Health Care

For many families, finding affordable health insurance is a task akin to the search for the Holy Grail. Depending on where in the country you live, a family health insurance plan can cost as much as $800-$1000 per month. Even when you split that cost between employee and employer, that’s a major chunk of nearly anyone’s monthly budget. And while it’s popular to swear under your breath at the greed of the health insurance industry, a look at the cost of medical care is an eye-opening shock for many people. The expenses associated with a broken arm, for instance, can easily mount into several thousands of dollars.

The Health Insurance Industry has a stake in keeping people healthy.

The high cost of health insurance is the direct result of the high cost of medical care. It’s a simple matter of economics. The more it costs to take care of each subscriber, the more the insurance companies have to charge all their subscribers. This cost/expense ratio is what has made most health insurance companies embrace the idea of providing preventive care to their subscribers. It’s a simple matter of business sense - healthy people don’t cost the insurance companies a lot of money.

Accidents may be the first type of medical need that springs to mind when people consider buying health insurance, the major insurance companies all agree that accidents aren’t the major cost drain on medical resources. That place is reserved for chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure. Because of this, it makes good business sense for health insurance companies to encourage their subscribers to adopt preventive health strategies. That pays off in special benefits for health conscious consumers.

Preventive Health Benefits Help Keep Costs Low

Among the benefits that have become commonplace for major health insurance providers are routine physicals, medical screenings for all subscribers, discounts on health club and gym memberships, payment of dues for weight loss groups and lowered subscription fees for non-smokers.

Some health insurance companies and HMO’s go even further in their preventive efforts. Because of the high risk of serious injury or fatality for infants in automobile accidents, Fallon Community Health Plan of Massachusetts has for years teamed with local organizations to provide free infant car seats to families with newborns. In the same spirit of prevention, many HMOs offer free stress management and stress reduction workshops to all subscribers because stress has been identified as a leading risk factor in nearly every major illness.

Seeking a Cure

The quest for affordable health care has also prompted health insurance companies and HMOs to help fun research and health initiatives all over the country. The health insurance industry underwrites millions of dollars of medical research annually in an effort to lower the costs of health care. Their dollars fund grants to enroll low income and other hard to insure populations, and to offer eye, dental and health care to inner city and poor rural populations. The industry estimates that routine preventive eye and dental care, as well as routine medical screenings and physicals can identify illnesses at early stages and prevent conditions and costs from escalating out of reach.

Get the Most from Your Health Insurance

You pay for it - you should certainly get the most possible benefit from your health insurance plan. Here are some suggestions for ways that you can make your health insurance plan work for you:

• Join a gym.

  Check the benefits that your HMO or health insurance plan offers. Chances are good that one of them is a discount good on membership at a local gym or health club. Get fit - it saves THEM money… but it saves YOUR life.

• Lose weight.

  Take advantage of nutritional counseling and memberships in weight loss support groups to get down to your ideal weight. Added bonus? Many health insurance plans offer a lower tier cost for subscribers who are at healthy weights.

• Quit smoking.

  Non-smokers are another group that often enjoy lower health insurance premiums. Many HMOs and health insurance providers offer free smoking cessation programs to help you get smoke free and healthy.

• Attend medical screenings and health fairs.

  Many health insurance providers sponsor ‘wellness fairs’ where you can have your blood pressure tested, get free medical screenings and learn about alternative medical techniques like massage therapy, acupuncture and yoga. Take advantage of special events to learn more and get healthy.

It may be popular to demonize the health insurance industry, but today more than ever, the health insurance industry has a stake in keeping you healthy. Find out what your health insurance company has to offer you by visiting their web site, or calling customer service.

Deb Powers is a freelance writer working with http://www.FreelanceRite.com, a provider of writing services for all your writing needs. Whether you need keyword optimized content, newsletter articles, article submission services or well-researched information on any topic, FreelanceRite can fill the bill for you. For more information on buying freelance content for your web site, visit http://www.freelancerite.com

Tags: health insurance, group insurance, small business health insurance

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If everyone gets free health care what is the incentive to live a healthy life, eat right and work out every day? Why bother? After all if there is free health care for everyone why not just wait to you have a medical problem and then go get fixed, why bother to work out? Why bother to walk around the block every day; why bother to jog?

Do you see the problem with universal health care in the United States of America paid for by the government and our tax dollars? The entire idea is flawed. Personally I don’t wanna pay for people who do not take care of themselves, do not exercise, abuse alcohol and drugs and eat crappy foods.

That is not fair to me and I should not have to pay for them. They don’t care so, why should I? And why should my taxes go up so people that don’t take care about themselves can abuse yet another government social program? Now you are probably saying; yet you Republicans; always complain about taxes and you never have a solution.

Well I say to you, I do have a solution and it is a really simple one; let’s give tax incentives for people who exercise, eat right and do not do drugs or abuse alcohol. Let’s reward people for getting back in shape and in the long run we will be Bucks ahead with a whole lot less people in our population with major medical issues down the road.

Tags: Health Care For Everyone, What is the Incentive to live a healthy life

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I walked into one of my adjusting rooms last Monday and asked the man sitting on the table how his weekend was. I was interested to know if he had any fun or did anything interesting. He immediately assumed I was asking how his back was and if he had any pain. He went into a three-minute explanation about the muscle spasms he had and said he hoped I could “fix” him.

I chuckled when I wrote this because just about every sentence in that paragraph tells me a lot about what state of mind he is in. Therein also lies one of his biggest obstacles.

We cannot come into a state of health while focusing on disease. The study of disease has caused our society more ills and has halted our advancement toward health more than anything ever could. Our focus determines very significantly what we experience, and we have been incorrectly focusing on the wrong things for far too long.

We achieve health by focusing ONLY on health, wholeness, and harmony. Allowing thoughts of disease and illness to come into our minds only takes away from our faith in health. If we kept our mind and thoughts ONLY on health and doing healthy things, we would achieve perfect function and harmony of body, mind, and spirit.

I had a mentor once who was coaching me through a plateau I had reached in my personal achievement. I explained to him all the obstacles that were in my way and how they were holding me back. He asked me, “If you were a boxer and got into the ring with your opponent thinking of nothing but getting the heck kicked out of you, what do you think would happen?” Well, that question answered my question, and I shifted my thoughts rightly and eventually broke through my plateau. It was some of the best advice he ever game me.

A study was done once with a hundred high school basketball players. They divided them into two groups of fifty. The first fifty players spent an hour practicing free throws. The other fifty spent an hour with their eyes closed, imagining they were at the free-throw line, and shooting perfectly into the hoop every time. After the hour was over they took both groups onto the court and tested their free-throw ability. Those that spent the hour imagining the perfect shot did better than the other group by 72%. Now those are results.

Where we place our focus is very important. I don’t get into talking about symptoms with my patients because it only perpetuates their faith in disease and pain. If you walk around all day thinking you are going to get a headache, guess what? You probably will.

We need to shift that faith in pain and symptoms into faith only in health. Pain is simply a sign that the God-given Principle of Health is working within you. Be thankful for it, for the body is trying to heal. We need to speak, think, act, and see only health when it comes to our bodies, even if our reality tells us something different.

So the next time someone asks about your weekend, tell them something good. Focus on the good, and more good will come. Our thoughts become our reality in accordance with our faith. Our faith in health and wellness must be strengthened, and we do that through right thinking and belief in the truth that Health is our natural state.

Your journey to health is not anyone’s responsibility but your own. The right thoughts and pursuant right actions will lead to health. You cannot fail in the task if you follow this advice. But, wrong thoughts and the pursuant wrong actions will lead to ill health and disease. In the end, it comes down to you. If you really want to be healthy, you’ll do those things that lead to health. Our choices today will be evident in our state of health tomorrow.

Dr. Mark Smith is partners with the largest discount health company in America. They are currectly looking for ambitious individuals who want to make an income from home saving people money on healthcare. Anyone interested in joining his team of caring professionals can visit Dr. Smith’s website here.

Tags: Health, faith, disease, health care, thoughts, wholeness, health study, focus, positive thinking

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