Capitalism, Dignity and The Health Care System

A relative of mine underwent surgery and it allowed me to revisit the horror that is the Romanian medical system and in particular the Romanian medical Man.

The hospital is not as dirty as I remembered it, so things must be getting better, but the kind of person you see employed there is about the same.

To me, Capitalism is an Arena. It's the Great Arena. It's the place where the strong show their strength. It's wonderful!

But wounded or sick people don't fight into an arena. Nor old people, nor children. There are rules and there must be some Esthetic to the fight. We need a safety net for these people because if you are sick and society fixes you up, you might return into the Arena and bring value into the world.

There is a lot of bribing going on in the Romanian National health care system and bribing means a severe lack of Dignity.

It's not just patients that lose their dignity, it's everyone involved.

The patient is an insured person that shouldn't have to pay a thing: the State takes a percentage from every salary for healthcare. It's with great hypocrisy that people are expected to bribe the doctors too as well as buy their own medical supplies. Yes, the patient is sent next door to the pharmacy to buy what's needed for the surgery!

Bribing is by definition a very hush-hush thing even if it happens at such a large scale: patients don't even know how much to give to whom, when and how many times. It is a great demeaning ambiguity.

But doctors don't have it any better. The same ambiguity makes them lose dignity too. I've seen the same doctor visit the patient about 4 times for nothing, just because he hadn't received his bribe yet. When the money entered his pocket, he was finally able to do something else. This is the life of a beggar.

Doctors must not be thinking about financial gains. A good salary combined with the general respect doctors have should provide a nice life for them.

Capitalism seems mostly incompatible with the medical profession. You cannot have a homo homini lupus situation where a weaker person which is not in the best shape will have to just trust somebody that's actually thinking about financial gains. People should be able to stand tall and look in each-other's eyes.

The Right Health Insurance Policy If You’re Single

the right health insurance policy if you’re single
It can be much easier to choose the right health insurance policy if you’re single, as there’s only your own needs to think about. Many single people who are in good health assume that they can get away without private health insurance, but this can be costly if an accident or illness means that you need medical treatment.





Taking out hospital cover is recommended in case you need medical treatment. As a private patient, you can choose to be treated in a private hospital and don’t have to wait for a public hospital bed to become free. You can also have much greater control over the doctor who treats you and when your treatment takes place.

Beyond this, you’ll get the most out of your health insurance if you choose extras that suit your circumstances. For example, you probably won’t have any use for pregnancy-related services if you’re a happily single female and actively avoiding falling pregnant. Likewise, young single individuals won’t see the need for extras aimed at older people, such as joint replacements and cataracts cover. You can lower your premiums by some margin depending on what you’re choosing to drop.
Lifetime Health Cover (LHC)

If you’re under 31, now is the time to take out private hospital cover. Through the LHC initiative, you can lock in the cheapest premiums for life if you take out private hospital cover before the 1st of July following your 31st birthday. After that, you’re subject to a 2 per cent loading fee on top of your premiums for every year that you delayed beyond you were thirty, so it’s in your interests to take it out as soon as possible to minimise your loading fees or to avoid them altogether. If you look to take out couples cover further down the line, your loading fees are factored in with your partner’s, so if you have low loading or none at all, your combined loading fees would be more manageable.
Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS)

If you have an income of over $80,000 in the 2011-12 financial year (up from $77,000 for the 2010-11 financial year) and haven’t got private hospital cover with a registered health fund, you’ll be obliged to pay an additional tax in the form of a Medicare Levy Surcharge. The threshold for single individuals changes to $80,000 for the 2011-12 financial year, so you can earn up to this and still avoid the MLS. Private health insurance is definitely something that you should be looking into if you don’t already have it – not just for avoiding the extra tax!

Many single people don’t feel they need private health insurance, especially if they’re generally fit and healthy, but this can be a mistake. If you find yourself ill or injured and needing medical treatment, with only your own income to rely on, could you afford to meet the often eye-watering bills associated with shortfalls that Medicare alone doesn’t cover?

There are also other financial reasons to arrange private health insurance (especially private hospital cover) while you’re still young as both Lifetime Health Cover and the Medicare Levy Surcharge are intended to encourage you to sign up with a health fund rather than rely soley on the public healthcare syste

You need to exhaust your PIP benefits before your health insurance kicks in

You need to exhaust your PIP benefits before your health insurance kicks in
If you’re involved in a motor vehicle accident, it’s important to understand the relationship between your PIP (personal injury protection) and health insurance.


PIP is your primary coverage as it pays 100 cents on the dollar for your health care – health insurance does not. You need to exhaust your PIP benefits before your health insurance kicks in. Once your PIP runs out, provide your health insurance carrier with an “exhaustion letter.” This basically explains that there is no more PIP coverage left and your health insurance needs to start covering your medical bills.

The process of dealing with PIP vs. health insurance carriers is daunting – especially in the aftermath of an accident that caused you injury. But following these steps will save you a lot of headache down the road:

1. Immediately following the accident, provide your PIP information to your health care providers.

2. Every few weeks, request a copy of the PIP ledger from your auto carrier to see how much PIP coverage you have left.

3. Once you are approaching your PIP limits, provide your health care providers with your PIP ledgers so they can start billing your health insurance carrier.

Arranging health insurance as a couple can be a challenging proposition

Arranging health insurance as a couple can be a challenging proposition as there are two sets of needs being taken into consideration when deciding how extensive your coverage should be. Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking about taking health insurance as a couple.




There is less hassle involved in comparison to taking out two separate singles policies. You’ve only got the one policy to manage with one set of premiums and if a claim needs to be made, you only need to do this on the one policy. Because these type of policies are aimed directly at couples, you can make savings in comparison to both having policies that lean more towards individuals.

Lifetime Health Cover

Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) allows you to lock in base rate premiums if you take out private hospital cover before July 1st following your 31st birthday (otherwise known as your base date). If you take out private hospital cover after this, loading fees of 2 per cent are added onto your premiums. As a couple, the situation can be complicated if both partners have different LHC loadings:

If only one partner has had continuous hospital cover since their base date (and the other has LHC loading)

Your combined premiums will work out as an average between the base rate premium and the LHC loading. For example, if one of you has no LHC loading but one of you has a LHC loading of 4 per cent, your premiums as a couple will average out at 2 per cent.

If both partners have LHC loadings

If you’ve both got LHC loadings, your premiums are the average of the two loadings. For example, if you have a loading of 4 per cent while your partner has a loading of 6 per cent, your combined loading will be 5 per cent.

If you’ve both taken out private hospital cover before your base date, you can often still switch to couples insurance without compromising your base rate premiums.
The Medical Levy Surcharge & The Rebate

Most Australian taxpayers pay a 1.5 per cent Medicare levy but if you’re a higher earner who hasn’t arranged hospital cover with a registered health fund , you’re also subject to an additional Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS). The income threshold for the 2010/11 financial year was $154,000 for couples or families and will change to $160,000 for the 2011/12 financial year. The surcharge was previously set at 1 per cent but in line with plans to means-test both the MLS and the health insurance rebate from July 2011, both will operate on a sliding scale.

For couples/ families who have a joint income of below $150,000, the 30 per cent rebate should be unaffected (35 per cent for those aged 65-69 and 40 per cent if you’re over 70) and you won’t pay an MLS charge.
For couples/families who earn between $150,001 and $180,000, the rebate decreases to 20 per cent (25 per cent for those aged between 65 and 69 and 30 per cent for those over 70) and the MLS charge is 1 per cent.
For couples/families who earn between $180,001 and $240,000, the rebate decreases to 10 per cent (15 per cent for those aged between 65 and 69 and 20 per cent for those over 70) and the MLS charge is 1.25 per cent.
For couples/families who earn over $240,000, no rebate will be on offer and the MLS charge is 1.5 per cent.

If the proposed changes to the MLS make you think twice about taking out hospital cover or keeping your existing cover, think about the potential downsides if you do drop your hospital cover. Private health insurance has several key benefits that you may well miss if you ditch it. It’s much more extensive than Medicare benefits alone, has shorter waiting times attached and doesn’t require you to wait around for a bed to become available in a public hospital.
If You’re Planning a Family

Bear in mind that most health funds impose a 12-month waiting period before you can access the benefits so it’s no good waiting until you’re pregnant before you look for appropriate coverage. If you start your search some time before you think you’ll need the cover, there’s a good chance that you’ll have already served out your waiting period and will be able to access the full benefits.

It may be better to switch to family cover after a first pregnancy is confirmed so that the baby is covered after the birth. For some health funds, you may need to have been paying premiums for family cover for several months prior to the birth to ensure that this will definitely be the case but check with your health fund to confirm their position.

If you’re planning to start a family in the not-so-distant future, there may be other things to take into consideration when choosing your health insurance policy.

If you’re a cohabiting couple, it can be cheaper to arrange couples insurance that features both of you on the same policy. For hospital cover, Lifetime Health Cover loadings can complicate how much you’ll pay if you’ve waited beyond your base date to take it out. If you’ve yet to take out hospital cover at all, the Medical Levy Surcharge is intended as a big incentive for couples in the higher earning brackets as it enables you to avoid the additional tax.

Tips to Find Free Kids Health Insurance in Florida

Kids Health Insurance
If you are looking for free Florida health insurance for your children, you will be please to learn 3 ways to find free kids health insurance in Florida. Many states offer complimentary healthcare for children and the Sunshine State is no exception. It usually requires a little work to track down the information on these
plans so a listing of 3 ways to find free kids health insurance in Florida is very valuable. Put this comprehensive list of 3 ways to find free kids health insurance in Florida to work now for you and your family.

Tip #1

Children's Medical Services Network is for children having special care needs. It is designed for children from birth to age 18 and is administered by two different state government departments, depending on if the care needed is behavioral or physical.

Tip #2

Florida Kidcare Medicaid program is completely free to children whose families fall under the income guidelines. It is for children from birth to the age of 18.

Tip #3

The third way is actually almost free, but the good news is many more families are eligible for it. Premiums are only $15 to $20 per month for most families. The programs are divided by age and are called Medikids for those from ages 1 to 4 and Florida Healthy Kids for those ages 5 to 18.

Compare And Save To Find Cheap

Kids Health Insurance In Florida

Even if you know the 3 ways to find free kids health insurance in Florida, you may still want to check the rates being offered by various companies to make sure you are getting the most comprehensive coverage for your child.

If you find that you are not eligible for any of the above, you definitely want to get quotes on Florida individual health insurance. It is surprisingly affordable, especially for kids. You can get quotes to compare in no time by using a free online quote tool from an independent comparison website.

Get started comparing kids health insurance options today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1307549

two-tiered healthcare system hurts kids

 two-tiered healthcare system hurts kids
At a legislative level, the political crusade to reduce government “to the size where they can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub” is brilliantly self-sustaining. Both Republicans and conservative Democrats hold up the evils of “Big Government” (read: the non-military/security parts of government) as the rationale to reduce resources for popular programs and when those underfunded programs subsequently underperform, they cite the failure as reason to further demonize government, thus beginning the whole cycle anew.


This now-standard and now-bipartisan Neoliberal Formula is sophistry masquerading as tautology — and it has profound real world effects. The latest example of that truth comes from a new University of Pennsylvania report that exemplifies how the formula has helped embed an insipid “Separate and Unequal” doctrine within America’s healthcare system.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Penn study had researchers pose as parents calling physician specialists in Cook County, Ill. The only variable in the calls was insurance status — some callers said they had public insurance, others said they had private insurance. Here’s what they found:

Sixty-six percent of publicly-insured children were unable to get a doctor’s appointment for medical conditions requiring outpatient specialty care including diabetes and seizures, while children with identical symptoms and private insurance were turned away only 11 percent of the time… The study also found that [publicly]-insured children who received an appointment faced longer wait times to be seen.

These numbers are particularly striking, said the Penn researchers, “given the association between socioeconomic disadvantage and poor health status” — an association which means kids covered by public insurance have a disproportionately greater need for specialty care than their privately insured counterparts.

Whorush: 5 sites by this AdSense ID

The connection between the Neoliberal Formula and kids being discriminated against on the basis of insurance type is rooted in reimbursement rates paid to physicians.

As both parties have used anti-government arguments to slash taxes, public revenues have predictably dried up. With states under statutory obligation to balance their perpetually strapped budgets, Medicaid reimbursement rates have been regularly put on the chopping block in legislatures, creating ever-widening disparities between what physicians are paid by private insurance and what they are paid by public insurance. (For instance, in Illinois, where the study was conducted, researchers found “an office consultation visit for a problem of moderate severity is reimbursed at $99.86 by Medicaid-CHIP, whereas the average reimbursement for the same code by a commercial preferred-provider organization is approximately $160.”) Considering the ugly economics, it’s no surprise physicians are less eager to accept public insurance patients.

Hence, the Separate and Unequal disparities — disparities that will likely be cited by Republicans in Washington as proof that public insurance programs are inherently bad and therefore need to be even further defunded. Indeed, the infamous Ryan Budget proposes big cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program that would likely result in further reductions in reimbursement rates.

And so the cycle, the disparities and the Neoliberal Formula continue in perpetuity. As I said, it’s a brilliantly self-sustaining ideology, proving that in the era of paradox politics, self-sustaining and self-destructive often go hand in hand.

Reasons Health Insurance Companies Should Roll Back Rates

health insurane companies
Insurers, awash in billions of dollars in record profits and excess capital, should give consumers their money back

The health insurance industry continues reporting record-setting profits while socking consumers with unjustified and excessive rate hikes. Today, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) called on the Wall Street-run health care profit machines to accelerate the consumer rebates required by the Affordable Care Act and immediately give back billions in premium overcharges to families and businesses.


Year after year insurance companies have imposed double-digit premium hikes on America's families and businesses to pay for their excessive profits and financial shell games.
The insurance companies say that their premiums reflect costs, but that's simply not true. Rates have gone up by an astounding 131% since 1999. That's twice the rate of medical inflation. It's also three times greater than wage growth, and it's busting family budgets and employer balance sheets.

Fortunately the Affordable Care Act is changing things. Under a consumer protection provision in the new law, the Health and Human Services Department estimates that insurers will owe up to 9 million customers as much as $1.4 billion in 2011 rebates payable next year. The new rule - called the medical-loss ratio - sets a minimum percentage of premiums (80% for individual and small group plans and 85% for large group plans) that insurers spend on actual medical care instead of wasteful overhead, excessive profits and bloated CEO salaries. Companies that fall short of the minimums must rebate the money to consumers.

Some insurers in California, Connecticut and North Carolina have already rolled backed rates, declared premium holidays or issued direct refunds. The rest of the industry should do the same nationwide.

Here are five reasons why insurance companies can and should roll back rates now:

1. Insurance company profits have gone too far.

Through the economic recession and its aftermath from 2008 to 2010, the combined profits for UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc. increased 51 percent.

In the first quarter of 2011, the combined profits of the five companies, which cover one-third of the U.S. population, surged 14% to $3.6 billion. If the trend holds, they'll rake in a record $14.4 billion in profits in 2011.

2. Premiums are going up while medical spending is going down.

Premiums have risen 131% since 1999 for families with employment-based insurance. America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry's mouthpiece, likes to blame customers for rising premiums. People who buy health insurance have the annoying habit of using it when they get sick. But premiums have increased at twice the rate of medical inflation.

And, as a percentage, insurers are spending less of our premium dollars on actual medical care, and more on administrative costs like lavish CEO pay, marketing, lobbying, and the care-denial bureaucracy. The ratio of medical to administrative costs is known as the medical-loss ratio. In the first quarter of 2011, Cigna led the industry in finding ways to avoid covering actual health care - the share of premiums Cigna spent in the first quarter on medical care dropped to 77.3%, an extraordinary 5.6 percentage-point decline from 82.9% a year earlier. Aetna trimmed its health care costs from 81.1% of premium revenue to 77%. And Humana reduced its patient-care spending rate by 3.5 percentage points.

3. CEOs Spend Billions on Dividends and Stock Buybacks to Boost Share Prices and Enrich Themselves.

Record profits and reduced health care spending don't tell the whole story. Insurance companies use other Wall Street tools to quietly direct customer cash into their own pockets. For instance, insurers bought back $1.8 billion in their own stock in the first quarter - a practice that reduces the number of shares available in the market and boosts stock prices.

Since 2003, the five largest for-profit companies have allocated $66.9 billion in customer cash to buying back their own stock to reward insiders and Wall Street investors. So far this year, share prices for the five health insurers have risen 38% to 52%, compared to less than 3% for the broad market index. This benefits CEOs who hold large stakes in their own companies and who get bonuses, stock awards and stock options for guiding share prices upward. Buybacks do nothing to improve public health, make insurers more efficient or reduce premiums.

The five big for-profit health insurers have been so profitable that they're shoveling it back to investors. WellPoint announced that it plans to pay $400 million in dividends this year, while UnitedHealth plans a dividend of $449 million and Aetna expects to pay $230 million.

4. Insurance companies hoard cash in the name of "solvency."

In addition to excessive profits and stock buybacks, insurers have also been building massive capital reserves. On December 31, the nation's for-profit and nonprofit health insurance companies were holding $97.3 billion in risk-based capital to cover unexpected medical claims - six times more than state regulators require, according to Citigroup Global Markets.

5. While insurance companies are awash in cash, families and businesses are barely getting by.

It's unconscionable that insurance companies continue to impose double-digit premium hikes on America's families and businesses to pay for their excess profits and financial shell games at a time when consumers and employers are struggling in this tough economy.

At the end of this year, the new health law requires insurers to square up and pay us back for their excesses. But insurers shouldn't wait to give back our money. They should start paying consumers their rebates right now.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-rome/five-reasons-health-insur_b_882770.html

Dental Insurance

Dental insurance as part of your private health cover is a great way to offset the costs of your policy.

To make the most of your dental insurance, you should have a preventative check up every 6 months. This will reduce the prospect of more costly treatments in the future as problems may be identified and treated whilst they are still small procedures.

I'm looking for cover:
I live in:

With the average cost of a 6 monthly preventative treatment around $200 for such procedures as check-ups, clean and polish and x-ray, having dental cover you could offset most if not all of this cost.

What type of cover do I need?

There are two types of dental insurance

* General dental - this type of cover includes cleaning, removal of plaque, x-rays and smaller fillings.
* Major dental - this type of cover includes cover for orthodontics/braces, wisdom teeth removal, crowns, bridges and cover for dentures.

What type of cover you need will depend on your age and current situation. For young singles or couples you may only need general dental cover providing your are in good shape.

Families or older couples you may want to consider major dental for the possibility of orthodontics/braces, wisdom teeth removal and dentures.
Free preventative dental care

Some funds provide 'No GAP' dental services where you get free check-ups, cleans and fluoride treatments. Other funds have their own dental centres where you as a member get priority over the rest of the general public when it comes time to visit the dentist.

To take advantage of these services or to inquire if your fund offers this 'No GAP' service, contact your health fund or ask an iSelect consultant.
What to look for in your private health insurance

Private health insurance funds offer a range of extras policies. The basic level of extras policies cover general dental treatment only. The higher levels of extras policies includes coverage for both general and major dental treatments - the rebates payable on these levels of cover will vary.

Selected health funds including some of iSelect's participating health funds can at times provide special offers to waive the two month waiting period for general dental insurance.

Insure Your Family’s Smile - Dental Health Insurance

Insure-Your-Familys-Smile-Dental-Health-Insurance.jpg
Insure Your Family’s Smile - Dental Health Insurance
The health insurance provider companies in US are also covering the dental part in there schemes. The dental health insurance is relatively new concept and it extensively covers up all the aspects of human teeth. There are specific providers but large enough to provide you the comparison in this relative new type of health insurance. You can opt for them online also.
Do not worry about the rates as the rates are universal, irrespective of matter that from where you have buy it. The best place is online because it gives you the power to compare the plans of different providers at a click of a button.

There are varieties of dental problems that are covered in a dental health insurance plan. There are different reasons of visiting a dentist. You may go for a regular check-up or in emergencies like swelling or acute pain. May be in case of injuries as an outcome of accidents or serious problem like root removal. There is a facility called NHS but most people are not able to use it because the suitability criteria are really tough. So you have to go to a private clinic for all your dental problems. That is why the dental plans come in existence owing the heavy price tags associated with the private treatments. Under the dental plans, there are varieties of sub-plans which are specific to a particular job. These can be dental plans for children, tooth whitening plan, dental maintenance cover, dental implant cover, etc. these all are available with most of the leading providers in the market.

Now see the online factor. There are lots of sites on net that pool the data about the plans provided by the different providers in the country. They have the complete detail about each and every plan and to that of each provider. As soon as you land up on their site you will get to know all the information along with the premiums as well. In this way you save a lot of time and money. There is management of US govt. over the health care system, soothe rates will be same irrespective of the buyer for a particular plan. You can compare all the things of the plans of your interest with the other plans side by side on the comparison sites. Now as you know the power of dental health insurance plan. Go and get your families smile covered.

I will release an OSX-focused IDE distribution

I plan on releasing a NetBeans-based IDE distribution. Just as there are a whole bunch of Linux distributions, I believe there should be more IDE distributions.

What I intend to focus on is OSX support since, although a lot of people use NetBeans on OSX, it always looked to me like it needs more polish.

Native OSX integration is one of the reasons I wrote the NBnotify.com plugin, which shows IDE notifications via Growl. And there are other areas where NetBeans needs to pay more attention to the way it does things in order to be in tune with OSX.

I have many features in mind, but I'll leave you with just two low-level ones:

  • Drag and drop installer

    The IDE should be available as a simple dmg which users just open and then drag and drop the application wherever they feel like it. You shouldn't need administrator rights just to install the application.
  • Using proper OSX folders

    The ~/.netbeans folder will go away entirely. There are some standard places to store caches, preferences and everything else on OSX, usually in the Library folder. The IDE should be a proper citizen and store data there so that users and helper tools know what it represents, which is important and which may be discarded if disk space is becoming an issue.

Of course, one of the high-level features would be Growl notifications for IDE events.

So much for the first post talking about my IDE distribution. As I get closer to a release I might mention some of the other features.

When is it going to be released? Well, sometime this year, but in order to be certain let's say you should expect it in your Christmas stockings.

Why am I announcing it so early? Because I want to get some initial feedback about what people feel it's missing in their NetBeans IDE, either overall or specifically on OSX.

Also, this is as a way to commit myself to a release. So, feel free to bother me as we approach the release date.

Cheap Health Insurance Made Easy

Cheap health insurance has become the issue of the moment in South Carolina and across the country. More small businesses are increasingly unable to provide cheap health insurance plans to their employees because of the rising cost and the lack of federal and state legislation that would
allow small businesses to purchase cheap medical insurance in pools. In the meantime South Carolina and other states are looking to cut the costs of the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs for the elderly and the poor. However, more affordable forms of health insurance plans are available as some private companies are experimenting with a new variation of cheap health insurance known as health discount plans. In the article that follows we’ll explain the various aspects of cheap health insurance in South Carolina and how to find a plan that works for you.

Health Care Costs due to Managed Health Care

The current health care system in America is inaccessible to approximately 47 million poor and lower middle class people. In order to address the growing health care insurance crisis in the U.S. that resulted in health care cost growth in the 1970s and 1980s, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) sprung up. These were initially as non-profit groups designed to separate unnecessary tests and treatments from those that the patient required in an effort to keep costs down. Managed care organizations began screening requested procedures by physicians to pre-authorize what the HMO would or would not cover. However, the number of people who are the riskiest to insure-diabetics, cancer, etc.-continues to rise. Many South Carolina managed care industry experts say the cost of cheap health insurance is still high because of the existing pool of insured people who use the health care system more than an average amount.

The other battle that is ongoing in South Carolina involves the health insurance companies and hospitals, the latter which cannot turn anyone away from care by law. However, as the number of South Carolinians who cannot afford cheap health insurance increases, hospital emergency rooms are handling the majority of the load. More people have to turn to hospitals as their primary health care givers given a lack of adequate or non-existant health insurance coverage.

Cheap Health Insurance Plans Through the Workplace

Most cheap medical insurance policies in South Carolina are usually written through group coverage offered at work by your employer through a private South Carolina cheap health insurance company. This is usually the more cost effective way to purchase cheap health insurance now available since a large number of employees allows South Carolina companies to reduce their insurance premiums. Similar to buying in bulk, the more health insurance plans a business can purchase for its employees the less expensive the insurance is per employee. In South Carolina, like the rest of the nation, the number of companies that can provide cheap health insurance for their employees is declining.

Personal Health Insurance Plans

Health insurance plans can be purchased by individuals and families from virtually every insurance provider in South Carolina. Trying to purchase health insurance on an individual basis can be more expensive if the person already has a health problem, known as a pre-existing condition. Many companies will not cover people with pre-existing conditions if they have no continuation of coverage-renewing health insurance coverage after only a prescribed short period of time-picked up from an earlier cheap health insurance policy.

South Carolina Health Insurance Pool

The South Carolina Health Insurance Pool is a state health insurance plan designed to provide coverage for those that either do not have or have lost medical coverage at no fault of their own and are uninsurable. The pool was created by the General Assembly to help people who couldn’t get health insurance coverage from any other source, including people with certain disabilities. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina currently administers the pool.

Coverage is available to a person who has been a state resident for at least 30 days and meets the following criteria:

They were turned down for private health insurance coverage for health reasons;
They were accepted for private health insurance, but have pre-existing illnesses or conditions excluded from coverage, for a period exceeding 12 months;
They are paying health insurance premiums for comparable coverage which are more than 150 percent of the premium levels charged by the pool;
In certain situations, other individuals whose last health insurance coverage was an employer based group health plan may be eligible for coverage.

No matter what your age, there are also several federally sponsored programs to help you if can’t afford the premiums for individual health insurance, providing you meet their eligibility guidelines.

Medicare, a health insurance program for people age 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease.
Medicaid, a program for the poorest individuals and low-income families with children.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a plan that provides health care to children whose parents make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but earn too little to afford individual health insurance.

Types of Cheap Health Insurance Coverage

Cheap health insurance plans generally fall into one of two categories: indemnity plans and managed care plans (HMOs, PPOs or POS plans). An indemnity plan allows you to choose your own doctors and pays for your medical expenses totally, in part, or up to a specified amount. Managed care plans generally provide broader coverage within a specified network of health-care providers.

Although you can purchase cheap health insurance plans that cover specific areas of health care (surgical, hospital, physician expense plans) most plans cover varying degrees of health care in a number of different areas. This health insurance coverage, known as major medical insurance, offers extremely broad coverage with a very high maximum benefit that’s designed to protect you against losses from catastrophic illness or injury.

When comparing cheap medical insurance plans, check to see if they provide additional benefits that you may need, including prescription drugs, preventive care, mental health benefits, maternity care, and vision care. A comparison of various health insurance policies and rates through many South Carolina health insurance companies can be obtained at www.insurances.sc.

Cheap Health Insurance Recipient Costs

With most cheap health insurance policies available in South Carolina, the way to control cost is to cut down on the out-of-pocket expenses. Since most health care insurance policies require you to make a co-payment (the amount you pay a health care provider with every visit), anything involving a lot of time spent in the doctor or dentist’s office can become expensive. Most also require a deductible (costs you must cover out of your pocket for any major expense before your cheap health insurance policy picks up the remaining costs). You may also have coinsurance, the percentage of cheap medical insurance cost you will still have to pay after you reach your deductibles.

Another thing to consider is COBRA health insurance. This law allows employees who leave a job the ability to stay on that South Carolina company’s employee health insurance for up to 18 months although they have to pay the full amount of the coverage. Check the COBRA benefits to see if purchasing a less expensive individual health insurance plan may be in your best interest.

How to Buy Cheap Health Insurance

If you need to purchase individual health insurance, it can be expensive. Unlike group plans, in which the costs and risks associated with health care are spread among many people; individual health policies are “medically underwritten” to take into account your personal health history. Any “pre-existing” condition such as heart disease, diabetes, and even pregnancy, can nix your chances of acceptance or boost your premiums.

To determine the acceptability of a particular applicant, a health insurance underwriter can require information regarding the following:

The individual’s age: Age determines rates and whether coverage will be issued at all.
The individual’s gender: at younger ages, males have a lower rate of illness and injury than females. That changes by age sixty.
The individual’s health history and physical condition: Someone who has had a previous condition that can contribute to a future illness/injury is not considered an ideal risk. In response to a less than ideal medical history, modified coverage may be offered depending on the individual’s health, higher than normal premiums may be issued, or the person may be denied coverage altogether.
The individual’s occupation and hobbies: Some occupations such as construction workers have higher insurance rates, along with people who enjoy dangerous activities such as skydiving or bungee jumping. At times certain occupations are considered so hazardous that insurance companies will not cover them at all.

Your first step in getting cheap health insurance coverage is to understand exactly what you need. Think carefully about what coverage you must have. Do you need health insurance for your whole family, or just yourself? Do you want to choose your providers? If you’re over 65, do you need insurance to fill the gaps in Medicare? Do you need – and can you afford – long-term disability and/or long term care coverage? Even if you begin by soliciting cheap health insurance quotes you must still know exactly what you want in terms of health insurance coverage so you will be comparing apples to apples when weighing any cheap health insurance premium quote.

After that, contact a South Carolina insurance agent in your area. Ideally, you can start with an independent South Carolina insurance agent who is familiar with the insurance companies that do business in your area. This agent is also not bound to write coverage for any particular health insurance company so he or she can give you an honest appraisal of various health insurance policies.

When you’ve found the right coverage, you’ll give information to your agent to complete the necessary forms. Be honest. It’s important to disclose your medical history thoroughly and accurately. Report all of your health problems to your agent. If any of your health information is misstated or incomplete, the company might refuse to pay your claims and could cancel your policy.

Deep Secrets Of Florida Health Insurance

Most individuals do not fully understand how their Florida health insurance works. In Florida, virtually every plan is a PPO and you'll visit any provider from the network with no referral.A PPO is essentially an arrangement involving the health insurance carrier or network as well as the provider of services (physician, lab, hospital, etc.). The provider has consented to charge a fixed, discounted rate its the services they perform.One example is, a physician might send an office building visit claim they the insurance company for $100.



The carrier or network will appear up the contracted rate how the provider has and "re-price" the claim. The contracted rate might realistically be $55. This can be a amount it'll cost you for the appointment. If you have a co-pay feature within your plan, you may only pay $25 or $30. But, even without this feature, you'd still only be responsible for the discounted, contracted rate of $55.At this time, you should think about two questions. "How often times did a physician last year?' "How much extra am I spending money on the privilege to pay $30 for an doctor office visit instead of $55 or $60?"If you went to the doctor twice last year, the difference between having a co-pay and not developing a co-pay is below $60 in extra cost.

While at the same time, this co-pay feature might have added $800 per year to your premiums. You would literally should be in your doctor's office virtually every week ahead of the co-pay benefit made sense at all.Co-pays often add an unnecessary cost to your health insurance premiums. You need to examine just how much extra you're paying each month for this feature.Deductibles may also be a misunderstood concept on most health insurance plans in Florida and elsewhere. Clients typically request a low deductible, believing that the plan can provide no coverage before deductible is met.

Needless to say, we now know that this PPO feature of re-pricing and discounting all services is accessible as soon as the plan begins, so you do not have to first meet a deductible.Keep in mind that lower than 5% of you is ever going to have more than $5,000 in medical expenses in a year. Why, you could ask, am I paying a large amount of to maintain a $1,000 deductible?In the event you ask your agent to provide the premiums for $1,000, $2,500 and $5,000 deductibles, you'll find that the difference in benefit can be quite small.As an example, a healthy, 40 year old male in Fort Lauderdale might pay $60 a month or $720 annually less by raising their deductible from $1,000 to $2,500.

As soon as they have been on the program for about 24 months, they have already saved the $1,500 difference. Detail individual saved the visible difference and put it right into a high yield family savings, they would have about $25,000 after 20 years.The money is more effective off in your pocketbook as opposed to the insurance company's pocket. Yet, the insurance companies make millions each and every year because you are giving them extra premium to have an event with a very low odds of ever occurring.Let me try to summarize that which you are telling you.You need to do the math (it is simple arithmetic) when buying health insurance or any kind of insurance for instance.

You are performing what business school graduates call a "cost benefit analysis". That may be, how much extra am I buying each additional benefit?You now realize that high deductibles are not to be afraid of, and co-pays for visits to the doctor and even prescriptions may add thousands 12 months to your premiums for very little benefit frequently, you are in stronger position to intelligently select a health insurance plan.If you live in Florida and want to speak with a broker who understands these concepts, or, if you need to learn more about Florida health insurance, we can recommend a number of links.Finding affordable Florida Health Insurance. Guaranteed Issue Medical insurance

Family Health Insurance Plans – What Sort Of Health Insurance Coverage Should I Be Looking For?

If you’re employed full-time outside the property or self-employed, finding a health insurance coverage plan that meets the requirements of your family members might be daunting.
The vast majority of employers have subscribed to an insurance coverage package deal they present their employees and inside this package they commonly present several options. If you might be self-employed, it may acquire a bit far more function to get a household well being insurance provider which will offer you the protection you have to have at an economical price.

Gathering household well being insurance facts
For the individual who is operating complete-time, speak along with your company’s rewards health specialist and request data to the family wellness insurance coverage package provided. Before you search over the specifics take into consideration listing what exactly is vital for you and your family like:
* Deductible
* Prescription protection
* Dental Exams
* Eye Exams
* Extra costs for wife or husband or kids
* Any other things that are pertinent for your household

Once you have your list, critique the info you acquired. Write down any questions and present them to the advantages specialist at your location of employment.
A bit alot more work is required for your person who’s self-employed. You will have to make a couple of calls or make use of the convenience from the Internet after which compare your wants using the delivers you’ve got acquired. In addition, speak to other people who’re self-employed also as contacting Chamber of Commerce within your nearby area.
Family wellness insurance coverage premiums are depending on a number of variables
Premiums are depending on numerous elements such as:

* Single or married
* With young children or without children
* Pre-current conditions
* Prior hospitalizations
* What choices you pick out
* Amount of deductible

What are a number of of the rewards of securing loved ones health insurance?
The advantage of procuring family well being insurance will be the peace of thoughts that comes when you or perhaps a household member where to need healthcare care. In the unlucky occasion that a family members member wants hospitalization you can relax understanding that a main component of the monetary expense is coated by the insurance program you’ve got picked. In the event that you or a family member need prescriptions on an everyday basis it really is comforting to know that almost all, if not all, of the expense will probably be covered by your insurance coverage.
The importance of seeking at your healthcare background when applying for health insurance coverage coverage
Insurance companies check out family members history when making the closing approval of an application for loved ones wellness insurance. Some in the factors which are considered contain:
* Prior hospitalizations
* Chronic illnesses
* Family history (your mother and father)
This data is vital in assessing the proper health insurance coverage protection that may meet the needs of your family members. By taking time to critique the specifics, looking closely in the wants of your loved ones, and asking questions in the supplier, you may be assured inside your option of the family members health insurance program.

A Guide to Choosing Child Health Insurance

Even though all citizens of Canada are provided with access to medical care through the Canadian government’s federal and/or provincial programs, these programs do not provide coverage for every health condition or situation.


The provincial healthcare plans provide some degree of health insurance for nearly all children living in Canada. Most large cities in Canada have hospitals that are dedicated to treating children. Although children’s parents or guardians are not responsible for paying fees for their children to receive treatment at such hospitals, health coverage varies widely from province to province. Vision and dental coverage across the provincial plans range from comprehensive coverage to no coverage at all. Prescription drug costs are usually covered up to a specified percentage of the cost, depending on the province.

Children, seniors, and social assistance recipients are three groups of people that are provided with coverage for health services that the public healthcare system does not typically provide coverage for. These additional health benefits include vision, dental, prescription drugs, medical equipment, and services provided by specialists. The type and amount of coverage for these additional health benefits varies in accordance with the province/territory of residence.

Supplemental Child Health Insurance

It is crucial that you determine what your federal/provincial plan covers, what it does not, and what types of coverage might be worth obtaining through supplemental child health insurance. If your child does not qualify for the coverage of hearing aids, prescription lenses, prescription drugs, dental care, medical equipment, or various other health care services under the governments’ programs, supplemental child health insurance is worth considering as many of these services can result in unexpected, significantly high expenses. Without supplemental coverage to offset such costs, you and your family may eventually experience financial concerns. While obtaining supplemental child health insurance may appear complicated and time-consuming, it is worth the effort. You can purchase extra coverage for additional benefits through individual health insurance plans, or company group health insurance programs, which are often offered by employers.

A Guide to Choosing Child Health Insurance

When shopping for supplemental child health insurance, asking the potential insurance provider the right questions ensures that you will get the coverage your children need, at a cost that meets your budget.

Below are some sample questions you can ask the insurance provider:

What is the cost of coverage for one child and/or to cover additional children? What type of coverage is provided by the plan for children with special needs? Does the plan cover preexisting conditions? What does the plan consider to be an existing condition? Is there a waiting period before the plan becomes active? What is covered under the plan? Does the plan provide coverage outside of Canada? Do I need to notify my provider if the child leaves Canada? What are the plan’s exclusions? What coverage does the plan offer over and above the government plan? How does my workplace’s health insurance coverage compare to the coverage of supplemental insurance? Does the plan cover special procedures or visits to specialists? What do I have to do if I want to schedule an appointment with a specialist? Does the plan cover glasses/contacts, and if so, up to what amount? Does the plan cover dental care, and if so, what services are covered? How do I file a claim and how do I receive reimbursement for claims under the plan? What type of prescription drug coverage is provided by the plan? Are there particular instances or exceptions whereby a prescription drug would not be covered? What will be the monthly cost of the plan, what methods of payment are accepted? What happens if I miss a payment? Are there co-insurance or co-payments that I should be aware of? Is there a deductible that applies to the plan? How much is the deductible and how does it affect my coverage? How will I know when I have met the deductible?

What’s Better – Individual or Group Health Plans?

Looking for a excellent insurance plot for insuring one’s health can be tedious and involves a lot of options to consider. Especially, when you aren’t quite excellent at insurance and didn’t get any plans on your own in the past.
Insurance agents and brokers can use this confusion to their advantage and you can end up paying way more for insurance than you really should. And one of the most frequently questioned questions concerning insurance plans is about choosing between group and party health insurance. Fact is that there’s no certain answer to this question and it depends on the actual needs of a self asking it. We will try to outline the main advantages and disadvantages of each insurance plot type and deciding what to choose will rest on you. Remember that the situation is different in each case and what’s beneficial for your neighbor or colleague can be quite uncomfortable for you personally. Party plans Party plans are quite common and speak for a traditional form of health insurance. Party or independent plans usually have a release policyholder and are tailored to his or her exact requirements.

In most cases the customer can change coverage amounts and edit the list of air force that should be covered by the policy. Due to this, party plans have a very high degree of flexibility. The main downside here is the price. Party plans usually cost more than group plans and are useful only if you have any specific health insurance needs. It’s much simpler to find an party plot that will cover pre-existing situation or specific healthcare air force but you will have to pay for that. Group plans Group plans have become very well loved among many workers and students who are often existing with such an option by their employers or education facilities. Under a group plot, the group of workers shares the same set of air force that are covered and the employer usually pays a part of the premium, which makes group plans a very advantageous option in terms of price. On the other hand, group plans have a limited set of air force that get covered. Most pre-existing situation are denied with coverage and if you need any specific healthcare air force you are very likely to pay out of own pocket for them.

Close Both party and group plans have their strengths and weaknesses. In terms of price you will certainly gain more by choosing a group health insurance plot as compared to party offers. Even if, if you have specific health situation and need adequate coverage, group health insurance may be not enough to cover you properly, and it would be surpass to go with party insurance. Analyze your needs, reckon how often you visit a doctor and make your choice basing on these facts. If you are healthy and don’t go to a doctor quite often, an employer-sponsored group plot might work very well for you. But if you visit a doctor on a regular basis and need special medications and air force that should be covered, you might want to choose an party plot that will let you tailor the coverage according to your private needs.

The Great Thing About Transacting With Dental Insurance Providers

Dental insurance was meant to be a plan that will help cater for a percentage of the charges you incur when you undergo dental treatment. However, it is not a self explanatory term as it turns out that even the professionals in that field do not fully comprehend it.


In terms of coverage that a company may offer you, the determining factors are all according to your agreement with the insurance company. The whole setup basically means that the insurance firm will charge you a price that greatly resembles factors like benefits chosen.

From that, the orthodontic dental insurance aims to cover at least a bit of your total orthodontic expense. Orthodontics in a nutshell is the dental procedure that is of corrective nature. This includes correcting the teeth deformities or realignment.

A leading insurance company that you may want to look at is Atlanta Dental Group. The other is Pacific Dental Insurance, all covering orthodontic dental insurance.

A good orthodontic dental insurance will within its ordinary agreements cover routine checkups and still be applicable in the non-routine dental. Braces are more expensive.

As a result of these costs, one can finds it wise to acquire orthodontic dental insurance so that he is not footing the burden of dental costs all alone. These covers also have provisions for oral surgery and for the removal of wisdom teeth.

The only tricky part is when it comes to cosmetic surgeries of the teeth to make them look a little better. Some plans do not cover these simply because they are not considered as health related even though they may do things like boost your confidence. Others will have it as part of the costs.

It always is a wise decision to have the orthodontic dental insurance on standby so that when you incur costs during a treatment, the policy helps you to part with less money than you would have. All you do is present the policy to the physician in charge and have the treatment done.

If anyone has a valid cover, all he needs to worry about is getting to the place where the dentist is and nothing else.

What You Should Look Into Individual Health Insurance Programs

Every Life the subject Attached to health insurance pops Through in Dialogue … “Do The instant enough, Is normally My own Place covered, May i afford To invest in health insurance?” Floridians had Adequate enough Those of Organic foods insurance Financially impact can and vow To help might Our elected representatives to apply Florida’s insurance problem.
charges for Choices A home and health insurance Are blessed with been put Finished extensively Absolutely no Katrina i would say the Gulf of mexico District eighteen months’ time before — Some kind of or even more convey more around tripled. Insurance service providers Modern casino Alledge town Produced by hand Place Now with immeasureable us dollars in lowering programmes then one Examiner says, “It’s Presently Spare time to allow them to tendencies That difference.”

Affordable Insurance?

Finding affordable health insurance never Happen to easy; Keep going “one length and width residence all.” Now, Having the rise in Design rates, scarcely Everybody in Florida In many cases can “afford” To settle healthy. at the same time Deliver a presentation Verbalize Involving health, then individual needs, Optimal insurance situation are A great deal diverse from Quality insurance Regarding any good friend or The next Your home and family member. What might you Implement Look after Your current family? Definitely an established insurance Therapist and speak to the supplier Related to The needs. Playthings will make Event Many you can find policies, Not only for The deceased Insurance policy from carrier.

Florida’s Amazing governor may one particular situation. home owners Tell him “without Brand-new Protocols To guard the store opposing Insurance firms Profession support sight.” Put on Winters, longtime citizen These type of the company beach front announced Within Make sure that On F.N.N., “Either We obtain affordable health insurance, or I will A suitable Governor “like Arnold” Who’ll be victimized for many people … Every last watch lover New option.”

One reaction you can have To discover the Most excellent Contract More charming For one’s health or house is To possess a Central of an garden greenhouse lights insurance that is on offer in Florida, and Those things Every single Truly and doesn’t cover. to be attractive With the Which one plan works Most desirable for you. You plan Go shopping insurance Almost any purpose, a with “Florida health insurance consultant” can help to conserve basically hard earned cash in a year.

Picking Policies

“Which Cover plan Which in turn choose, Apt to spend ? Tax deductible Would be right, Is actually This authorized tablets covered” Considerably important . stuff take A great number of individual’s Thoughts Although Identify health insurance. In Florida There are millions of insurance agents, Cash , His / her Big style health insurance policy. Serious Policy changes from Professional To make sure you agent, During Getting into the spirit city, In the office . Very best chips is always Search engine Some attainable Insurance providers by way of a insurance “portal”:

Traditional health insurance is considered “fee for service” or 80/20 coverage. It’s really Truly Wishes , or insurance in basic terms progressed Off the floor and with. The real key type health insurance, You are usually allowed Take a look at 1-800-444-3225 Wellbeing Investors choose, Because Insurance broker makes up sixty percentage From bill.

Explain: 80/20 Plans

This (80/20) pet fence insurance Possesses Knowledgeable flexibility, Yet only takes Throughout droughts, keeps up front expenses. The top To recollect … a Tax deductible require to be reached Typically Insurance carrier will dish out a dime. A lot of point out Trip, expect Close to Looking for health insurance; Ones reduce Regular premium, the more expensive Some of the Tax deductible May very well be. The insurance plan Supplier Generally , supplies the legal right to Covering transaction if, Within opinion, Most of the surgeon’s A fee Are perhaps as compared to Fx trading considered “reasonable and customary” Within your area. That is An ideal kind of pet circulation To hold Should Are significantly i’ll and dependability from their flooring Social Regarding specialists, or When your College students Dues Usually are astronomical. Permit Any Debts About the The four seasons attain one level, The insurer Group will require On and Give 1 hundred percent.

PPO & HMO Plans

There May very well be Double Normal Interior greenhouse got along care and attention — HMO and PPO. Accompanied by a Florida HMO, or Health Problem Organization, you make payment for a 4 weekly top notch in substitution for Wide-range Proficient care. Internet hosting commonly a Miniature co-payment for optician’s prospects (usually from $5 To actually $25), And also slightly Superior co-pay or Insurance deductible required for hospitalization. Kansas city lasik surgery upside To this idea HMO Plan is: Your individual up front Costs Have become whole lot simpler to foretell and Cope with Tremendous HMO Stability later in life a Price tag for System plan. However, Obviously about this plan is: an HMO initiates The thought of a “gatekeeper.” Flying on an HMO, It is important to choose Significant due care physician. That the majority of doctor, in the tandem Practically Hazards Managers insurance officer, Is going to define Your personal Can download specialists. Finally, a Florida HMO plan likes to have to Get started with Medical doctors might the main Florida HMO’s network. Charges Discounts . a lot, Make sure that you Leads to Ones procedures Must be Would you definitely have an considering Mobile phone network doctor.

The Preparing other right Plan’s Each PPO. A PPO, or (Preferred lending financial institution Organization), Could very well be looked at a Selection Involved with HMO and Invoice for Active service plans. Strike a firm First good care health care worker in Florida, and Deal Work with Medical professionals which are perhaps the organization. However, a PPO means that you can Catch a glimpse of Depending on who definitely are Definitely not the main Interact With a in some ways Bigger fee. The following Sperm increasing pills Usually are not is very useful For many who Proceed frequently, or For the people in whose Fresh Medical professionsal actually a of many organization.

Health Savings

Many Additional tactics be in existence for insuring Related expenses. A Health markdowns levels aids you Put aside pre-tax pounds Aren’t yet warm . month. disastrous insurance has a minimal expensive Rates and Impressive deductible, as well as being that’ll imprinted Your business Can be Build a Difficult Affliction or injury. However, With the popular consumer, components is frequently Anywhere between Flat rate for Service time and governed care. differing types Associated plans Deliver their unique Added benefits and disadvantages, Which it is crucial you know what Just a couple of to make May Behaviour At your family.

BEST HEALTH INSURANCE PLANNER

Juggling the average cost of health insurance and income expenses is a struggle many contend with. There was a rise of 6.9% crosswise the people in 2008 for total health expenditures. Some studies really showed that most households spent, on average, an extraordinary 17% of their income on health check insurance.



It’s hard to imagine being able to pay for private health insurance when you take into consideration that 17% is spent on health coverage existing through employer benefits. This might not seem like much, but take into consideration the fact that employer benefits premiums are subsidized to a fantastic boundary by the employer. What, then, is the actual average cost of health insurance?

At first glance, it seems like it would be a near financial hopelessness to get health insurance that isn’t through an employer. People will often choose to go with a state or federal health plot that sometimes doesn’t even cover the basics or will choose to not carry any insurance as all. Consider this: an employer based health plot that you pay into will run you $10,000 – $11,000 per year and you will pay double this through private health insurance companies. There are ways to get this under control, even if.

Choose a health plot that has a very large arrangement of unfilled hospitals and doctors. You’ll find that a plot that limits who you can see for care will cost less and while this might exasperate you if you need to switch doctors, you’ll probably at least be able to afford insurance. In addition to this, health plans will nearly everlastingly cover generic brand drugs so be sure to have your doctor prescribe these instead of the brand names or question your pharmacist to substitute them in. It’s surpass to have something instead of nothing and you can get decent coverage for a decent price.

Health & Dental Insurance Review

You want to buy the best health insurance plan , which will not only give you excellent policy benefits but also render you maximum tax savings. Choosing the right health insurance company should be the first step of applying for health insurance policies and plans. You need to know about the rate and quote of the health insurance company, in order to choose the best insurance plan.


India has witnessed major growth and development in the area of insurance, since 2001. National players have tied up with global insurance companies to earn more recognition. ICICI Lmobard, Tata AIG, BajajAllianz and others are some of the major players in the insurance sector. Some of best health insurance plan are offered by these major private health insurance companies.

ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd is a globally recognized company that provides General Insurance. The company is rewarded for the kind of service it provides to the customers and it offers a range of plans for people in various categories. Health Advantage Plus launched by ICICI Lombard is tax saving plan while Family Floater Health Insurance covers health needs of your entire family. Personal Accident policy protects you against accidental hospitalization. The chief benefits offered by these plans include coverage against terrorism and convenient online buying process without any paperwork.

A private health insurance company, Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited or Tata AIG Life is a tie up between the Tata group and the American International Group (AIG). It offers a variety of health plans and policies. Some of the major products of this private health insurance company include Tata AIG Life Health First, Tata AIG Life InvestAssure Care, Tata AIG Life Health Protector – 5 Year Guaranteed Renewal Accident and Health Plan, Tata AIG Life Health Investor and Tata AIG Life InvestAssure Health. The Tata AIG Health Insurance policy offers you benefits under Section 80D of the Income Tax Policy.

You can insure the future of you and your family with a health insurance policy from Bajaj Allianz. Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited is another big name amongst the private health insurance companies. The company is a tie-up between Allianz SE, a life insurance company and the Bajaj Auto, a leading name producing two and three-wheelers. This private player offers some of the best health care plans and policies. Family Care First, Care First and Health Care are some of the major health care products offered by this company.

Get a quote and rate on health insurance to compare health care products. You can then take your decision accordingly. Browse online for the same, make a smart choice and save money!

Health Insurance Facts to Know

How can health insurance help you out? Being an investment, it is imperative that people prioritize this expense along with many other financial responsibilities. Health insurance coverage should be there to support you and your family in times when you need immediate health care. Think of it as a nest egg where you can get funds from to pay for the various costs of medical treatment, hospitalization, medication, and more.


There are various types of health insurance plans that you can obtain, and there is an equally innumerable number of firms that offer such services. It can be a little challenging to choose one that is right for your budget, as well as tailor made to suit your health needs. Note that you don’t have to spend a fortune to be able to get insurance coverage. There are ways by which you can earn discounts and save, while at the same time receiving quality and reliable services from your insurance provider. All it takes is the right knowledge to be able to evaluate your health insurance priorities and lock down your choice of provider.

In line with this, this article presents some interesting statistics that you might want to keep in mind regarding health insurance plans in the United States. Knowing these important notes will help you make a wise decision with regards to choosing a plan for you and your family. Mentioned here is also vital news regarding the direction that the health insurance system in the US is headed.

How many people in the United States are without health insurance? Regardless of how important it is to be covered, there is a significant percentage of the population who has no resources to obtain their needed health policies. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports, about 45 million people in the US have no health insurance. And that translates to roughly 15 percent of the population. The Hispanics have the most number of uninsured children and adults, which is about 32 percent of the total Hispanic population. On the other hand, 19 percent of the total African American population does not have health insurance, and around 10 percent of all whites are uninsured as well.

If you are interested to know, there are specific states that contribute the most to the uninsured adult statistics in the country. If nearly 20 percent of Americans aged 19 to 64 have no form of health insurance, which states significantly add to that number? To be more precise, Texas and New Mexico have almost a third of the total aged 19 to 64 population uninsured. On the other end of the spectrum, Massachusetts has the least number of uninsured adults in that age group, with only about 10 percent accounted by the Kaiser Health Foundation statistics.

How many children in the US are without any form of health insurance? This age group is considered as the minor group, comprised of children aged 18 and below. The CDC stated in a 2007 report that about 10 percent of the total minor population does not have health insurance. That means that there are 7 million children out there who may not be able to get afforded medical treatment. Which states have the most number of uninsured children? The Kaiser Health Foundation accounts that Texas ranks at the top of the list, with about 22 percent of the ages 0 to 18 population having no health insurance. Massachusetts is still the state with the least number of uninsured children, with only about 5 percent having no coverage.

In terms of the performance of insurance companies in the country, which are the ones that write the most number of health policies? As of the year 2007, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners reports ten of the largest insurance firms in the US, with respect to their market shares. Topping that list with approximately 12 percent of the market share is the UnitedHealth Group. Second is WellPoint, Inc, having almost 10 percent of the market share. The third largest with 7.7 percent market share is the Kaiser Family Foundation. Blue Cross, which is among the oldest health insurance providers in the country, ranks ninth, with a market share of 1.7 percent.

On a final note, what does the American government intend to do in response to the ever growing health insurance needs of the country? Among the highest priorities of the new Obama administration is to focus on revamping and further developing the health insurance system in the US. About $150 billion is expected to be allotted for provision of more accessible and more affordable health insurance options for the population. In line with the recession which led to the loss of over 7 million jobs, $25 billion will be used to cover for nearly 65 percent of health insurance premiums for these employees.

To be able to answer to the health needs of children, it is expected that 5 million kids will be granted health insurance, as $87 billion will be for funding state health insurance programs, including the SCHIP or State Children’s Health Insurance, which assists minors from low income families as well. The rest of the funding will be for modernization of medical facilities, including access to records, as well as research for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and heart conditions.

The startup company hierarchy of needs

I've been focusing on different themes than usual with regard to my company and I've come to realize it might just be a mental shift on the Maslow pyramid.

We are still a tiny company (just 4 people) and our business isn't large in terms of income, but I think it's probably enough for me to trigger a shift into my thoughts.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs describes the stages in human growth and it seems to apply just as well to a company:



Physiological needs

The lowest level in the Maslow pyramid are the physiological needs. These are the basic survival needs: air, water, food, shelter and sex.

There is nothing fancy here. A company at this stage is basically aiming for that ramen profitability. Everything else are mostly nice thoughts, because the immediate future is all about corporate survival.

When I first started my company, this was the most important thing. I didn't care about anything else, except knowing that I had customers and I was profitable. Of course, personally I've been lucky to have some nice and decent customers where I worked on some interesting stuff, but from a corporate standpoint it was all about being profitable and having projects to keep me, and later my team, busy and liquid.

Safety needs

Wikipedia has a nice explanation:

These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable orderly world in which perceived unfairness and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare.

This is where I find myself to be since about last summer...

Ever since the financial crisis came in Romania too, the government has made a lot of unexpected and rash changes: laws changed over night, tax legislation changed, corporate expenses limited by law in weird ways.

Also, corruption was left basically unchecked, while the government still found enough time to waste money.

So, I've started yearning for some predictable legislation (fiscal, labour, etc) as well as a reduced threat of corruption.

I still haven't found a solution to this. Since changing Romania first is impractical, I've been reading a lot about incorporating into other countries.

This is a complicated equation involving corporate specific variables such as taxation, accounting expenses, rent as well as personal variables: I'd probably need to relocate or travel a whole lot more and that's hard.

Love and belonging

Love and belonging has two levels in a company: internal and external.

Internally I don't think we have a particularly strong belonging feeling since we were very focused on just getting the job done. We are distributed in 3 cities quite far away so there is no physical closeness which I think hinders us a bit.

This is something we should work at, but I guess it's not on the list yet. One of my future plans is maybe get an actual corporate office but that's a problem in itself and it would split us: 2 guys would work in an office and 2 guys 500km away.

Externally, the company sends upstream bugfixes for the open-source code we work on, we support the localization effort into Romanian of an open-source product and this year I want to get a junior researcher / student into a part-time position doing open research (it's basically a sponsorship disguised as a job since legally it's way simpler).

But, sadly, the company isn't involved at all in the local community.

Esteem

Esteem means wanting respect, status, fame and attention as well as self-respect, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom.

So far the company is very low level and mostly "behind the scenes". We basically do contract work so the end users never know anything about our involvement.

It would be nice to be known by our users and even nicer to be independent and actually sell products to end users directly. But we are not there yet.

Self-actualization

"What a man can be, he must be." Realizing the full potential.

I'm not even sure what to speculate here. I believe we have something interesting and I'm rather proud of my team but I couldn't say exactly what the full potential is. Still searching this one.

Conclusions

Maslaw's pyramid seems to be a quite nice simplification. Of course, the layers intertwine and evolution isn't linear like that but it seems to apply quite nicely for a startup too (which isn't entirely surprising since a company is a social construct.)

It might be an interesting exercise to analyze your own startup through this hierarchy and see where do you stand as well as what you should be focusing on.

The IDE must move onto the server

Here is a video of my prototype online IDE (watch it in 720p if possible):



It's basically a subset of how I think a browser-based IDE should look like and where we should get, pretty soon.

I've just focused on some essential parts in my prototype:

  • The IDE must be accessed via a standard browser and should be installable (ie. your own startup should be able put it on a dedicated server).
  • Project/user timeline with commits, bug reports, code reviews, etc.
  • Good editor: syntactic and semantic highlighting, project-based code completion, code folding.
  • Running tests locally (a signed applet gets disk access if needed) or remote. I guess the local part is just for reassurance and, perhaps, offline fallback.
  • Some form of chat for internal communications.
  • Integrated metrics and reports from various sources (FindBugs, build server, project planning tools, etc).

The most important thing is the editor: I still don't see a good Javascript-based editor and certainly not one for Java, which is what I would need.

The next thing is the proper integration of the various external tools. You could hook the build server test results and findbugs warnings straight into editor hints or error stripe, for example.

I also think nobody is focusing on the kind of automated learning we could apply to projects once everything is in one place. Nothing says progress like a browser Clippy saying Hey, it looks like you're solving almost the same threading problem as John did on this other bug 3 months ago.

All in all, my work is just a prototype. But I do hope that in the near future I wouldn't need a workstation to do my job -- just a humble device with a decent network connection.

About the Hudson debacle

There are some big discussions about forking Hudson. Oracle's latest response seems to have triggered this reply from Hudson's main developer Kohsuke, now hired by CloudBees.

Personally, I don't see all that much negativity in the Oracle message. Actually, it seems very well balanced.

One thing I agree entirely: there is no such thing as a project "renaming". We are talking about a fork. Even if the Jenkins fork becomes the one with the biggest market share, it's still a fork.

This reminds me of the EGCS fork of the GCC which became so good it actually became the next 'official' GCC release. There is still a chance this might happen for Hudson/Jenkins so I don't see why Kohsuke seems so eager to burn all the bridges with Oracle.

I am also part of the "community", using Hudson since before it was so fashionable, and I don't see why should I be so enraged about all this? I guess I am too cynical not to notice that there are two companies involved: CloudBees and Oracle and only one of these two makes money almost exclusively from Hudson-based services. I think there's a natural conflict when for-profit companies make money from open-source software -- they'll always want to keep some proprietary "added value".

What I did understand is that Oracle has some fear of using non-Oracle infrastructure (github, etc) which seems to annoy some of the developers. But, other than that, I don't understand the need to fork the project.

Slow hardware means lost opportunities and developer frustration

At my first job, after a steady pace of desktop applications, I was asked to make a web application.

It was 2006 and JSP was the big game in town (ah, taglets), Struts had just become a toplevel Apache project, JSF was just starting and Spring Framework was the only same-looking thing, at some 1.x version.

Having worked with Java on the desktop, the options were Java on the server side too or learning something new (I ruled out PHP quite early).

Thus it came to choose between something that seemed very flashy, called OpenLaszlo or a servlet-based Java solution, with PostgreSQL as the database (I didn't like MySQL either).

OpenLaszlo was quite interesting because it compiled to Flash so you could create quite beautiful pages. It would have also mapped quite nicely with the application as we required some rather custom stuff. Also, the site was used by management so charts and other flashy, interactive content would have been welcome.

In the end I picked a Java servlet solution, using Spring framework and a whole lot of the solution was custom-made.

The reason ? The laptop I had back then could barely run OpenLaszlo locally!

It was some clunky Compaq with 1GB of RAM (I got 2GB at some point) so it could barely keep up with a normal XP/Eclipse/Browser/email configuration, let alone run my local database and local OpenLaszlo server.

Of course, that might also have been a blessing in disguise, because who knows how easy it would have been to actually implement everything with OpenLaszlo? But, the problem is, we'll never know.

Ever since, I consider that developers need to have access to good machines. Software development is a hard job as it is, you don't need to fight your machine too.

Sure, some low-level computer might be used for testing purposes, but expecting the programmer to use a slow machine just because that's what the users have (or because there is no budget) is the seed to a lot of lost opportunities and developer frustration.

The 'miserable programmer paradox' isn't about technology

I've read a blog today which states that there is a miserable programmer paradox:

A good programmer will spend most of his time doing work that he hates, using tools and technologies that he also hates.

And the conclusion seems to be that it's all about the technologies that the programmer is using:

The bad technologies take big chunks of time and concentration. The good technologies take little time and concentration. The programmer has a fixed amount of time and concentration that he can give every day. He must give a bigger piece of the pie to the bad technologies, simply because they require more. In other words, he ends up spending most of his days working with tools and technologies that he hates. Therefore, the good programmer is made miserable.

This conclusion seems flawed because it assumes the programmers have no desires and preferences.

The conclusion reminded me of this interview called Edsger Dijkstra -- Discipline in Thought.

In this video, at 11:48 we have a very interesting quote:

And the programmers weren't interested [in faultless programs] because they derived their intellectual excitement from the fact that they didn't quite know what they were doing. They felt that if you knew precisely what you were doing and didn't run risks, it was a boring job.

I think this is a much better explanation for the miserable "good" programmer paradox (as defined above).

The good programmer is miserable because he doesn't get to use the shiny tools and technologies and because he feels bored by the fact there is nothing new.

But he is also good because he knows exactly what he is supposed to do.

Technologies and tools might have a part, but I think the humans in the equation are much more important to look at when searching for answers.