health insurance

Very Practical Advice. The author tries to resolve many common problems revolving around the high costs of health insurance. His ideas are practical and, in fact, they will work for the majority of people who are trying to lower health insurance costs. Unfortunately, there will always be those who are uninsurable in the individual and family market and who cannot afford risk pool coverage, and this is not a problem that can be solved immediately. However, the author is urging people to obtain individual coverage at a young age when they can qualify, and while cinergy health insurance is still affordable. If most people did this, and if people did not depend soley on employer sponsored plans in their younger years, the author asserts that cinergy health insurance would not be as difficult to have and keep good coverage in the older years. That is the concept behind this book.

In the reviews below, many complain that the author tries to simplify the problem and make cinergy health insurance sound like anyone can obtain an individual policy at an affordable price. I don't think that is the overall message he is trying to get across. Rather, I think his message is intended to try to help change the mentality of the average consumer as far as "entitlement" goes, and he really tries to help people understand that personal responsibility in obtaining an individual policy is important AND can result in huge savings as well as protect against the possibility of losing coverage because of the inability to work due to illness.

Contrary to what some of the other reviewers say, the author does not contradict himself when he says on page 10 "premiums on most individual/family policies cannot be increased". If you read the rest of the sentence cinergy health insurance says..."cannot be increased, ... if you become ill". That comment is true. Individual and Family Health Insurance Carriers typically only increase premiums annually or semi-annually based on overall inflation in the market and overall claims experience and utilization of the entire group of it's members.

I don't necessarily agree with the author's suggestion to small employers to establish an HRA to pay for employees to obtain their own individual policies. This is dangerous ground, as cinergy health insurance could lead to discrimination if there is an employee who can't qualify for individual coverage. Also, what if someone didn't purchase maternity benefits, and then gets pregnant or has a family member that becomes pregnant? In essence, by paying for employee's individual policies, the employer has committed to a "group" benefit, which by state law requires "guaranteed issue of coverage" and maternity coverage. Therefore, the employer may put himself at risk with crafty "ERISA" attorneys who may find a legal way to make the employer responsible for claims of sick employees who can't qualify for their own coverage or for maternity claims for pregnant women. (This is just my humble opinion). Colorado residents....You may be interested in www.efsbenefits.com as a reputable place to purchase health insurance online.

Issues with The New Health Insurance Solution. Pilzer's general proposition is that the market place will take care of the health insurance issues in this country if we just let the free market operate. He maintains that individual health insurance is widely available at reasonable cost and people, including employers and employees, should take advantage of the individual market for health insurance. I believe he tends to force the facts to fit this basic proposition.

He is easy to read with a breezy style. The book has pretty good explanations of HIPAA and COBRA and a number of good tips. However, health insurance in the United States is complicated. The price he pays for simplicity is accuracy and thoroughness. cinergy health insurance is a pretty good book if you are 35, perfectly healthy, and thinking about buying insurance. But what is good for when you are 35 is not necessarily good 5, 10 or 20 years later. (Should I pay for drug coverage?. . . pregnancy coverage?) I would never rely on this book for making policy decisions or for forming opinions on healthcare in the United States. I strongly disagree with many of his policy recommendations.

Some problematic propositions from the book:

1. Several places in the book he claims that insurance companies in the individual market only turn down or place exclusions on 20% of applicants and 80% are accepted as healthy. He uses this statistic to support his idea that most people can get coverage in the individual market. I don't know about the accuracy of this statistic, but one problem is that people who are uninsurable often do not apply for insurance on the open market. They stay on their employer plan. They go into a risk pool. They buy a conversion plan. Etc. Even Pilzer advises against applying for insurance if you think you might get turned down. So the healthy gravitate to these plans and the unhealthy do not.

Pilzer doesn't discuss what "healthy" might mean and his discussion of the underwriting process doesn't describe what are the typical issues that exclude people from coverage. He does not address the possibly of the healthy fleeing to cheap plans while the unhealthy are trapped in what they already have, causing greater cost disparity.

2. For those who say they can't afford health insurance Pilzer claims that "If your annual income is below the federal poverty line, about $20,000 for a family and $10,000 for a single individual-you probably qualify for Medicaid."

This simply is not true, unless you have children at home, are disabled, or meet some other special category. Low income alone does not qualify a person for Medicaid.

In this same vein, he claims that of the 45 million uninsured, 16 million earn more than $40,000 for a family of four ($20,000 for a single) and 29 million earn less. He assumes that the 29 million earn at least $20,000 if a family and $10,000 if single. Otherwise he claims they would be on Medicaid. He maintains that these low income families could easily buy a low cost HSA plan. But how are they going to pay those big deductibles? Also, his cost data is for people age 35 and their families. In most states, the older you are the more expensive insurance gets. In this discussion, he ignores the issue of underwriting and possible exclusions for preexisting conditions and ignores the fact that in most states, this population could not afford the risk pool which runs on the average, 200% the cost of the same plan for a healthy individual.

3. "Despite what you read in the newspapers, there are health insurance optionsavailable for every American, although cinergy health insurance may take you some time, effort and expense to get them." This is one of his soundbite quotes he uses in advertising materials for his book. This is misleading. Insurance on the individual market is not available for many people. The risk market policy will have preexisting condition exclusions and may have coverage riders unless you are coming off of a group plan and have HIPAA rights. The risk market may be unaffordable. If you don't have HIPAA rights, there may be no option for you at all in some states.

4. He states that "the premium you pay for an individual or family policy cannot be raised each year, nor can the policy be canceled based on your health or your prior year healthcare costs." He mentions this several times in the book. At best this is a case of overgeneralization, at worst cinergy health insurance is a misleading statement to support his thesis that individual health insurance is the solution to our insurance woes.

I have read a lot about health insurance. Federal law requires guaranteed renewal of individual health insurance plans. Does this mean that rates cannot change based on your health status? Many state's insurance regulators think so. But that does not make cinergy health insurance law. Most states allow rates to increase based on age. Some states' laws do provide that your rates can't go up based on your personal health situation. But other states have no laws that apply and in general, the individual market is not highly regulated. From what I have read, experts are not in agreement as to the extent re-underwriting occurs on renewal and insurance companies are not very forthcoming with information about why a particular person's rate increases. Some experts believe that re-underwriting is occurring more and more by a number of insurance companies. Also, some insurers have durational rate settings. This means that your insurance costs can go up considerably after a few years. At that time, you can reapply for a lower cost policy, but can be denied if you are not in good health.

4. Pilzer repeatedly claims that individual health insurance is cheaper than employer provided insurance. cinergy health insurance probably is cheaper if you are 35 and healthy. Probably not if you are 60. This is because employers charge the same rate to everyone, whether you are 20 or 60. Also, only 4% of people in the US have insurance on the individual market. So cinergy health insurance is a small part of the overall market. Pilzer doesn't break down what that market looks like as to age and health of its participants.


5. Pilzer's discussion of the uninsurable and state subsidized programs like riskpools leaves much to be desired. Mostly because there is so much state variability. This is another circumstance where I really disliked that he used figures applicable to a 35 year old male. The costs are considerably higher for those 50 and over. He fails to mention that some risk pools have low lifetime limits and other restrictions.

6. Pilzer pushes the idea that small employers should go to a reimbursement model, leaving their employees to buy health insurance on the individual market. Employers with older/sicker employees are in fact facing higher costs. However, their employees are going to have problems getting insurance on the open market and may end up with only very high cost options. The employer that has a young and healthy workforce already has lower costs.

For The Rich Only!. New Health Solutions gives the reader lots of data and examples on how a family could afford health insurance. What the author left out was yeah all of us could get some type of health insurance plan with a very large deductibles, you might as well have no insurance because you will be paying out of pocket thousands of dollars before this affordable insurance plan kicks in!
Now the author suggests you remove your spouse and childern off your plan at work and you will get a cheaper monthly price for doing so. All great if your kids don't get sick or if they do not need school physcials every year and vaccitaions so they can go to school with the rest of the childern in middle income America. Last I checked most kids get sick and need the shots to go to school and some how you will save money by paying yourself? When was the last time you went to your childerns doctor's office and asked to pay less and please do not skip any steps you would normaly do if you were charging full price. Come on, Health saving plans for the those who could afford them would have been a better title. If you have $5000 laying around to put into saving then you wouldn't need a lower insurance package to begin with. We can not seperate ourselves from the risk pool as the author suggests so easly by leaving our company insurance plans. Why? because your age works against you! each year you add on your insurance goes up! It's that simple- as we age , we are more likly to become ill and cost someone more money to take care of us, it's just the facts of life. If you are single you may be able to use some of the author's suggestions without too much self injury, but a family think again and talk cinergy health insurance over with a number of agents. cinergy health insurance is like buying car insurance or house insurance you get what you pay for.

Great book, very imformative.. I bought health insurance book because I was sick of just signing my insurance contracts. The author explained clearly the different types of insurance and made recommendations you can follow to save you time and money. health insurance book was well worth the price since I have saved so much in insurance. health insurance is also a must have for those of us that own rental properties.

Disappointing. I thought this book would give objective advice on how much insurance someone should buy. health insurance told me a few things I didn't know but I wouldn't have paid the price for the book for two or three pages of useful advice.

This author actually make insurance interesting!!!. I didn't think health insurance was possible, but Jack Hungelmann made reading about insurance actually interesting. I cannot tell you how much money and time I have saved just by taking a few minutes here and there to look up specific topics in this book. health insurance is really well-written, covers an incredible broad range of topics, and has a lot of funny and real-life stories which capture the topics. I will also continue to find health insurance very helpful as a reference to refer to as new insurance issues come up. Trust me, this is the insurance book to buy and trust!

handy handbook. This book is written in an easy to understand style and anyone running a private billing service or working out of a medical office will find health insurance very useful. health insurance is especially helpful for understanding how to prepare HCFA claims for all third party insurance payers and medicare. I am a medical office manager and I find the book informative with tips to coding appropriately from source documents or superbills. I have recommended health insurance to professional colleagues and billing beginners as well.

you will need more than just this book to benefit. The book is made to sound as if it would be all you need to become a Medical Billing/ health insurance specialist. Not a chance. You will need the most current coding manuals to even attempt to complete this course. And even then without the answers you have no way to check your progress. There must be better books, Keep Searching

Learning Tool. This book is fanastic and provides up-to-date information on the health insurance industry. Its great for learners and old timers too. Gives a very broad spectrum of the health industry and easy to comprehend. I recommend this book to anyone as a teaching/learning tool.

Fast Fitness & Muscle Toning with Kettlebells

You may have seen those black cannon ball like items with a handle in your gym and wondered what they were. They are Russian Kettlebells and have proven to be a complete, no-compromise, extreme hand held gym. Many fitness experts believe Kettlebells are like weightlifting times ten.

Kettlebells can give you extreme all around fitness fast. There is no other fitness tool that does it better. A kettlebell workout can quickly get your ... neck, shoulders, arms, back, Hips (not many exercises will work the hips!) and legs into shape. This same workout will also give you a good cardio workout. So, all you need for fast fitness is ONE tool (not many) -- the Russian Kettlebell.

Kettlebells are great for men's fitness and excellent for women's fitness too. Both men and women will quickly see the results of this amazing tool, which will keep them motivated in their quest for a better body.

Kettlebells melt fat without the effort of dieting or jumping around aerobics. If you are overweight, you will definitely become leaner. On the other hand, if you are skinny, you will build muscle. The Russian kettlebell is a powerful tool for fixing your body structure, whichever way it needs fixing.

Not only will the Russian Kettlebell get you physically fit fast, It will also turn into an unusually fun workout. Why? Because there are SO many ways to workout with this remarkable tool that you will never get bored.

You do need to learn how to use the kettlebells correctly for fast fitness. Kettlebell techniques can be learned in one or two sessions and you can start intense training during the second and even first week.

There are Russian Kettlebell Certified trainers available throughout the US. One of the best Russian Kettlebell trainers is Pavel Tsatsouline. And, he has developed excellent training books, videos and dvds that will quickly teach you techniques and get your Fit Fast.

A Lightweight Backpacking Adventure

I was in the Weminuche Wilderness Area when the snow came. It was my second day out of Silverton, where the locals told me it rains or snows every day in August. I made a note to myself to do some research next time. Then I made a note to myself to find the trail. I was lost again.

Lightweight Backpacking

I came to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to try my new gear. I used a tarp shelter, and a light down sleeping bag. The first rainy night I stayed dry. A good start, but now above the trees, I was lost in rolling tundra, unable to find the trail under several inches of snow. I had my ultralight rainsuit on, though, and I was fine.

It was beautiful, with mountains appearing all around at every break in the weather. Eventually I found myself on the map. The sun came out, and there were white mountain tops rising out of the green forests everywhere. Mountain goats played on the cliffs with me.

The fourth morning, I was on my way up Mount Eolus. In Colorado you can go up 14,000-foot mountains without climbing gear. They call them "walk-ups," but some require more than hiking. The "catwalk" on Eolus, for example, is easy, but only if it's easy for you to walk a three-foot-wide edge, with a drop to your death on either side. I made it to the top.

Sunlight Peak, a couple hours later, required a leap across a thousand foot drop to reach the summit. At least it was an easy jump. Chased off by a thunderstorm, I didn't get to go up nearby Windom Peak.

There were no roads, but the next day I found the Silverton-Durango line, and flagged down the train to Silverton. I bought food and headed out for three more days of rainy hiking. Lightning chased me at 13,000 feet, I slept in an old ghost town building, climbed three more "fourteeners," and I'd do it all again in a second. Backpacking in Colorado is spectacular, and going lightweight made it even more so.

Why Ultralight Backpacking?

I carried my backpack easily up mountains, with better balance. One day I hiked 22 miles and bagged three fourteeners. I went 110 miles in seven days, without one blister. That's what running shoes and a 12 to 16 pound packweight does for you.

Staying dry was as much technique as it was good equipment. It rained every day, and I was under a tarp, in a one-pound sleeping bag, but I stayed dry and warm. I found lightweight backpacking to be safer than hiking with a heavy load, contrary to what many say.

This first lightweight backpacking trip was years ago. When I remember running up those mountains, I know I'll never go back to a heavy load.

How Blast Past Your Fitness Barriers!

Welcome to Part Three of this 6-part series. Today we'll continue to explore the insider secrets of how to deal with the inevitable roadblocks, bumps, and barriers on the road to lifelong fitness success.

Last time we looked at Roadblocks 4-6 and how to blast them out of your way. In today's article (Part 3) we'll look at the next three in some detail. I'll cover the rest of them as we move through this 6-part series.

Success Roadblock Number Seven: Severely Limiting (But Unconscious) Self- Sabotaging Beliefs And Attitudes Are Still In The Way

In Chapter 8 we laid out a step-by-step plan for creating your own personal health and fitness Recipe For Success. As you got into steps six through nine of that program, your primary job was to evaluate whether your current plan was working. If it's not, it's a safe bet that you still have some "search and replace" work to do with your beliefs and attitudes.

The bad news about beliefs and attitudes is that they are very often hiding out in your subconscious, where you can't really detect them. It's hard to conquer an enemy you can't see.

The good news is, you don't have to identify and replace all of your problem beliefs and behaviors. All you really need to do is correct enough of them to tip the balance scale in your favor.

You only need to achieve what I call a "critical mass" of self-supportive beliefs and attitudes. Once you have that, it's a simple matter of statistics. In any given circumstance, you will now be more likely to make a healthy decision and a healthy choice than an unhealthy one. Does that make sense?

Success Roadblock Number Eight: An Inadequate Sense Of Self-Worth

As you may have guessed, the previous roadblock related to Success Factor One, and this one relates to another Success Factor. Based on my own experience, I have never met a coaching client who didn't have some self-worth / self-esteem / deservability issues.

As resilient as we human beings are, most of us have still been beaten up enough in childhood -- either physically, psychologically, or perhaps both -- that our sense of value as a person is nowhere near what it could or should be. And that's truly tragic, because low self-esteem most often keeps us from claiming or even acknowledging the good things that are rightfully ours.

One reason I prefer to the term "deservability" over "self-esteem" is because the psychological community has tended to look upon the latter as a single, measurable factor. Then they have traditionally tended to label people as either having high self-esteem, low self-esteem, or something in between.

The truth, however, is that we all have areas of good self-esteem and not so good self-esteem. We all have what I call "cavities" in our self-esteem.

It is the presence or absence of these cavities that ultimately determines what we do and do not believe we deserve in life -- even including good health, fitness, and happiness. Until we fully understand the consequences of having low deservability, we probably won't take any serious steps to fix it, which means we probably won't end up getting the good things that we should be getting and enjoying in life.

Success Roadblock Number Nine: A Habitually Poor Self-Image

As with a low sense of deservability, a poor self-image is almost invariably the product of our early childhood experiences. What sets our self-image apart from our self-esteem is that it is primarily a visual thing as opposed to a psychological thing.

If you close your eyes and visualize yourself in the buff, it's pretty hard to avoid discovering what your true self-image is. And if visualizing yourself naked causes negative feelings in you, then you can be sure you have some work to do in this area.

This brings us to another pitfall to be especially careful of. Almost without exception, people believe that they will feel better about themselves when they look better. But this is exactly backwards. The truth is, you will begin to look better only when you feel better about yourself.

Now, obviously, if you woke up tomorrow morning perfectly fit and trim and at your ideal weight, you'd feel pretty good about that. But if you didn't also learn to feel good about you, then you would almost certainly gain back your weight and get sloppy again pretty soon.

On the other hand, once you develop a true, deep-down affection and appreciation for who you are, then you will naturally and automatically move in the direction of healthier behaviors, with the inevitable result being a healthier body and a happier life.

The roadblocks you've just read about were excerpted from my new ebook, "Ultimate Fitness Secrets: Revealed!" To learn how to blast all 20 roadblocks out of your way, and discover the secrets of lifelong, struggle-free fitness, bulletproof health, and low-stress living, please visit the UltimateFitnessRevealed.com web site and get the whole story!

Is It Wise Taking Birth Control While Pregnant?

I realize that many of us may wonder if taking birth control while pregnant would hurt the baby. First if you have accidentally took some birth control and found out that you are pregnant the baby should be alright especially in the beginning. I would let my doctor know at once so that he may check when I was in my next trimester to make sure there will be no birth defects. It has been found through studies that taking birth control while pregnant can lead to birth defects. Remember read the writing on the package as it tells you plainly not to take while pregnant. It would not do you any good anyway.

Please don’t be alarmed if you happen to be taking birth control while pregnant especially in the start of the pregnancy. A lot of women have made that mistake and had perfectly normal babies. Taking the pill only one time at the start of the pregnancy should not harm the baby. If you suspect that you are pregnant discontinue the pill right away. Then contact your doctor or a family client be tested right away. It is unlikely that the hormones will kill the fetus.

It is of course not healthy for the fetus for you to continue taking them for months or several weeks. Taking birth control while pregnant if kept on a continuous basis could cause birth defects and even cause a miscarriage. This is not a safe way to terminate a pregnancy. This could be very dangerous for you even life threatening. In the event that you need to terminate the baby go to a clinic and have a safe procedure if you are early on in your pregnancy it should not be hard to have the baby terminated by an abortion. Family clinics are there to help you and to advise you as well. Take advantage of their services before you make any rash decisions. Taking birth control pill may not always work in some cases unfortunately. It maybe necessary for you to be on the pill but if you find that you are taking birth control while pregnant immediately see your doctor.

No women intentionally would want to harm their baby by taking birth control while pregnant. It is not uncommon for birth defects to arise without the assistance of the wrong type of medication. Let us review a few defects that can harm the baby but can be avoided with proper care. Genital and urinary tract defects are common as one in ten babies. Show some abnormalities. Not all defects are serious and show no symptoms. Other malformations can be more serious causing urinary tract infections, pain, or kidney damage. Many of these defects can be detected at birth with the use of an ultrasound. Some of these abnormalities are inherited from the parents who have the disorder or carry the gene for it. The problem of birth defects can come from many different sources that are why a new mother-to-be needs to carefully watch her diet and especially watch any medication that she may have been prescribed to take. Taking birth control while pregnant is really not a wise decision for baby or mom.

Birth defects for your child are very serious and some can last a life time. Heart problems are the number one birth defect that we need to be made aware. In some cases heart problems are mild and hardly noticeable. In other cases heart disease can be very serious needing surgery, a pace maker, or other devices at a very early age. Heart problems as in other defects can be an inherited defect or poor health care and unfortunately it is not wise taking birth control while pregnant. It is very important that if you even suspect you maybe pregnant to discontinue taking the birth control, see your physician, be tested immediately, and follow your physician’s advice to the letter. I cannot stress enough to you that you should read the label on any medication you are taking. “Discontinue use if you become pregnant.” Normally all birth control medications have this warning on the medication. The FDA requires that the manufacturer place this label for the public to read and be made aware of dangers involved. So please it is not safe to be taking birth control while pregnant. A point that I hope all of you got while reading this article consult with your physician if you have any doubts or questions.

Addiction Treatment and Mental Health: Dual Diagnosis Opens Path to Recovery

The disease of addiction is often misunderstood. Society has a tendency to view substance abusers and alcoholics as a deviant population who are lazy, unmotivated, selfish, and indifferent. Yet, so often when one looks beyond the façade of an addict, it is frequently found that the addict is struggling with more than just drug abuse and alcoholism.

Many medical models and studies provide evidence that addiction is hereditary, yet many statistics also indicate that substance abuse and alcoholism can be a form of self-medication for an individual who is suffering with a psychiatric illness or an emotional trauma. The term dual diagnosis is applied to individuals who are affected by both chemical dependency and psychiatric/emotional disorders. In many instances, the symptoms of chemical dependency and mental illness disguise one another and as a result can make dual diagnosis a complex disease to identify. Some comparable symptoms of drug abuse and mental illness include depression, anxiety, paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations.

For one who is dually diagnosed to fully recover, both disorders need to be treated. An individual who is dually diagnosed may attempt to recover from one illness without addressing the other resulting in the contribution of relapse of the other disorder. Both illnesses have the ability to affect an individual physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. An individual who neglects a mental illness may feel the need or desire to self medicate with drugs or alcohol in an attempt to mitigate the symptoms of mental illness. This scenario can often lead to hospitalization.

Denial is usually an inherent problem for one who suffers with dual diagnosis. The individual involved often does not have the proper insight of the severity of their problem. Their way of living has become normal to them. One who has been dually diagnosed should be made aware of the difficulty in recovering from an addiction problem and could greatly benefit from receiving praise for overcoming addiction.

It is essential to recognize the seriousness of being dually diagnosed. While chemical dependency and mental illness interfere with a person’s ability to function effectively, it is essential to treat these diseases simultaneously. The more one becomes educated on dual diagnosis, the more one will become enlightened to the fact that substance abuse has a tendency to go hand in hand with another psychiatric condition. Just as with most other illnesses, an individual affected with dual diagnosis can progress and improve on one’s condition once appropriate care is received.

Jodi Goldstein is the Director of Admissions at Lakeview Health Systems, providing addiction treatment and drug rehab resources to the general public online at http://www.recoveryconnection.org, a comprehensive web site about addiction, with valuable information about mental health, dual diagnosis, symptoms of alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse issues as well as addiction treatment options and drug rehab referrals.