Nine points to get health insurTen main ance recover

(NaturalNews) Economic times are tough and many are facing layoffs. Even more are being told that their employer will be eliminating or reducing health benefits. As a result many people are losing their health insurance coverage. Legislation is currently being proposed that can help those without health insurance but sometimes your health cannot wait and you need help now.

1. Off Use COBRA if You Are Laid -

If you get laid off from your job and need health insurance you can Use COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation). COBRA is available for 18 months after loosing your employer health coverage. COBRA allows you to keep the health plan that your employer used to provide as long as that plan still exists. If your employer is still in business and offering some health insurance to current employees you can usually qualify. COBRA will be more expensive than the premiums deducted from your paycheck but this is sometimes necessary if you are unable to get health care elsewhere. COBRA is often cheaper than private and individual health insurance plans.

2. Ask Your Doctor for Help -

Ask your doctor about reduced fees or treatment and drug options for those with lower income or no health insurance. Your doctor may also be able to recommend a health care discount card that they accept.

3. Decrease Stress -

Stress has a terrible effect on your body and your health. Make sure to get enough sleep, exercise regularly, eat natural and healthy foods, and actively use relaxation techniques such as yoga or breathing exercises.

4. Not Smoking -

By not smoking you increase your chances of being approved for another health insurance plan including private and individual health insurance plans. Non-smokers receive much lower health insurance premiums and have less risk of overall health problems.

5. Apply for Medicaid -

Almost every state has a local Medicaid office and toll-free numbers. Visit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services web site for information on how to apply: Each state is different but Medicaid allows low-income and eligible people to qualify to have their medical bills paid directly. Some still require co-payments.

6. Apply for Medicare -

Medicare is available only for those 65 years of age or older who meet special criteria. You can contact your local Social Security office or the main office at 1-800-772-1213. You are allowed to apply 3 months before reaching 65.

7. Alternative Natural Treatments -

Alternative Medicine is currently used by thirty eight percent of adults in the United States. Acupuncture and herbal remedies are often cheaper than expensive prescriptions or medical treatments and can provide similar results.

8. Get Health Insurance through Spouse or Partner -

Your spouse or partner may have a health insurance plan where you can qualify as a dependent. Although the cost can be high this typically results in fewer coverage rejections than applying for private or independent health insurance coverage.

9. Take a Lower Paying Job For Better Health Insurance -

Consider taking a lower paying job for better health benefits. How important is your health? What is money without your health? It may mean taking a large pay cut, extra searching for a job with good health benefits, or asking more questions during a job interview. There are some employers out there that pay very little but offer a good health insurance plan. Make sure to ask about waiting periods and how coverage begins.

International medical insurance for expatriates

Goodhealth is a specialist provider of international health insurance for expatriates. We offer a full range of worldwide health insurance plans and whether you are looking for individual, family, group or company cover, we have an international medical insurance plan to suit your requirements. Goodhealth makes sure you have access to the finest medical facilities worldwide, enabling you to obtain the best possible treatment whenever and wherever you need it.

As experienced specialists in international health insurance, we understand that, living abroad, expatriates require comprehensive worldwide medical insurance. Our international travel medical insurance plans ensure you are not faced with large medical bills, and provide a valuable range of additional international healthcare services.

International travel health insurance and international assistancefor expatriates

Whichever healthcare plan you select from Goodhealth, you will benefit from access to our network of medical facilities worldwide.

• We have regional offices in London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Miami, Shanghai and Jakarta, with staff speaking several languages. They deliver expert advice and provide an enhanced local policy administration and claims support service using their extensive international medical knowledge



• Our emergency evacuation benefit ensures that if the required treatment is not available at the place of incident you will be immediately transported to an appropriate facility.



• Our online Global Health Data Bank enables you to search for medical and health resources worldwide through access to a comprehensive directory of international medical and hospital facilities.

An international health insurance policy from Goodhealth gives the expatriate total peace of mind through comprehensive medical expenses cover and a wide range of additional supporting services.

International private medical insurance for expatriatesaround the world.

Contact Goodhealth Worldwide now for a comprehensive range of individual, family, group or company international medical insurance plans. Free quotes may be obtained by clicking the link below or you can call one of our experienced consultants. Wherever you are located overseas, we are able to provide a local service and speedy claims settlement backed by a wealth of global healthcare knowledge.

Contact Goodhealth Worldwide now for a comprehensive range of individual, family, group or company international medical insurance plans. Free quotes may be obtained by clicking the link below or you can call one of our experienced consultants. Wherever you are located overseas, we are able to provide a local service and speedy claims settlement backed by a wealth of global healthcare knowledge.

How to find and keep affordable health insurance

The writers and editors at the Health Insurance Resource Center put the pieces of the medical insurance puzzle together for you in our Health Insurance 101 section, as well as shifting through the best information from across the Internet throughout our pages:

Finding individual health insurance for your family can be confusing. We provide several tools to help you make better choices.

• Get no-obligation health insurance quotes.



• Learn about alternatives to employer-sponsored coverage, including COBRA and high-risk



• Explore our glossary of medical insurance terms.



• Explore our glossary of medical insurance terms.



• Explore our glossary of medical insurance terms.

What can you do to provide low-cost protection for your family's health? Here at the Health Insurance Resource Center, we strive to make you a better-informed consumer to aid you in your quest to secure and keep an adequate health plan for your family, regardless of your individual situation.

Lack of health insurance is an epidemic. What's the cure?

Nearly 16 percent of Americans – 47 million people – are uninsured. According to a story in USAToday, the people without health insurance aren't just the poor – they are all of us. Medical bills are the cause of more than half of all personal bankruptcies in the United States.

Urge Congress to act – now.

The fact that millions lack access to quality, affordable health insurance is easily the biggest domestic crisis facing our nation. Our advocacy page gives you the tools to help convince Congress to support President Obama's call for health care reform. His plans are to ensure health plans do not discriminate on the basis of pre-existing conditions, expand access to the government's own insurance program, lower the cost on existing plans and give you the ability to keep your coverage if you switch jobs or become self-employed. Contact a member of the House of Representatives. Contact a US Senator. Contact the White House
Healthinsurance.org has long-held a well-deserved reputation for promoting health insurance reform, and with President Obama's election we are stepping up our efforts.

State Guides to health plans and health care quality

You'll also find information on the quality of health care in individual states from across the nation, from New Jersey to California. Each page also gives you the opportunity to receive free, no-obligation insurance quotes, complete with pricing and details from competing companies. Many states are seeking ways to tackle the problem of access to affordable health insurance on their own, and we look to health care reform initiatives on our state pages. We also have links to the contact forms for your elected officials, so you can easily lend your support, or offer alternative ideas.

Health Insurance Blog

Obama Supports Larger Role For Medicare Advisory Commission

Most Americans probably aren't aware of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), a group of experts well-versed in the operational details of the Medicare program. The areas they discuss are extremely dry and technical, and their work covers areas that are beyond the expertise of most members of Congress.
Twice a year, MedPAC issues recommendations to Congress, detailing exactly what they would do in order to improve the operation of the Medicare program, including updating payment and coverage policies, improving access to care, and improving healthcare quality. Sometimes Congress might take a few of these recommendations into consideration, but most of the items are ignored.
According to the Wall Street Journal, those days may be coming to an end. Senator Rockefeller has introduced legislation that would allow MedPAC to play a larger role in healthcare reform by turning it into an independent executive agency comparable to the Federal Reserve Board. President Obama has indicated that he supports this type of larger role for MedPAC, and would take it a step further by automatically adopting their recommendations absent Congressional action to oppose. He would also limit Congress's ability to break individual recommendations out of their package - they would need to be adopted as a group, or not at all.
Experts hope that this will help contain costs in the Medicare program, which would be a great boon, as their trust fund is rapidly depleting. Medicare often serves as a model for other types of health coverage, so what works for this program may be adopted across the board.

Editorial Shows That Health Reform Can't Pick Sides

Kaiser Family Foundation President & CEO Drew Altman, Ph.D. recently wrote an editorial which breaks down political opinion on healthcare reform. He states that although the left and right are becoming increasingly polarized, reform appears to be taking place in the middle. Thus, everyone is likely to be at least somewhat unhappy with the results, because nobody is going to get exactly what they want.

It remains to be seen whether this centrist reform will simply be a watered-down compromise, or whether it will meaningfully accomplish all it intends. Once the dust has settled and the ideological posturing has died down, the real question will be how reform will affect Americans, as a practical matter.

Health Insurers and Tobacco Companies Make Strange Bedfellows

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that several health insurance companies own a significant amount of stock in tobacco companies. This means that they literally have a financial interest in ensuring that demand for tobacco continues. It also, according to at least one expert, eliminates any doubt that insurance companies are for-profit organizations who are motivated by profit, not the health of its customers.

The Secret To Health Reform Success

A recent Congressional Budget Office report points to the role of private insurers as a key factor in the success of healthcare reform efforts. According to the Washington Post, the limited role of the private marketplace sounded the death knell for the Clinton reform plan in the early 1990's because a large and dramatically expanded governmental role was not, and still is not, politically viable. Reformers have been careful to avoid similar issues this time around by maintaining an active role for private insurers and proposing health insurance exchanges that would include both public and private insurance options.

Health insurance

Health insurance is insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies. It may be purchased on a group basis (e.g., by a firm to cover its employees) or purchased by individual consumers. In each case, the covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from high or unexpected healthcare expenses. Similar benefits paying for medical expenses may also be provided through social welfare programs funded by the government.
By estimating the overall risk of healthcare expenses, a routine finance structure (such as a monthly premium or annual tax) can be developed, ensuring that money is available to pay for the healthcare benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization such as a government agency, private business, or not-for-profit entity.


History and evolution
The concept of health insurance was proposed in 1694 by Hugh the Elder Chamberlen from the Peter Chamberlen family. In the late 19th century, "accident insurance" began to be available, which operated much like modern disability insurance.[2][3] This payment model continued until the start of the 20th century in some jurisdictions (like California), where all laws regulating health insurance actually referred to disability insurance.[4]
Accident insurance was first offered in the United States by the Franklin Health Assurance Company of Massachusetts. This firm, founded in 1850, offered insurance against injuries arising from railroad and steamboat accidents. Sixty organizations were offering accident insurance in the U.S. by 1866, but the industry consolidated rapidly soon thereafter. While there were earlier experiments, the origins of sickness coverage in the U.S. effectively date from 1890. The first employer-sponsored group disability policy was issued in 1911.[5]
Before the development of medical expense insurance, patients were expected to pay all other health care costs out of their own pockets, under what is known as the fee-for-service business model. During the middle to late 20th century, traditional disability insurance evolved into modern health insurance programs. Today, most comprehensive private health insurance programs cover the cost of routine, preventive, and emergency health care procedures, and also most prescription drugs, but this was not always the case.

Hospital and medical expense policies were introduced during the first half of the 20th century. During the 1920s, individual hospitals began offering services to individuals on a pre-paid basis, eventually leading to the development of Blue Cross organizations.[5] The predecessors of today's Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) originated beginning in 1929, through the 1930s and on during World War II.[6][7]

How it works

A health insurance policy is a contract between an insurance company and an individual or his sponsor (e.g. an employer). The contract can be renewable annually or monthly. The type and amount of health care costs that will be covered by the health insurance company are specified in advance, in the member contract or "Evidence of Coverage" booklet. The individual insurered person's obligations may take several forms:[8]

• Premium:The amount the policy-holder or his sponsor (e.g. an employer) pays to the health plan each month to purchase health coverage.
• Deductible:The amount that the insured must pay out-of-pocket before the health insurer pays its share. For example, a policy-holder might have to pay a $500 deductible per year, before any of their health care is covered by the health insurer. It may take several doctor's visits or prescription refills before the insured person reaches the deductible and the insurance company starts to pay for care.
• Copayment: The amount that the insured must pay out-of-pocket before the health insurer pays its share. For example, a policy-holder might have to pay a $500 deductible per year, before any of their health care is covered by the health insurer. It may take several doctor's visits or prescription refills before the insured person reaches the deductible and the insurance company starts to pay for care.
• Coinsurance: Instead of, or in addition to, paying a fixed amount up front (a copayment), the co-insurance is a percentage of the total cost that insured person may also pay. For example, the member might have to pay 20% of the cost of a surgery over and above a co-payment, while the insurance company pays the other 80%. If there is an upper limit on coinsurance, the policy-holder could end up owing very little, or a great deal, depending on the actual costs of the services they obtain.
• Exclusions:Not all services are covered. The insured person is generally expected to pay the full cost of non-covered services out of their own pocket.
• Coverage limits: Some health insurance policies only pay for health care up to a certain dollar amount. The insured person may be expected to pay any charges in excess of the health plan's maximum payment for a specific service. In addition, some insurance company schemes have annual or lifetime coverage maximums. In these cases, the health plan will stop payment when they reach the benefit maximum, and the policy-holder must pay all remaining costs.

How to find and keep affordable health insurance

The writers and editors at the Health Insurance Resource Center put the pieces of the medical insurance puzzle together for you in our Health Insurance 101 section, as well as shifting through the best information from across the Internet throughout our pages:
Finding individual health insurance for your family can be confusing. We provide several tools to help you make better choices.

• Get no-obligation health insurance quotes.



• Explore our glossary of medical insurance terms.



• Learn about alternatives to employer-sponsored coverage, including COBRA and high-risk insurance pools.



• Peruse Frequently Asked Questions about health care.



• Understand health insurance options for the self-employed.

What can you do to provide low-cost protection for your family's health? Here at the Health Insurance Resource Center, we strive to make you a better-informed consumer to aid you in your quest to secure and keep an adequate health plan for your family, regardless of your individual situation.

Lack of health insurance is an epidemic. What's the cure?

Nearly 16 percent of Americans – 47 million people – are uninsured. According to a story in USAToday, the people without health insurance aren't just the poor – they are all of us. Medical bills are the cause of more than half of all personal bankruptcies in the United States.

Urge Congress to act – now.

The fact that millions lack access to quality, affordable health insurance is easily the biggest domestic crisis facing our nation. Our advocacy page gives you the tools to help convince Congress to support President Obama's call for health care reform. His plans are to ensure health plans do not discriminate on the basis of pre-existing conditions, expand access to the government's own insurance program, lower the cost on existing plans and give you the ability to keep your coverage if you switch jobs or become self-employed. Contact a member of the House of Representatives. Contact a US Senator. Contact the White House

Healthinsurance.org has long-held a well-deserved reputation for promoting health insurance reform, and with President Obama's election we are stepping up our efforts.

International Health Insurance

Personal Insurance Advice

Our objective is to ensure what is important to you by offering professional advice and competitive quotes so you are prepared when unexpected events strike, and you can get on with enjoying life.
When you are traveling the world, whether for work or for pleasure, it is important to be protected by a comprehensive insurance plan.

A simple guide to International Medical Insurance

Leaving your home country and moving abroad to live and work is a big decision and having to concern yourself with medical insurance brings unwanted stress.
Many employers provide medical cover for their staff at home but this is not always the case overseas and in some cases the cover is not sufficient or is inappropriate for every employee.