Save time and money while getting quality, affordable and convenient medical care in your neighborhood
http://www.thelittleclinic.com/
http://www.minuteclinic.com/en/USA/
IRS Deductible Medical Expenses For HSA's Please click on link below for details http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf
Learn More about Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSAs) http://www.hsacenter.com
Links for discount perscription drug programs at local pharmacies near you.
Kroger - www.kroger.com/generic
Giant Eagle - www.gianteagle.com/Main/PharmacyDrugProgram.aspx?cntid=182262
Walmart - http://i.walmartimages.com/i/if/hmp/fusion/customer_list.pdf
Target - http://sites.target.com/site/en/health/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-004319
Rite Aid - http://www.riteaid.com/company/news/news_details.jsf?itemNumber=1106
Walgreens - http://www.walgreens.com/pharmacy/default.jsp?headerSel=yes&tab=pharmacy
Kmart - http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/dap_10151_10104_DAP_Kmart+Pharmacy+Generics?adCell=W3
Excellent Short videos on How Health Insurance Works
Professor Warren warns about risks of medical bankruptcy
Post Date: February 10, 2005
Harvard Law School
Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy.
Health insurance? That didn't protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.
A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.
As part of a research study at Harvard University, our researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.
But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.
How did illness bankrupt middle-class Americans with health insurance? For some, high co-payments, deductibles, exclusions from coverage and other loopholes left them holding the bag for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs when serious illness struck. But even families with Cadillac coverage were often bankrupted by medical problems.
Too sick to work, they suddenly lost their jobs. With the jobs went most of their income and their health insurance -- a quarter of all employers cancel coverage the day you leave work because of a disabling illness; another quarter do so in less than a year. Many of the medically bankrupt qualified for some disability payments (eventually), and had the right under the COBRA law to continue their health coverage -- if they paid for it themselves. But how many families can afford a $1,000 monthly premium for coverage under COBRA, especially after the breadwinner has lost his or her job?
Often, the medical bills arrived just as the insurance and the paycheck disappeared.
Bankrupt families lost more than just assets. One out of five went without food. A third had their utilities shut off, and nearly two-thirds skipped needed doctor or dentist visits. These families struggled to stay out of bankruptcy. They arrived at the bankruptcy courthouse exhausted and emotionally spent, brought low by a health care system that could offer physical cures but that left them financially devastated.
Many in Congress have a response to the problem of the growing number of medical bankruptcies: make it harder for families to file bankruptcy regardless of the reason for their financial troubles. Bankruptcy legislation -- widely known as the credit industry wish list -- has been introduced yet again to increase costs and decrease protection for every family that turns to the bankruptcy system for help. With the dramatic rise in medical bankruptcies now documented, this tired approach would be no different than a congressional demand to close hospitals in response to a flu epidemic. Making bankruptcy harder puts the fallout from a broken health care system back on families, leaving them with no escape.
The problem is not in the bankruptcy laws. The problem is in the health care finance system and in chronic debates about reforming it. The Harvard study shows:
ý Health insurance isn't an on-off switch, giving full protection to everyone who has it. There is real coverage and there is faux coverage. Policies that can be canceled when you need them most are often useless. So is bare-bones coverage like the Utah Medicaid program pioneered by new Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt; it pays for primary care visits but not specialists or hospital care. We need to talk about quality, durable coverage, not just about how to get more names listed on nearly-useless insurance policies.
ý The link between jobs and health insurance is strained beyond the breaking point. A harsh fact of life in America is that illness leads to job loss, and that can mean a double kick when people lose their insurance. Promising them high-priced coverage through COBRA is meaningless if they can't afford to pay. Comprehensive health insurance is the only real solution, not just for the poor but for middle-class Americans as well.
Without better coverage, millions more Americans will be hit by medical bankruptcy over the next decade. It will not be limited to the poorly educated, the barely employed or the uninsured. The people financially devastated by a serious illness are at the heart of the middle class.
Every 30 seconds in the United States, someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. Time is running out. A broken health care system is bankrupting families across this country.
Insurance Relief for Early Retirees
Sponsored by
by Anne Tergesen
Monday, June 7, 2010
Early retirement, a dream of many, can turn into a nightmare for those unable to secure health insurance. Now, two new federal programs may provide some relief.
Only 31% of large employers in 2008 offered medical coverage to early retirees, down from 66% in 1988, according to federal health officials. With individual policies, insurers turn down about 30% of applicants ages 60 to 64, according to America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry association. Those they accept often pay steep premiums.
"This is a group that cannot find affordable coverage," says David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP, the Washington-based advocacy group.
Enter health-care reform. Under the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, the federal government will dole out $5 billion to employers -- public, private and nonprofit -- over the next four years to offset some of the costs of providing medical and prescription-drug coverage for retirees ages 55 to 64 and their families.
Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, says this might "help curb the trend toward employers dropping coverage for early retirees."
Employer interest seems high. Some 76% of the 245 large companies that Hewitt Associates surveyed in May plan to apply for funds under the program, which started June 1. Hewitt estimates that those accepted are likely to realize substantial savings -- an average of between $2,000 to $3,000 per early retiree, or approximately 25% to 35% of the cost of insuring early retirees.
Some of the savings may trickle down to early retirees in the form of lower premiums or smaller premium increases as soon as next year, says Mr. Fronstin. The law requires employers to apply their savings to the cost of providing health insurance.
Under a second program, set to launch in July, the federal government has allocated $5 billion to create "high-risk" insurance pools in each state and Washington D.C. To qualify for coverage, applicants must have a pre-existing health condition and have been uninsured for at least the past six months. There is no age requirement.
Premiums are expected to be more affordable than those under previously established state "high-risk" pools, says Wayne Nelson, president of Communicating for America, a nonprofit that tracks the older program. Moreover, the new program will cap an individual's out-of-pocket costs at $5,950 per year. Some information already is available at HealthReform.gov.
Both programs are scheduled to expire on Jan. 1, 2014. That's when, under the new law, insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage based on a pre-existing condition.
Write to Anne Tergesen at anne.tergesen@wsj.com
June 10, 2010
Uninsured more likely to die during hospital stay, study finds
Posted: 12:05 AM ET
By Sabriya Rice
CNN Medical Producer
When uninsured patients are treated in the hospital for heart attack, stroke and pneumonia, they are more likely to die from the conditions during their hospital stay, a new study finds.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womenýs Hospital in Massachusetts investigated the impact of insurance coverage on hospital care, by analyzing the discharge data of more than 150 thousand adults between ages 18 and 64. The study, published today in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, found that compared with hospitalized patients who have insurance, uninsured patients were 52 percent more likely to die in the hospital after a heart attack and 49 percent more likely to die in the hospital after a stroke. Patients on Medicaid were 21 percent more likely to die in the hospital while receiving treatment for pneumonia.
The study authors say these findings are ýconcerning,ý especially considering vast improvements over the past few decades in treating these common conditions.
So what are the reasons for the disparities? Though this study could not address that particular question, in the study's conclusion Dr. Omar Hasan, the lead author, cites three main schools of thought he says could help explain the findings:
1) The uninsured are more likely to delay care
Recent studies, including one from Saint Lukeýs Mid America Heart Institute, have shown that people without insurance are more likely to delay seeking care for heart attacks, stroke and pneumonia because of concerns about the cost of treatment. As a result, ýpatients let their disease progress to the point where they were sicker by the time they got to the hospital,ý Hasan explains.
2) Hospitals avoid doing high-cost procedures on the uninsured
Studies from health disparity researchers at American Thoracic Society, for example, highlight how uninsured patients are less likely to receive lifesaving procedures such as pulmonary artery catheterizations when they are in the hospital. The researchers at Harvard say findings like these are a big part of the problem. "If every patient who walks into the hospital gets the care they need based on the best available evidence about making decisions, you should not have a gap at all," says Hasan, who is also a fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
3) Possibility of substandard care
In their analysis, the Harvard report cites studies, including a comparison of uninsured and privately insured patients which concluded that the uninsured were at greater risk for receiving substandard care and that there are differences in the way uninsured patients are managed in the hospital.
As health care reform is implemented in the U.S., Hasan encourages policy makers to take these disparities into consideration as they revamp legislation. "One of the pillars of providing high quality health care is that there's equity across all populations," he says.
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