or find that you will be without California health insurance for a short period of time, a Short Term Health Insurance plan may be just what you need. Short Term California Health insurance plans can be custom tailored to cover you with real health insurance until your new permanent medical plan starts. Short term health plans are designed to protect only to cover major medical expenses. Short term plans usually have a deductible and are typically more affordable than most permanent insurance plans.

Dental insurance

Individual dental insurance can be more affordable than you think. Compare PPO, HMO, DMO, Indemnity and discount dental plans.

Shop for Individual Health Insurance

If you find yourself in the position of shopping for an individual health insurance policy, there are certain things you'll want to keep in mind. Whether you are coming out of a job that covered you before, or are at the end of your COBRA benefits, or simply have never had coverage before there are things you can do to get coverage on yourself and your loved ones. The basic thing to know is that if you have a shot a group health insurance, whether through a job or an association you're a member of, that is usually much more affordable than buying individual health insurance on your own. First you need to figure out your health insurance goals; in other words, what are you after? If you're young, healthy as a horse, no dependents and not attempting Mt. Everest next week, you may want to opt for a policy that covers only the catastrophes, and cover the rest out-of-pocket. On the flip side of that, if you're the sole bread winner with a family to support, the scenario is different. The basic choices you'll have are Fee-for-Service, Managed Care Plans, and Association-based health insurance. Fee-for-service is the traditional indemnity plan, harder to acquire, more expensive, but usually great coverage. Managed care plans include most HMO's and PPO's. These offer lower costs but your choices are somewhat limited. Another way to get insured is through a group or association you may already be a member of, such as professional, religious or trade organizations. Often they may offer health insurance. It's worth checking out, as sometimes you can strike gold in this vein. Things to consider when you're looking for any policy are what's covered on this plan, how much are the monthly premiums, what is the yearly out-of-pocket, what is the deductible, how much are office visits, does it cover preventative medicine, vision, dental? And I'm sure you can come up with many of your own. Sit down before you go shopping and make a list of your needs and wants, and decide in advance what you're willing to give to get. Be aware that once you start getting quotes they can vary as much as 50% for the same person! Remember, you're shopping, and nobody's making you do anything. If one insurer isn't cutting it, move on to another. If you're coming at this cold and have no good recommendations it may be wise to use a broker who represents several companies, as he or she wil be more likely to find the best policy for you, as opposed to selling the company they work for. Shopping for individual health insurance can be frustrating and time-consuming, but if you come armed with facts you'll be able to navigate this highly competitive and ever-changing field.

A study involving a European occupational therapist suffering from psoriasis who had obtained compensation from her health insurance in order to undergo therapy at the Dead Sea has lead to great interest in health funds in Denmark, Germany and other European Countries. This has resulted in their subsidizing treatment from the Dead Sea for people suffering from both Psoriasis and other skin conditions. If Health Insurance companies can be considering coverage of treatment at the Dead Sea for relief and treatment of skin disorders, then it seems reasonable to advocate usage of products manufactured from the Mud and minerals of the Dead Sea.

Healthy skin and

Assisting to replace or remove electrolytes enables the body to maintain a good fluid balance thereby improving a feeling of relaxation, health and well being. Below is a list of the therapeutic physical and mental well being is dependent on the correct sodium and potassium or fluid balance in the body. This is regulated by the Adrenal gland, which in turn affect healthy function of the kidneys. The kidneys are responsible for controlling 28 chemicals in the body. An imbalance of these chemicals or electrolytes can result in certain skin or other symptoms and over an extended period of time results in various illnesses. benefits of the Dead Sea products together with the conditions or symptoms they alleviate.

The Dead Sea Salts differ from regular sea salt in 2 important ways.

1) They contain 10 times more minerals than sea salt.
2) The Dead

Sea salts absorb essential oils with ease, which enables them to be released into the bath water as they dissolve.

This is beneficial for those wishing to benefit from the Dead Sea in the privacy of their own home. Some of the minerals found in the Dead Sea are listed below together with their functions or benefits to health. This provides some insight as to why these minerals assist in cleansing, de-toxing and restoring a healthy status quo of the body, especially the skin and muscles.

Minerals and Chemicals found in the Dead Sea

Sulfur-is found in the amino acids cysteine, and methionine; as well as in cells, hemoglobin (of the blood), collagen (of the muscles), keratin (required for skin), insulin, heparin, biotin, co-enzyme A, (required for healthy hair, skin, nails, among many other biological structures). Sulfur is necessary for synthesizing collagen. It is required for the adequate digestion and absorption of carbohydrates and a number of vitamins e.g. thiamin, biotin and pantothenic acid; It is also essential to enable cells to breathe Sulfur is necessary for the secretion of bile from the liver and for converting toxins into non-toxins.

Chlorine is necessary to maintain the correct balance of alkaline and acid in the body, together with being vital for cell metabolism

Iodine is necessary for the production of the hormone thyroxin, and is also vital for both energy and cell metabolism is necessary to maintain the water balance in order for cell metabolism to take place, assisting the cells to absorb nourishment and expel waste products. An imbalance in potassium often leads to water retention.
Potassium also plays a vital role in regulating muscle contractions and the nervous system.
Sodium like potassium plays s a vital role in assisting the cells to absorb nourishment and expel waste.
Calcium is necessary in strengthening cell membranes and cleansing the pores. In addition it is vital for production and maintenance of healthy teeth and bones, together with regulating the heart muscles and nerves.
Magnesium is necessary in assisting the body to utilize other essential nutiens and in cell metabolism.
Bromine helps with the natural repair of the body together with cell metabolism and can be sued as a natural antibiotic. Saunas often use Dead Sea salts to evaporate the bromides thus creating and environment similar to the Dead Sea. Having a hot bath with Dead Sea salts and allowing the steam to collect in the bathroom will have a similar effect. Other than the benefits listed below for bath salts, steaming and using these salts in the bath can be beneficial for respiratory conditions e.g. asthma.
PELOTHERAPY The main healing property of mud is humic acid, which comes from concentration of organic matter. After the Ice Age the earth experienced a compression of plant and animal life resulting in transformation of various rocks and hence, muds. The parts of the earth, which suffered the most erosion, have higher deposits of humic acid. One of these areas is the Dead Sea, which has the largest concentration of humic acid, chloride salts of magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, bromine and various other minerals. Since the Dead Sea Mud (also known as Pelloid) has a high concentration of minerals together with an ability to hold heat, the mud can be used for certain healing benefits. Smearing the Pelloid onto the body in a process known as Pelotherapy provides cleansing and detoxing of the skin which has proved beneficial for skin, muscle pain and arthritic or rheumatic conditions.

BALNEOTHERAPY

Is an ancient healing form using water, usually with added salts, thereby distinguishing it from hydrotherapy, to condition, relax and revitalize the skin, body and muscles. Its benefits are seen in improving circulation, strengthening the immune system, reducing pain, stress and insomnia.

Are You Sometimes Confused by Written Medical Instructions

Medical instructions

Now, imagine what it would be like if you were sick, scared and had only third grade reading skills. Your doctor tells you, "You'vegot to follow these instructions exactly, or you could die." About 200 recent studies have shown the reading difficulty ofmost health related materials FAR exceeds the average readingabilities of the American adult. One of the biggest silent healthproblems today is the gap between health materials and readingskills. In the United States, the average reading level is eighth grade.In 1992, the Educational Testing Service determined that halfU.S. adults read at between first and eight grade level. That isabout 148 million people. It gets worse. One quarter of Americansread BELOW FOURTH GRADE level, meaning 74 million people wouldstruggle with even the simplest, most well written healthmaterials. Does it matter? Do you remember the anthrax scare, when someonewas putting deadly white powder into our mail system? During that terrorist scare, the U.S. post office mailed millionsof post cards to Americans. The post cards told people how toprotect themselves from the deadly infection. They gaveinstructions on how to handle and report suspicious mail. Thesepost cards were written at between ninth and eleventh gradereading level. More than half the people who got that mailing could not read itwell enough to protect themselves and others. Does it matter? Do148 million people matter? Will it matter the next time theterrorists strike? Do you remember the mailing the Surgeon General sent outexplaining how to avoid contracting HIV? He made every effort tosee that it was written in clear, simple language. He gotcriticism for just how plain talking it was in places. A laterevaluation of that document showed that it was written at betweenseventh and ninth grade level. Half the people receiving it readat a level BELOW what was required to read it. No wonder theinfection keeps spreading. Think about it. For millions of people, the problem is not justthe tiny print on prescription bottles. The problem is the wordsthemselves. What does "take on an empty stomach" mean exactly?When should you "take four times a day"? Perhaps your doctorexplained to you at the office. Do you remember what the doctorsaid a week later? Have you ever read the instructions for testing and assessingblood sugar levels? Have you ever tried to fill out a Medicareform? Do you struggle with letters from your health insuranceprovider? Only 45% of asthmatics with literacy problems knew that theyshould stay away from things they are allergic to even if theyWERE taking asthma medication. 89% of the people reading at highschool level were clear about the same information. It's not amatter of intelligence. It's a matter of a missing skill whichwell-educated health providers presume is present in theirreaders when they sit down to write. There are two parts to the problem: the writer and the reader.Recently, the public health community has begun efforts to raiseawareness. They are alerting the medical providers to the impactof health literacy issues. Some fledgling efforts are underway toprovide clearer, simpler materials for the public. People arefinding alternatives to reading for presenting the sameinformation. There is a long way to go. Sign up now with your local literacyprogram as a volunteer. Drop in on your elderly neighbor and help her learn to read thespecialized health material so critical in her life. (You maywant to ask her about her life first, to save embarrassment whenyou learn you're talking to a retired English teacher). Startwith all those ridiculously obscure materials her doctor senthome with her about glaucoma. You can go on to that Medicare formshe needs to send in tomorrow. Do you want to know what eighth grade reading level is? You justread 700 words of it. 74 million Americans reading at belowfourth grade level could have found it too hard for them tounderstand. The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program. About the Author Emily Clark is editor at Lifestyle Health News and Medical Health News where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on many medical, health and lifestyle topics.

Health Care Costs Are Rising At Epidemic Proportions

Here,s how to protect ur self

Health care costs are now approaching 15% of our national economy and the economic repercussions have been felt by most American families as employers are unwilling to absorb the bulk of the health care cost burden.

In 2004, employer health insurance premiums increased by 11.2% - nearly four times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $10,000. The annual premium for single coverage averaged $3,695. Health insurance premiums will rise to an average of more than $14,500 for family coverage in 2006.

In 2004, health care spending in the United States reached $1.7 trillion, and is projected to reach $1.9 trillion in 2005. Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

Overall national health care costs will increase further with the implementation of Medicare prescription drug coverage. Too many Americans are uninsured while even a greater percentage have no insurance at all. Uninsured individuals also present a problem for hospitals and other providers who must provide treatment in catastrophic situations without compensation.

Many employees receive restricted coverage and insurance plans that are negotiated between employers and insurance providers limit coverage to a single insurance carrier or an HMO.

Prescription drugs are the fastest-growing part of the nation's health care expense. Pharmacy bills have become a significant item in the budget of most families.

For 37% of Americans without prescription coverage, the problem is critical. Especially for seniors who constitute 12% of the population but use 37% of prescription drugs. The rest especially those without health insurance, is significantly affected by high drug prices.

What has caused this cost increase?
Much of it is due to a riddled health care system of excessive administrative expenses, inflated prices, poor management, inappropriate care, waste and fraud. These problems significantly increase the cost of medical care and health insurance for employers and workers.

On the other side of the cost issue there is the recent development of new effective medications for a variety of illnesses. Such newer "brand name" medications are patent-protected and cost far more than generic medications.

The drug industry argues that the higher cost of new medications helps fund research and development of even newer medicines. Many critics argue that much of the research and development of pharmaceutical products is actually government funded.

Also contributing to the cost increase is marketing. As this is 30% of a drug manufacturer's budget. Brand-name U.S drug makers were reported to employ 81% more people in marketing than in research and development of much needed drugs.

Policymakers and government officials agree that health care costs must be controlled. But they disagree on the best ways to address rapidly escalating health spending. Some favor price controls and imposing strict budgets on health care spending.

Others believe free market competition is the best way to solve the problems but if people can't afford it, how will they protect themselves and their family?

Well there is something you can do and that's become apart of the solution and not the problem by learning more about our troubled medical industry.

Health care crisis

What to do about health care crisis

Thirteen years ago Bill Clinton became president partly because he promised to do something about rising health care costs. Although Clinton's chances of reforming the US health care system looked quite good at first, the effort soon ran aground. Since then a combination of factors—the unwillingness of other politicians to confront the insurance and other lobbies that so successfully frustrated the Clinton effort, a temporary remission in the growth of health care spending as HMOs briefly managed to limit cost increases, and the general distraction of a nation focused first on the gloriousness of getting rich, then on terrorism—have kept health care off the top of the agenda.

But medical costs are once again rising rapidly, forcing health care back into political prominence. Indeed, the problem of medical costs is so pervasive that it underlies three quite different policy crises. First is the increasingly rapid unraveling of employer- based health insurance. Second is the plight of Medicaid, an increasingly crucial program that is under both fiscal and political attack. Third is the long-term problem of the federal government's solvency, which is, as we'll explain, largely a problem of health care costs.

The good news is that we know more about the economics of health care than we did when Clinton tried and failed to remake the system. There's now a large body of evidence on what works and what doesn't work in health care, and it's not hard to see how to make dramatic improvements in US practice. As we'll see, the evidence clearly shows that the key problem with the US health care system is its fragmentation. A history of failed attempts to introduce universal health insurance has left us with a system in which the government pays directly or indirectly for more than half of the nation's health care, but the actual delivery both of insurance and of care is undertaken by a crazy quilt of private insurers, for-profit hospitals, and other players who add cost without adding value. A Canadian-style single-payer system, in which the government directly provides insurance, would almost surely be both cheaper and more effective than what we now have. And we could do even better if we learned from "integrated" systems, like the Veterans Administration, that directly provide some health care as well as medical insurance.

The bad news is that Washington currently seems incapable of accepting what the evidence on health care says. In particular, the Bush administration is under the influence of both industry lobbyists, especially those representing the drug companies, and a free-market ideology that is wholly inappropriate to health care issues. As a result, it seems determined to pursue policies that will increase the fragmentation of our system and swell the ranks of the uninsured.

Before we talk about reform, however, let's talk about the current state of the US health care system. Let us begin by asking a seemingly naive question: What's wrong with spending ever more on health care.

our healthy care system isn,t healthy

About our healthy system

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.

Get fit diet and anaerobic exercise

Get Fit And Slash Your Health Insurance

There's three sides to your maximum health and fitness. Diet, and Exercise. But that's only two ! Let me split Exercise into Aerobic exercise and Aneorobic exercise.

Get all three right. Get the right balance. And you'll get as fit and healthy as your body and genetics will allow.

Whole forests of paper have been filled with advice on each of these fitness factors. Just go into your local bookstore, and see shelves of diet advice. Shelves of exercise advice.

Funny how so much contradicts itself, especially for diet e.g right next to each other on the shelf, you'll find a book advocating low carbs & low fat; another saying high fat is okay if you keep the carbs low. Yet another focuses on high protein, and says carbs don't matter...

Diet

Let me give you this simple diet advice. Stick to low fat, low carbs and high protein. Many medical and weight loss studies over the last 10-20 years prove this approach. Many other diet myths come from way back in time, and look just plain wrong when analyzed with modern methods.

Aerobic Exercise

Couch potatoes don't realize how easily they can start feeling fit and healthy. Just walk somewhere 3-4 times per week, for around 20 minutes each time.

Ideally, do some more demanding aerobic exercise. I do a lot of cycling, because it's great low-impact exercise. And I get to see beautiful scenery while I ride.

Running provides even more intensive aerobic exercise, but careful of your joints. Maybe you prefer hiking, to see the local countryside ? Or take up a sport like rowing or tennis. You also get to meet new friends by taking up exercise as a sport.

Anaerobic Exercise

Many people work on their diet. Many people take aerobic exercise. But many people ignore anaerobic exercise, or weight training.

As you get older, muscle mass decreases. Muscle burns fat. So as you lose muscle, it gets harder to keep the fat off. Equally important, weight training can reshape your body.

No matter how much aerobic exercise you do, you'll still be a pear shape (a smaller pear shape) if you started out a pear shape.

Using weights you can flatten your stomach, tone your thighs, bulk up your chest and shoulders, and reshape your body any way you want.

Weight training is incredibly beneficial to your general skeleton strength and conditioning. Older women can reduce the effects of osteoporosis, and older men can maintain their strength and agility.

This short article can do nothing more than provide an introduction to the three keys to your health. Follow these and you shouldn't need to make a health insurance claim.

Slash your health insurance costs with a long no-claims bonus. Slash your health insurance costs with any insurer who rates your fitness.

Long Term Health Care Options

Health Care Options Medical Services Directory

Ontarians often don't realize there are alternatives to an emergency room visit, or where to find those options. Your Health Care Options Medical Services Directory is a user-friendly searchable database of walk-in and after hours clinics, urgent care centres, and family health care providers. By entering your postal code you can find out the hours and services available in your community.


contect to doctor

Do you not have a family doctor? By registering with Health Care Connect, you will be assigned a Care Connector to help you to find family health care in your community.


Family health

A Family Health Team brings together different health care providers to deliver the highest possible quality of care for the patient. Family Health Teams are designed to give physicians support from other health care professionals including nurses, nurse practitioners and other professionals who work together to provide enrolled patients with a range of health care options. Family Health Teams provide after hours services to patients who are enrolled with them.


Continue health care

An intermediary between nursing homes and independent living, continuing care, or retirement communities, offer a wide variety of health benefits and services to their inhabitants. These communities are usually all-inclusive, where dwellers receive lodging, meals, social events, varying levels of health care, and sometimes other perks as well.

Entrance fees for these establishments can be quite high (ranging from $10,000 to over 300,000); added to their monthly fees (ranging from $800-4000), and this option can prove to be expensive health care. However, services are guaranteed for the remainder of your life if you choose this option, and if your health falters, you can always be moved to the nursing home portion of their health care facility.

Because of the all-inclusive nature of this kind of health care, you’ll want to read the fine print carefully in your contract. What are all of the recurring and one-time fees? What exactly is covered with those fees? What health care options are, and are not offered? Do you need to purchase extra health insurance to cover your specific care costs? Also don’t forget to check up with the Better Business Bureau about the status of the facility you are interested in; if you plan on living there the rest of your life, you may want to double check it’s reputation, too.

You can do to protect ur self

MEDICAL BANKRUPTCIES

The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds," Obama said at the opening of his White House forum on health care reform. The problem: That claim, based on a 2001 survey, is simply unsupportable.
The figure comes from a 2005 Harvard University study saying that 54 percent of bankruptcies in 2001 were caused by health expenses. We reviewed it internally and knocked it down at the time; an academic reviewer did the same in 2006. Recalculating Harvard’s own data, he came up with a far lower figure – 17 percent.
A more recent study by another group, approaching it another way, indicates that in 2007 about eight-tenths of one percent of Americans lived in families that filed for bankruptcy as a result of medical costs. That rings a little less loudly than “one every 30 seconds.”
The extrapolation of Harvard’s data to “a bankruptcy every 30 seconds,” which Obama also mentioned in his address to a joint session of Congress last month, comes, per the White House, from a 2005 Washington Post op-ed by Prof. Elizabeth Warren, a co-author of the Harvard paper. Fact-check.org has noted that even using Harvard’s numbers, it’s more like a bankruptcy every minute; indeed if you add up all bankrputcies in a year you barely get one every 30 seconds. (I've e-mailed Warren for comment.) But more to the point is that the Harvard data are clearly inflated, or at best, mischaracterized.
Himmelstein tells me that the reason for the difference is a change in federal law that sharply reduced the number of bankruptcies. In 2005, the year he and Warren wrote their op-ed, there were just over 2 million bankruptcies. Data out just today say that in 2008 there were 1.1 million (up sharply, by the way, over 2007). So this error in the White House claim stems simply from the fact that it's using out-of-date information. The next question is whether the estimate of “medical bankruptcies” is reliable in the first place.
A good part of the problem is definitional. The Harvard report claims to measure the extent to which medical costs are “the cause” of bankruptcies. In reality its survey asked if these costs were “a reason” – potentially one of many – for such bankruptcies.
Beyond those who gave medical costs as “a reason,” the Harvard researchers chose to add in any bankruptcy filers who had at least $1,000 in unreimbursed medical expenses in the previous two years. Given deductibles and copays, that’s a heck of a lot of people.
Moreover, Harvard’s definition of “medical” expenses includes situations that aren’t necessarily medical in common parlance, e.g., a gambling problem, or the death of a family member. If your main wage-earning spouse gets hit by a bus and dies, and you have to file, that’s included as a “medical bankruptcy.”
When I asked the lead author, Dr. David Himmelstein, about his definitions of medical bankruptcy back in 2005, he said, “It’s a judgment call,” and added that any death, for example, “to our mind is a medical event.”
A last problem was sampling: The Harvard researchers surveyed bankruptcy filers in five federal court districts accounting for 14 percent of bankruptcies nationally; projecting this to the other 86 percent is sketchy. Said Himmelstein: “Obviously the extrapolation is rough.”
Of such rough extrapolations are presidential pronouncements made.
Himmelstein today told me that he’s comfortable saying medical costs, as his study defines them, are “a cause” but not “the cause” of bankruptcies. In his view, “It’s accurate to say medical problems cause half of bankruptcies. There may be other conditions as well but medical problems were causal. I wouldn’t be comfortable with it as the ‘only’ cause.

HEALTH INSURANCE

Lose weight

If you are overweight, you may be more at risk of developing disease. That should be reason enough to lose weight. Weight related conditions include:
Premature death
Cardiovascular disease
High blood pressure
High Cholesterol
Stroke
Gallbladder Disease
Osteoarthritis
Sleep apnea and breathing problems
Some cancers
Diabetes

Obesity can also cause irregular periods, complication with pregnancy, hirsutism (excessive body and facial hair), incontinence, depression, surgery complications and more.

If your health doesn't concern you, maybe your pocketbook does. By staying overweight, you may increase the amount of time spent visiting various healthcare professionals. Most of them don't work for free. Medications to treat these diseases can run into hundreds of dollars a month. Not to mention, you may have to take more time off work to care for your ailments. This means less income for you. And, you may notice that your health insurance premiums keep going up. It's because the amount being spent on healthcare keeps going up. A majority of which is related to treating problems that could be prevented by exercise and staying at a healthy weight. What a vicious cycle it is.

The annual cost associated with obesity and being overweight is staggering. The national cost of healthcare related to this is well over $100 Billion dollars. Diabetes and heart disease are among the fastest growing diseases that could easily be prevented in most people by staying at a healthy weight and exercising. Visit the NIDDK to get a breakdown of the costs associated with each disease that is related to being overweight.

By losing weight and starting a healthier way of life you can really save a lot of money. Eating healthier usually also means eating less. You may be able to save on the amount you spend on groceries and eating out each week too. Think of all the other things you could do with that money you'll be saving. It may require an initial investment to get the weight off but the rewards are well worth it.

Find Affordable Health Insurance

Affordable health insurance - it seems, especially today, those words just don't belong together in the same sentence. Health insurance monthly premiums have become the biggest single expense in our lives - surpassing even mortgage payments. In fact, if you have any permanent health problems, such as diabetes, or have had cancer at one time in your family history, your monthly cost could easily be more than the house and car payment combined.

Shopping for affordable health insurance can certainly be an eye-opener. If you have always had a health insurance benefit where you work - especially a state or federal employee - and now have to buy your own, you may not be able to afford the level of health insurance coverage you have become used to.

Affordable health insurance, however, is definitely available -if you know how and where to look.

When you are looking for affordable health insurance, you want the lowest cost per year that will fit your budget, of course. But, even more importantly, you want a company that has a good record for paying without fighting with you on every detail. Just as there is a car for just about any budget, there is also affordable health insurance. You may not be able to afford a "Cadillac" policy - but then you probably don't need all the frills anyway.

Shopping for health insurance on the internet is the easiest and best way to find affordable health insurance. Here are five reasons why.

1. You don't need a local agent to help you submit the claims for health insurance. The medical provider does it for you. You save money because the health insurance company saves money by not paying the agent commission. This could amount to an 8% to 12% savings to you.

2. All the top health insurance companies are at your fingertips on the internet. Most local agents can only quote you from the few companies that they represent. They may not offer you what is best for you financially or health-wise but only what they happen to have available.

3. Health insurance companies have to be extremely competitive because it is so quick and easy to compare them with their competitors on the internet today. In the past you would have had to visit physically eight to ten agents to do a similar comparison. Most folks just didn't have the time or desire for that.

4. You can change your coverage, deductibles, and payment options with just a few clicks rather than going through the paperwork delay with a local agent (and then finding out he/she made a mistake - more delay).

5. Charging to a credit card means you aren't going to forget a payment and be without insurance. Also, it gives you another 30 days before you actually have to pay. Also, many companies today give an additional discount for "auto-pay".

The key, however, to finding affordable health insurance is realizing that the purpose of any health insurance is to protect you from a major financial loss - not to protect you from spending small money on clinic visits and sliver removal. These small expenses may be cumbersome but they generally will not hurt you. It's the $100,000 heart operation that will break you. That's the financial disaster health insurance was originally designed to prevent.

Also, keep this in mind. Health insurance, as with any insurance, is a gamble. You are gambling that you will draw out more than you pay in. Your health insurance company is gambling they will pay out less. The odds are in their favor for two reasons. They have all the facts for millions of families to average out, so they know the risk in advance. Also, they get to set the rules and the prices. The higher you set your deductible, the more risk you take. This is not a bad thing at all. You will most likely be the winner in the long run.

Yes, finding affordable health insurance is much easier than most people think.

Taking more of the risk with higher deductibles, spending a little time on the internet comparing eight to ten different companies, and deleting coverage that you will not likely need (such as maternity for many folks) will make it very possible to find your own affordable health insurance.