This can mean so many different things across the industry that it makes it difficult for people to understand each other with respect to what they think health insurance reform needs to be. This is part of the mistake whether intentional or not by the Democrats. They included so many different areas of the healthcare industry into reform. They included Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance reform, doctors, hospitals, providers, and administration.

This combination of different health reform areas has confused the average person. In reality, the biggest problem our government wants to alleviate is the growth in costs for Medicare benefits. This is by far the biggest cost problem. The government though is addressing this by wanting to directly cut benefits and utilize these savings to incur additional entitlement benefits for the uninsured. This has angered many seniors and rightfully so.

There are many ways that are far better in addressing cost reductions in Medicare than just simply cutting benefits. Medicare is a badly run entitlement program that begs for reform. This is the real problem that needs to be fixed and not by reducing benefits.

Well maybe because we are talking about your health period. Your health should come in very high within any set of priorities. We all like to take vacations, drive expensive cars, eat at the finest restaurants, etc. These are all fun things, but along with basic needs is taking care of your health. This is not an area to take chances on, because as life teaches us, incidents are impossible to time as with respect to when they might occur.

I understand there are also many other things that are important in our daily lives that we absolutely need to also take care of. There are expenses that we cannot live without, but right at the top is healthcare and health insurance. Within health insurance there are many types of plans that one can review to see if it would fit their needs based on their financial situation.

There are plans such as high-deductible HSA health insurance plans that at least provide coverage for more catastrophic type incidents. These are the incidents that we concern us most since other type of healthcare services are a lot more affordable and we probably in all fairness do not need our health insurance plan to cover us for those type of expenses.

In any case, health is important, and may you be healthy.

There are certain things in life that we cannot time, and one of these is needing healthcare services. Aside from managing basic healthcare services such as doctor visits, simple examinations, etc., catastrophic accidents or illnesses are unpredictable. This is why we all need health insurance, so that we transfer this risk to the carrier. The carrier distributes the risk amongst a large pool of insureds in order to effectively manage healthcare costs for all of the policyholders.

Everyday that passes without being insured is a day in which we run the risk of suffering from a catastrophic incident and not having the finacial support of health insurance. Health insurance coverage should be viewed as what it is, protection for our health. There are many people thatt complain that they have paid years of health insurance premiums and have only used it to go to the doctor twice a year. My response to that is that they should be very thankful for maintaining their health. The opposite would be the unfortunate perosn that suffered a catastrophic illness or accident and although they were covered by their health insurance, they would have much rather not have to have suffered such an illness or accident.

It is like the person who may be upset because they haven’t collected on their life insurance!

Be healthy and wise, get health insurance through a licensed and experienced health insurance agent.

Individual health insurance whether funded through an employer or not, allows us to weigh in the decision making process and get the type of coverage that best fits our needs. Whether a low-deductible, high-deductible, co-pay, maternity, co-insurance amount, etc., we can decide. The problem arises when our employer makes the decisions for us and we are stuck with whatever they decided that is right for us.

There are so many factors that apply when looking for health insurance that it is truly somewhat unfair to place all employees under the same plan. This is the very reason why there is such a growing trend from group health insurance over to individual health insurance.

More and more people are getting their healthcare coverage through individual policies. This is creating a need by consumers to be educated and well informed. Up until recently, consumers didn’t have to because they were not purchasing directly their health insurance. They basically just had to agree to whatever their human resources director would provide.

Health insurance is an individual need, it is a familiy need, it is not a common decision for a one-size-fits-all approach.

If you are one such consumer, get informed, do your research, and get affordable quality health insurance from a trusted licensed insurance agent.

How much do they charge for a short fifteen minute visit? Is it more if you are a new patient? Doctors vary both in quality and in cost, therefore it is important to know whether the services being rendered are in line with the costs. It is a problem with our healthcare industry that prices charged by doctors and hospitals are not as transparent as we would typically see in many other industries. This lack of transparency prevents us from being better consumers because we simply cannot gauge the value of a doctor and/or a hospital based on their pricing.

Imagine going to different restaurants and not knowing before hand the cost of the meal. Then, when the bill arrives, that it would be too difficult to understand. This is what happens today under our healthcare system. It is specifically designed to disengage the consumer from being a good consumer.

Now we understand that many of these bills and charges are paid through our insurance company, but as more and more health insurance plans have higher deductibles, co-insurance, or exclude various services, it is becoming ever more important that we as consumers are involved. It is very easy to understand that an individual consumer will always tend to want to be a good consumer and get their money’s worth.

Health insurance is an important part of our family budget, we need more transparency from our medical providers.

The malady of socialism, whether we are aware of it or not, is spreading fast. There are many Americans that know better and cannot be talked into or politicized to believe that “free” is a justified norm that a society should provide. Nevertheless, there is a strong movement which includes the media that is focused on gradually persuading everyday Americans into believing that this is the right path by which we should all follow. This is very far from the truth.

As human beings, we will always be different in our wants and needs. As much as we are very much alike, we are also very, very different. For a government to propose an agenda that minimizes our individualism is to go against the very grain of our American substance. Yet, this is precisely what would happen if our government becomes our healthcare supplier. To start, this would mean that our doctors would have to fall in line with whatever the government would set in place with respect to reimbursement. This would eliminate any doctor from being able to effectively compete and charge a different fee for their services. This approach encourages and rewards mediocrity. It sets and accepts lower expectations.

This is a far cry from our American spirit which has throughout always viewed competition and hard work as the reason for our success. Our healthcare system needs reform, but not be handed over to our government to manage for us. Our government will never be an efficient operator of any business or any industry.

Our healthcare system through private industry is today a model that will evolve and our ability to attain affordable individual health insurance and family health insurance will improve. Our healthcare is and should be one of our most important industries. This industry needs support and reform, not to be scrapped. One has to just look at our government run Medicare system to imagine how more of that type of an operation would be under a public health plan.

Has anyone heard about the State of New York and the recent law regarding health insurance that taxes directly and indirectly consumers?

How is that being implemented and what effect will it have on the already crippled economy of New York?

I am not an economist, but I do know that taxing the masses hurts growth. That’s pretty simple to understand, right?

Well, taxing health insurance consumption whether through the insurers or directly to consumers doesn’t make much sense. With healthcare costs being high enough already and the system being inefficient additional burdens will only increase the number of uninsureds. New York needs to find a different way and manner in which to address its deficit. The consumer, the average consumer seems to carry too much of the burden of the inefficiencies built in by our state and federal governments.

Health insurance is not the conduit by which states should be recouping its deficits. It is then the consumer who actually purchases health insurance who carries the burden for the rest of us and for the uninsureds.

For someone who cares enough about their health, and is responsible enough to be covered, it seems very unfair that they have to pay an additional tax to support everyone else who may not be responsible enough to carry health insurance.

I am not putting down anyone who can’t purchase health insurance due to not being able to afford it, but to make those of us who care enough to carry health insurance coverage pay an additional tax seems very unfair.

Just like in everything else in life, people that take the time to research, be educated, and be well informed, usually reap the benefits of their new knowledge. In order to get what you want, you must first find out what that is and know the difference. The same happens in individual health insurance. You must first do your homework so that you can identify your real needs and what you want from a health insurance policy. Once you know this, you can then evaluate from all of the different insurance carriers and insurance plans. There are definitely many choices and options available. There are deductibles to deal with, co-insurance to address, and maximums and minimums. Do you need prescription coverage, an HMO or a PPO?

It is a fact that this is not necessarily easy, but it is doable. It is also very necessary in order to get the coverage you want at the right price and with the right benefits. It is also a fact that there are licensed health insurance agents that can help you in this process. They can save you a lot of time and aggravation and just as important, money. A good experienced licensed health insurance agent is a valuable tool at your disposal in attaining the right health coverage. The problem is finding the right one that you can trust and count on to assist your needs and theirs or the carriers’ needs.

In conclusion, before finding the right health insurance plan, find the right health insurance agent.

The American public struggles to make decisions on buying individual health insurance policies, mainly because health insurance has been supplied by employers for decades. The average worker is told by the company they are working for if you want health insurance, this is the way it is. Because a large portion of the employee rate is paid by the employer and because it’s easy just to add your dependents, most people know very little about how health insurance works or the reason a lower deductible plan costs more. Not being knowledgeable about health insurance can cost you a lot of money. The time factor also makes purchasing health insurance an expensive venture. Because most people don’t have the knowledge on how health insurance works (the amount of time needed for underwriting), they wait to the last minute to purchase protection.

First, you need to know there are different types of health insurance plans available to purchase. Major medical PPO plans for an individual has different guidelines than the group Major medical plan you have had for years. There are also Short term Medical plans and Mini medicals to consider. And on top of different products to consider there is a time factor, depending on your current health status, to speed up your selection process or be penalized with preexisting clauses. In less than two paragraphs I’ve probably mentioned five phrases that have no meaning to you whatsoever. It doesn’t matter what your income is, with the price of everything going up, protecting your income needs to be a priority to survive in this economy.

Second, become familiar with your current policy. Understand the layers of protection in the group health insurance policy you have today. You may not be aware of your total liability only because you have been so healthy. When you look you’ll see you have co pays for doctor visits and for your prescriptions. Anything at the hospital is subject to an annual deductible and coinsurance and an additional deductible per occurrence on some procedures. These types of limits are common in all policies, these are ways to keep the premium low enough for everyone to afford. When selecting an Individual Policy these levels of protection are normally higher.

Last but most important, hire a professional licensed agent to help you understand your options; agents’ commission is already included in the premiums, this makes them part of buying a policy. Get in touch with a general agency on the internet; they represent multiple individual health insurance companies. They are not tied to one carrier; this will assure you are getting the best coverage for your needs. Once you have found an agent and an agency you are comfortable with, stay in contact with them, especially at renewal time. If you are not happy with what the insurance company is telling you about the increased costs at renewal, have your agent shop for a new carrier for you.

The “it” is any type of usual and customary healthcare costs. Why should this be so difficult? I am not specifically talking about large catastrophic costs. A heart surgery is going to be expensive no matter what. Cancer treatment is also going to be expensive at any hospital. Also, these are conditions or ailments that need to be treated to a large extent regardless of the cost.

Yet, outside of catastrophic medical care, our basic healthcare services; primary care visits, specialist visits, diagnostic services, MRI’s, x-rays, blood tests, physicals, stress tests, EKG’s, etc. are a big mystery to really, most of us. We simply are not able to get from providers what these services cost as easily as we would any most other services in our economy.

Why? Why aren’t these services advertised and promoted freely so we can all know what they cost. As consumers we understand quality and cost. We just simply want to know ahead of time how much is it and for what?

Don’t attempt to sneak cost line items and services we did not receive into our bills.

We are American consumers that do not want things for free, but we want to make good decisions when it comes to our healthcare services. Some of us may want to go to a doctor who charges lower prices for their services than another doctor who also has more expensive magazines in their waiting area.

One doctor may bill you for 30 minutes worth of a visit even though they actually consulted with you for only ten minutes. Why?

All we want is clarity.

The result to all this confusion is part of the reason of why we tend to be so fixated on our health insurance plans covering for these services (co-pays, doctor visits, specialists, deductibles, etc., since we simply don’t understand these costs.

As Americans, we want our highly trained and specialized doctors to earn a good living. These individuals are highly respects and rightfully so for their hard work and intelligence. Yet, all we want to know is how much it costs?