Today is World Tobacco Day. Up until today, I had never heard of it, but I’ll gladly jump on that band wagon. Why? Because it raises insurance rates – health insurance, life insurance, critical illness, long-term care, you name it - and it’s a killer. Here’s a snippet of what the Department of Health and Human Services [...]
Tue, May 31 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance, Healthy Tips to Keep Premiums Low » No Comments
They don’t. A new report released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that few families without health insurance have the financial assets to pay potential hospital bills. On average, uninsured families can only afford to pay in full for approximately 12-percent of hospital stays they may experience – and [...]
Tue, May 10 2011 » Accident and Critical Illness Insurance, Affordable Health Insurance » No Comments
The integration of preventative care into all American health insurance plans will ease the minds of millions as more and more annual check-ups are performed each year. But preventative medicine, regardless of how much attention has been paid to it in the press, is a very small piece of the puzzle. Our medical needs are far greater [...]
Tue, April 19 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance, Health Care Reform » No Comments
Between health care reform and good ole American competition, deductible credits are becoming more and more popular in health insurance plans. The gist is that if you don’t meet your deductible in a calendar year, then the next year your deductible will be lowered by a certain percentage amount, sometimes up to 50 percent. Too bad this option [...]
Mon, March 28 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance » No Comments
Here’s some advice from Eric Tyson, author of Investing for Dummies and Personal Finance for Dummies: “I’m a very big fan of (health savings accounts) because they offer better potential tax benefits than a traditional retirement fund,” Tyson says. With HSAs, investors receive an upfront tax break, compounding investment earning, and pay no tax on [...]
Thu, March 10 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance » No Comments
Everything seems to be changing these days. My fiance, who was a Sagittarius his whole life, is now an Ophiuchus. And he can’t even pronounce it! Oh-fee-uh-cus??? I don’t know and don’t much care either; I’m still a Virgo. But now there are new dietary guidelines too. They are probably a thousand pages long, so [...]
Tue, February 1 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance, Annuities, Healthy Tips to Keep Premiums Low, Life Insurance, Long-Term Care » No Comments
Today marks a tragic day in history. Twenty-five years ago, the Challenger space shuttle exploded before our country’s children. I was 10-years-old at the time, sitting in my elementary school classroom. My music teacher went to college with Christa McAuliffe - the first schoolteacher in space. Maybe every school in America was as excited as we were, but [...]
Fri, January 28 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance, Life Insurance » No Comments
It’s common knowledge that smoking increases insurance premiums, but a new study performed by the journal, Arthritis and Rheumatism, is showing that it also increases your risk for rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis falls under the nasty umbrella of pre-existing conditions because it comes with a slew of complications, joint infections and narcotic use among them. If an applicant [...]
Thu, January 27 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance, Healthy Tips to Keep Premiums Low, Long-Term Care » No Comments
There was a study recently published in the journal, Traffic Injury Prevention, in which Rebecca Naumann of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says, “In 2005, the total costs of crash-related injuries and deaths exceeded $99 billion. This included the cost of both medical care and productivity losses.’’ That’s 99 billion reasons to consider accident insurance. [...]
Thu, January 13 2011 » Accident and Critical Illness Insurance, Affordable Health Insurance » No Comments
Let the public shaming begin… Statement of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Blue Shield of California’s proposed rate increase “The people of California have a right to be concerned when they see this kind of rate increase month after month. We have reached out to California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and know he is doing [...]
Fri, January 7 2011 » Affordable Health Insurance, Health Care Reform, Opinions » No Comments
