The two main component of a health insurance plan are the premium and costs you pay for health care via your co-pay, co-insurance and deductible. The more you agree to pay for your health care, the less your monthly premium will be. Insurance companies know that when people have a financial stake in their own health care bills they tend to be more judicious in their use of medical services. Agreeing to pay a higher deductible, or rate of co-insurance, will result in lower monthly premiums. Sometimes these reductions can be quite significant and if saved will cover most if not all of the cost of the higher deductible.

This approach is less effective for people who use a lot of health care services every year, racking up large bills. However, for people who are generally health and don’t use a lot of health care, they can realize dramatic savings using a high deductible health plan. Plans with high premiums are guaranteed to cost you a lot of money even if you don’t go to the doctor. Plans with high deductibles will only cost you a lot if you actually use medical services.

Use Tax Advantages

There are a few ways to reduce your health insurance costs using the income tax system. The first and most common way is to use a health savings account otherwise known as an HSA. An HSA is a special banking account you are allowed to put pretax money in to spend on health care costs. The money you put into your health savings account does not get taxed as regular income. Depending on the tax bracket you are in, this can be a significant discount on health care costs. Many health care plans do not cover things like maternity, dental services and eye care. However, these services can be paid for out of an HSA.

To be eligible for an HSA, you must have a high deductible health insurance plan that meets the IRS requirements for health savings accounts. Generally you have to carry a high deductible and the plan has to have limits on total out of pocket cots.

If you are facing large health care bills, you may be able to deduct them from your income tax. You are allowed to deduct any medical expenses above 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. There are a wide variety of services that can be included in this amount, even a mileage deduction for transportation to and from the hospital. Make sure to consult a tax advisor if you choose to go this route.

Use your free Preventive Care

All health insurance plans are now required to provide free preventive care, so make sure you use it. Routine checkups and some testing is free for adults. Well baby visits and immunizations are free for children. These are significant benefits so make sure you are taking full advantage of them.

Shop Around

One of the reasons health care has become so expensive is there is little price competition. Don’t be afraid to ask what a doctor charges, especially for planned or expected health care. Some hospitals can be very competitive on price for services like labor and delivery, while others can be quite expensive. Don’t assume health care costs the same everywhere, it certainly does not.

Emergency rooms are especially to be avoided if you are looking to reduce your health care costs. They should only be used for true emergencies. For non life threatening medical issues like ear infections or even a cut requiring stitches, consider using an urgent care or local clinic. The costs of services at these locations can be a tenth of what an emergency room will charge.

Stay Healthy

This may sound like tired advice, but staying out of the hospital is the best way to reduce your costs. Try putting everyday activities in terms of what they may cost you in the long run. Sitting on the couch with a big bowl of ice cream is much more expensive than a nice walk outside. If living a long life isn’t enough motivation to be healthy now, consider that your unhealthy lifestyle will cost you a lot of money in health care costs.

 

My name is John Ross and I have spent my entire 40 + year career in health care. Specifically, my background and experience is in developing and managing evidence planning, reimbursement applications, and health economics strategies for a number of fortune 500 health care technology businesses. In short, my job was to help the companies that I worked for to understand the health care market place from three important perspectives. The first was to answer the question; “What can we expect to be paid for the medical technologies we are developing and planning to market? The second question; “will the results and/or lower costs associated with the use of these medical technologies justify the payment level we think they deserve? Finally, what product development, marketing and sales strategies do we need to employ to insure that our future medical technologies are quickly accepted by hospitals, physicians, payers and patients? Obviously with such a focus I had to deal with Medicare (health insurance for folks over age 65 and the disabled), Medicaid (state-run insurance programs for the less fortunate) and commercial health insurance companies (the companies that insure and administer employer-based health insurance plans). I also spent a lot of time assessing the needs of physicians, hospitals and large integrated health care delivery networks that purchase and use a wide array of medical technologies.

From a funding standpoint I have seen America’s health care system go from almost “anything goes” to today’s increasing focus on cost and outcomes. Outcomes, is just another way of asking the question; “for the dollars we are spending nationally or on a particular patient’s disease or injury are we getting a good value in return? In other words, is the price of the drug, medical device, procedure, diagnostic or surgical intervention worth the cost in terms of better results and lower costs compared to how we would traditionally manage this patient’s condition?

This blog is a forum for talking “honestly” about:

1. Where health care in America is going?

2. Why it is going there?

3. What can we expect from tomorrow’s health care system compared to what we have become used to?

4. What we can do to the best of our ability to use less of it (think preventive health strategies)?

5. How we should think about and help those unfortunate individuals, young and old, who need more of it than we do?

6. How can we help to make sure those who need health care get access to good health care when they need it?

7. What can we do to increase the chances that state of the art health care will be there when we need it and at a price we can afford?

I will also provide education as to how the health care system works from the various perspectives of the stakeholders. It is vital that we understand these perspectives, what drives them and the many conflicts that exist. Areas to cover will be:

1. What is happening to hospitals and physicians in this changing health care landscape?

2. What is happening to the development of innovative future medical technologies and pharmaceuticals?

3. Where is Medicare policy going with regard to payments to physicians and hospitals and other care settings?

4. What is the future of employer-sponsored health insurance plans?

5. Where is changing with regard to private health care insurance companies?

6. What will happen to patient costs?

7. What can I do to avoid premature, unnecessary or unproven health care interventions?

8. What role will “evidence and data” play in the future in giving us more information from which to make personal or family member health care decisions?

I would like this to be the place that you can visit when you hear politicians or anyone else for that matter promising something from health care that just doesn’t make sense. We all know the feeling we get when we hear an “it’s too good to be true” story. When we hear such fantastic promises, we better check it out and this will be a place where you can do that. So, bring your concerns and questions and I will do my best to help you to check them out!

Have you heard this one; “under my health plan, you need not to worry. Your costs will remain reasonable, you can keep your doctor and you will have access to state of the art health care”. Or, “it is every ones right to access the very best in health care, young and old, rich and poor no matter your ability to pay.” This would be nice but it is simply not reality and it is time that we talk about these things and deal with them with our rose-colored glasses removed. So, no matter what your point of view on this subject I encourage you to visit ask and comment. We need a grass-roots effort aimed at understanding health care and in particular we need to talk about its funding limits and what we can do to assure that those who need it – get it, and at a level of quality and at a manageable cost such that we can afford it as a nation. If we don’t do this it is highly likely that health care as we have known it America will not be available when we face our own or a family members serious and costly illness.

The fundamental flaw in our individual approach to health care is the notion that we have no responsibility for it except to expect it to be there, with no delay, and at state of the art levels of care. And that for the most part it should be paid for by someone else. Most politicians right now are not leveling with us. They don’t want to address the areas that I have addressed even in this my first edition health care blog. Well, I think that we are better than that! I think with the right information we can manage through the changes that are coming. We want to do the right thing but to do so we have to be informed as to how stretched the health care system is and what we can do to unburden this precious resource.

First, we can stretch health care dollars and resources by taking better care of ourselves. The goal is to do what “we” can do in terms of learning about and practicing preventive disease strategies, thereby reducing the amount and cost of health care interventions we need. By behaving this way we free up our local health care systems funding and limited physical capacity to treat those who are truly in need. Every one of us that invests in preventive disease strategies will find that the beneficiary is you, your family, and your finances. Pretty tangible benefits wouldn’t you say? Perhaps bigger than that is what this behavior and better health for yourself and the avoidance of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, pulmonary (breathing) conditions, diabetes and a host of other conditions can do to unburden the nation’s health care system. We need to preserve it, both in terms of resources and dollars, for those who are less fortunate and have to access the system for serious health problems. How good would that feel?

Some would say that America is a scary place to be these days. The events of 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, continued threats from terrorism, the housing and subsequent financial meltdowns, the political infighting that gets us nowhere, and yes the health care crisis. These all create the tendency to make us want to “wring our hands” instead of “wringing the necks of politicians” that refuse to provide the leadership that we need.

I have come to a conclusion. I have seen enough to know that the leadership we need has to come from us, the individuals who make up the electorate. Waiting around for politicians to act means we don’t understand the world of politics. Politicians only move in one direction or another when an exercised and voting electorate (that’s us) frames the issues and leads the way to a solution. It is almost never the other way around.

Bringing it back to health care and the question of what one individual can do to improve things, it starts with one individual and another until we have millions pulling in the same direction. If we manage our health to the best of our ability (and I want to emphasize, truly to the best of our ability) and access the health care system only when we need it, paying a little more out-of-pocket for the incidental and non-life threatening ills and spills we all experience, the system could accommodate us all when we really need it.

So there it is in a nut shell – I have spelled out what I believe is our responsibility; that if we all pulled in the same direction as described above (think of disease prevention and what this can do for you and those who do need to access the health care system) we would dramatically and permanently free up this precious and finite resource and it would be there for others in need and, when we need it and in most cases at far less cost. We are all in this together folks, rich and poor, the older among us and the younger and if we just act responsibly and for the good of others in this matter, we would solve the problem. And then, we could work on the next challenge and the next one after that until we see clearly the power of teamwork – “all for one and one for all”. That kind of thinking and behavior can work wonders. We all know it deep down – so let’s just do it!

First, let’s get a little historical perspective on American health care. To do that, let’s turn to the American civil war era. In that war, dated tactics and the carnage inflicted by modern weapons of the era combined to cause terrible results. Most of the deaths on both sides of that war were not the result of actual combat but to what happened after a battlefield wound was inflicted. To begin with, evacuation of the wounded moved at a snail’s pace in most instances causing severe delays in treatment of the wounded. Secondly, most wounds were subjected to wound related surgeries and amputations and this often resulted in massive infection. So you might survive a battle wound only to die at the hands of medical care providers whose good intentioned interventions were often quite lethal. High death tolls can also be ascribed to everyday sicknesses and diseases in a time when no antibiotics existed. In total something like 600,000 deaths occurred from all causes, over 2% of the U.S. population at the time!

Let’s skip to the first half of the 20th century for some additional perspective and to bring us up to more modern times. After the civil war there were steady improvements in American medicine in both the understanding and treatment of certain diseases, new surgical techniques and in physician education and training. But for the most part the best that doctors could offer their patients was a “wait and see” approach. Medicine could handle bone fractures and perform risky surgeries and the like (now increasingly practiced in sterile surgical environments) but medicines were not yet available to handle serious illnesses. The majority of deaths remained the result of untreatable conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlet fever and measles and/or related complications. Doctors were increasingly aware of heart and vascular conditions, and cancer but they had almost nothing with which to treat these conditions.

This very basic understanding of American medical history helps us to understand that until quite recently (around the 1950’s) we had virtually no technologies with which to treat serious or even minor ailments. Nothing to treat you with means that visits to the doctor if at all were relegated to emergencies so in that scenario costs were obviously minuscule. A second factor that has become a key driver of today’s health care costs is that medical treatments that were provided were paid for out-of-pocket. There was no health insurance and certainly not health insurance paid by someone else like an employer. Costs were the responsibility of the individual and perhaps a few charities that among other things supported charity hospitals for the poor and destitute.

What does health care insurance have to do with health care costs? Its impact on health care costs is enormous. When health insurance for individuals and families emerged as a means for corporations to escape wage freezes and to attract and retain employees after World War II, almost overnight there was a great pool of money available for health care. Money, as a result of the availability of billions of dollars from health insurance pools, encouraged an innovative America to increase medical research efforts. As more and more Americans became insured not only through private, employer sponsored health insurance but through increased government funding that created Medicare, Medicaid and expanded veteran health care benefits, finding a cure for almost anything has become very lucrative. This is also the primary reason for the vast array of treatments we have available today. I do not wish to convey that this is a bad thing. Think of the tens of millions of lives that have been saved, extended and made more productive as a result. But with a funding source grown to its current magnitude (hundreds of billions of dollars annually) upward pressure on health care costs are inevitable. Doctor’s offer and most of us demand and get access to the latest available health care technology, pharmaceuticals and surgical interventions. So there is more health care to spend our money on and until very recently most of us were insured and the costs were largely covered by a third-party (government, employers). This is the “perfect storm” for higher and higher health care costs and by and large, the storm is intensifying.

At this point, let’s turn to a key question. Is the current trajectory of U.S. health care spending sustainable? Can America maintain its world competitiveness when 16%, heading for 20% of our gross national product is being spent on health care? What are the other industrialized countries spending on health care and is it even close to these numbers? Add politics and an election year and the whole issue gets badly muddled and misrepresented.

I believe that we need a revolutionary change in the way we think about health care, its availability, its costs and who pays for it. And if you think I am about to say we should arbitrarily and drastically reduce spending on health care you would be wrong. Here it is fellow citizens – health care spending needs to be preserved and protected for those who need it. And to free up these dollars those of us who don’t need it or can delay it or avoid it need to act. First, we need to convince our politicians that this country needs sustained public education with regard to the value of preventive health strategies. This should be a top priority and it has worked to reduce the number of U.S. smokers for example. If prevention were to take hold, it is reasonable to assume that those needing health care for the myriad of life style engendered chronic diseases would decrease dramatically. Millions of Americans are experiencing these diseases far earlier than in decades past and much of this is due to poor life style choices. This change alone would free up plenty of money to handle the health care costs of those in dire need of treatment, whether due to an acute emergency or chronic condition.

Let’s go deeper on the first issue. Most of us refuse do something about implementing basic wellness strategies into our daily lives. We don’t exercise but we offer a lot of excuses. We don’t eat right but we offer a lot of excuses. We smoke and/or drink alcohol to excess and we offer a lot of excuses as to why we can’t do anything about it. We don’t take advantage of preventive health check-ups that look at blood pressure, cholesterol readings and body weight but we offer a lot of excuses. In short we neglect these things and the result is that we succumb much earlier than necessary to chronic diseases like heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. We wind up accessing doctors for these and more routine matters because “health care is there” and somehow we think we have no responsibility for reducing our demand on it.

It is difficult for us to listen to these truths but easy to blame the sick. Maybe they should take better care of themselves! Well, that might be true or maybe they have a genetic condition and they have become among the unfortunate through absolutely no fault of their own. But the point is that you and I can implement personalized preventive disease measures as a way of dramatically improving health care access for others while reducing its costs. It is far better to be productive by doing something we can control then shifting the blame.

A healthy and balanced way of living starts with a healthy and balanced body. Americans have becoming progressively undesirable, sedentary, and also miserable in the last years and rank relatively lower on the range than various other countries for overall healthfulness as well as happiness. The two do typically go together. Excessive weight is on the rise, carefully associated with an inactive way of living as well as is just one of the leading factors for depression. The well-known line “a healthy and balanced mind brings about a healthy and balanced body” likewise applies when discussing general healthfulness. This is a checklist of the top health ideas for leading a pleased as well as healthy and balanced way of living.

· Don’t diet plan. Consume healthier all of the time as well as it will certainly be much better in the future. Reducing weight gradually is generally much better than shedding it quickly and is most likely to remain off.

· Eat a high fiber diet regimen. This is a crucial leading wellness pointer. This includes entire grains, brown bread, and also grains. Fiber controls the digestion system and minimizes the danger of digestive tract cancer. Ordinary concerning 13-18 grams of fiber a day.

· Stay away from harmful artificial sweeteners, and attempt to substitute sugar with the likes of natural sweetening options such as agave nectar or even better stevia sweetening agent that is secure and sweet.

· Lower the amount of saturated fat taken in daily. Only 35% of daily calorie consumption need to be fat calories as well as just 10% of those need to be from hydrogenated fats.

· Drink much less alcohol. Males and female have different demands – females need to have less than 14 systems weekly and also males must have much less than 21 systems of alcohol. That is equivalent to one glass of one or half a pint of beer. Customarily, small amounts wins out – a small amount of alcohol helps the heart while a large amount is bad.

· Attempt to consume the suggested five vegetables and fruits portions a day. It aids to differ the everyday diet with various colored fruits and vegetables and likewise offers a vast array of minerals and vitamins.

· Take in more fish. Omega three fats in the oils are extremely protective against heart disease and also raised cholesterol levels. The advised weekly offering of fish is a couple of – because it offers 1.5 grams of fatty acids.

· Minimize the quantity of salt consumed. No more than 5-6 grams of salt ought to be taken in everyday and excessive salt can trigger heart problems later.

· Drink about 8 ounces of liquid a day. This is not restricted to water and container be fruit juices. This assists the kidneys to flush as well as stay healthy and balanced and reduces urinary system infections.

· Take vitamin and mineral supplements as a back up just. It is much easier to eat the correct foods and also meet the minimum nutrient needs.

· One of one of the most crucial leading health ideas is to work out! Workout thirty minutes a day at the very least to reduce the threat of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers cells, as well as most importantly, to fight obesity.

These leading wellness suggestions covered total wellness, however it is important to keep in mind that there are various other ways to assist our bodies stay healthy and balanced. For ladies, we need to seek to lower our risk of osteoporosis. For men, prostate wellness and heart health and wellness are really vital. These are the top health ideas for bone health:

· Weight control. The bones are the shock absorbers of the body. If the body weighs greater than is suggested the bones are under undue stress and anxiety as well as can lead to osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and also enhanced high blood pressure. Stay clear of junk foods that are high in fat and also cholesterol and also have little nutritional worth.

· Activity is one more important leading health pointer. This will certainly maintain the body from putting on weight and also the joints tensing up from disuse. Reduced influence for in jeopardy people is ideal.

· Do weight bearing exercises. As an individual ages their bones come to be less thick and also more weak. Strengthening joints and also bones with low influence workout is ideal; not only does it maintain the bones and also joints relocating, it likewise maintains the heart as well as other body systems in shape.

· Versatility exercises are a top wellness idea as well; range of movement boosts joint health by lubricating the joints as well as maintaining them from coming to be rigid.

· Dietary help that are rich in calcium, vitamin D, and also phosphorus normally strengthen bones.

These leading health and wellness suggestions will certainly help anyone achieve a healthy life style as well as improve general health. A go-getter is better than an inactive one. This checklist supplied the leading health ideas for accomplishing a reduced overall body weight, a much healthier heart, and also assists to lengthening the results of aging. Reading this list of top wellness pointers can assist with leading a far better lifestyle.

 

While dealing with our lives, particularly as we grow older, we think about our death and concentrate more emphasis on health and wellness pointers. We reviewed glossy publication write-ups which recommend us what to consume, what to consume, as well as how much of it should we take in. Morning and night news broadcasts show everyday or regular wellness pointers notifying us of the most up to date in nutritional details.

Aesthetically dazzling web sites blog site regarding cutting side wonder mechanisms which will certainly assist us melt fat and also attain excellent abdominal muscles. Electronics media outlets have actually shaped our philosophy entailing what’s good for us. They’ve inculcated in our heads what we need to do for our bodies based on countless lab experiments sponsored by business empires.

However what concerning taking a much more all natural approach to wellness ideas? Just how around making use of common sense to listen to your body and also discover what it specifically requires, or doesn’t require, to be at its ideal? Sounds unusual? Not if you put it in the right light.

Ever before understand how specifically eating fried chicken livers gave you heartburn? Notification when you particularly ate white rice as opposed to the much healthier wild rice, you felt sickeningly puffed up? Keep in mind particularly eating a couple of oysters that sent you scampering nervously for the local bathroom?

In each of these instances, you have actually especially identified what your body does not like. You paid attention to your body since it was hugely protesting the foods you fed it. Now, remember the last time you consumed an apple, or munched on a celery stick. Although it may have occurred a long while back, you do not bear in mind sensation anything, did you? You simply kept exactly on going with your day, downplaying just how your body greatly appreciated a nourishing snack. Your body kept quiet since it was happy. You gave your body with your very own health and wellness pointers without even recognizing it!

It ends up, for an expanding variety of people, you don’t have to spend great deals of bucks to acquire lots of magazines to obtain great deals of health. You don’t need to spend hrs clicking via web sites, one after the other, looking at your screen, trying to absorb every wellness details you discover. You simply need to pay attention to your body as well as make use of sound judgment. There’s no need to join a trendy gym. Remove the continuous whippings mass media supplies despite their good intents, and be your own resource of health pointers.

Every day brings a great deal of new pointers or old ones checked out from a different angle. You would certainly freak out trying to read as well as absorb them all. Then what typically happens? You get fed up and also reach for a don’t, tired of the incessant media barrage and also stray, seeking relief in sugars.

Take a minute and also merely remember your body is your uniqueness. Those articles you see as well as hear about are for the masses. Yes, they’re there to assist you, however take them only as a guide. When it comes right down to it, the best wellness suggestions are those which you’ve gained over the years living your life.

Look, your body will provide you your own fitness tips, it will certainly tell you what you need to be consuming and also what you ought to be avoiding. You just have to listen for those health tips!

You have a right to specify your assumptions on whatever facet of life you are researching on. So, it is the case when you are trying to obtain the very best means you can handle the pressures of health in your general life. There are numerous resources that assure you much better wellness and also you will be able to have this type of health and wellness.

The various suggestions that are available on health would certainly help you in mostly all facets of health and wellness that you would certainly think about. You can be certain that you would certainly locate them very actual and approximately date.

Health and wellness pointers for elegance

If you are not sick and also all you have an interest in is to enhance your looks or beauty, you would have to locate the very best pointers that would certainly assist you have the suitable elegance that you want. The tips are still available totally free. They will certainly help you in terms of shape as well as even face and also skin and hair elegance.

Wellness pointers for weight loss

When you need to slim down, the sort of suggestions that you would obtain would certainly also be described as health and wellness suggestions. When you have the optimal weight, you would be healthy which is why, you need to consider the tips keenly. Preferably, it is best that you utilize all of them.

Wellness pointers for condition prevention

Conditions can actually consider you down and make you shed hope in life. Also when several of them have treatment that functions, the discomfort is not worth it. the tips can aid you forget the discomfort as well as protect against conditions from getting involved in you entirely.

Health tips for fitness

Some of the tips that you would come across are those of routine body workout. In some cases you would certainly even see just how you can shed the fat and develop muscular tissues. This would contribute to physical fitness which is finest for you. So, it holds true that the tips can help you obtain in shape and on form.

Wellness pointers for nourishment

Nutrition is a very critical facet of our health and wellness. You can be sure that when you take the pointers seriously, you would never miss out on the best nutrition that you in fact need to like.

Health and wellness tips during pregnancy

Pregnancy is a very fragile duration both for the mother and the expected kid. There are pointers that would certainly help this mommy understand what she needs to do so that they are both healthy and balanced and also experience the duration without any stress. She will certainly be able to find this very important for her wellness and her baby’s.

Health tips on medicines

Drugs are great because they cure disease and keep us well. They can be harmful when they are considered provided. There are pointers that would certainly assist you recognize what you need to do particularly when you get on medications or on any type of type of therapy.

So, the several wellness tips that you can see are important for different elements of our lives. You can be certain that when you take the weight reduction ideas as part of your basic health and wellness understanding routine, you would certainly enjoy in life.