Insurance News & Articles

Health insurance in California is increasingly important. Health insurance is a formal agreement to provide and/or pay for medical care. The health insurance policy describes what medical services are “covered” by the insurance company. With the rate at which medical expenses have continued to rise over previous years, and the reductions in government funded health care programs, being without health insurance is less an option today than ever. California health insurance plans prices tend to rise each year in January. Before applying, we recommend getting your California health insurance quotes online. Online you can get quotes for individual & family health insurance, short term health insurance or medicare supplement plans. Getting quotes online is very simple and the whole process doesn’t cost you any money. All you have to do is get instant quotes from different health insurance providers, compare them and apply to the one that you believe suits your personal insurance needs.

With a looming recession and a lot of job insecurity these days, it’s smart to know what resources are available to help your family.

Find out whether your child qualifies for free or low-cost health insurance with a new, searchable tool from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The insurance is available to working families and helps cover doctor visits, prescription medicines, hospitalizations and more. Even children who are not covered now by health insurance may be eligible.

Find details: www.insurekidsnow.gov or 1-877-543-7669.

Medicaid may start helping low-income Utah families buy their own private health insurance.  The proposal is part of an effort to slice in half the number of uninsured Utahns, which would drop their ranks to 5 percent of the population, according to a draft request for federal approval. (more…)

Pfizer spent $16.90 billion on marketing in 2004, and only $7.68 billion on research and development. GlaxoSmithKline spent $12.93 on marketing, and $5.20 billion on research and development. Merck spent $7.35 billion on marketing and $4 billion on research and development.

The “free market” of medicine is not free at all. It can’t be free when the there are more than 2 pharmaceutical lobbyists for every 1 member of Congress. It can’t be free when the pharmaceutical industry spends more than any other industry on its lobbying efforts. ($758 million since 1998 as of 2005)

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Become a Smart Patient

To be a smart patient, you can’t be passive; you need to be a first-rate Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes, smart patients ask intelligent questions and have the instincts (and guts) to politely challenge things they don’t understand. They don’t need to know the most esoteric medical details, but they need to put at least as much effort into finding out the basics about their health as they did in getting the driving directions to our office. Ultimately, you are the person most responsible for the success of your health. Here, what great doctors know that great patients can learn. (more…)

Many people think they understand how health care expenses will impact them but often grossly underestimate their future health care costs. Many also believe they will be able to rely on coverage from Medicare and their employers during their golden years. However, this may not be the case, as the number of businesses offering retiree health benefits is steadily declining and the financial pressure on Medicare seems to be increasing. (more…)

WASHINGTON — The Senate unanimously passed landmark legislation today that would outlaw discrimination by health insurance companies and employers because a person’s genes raise their risk of breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or any ailment that has a hereditary component. (more…)

Democrats have made affordable health care a mainstay of their election agenda, but apparently only if you’re willing to get insurance through the government. Witness their stealthy assault on Americans who prefer the private-sector option of Health Savings Accounts. (more…)

As the presidential candidates respond to increasing economic anxiety about many issues, some of the sharpest differences in this fall’s debate are expected to involve health care. (more…)

A plan to overhaul how Michigan residents buy health insurance for themselves took another turn Wednesday, when a state senator made available a third proposal to try to sort out the state’s system. (more…)