A new survey revealed that a majority of “big employers plan to shift a larger share of health-care costs to their workers next year,” reports David S. Hilzenrath from The Washington Post. The survey found that 56 percent of employers plan to make their employees pay more of the costs next year. A lot of companies say they might “charge more to cover spouses, tighten eligibility standards for their health plans and dispense financial rewards or penalties based on the results of certain lab tests,” states Hilzenrath. Some companies even say that overweight employees might be excluded from the most desirable plans.
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It is easy to learn about symptoms of men having a heart attack, but like most everything in life, women and men are completely different… even when it comes to having a heart attack.
WebMD.com has provided the down low on warning signs for women when it comes to having a heart attack…
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Anthem Blue Cross’ parent called off a meeting with investors that was scheduled for next week to “review its 2010 financial outlook so that executives can prepare for a congressional hearing into its large rate hikes for individual policyholders in California,” states Duke Helfand from the Los Angeles Times. WellPoint Inc. Chief Executive Angela F. Braly has been called to testify next week about the future rate hikes of as much as 39%.
WellPoint has postponed the planned premium increases until May 1, “amid criticisms from consumers, state officials, members of Congress and the Obama administration,” reports Helfand. WellPoint blames the drastic increases on the rising medical costs, and said less than a quarter of individual policyholders would actually suffer from rate increases of 35% to 39%.
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President Obama revealed on Sunday that he plans to assemble a public meeting at the end of the month with Republican and Democratic leaders to reach a bipartisan consensus on healthcare reform. Obama wants to hear Republican’s input in regards to healthcare reform, however, he does not want to completely start over, only take the best ideas and move forward. Newt Gingrich and John C. Goodman from The Washington Post say, “The best ideas out there are not those that were passed by the House and Senate last year, which consist of more spending, more regulations and more bureaucracy.”
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It’s not a secret that breast implants, eyebrow lifts or liposuction procedures are hard on the wallet. In most cases these surgeries are not covered by health insurance providers. Regardless of those facts people continue to receive more cosmetic surgeries every year.
WebMD.com has helped provide some financial tips and information about how to finance your upcoming cosmetic procedure.
First knowing the cost of specific cosmetic procedures is important up front, speak to your doctor about what you can afford before committing to a procedure.
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Anthem Blue Cross, California’s largest for-profit insurer, was asked by California insurance regulators to postpone problematic rate increases for individual policies. These rate increases, some as much as 39%, have “triggered widespread criticism from subscribers and brokers — and now from the federal government,” reports Duke Helfand from the Los Angeles Times. The Obama administration requested that Anthem justify these rate increases, and according to Helfand, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “voiced serious concern [in a letter to Anthem's president] over the higher premiums, which go into effect March 1 for many of the insurer’s estimated 800,000 individual policyholders.”
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Dr. Pauline W. Chen from The New York Times says being a doctor involves knowing the clinical facts like the back of your hand, but it also involves being aware of a patient’s economic reality. She recalls a time when she told one of her patients that he was to pack gauze into his open abdominal incision every day in order to keep it clean and healthy, and then come back in a few weeks for a check-up. However, when the patient arrived for his visit, Dr. Chen noticed the patient had not been changing the gauze as ordered, and his wound was no longer healthy and clean. When Dr. Chen began to stress to him the importance of changing the dressing, he pointed to a stack of unopened gauze, and said, “Hey, Doc … Do you think I could have the extra? This stuff isn’t cheap.” She says she filled the patient’s pockets with gauze, and then began to realize the importance of embracing the social and economic aspects of health care. She says, “It [is] possible to learn about the economic and social aspects of health care while immersed in the details of biology, physiology and pharmacology. And it [is] impossible to become a good clinician without doing so.”
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Congressional Democrats are trying to move forward with health care reform bit by bit, contrary to their original plan to pass a massive health care reform bill. Chad Pergram from Fox News reports that, “On Friday, two freshmen Democrats plan to unveil a bill to lift the anti-trust exemption that many health insurance companies now enjoy. House Democratic leaders plan to put that bill on the floor next week.”
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Andrew Rubin from The Huffington Post says he is upset about healthcare reform failing, but is most upset that many Americans are unaware of what has actually happened. He says, “Sure, they know the Senate and House reform bills were expensive. They certainly know that there are among 30 to 50 million Americans without health insurance coverage… We should also not forget about the 25 million under insured, most of whom do not even realize it until they actually get sick.”
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St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan has been helping people for over 150 years, and has “treated victims of calamities, from the cholera epidemic of 1849 to the sinking of the Titanic, the 9/11 terrorist attack and, just last year, the Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549,” reports Anemona Hartocollis from The New York Times. However, the hospital is now struggling to stay alive, and a big chain of hospitals has “proposed to take over St. Vincent’s, shut down its inpatient beds and most of its emergency room services, and convert it into an outpatient center tied into the chain’s own hospitals uptown and across town to the east,” states Hartocollis. If St. Vincent’s were to be taken over, it could be the end of the last Roman Catholic general hospital in New York City.
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Kjersten Forseth from The Huffington Post says that in order for our economy to recover, we must reform the nation’s health care system. She reports that, “884,000 families have been forced to file bankruptcy because of medical bills and over 44,000 people have died from lack of coverage all while medical costs continue to rise. Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcies and foreclosures in this country and health care costs account for one-sixth of our nation’s economy.”
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