Hot MedFax

I blog I visit a lot recently asked a very interesting question.  How risky is it to be uninsured ? I particularly want to know because my husband, 64 but healthy, does not have health insurance, and never has.  (Of course, he also never goes to the doctor.) But Chris Conover at forbes.com, who poses that question, says a couple of things.  Some studies show you have an elevated risk of dying without insurance.  Try about 25% more.  But others, sifting similar data, find the risk statistically insignificant. Why?  People who smoke and/or are obese are more likely to be uninsured, sure risks for an early death. It's possible they're more comfortable taking risks and might speed or not wear seat belts, too.  Young people, who also often do not buy insurance (they'll live forever, remember?), have as one of their greatest causes of death, automobile accidents, Conover points out.  So, are they dying young from being hospitalized without insuran...

There's a lot of stuff going around about Obamacare , but guess who's going to benefit most, experts say?  Of course.  The Baby Boomers (full disclosure: I'm one). The Wall Street Journal reports that "the Affordable Care Act could deliver a major windfall to some boomers who are self-employed or unemployed, and to early retirees, by sharply cutting the costs of their health insurance. And a new report this week by Christopher Weaver and Louise Radnofsky of The Wall Street Journal shows just how big a price break some of those older consumers could get ." Woo hoo!  That's me.  For over 15 years I've been paying for my own health insurance, pricey from the beginning but outrageous when I hit both the 50-year mark and was diagnosed with cancer at the same time. I now pay over $800 a month just for me (at one point, it was over $1,000). And that's with a $5,000 deductible, so basically I'm paying my insurance company to go to the doctor. The ...

I don't know what scares me more.  Getting old, or knowing I'm not going to be able to pay for it. A study just out says that retired couples  should plan on spending $220,000 for medical expenses.  The really scary part is that the story applauds this, because that's down 8% from last year. While we're not that close to retirement, we're still starting to think about it. According to the AP, the study assumes a woman will live to 85 and a man to 82.  Fidelity, which did the study, attributes this drop to the slowdown in healthcare costs because of the economy (people are spending less on healthcare, or avoiding it altogether). We recently switched our health insurance -- maybe I should say my health insurance (my 62-year-old husband has none) -- to a high-deductible policy.  True, we have coverage should anything drastic happen (like the cancer I experienced in 2005 and 2007), but we're paying a hefty insurance policy every month, and paying all our me...

O.K.  So now they're making heavy people pay more for airline seats.  But now your boss may also make you pay.  OMG, can't we just be fat in peace? According to a story in today's Wall Street Journal, any man with a waist over 40 inches may wind up eating more of his employer's health care costs, shelling out more for health insurance.  The idea is to penalize people for thick waists and high blood pressure, two of the largest health concerns that cost companies the most, and that you can do something about. Theoretically. It makes sense to try to get people to live healthier lives, not just to save money but to help them live longer, too.  But along with NYC's Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlawing Big Gulps (at least, until the courts got their hands on him), and maybe salt, too, the world seems to be deciding more and more the price for being, shall we say, overweight? It's not just having to bear models with their hip bones sticking out and a constant par...

If you're a small business owner, like me, you probably already know this. But your insurance premiums may increase exponentially this year, according to CNN. That's because, in many states, insurers are still allowed to charge what they want, and we're taking the hit.  Somehow, my own premium went down this year (but it went up 22% a couple of years ago). http://www.cnbc.com/id/100356657

Obamacare forcing many small businesses to rethink health insurance, some, like Denny's, charging customers 5% more, and others, slashing hours for full-timers so they become part-timers and therefore, not eligible.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/business/small-employers-weigh-impact-of-providing-health-insurance.html?pagewanted=all

States have been given more time to set up health information exchanges. Health information whats?  The marketplaces where you can pick and choose among healthcare policies, part of healthcare reform. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/us/us-extends-deadline-on-health-coverage-for-states.html?_r=0

If you're lucky enough to have employer-sponsored health insurance, maybe not so much, next year.  You'll be forking over a bigger chunk of your paycheck to cover it. http://insurance-technology.tmcnet.com/topics/insurance-technology/articles/307160-health-insurance-costs-workers-only-inching-up-but.htm