Health Insurance Zone – Helping organizations make the right decisions about health insurance and financial security

SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH HEALTH CARE

We hardly come across a person who may be fully satisfied with the health care delivery system run by either the government or the private sector. This is true not only for developing but for all the developed countries as well. Every law abiding, contributing individual has some legitimate expectations from the state. Disenchantment with present dispensation of health care compels people to seek better options across the borders. Even the present flow rate of patients from developed to developing countries has assumed the proportions of Medical tourism. Medical tourism is not a one-way traffic. Poor from India are known to visit Rashid Hospital at Lahore for kidney transplants. Medical tourism will definitely bring in world class equipment and services in our corporate hospitals. These corporate tertiary care hospitals can act as excellent referral hospitals. Lack of enough clinical material, as the patients are often referred to in medical parleyences is prompting the doctors from developed world into medical adventurism. Very recently two NGO’s headed by renowned plastic surgeons of Indian origin were in India, claiming to their credit hundreds of cleft lip and palate surgeries conducted in one week. During my brief interaction when I asked them one basic question that how do you justify single step surgery by a single specialist for a clinical entity that require 3-5 set up surgeries by 10 specialists over a period of 20 years, there was no answer. On record local doctors conduct all these surgeries. These NGO’s bring in a battery of trainee resident doctors for hands on training. Dumping of questionable services and drugs continues unabated in the absence of stringent regulations. Clear-cut up to date guidelines by health authorities have yet to be issued to safe guard the health interests of this nation. Most of the drugs banned in developed countries are still being dumped in the Indian market. Commerce alone dictates the policies of multinational companies in health sector of developing countries. State and national medical councils, the watch dogs of our national health interests are controlled by elected representatives from among the doctors. Competitive populism for being elected to these high offices takes away the very sting off these regulators. In this ‘market forces’ driven health sector, apart from other factors, size of the population, economic prosperity and literacy levels dictate the out look of key players. Subjective as well as objective assessments of the health care operations leave people confused with huge piles of data and endless interpretations. At the tail end of govt. health care delivery system is the rural dispensary or the slum revamping center, and the end user an illiterate or semi literate villager or a slum dweller. Dispensary is the humane face, the welfare state can present to its people. In yesteryears the service providers were from among the same social class they used to serve. Doctor can be a friend, philosopher and guide to the locals. Unfortunately the economic and social disparity between the service providing doctors and the service user population has grown enormously. Ad-hocism in health care delivery should be done away with immediate effect. Doctors and paramedical staff appointed on yearly contract basis are not showing any interest in the national programmes. Established private health care providers also have not shown any meaningful commitment for national programmes. Middle class itself has fragmented. Now it is fashionable to assign economic values to any issue like gender, but for social responsibility and justice. In this era of fast paced growth, the unorganized, silently suffering millions can not be wished away. Once reading on biodiversity I stumbled upon a very interesting quote, “only the species with economic importance will survive”. In our active pursuit for magnetizing economy, we assigned economic values to any thing except for morals. Commercialization of education has produced a new breed of professionals who have scant regard for professional ethics. Privatization is the buzzword with governments, because it takes away government responsibility. Private sector players are eyeing many ‘viable’ health institutions. There are no takers for commercially non-viable rural institutions. Rural health institutions dispense social medicine. Very recently one of the key players from private sector health care quoted the cost of developing one bed in corporate hospital at Rs. 30-60 lacs. These corporate health services are definitely out of each of the common man. These type of hospitals are definitely required for a nation with the present rate of growth but ‘bharat’ definitely needs different kind of hospitals. There are very strong social under currents against the exploitive private healthcare, inadequate government sector health care resources and the indifferent approach of welfare state. Health for all is a very lofty but expensive proposition. There are ways and means to reduce the pressure from government institutions. Private-public partnership, health insurance, monitoring and regulation of private sector health care can all make the things bit easy. Preventive health care education can go a long way in improving the public health. Community participation in health care has produced few but wonderful examples. Complementary community participation can make up for minor but critical deficiencies in the government run health care system. Setting up of health system corporations with World Bank assistance has already improved the working of govt. sector health care institutions considerably. Community participation through NGO’s can still improve the system, but most of the meaningful NGO’s turn their back on govt. run health care institutions because of their doubts on the integrity of government officers. Government health care institution are increasingly seen not as caring hospitals but like police stations, where medico legal reports are written and postmortems conducted. Most of the government doctors’ time is spent in courts appearing as medico legal experts witnesses. Emergency, post mortem, and then the VIP duties in addition hardly leave the doctors free for any meaningful job at government hospitals. There is an urgent need to have separate curative, preventive, legal, administrate and health intelligence wings. Government hospitals attract the poorest of the poor, mostly people from the unorganized sector. Their contribution to national GDP is by no means small. With the present growth rate, upward social mobility is seen in every strata of society. Many segments of this unorganized sector can be organised so that they also enjoy the patronage of welfare state in the form of health insurance policies. Apart from direct benefit to these segments of society, the state will benefit from the ‘off loading’ of burden from government run health care system and loading it on insurance driven private sector health care institutions. Poorest of the poor will repose faith in welfare state. Sanjivini, health insurance policy with the Punjab Milkmen Cooperative Societies is already a big success. ECHS (Ex servicemen Contributory Health Scheme) is an other success story. These success stories can be replicated with countless groups like, panwallas, dhabewallas, autorikshaw drivers etc. Simply organize the unorganized sector. There is no dearth of role models from among government doctors also. Their inclusion rather than drift after dissent from the present dispensation of health care will immensely improve the system. Stability of tenure is an excellent incentive government can give to its doctors without costing anything to exchequer. Yet tenure beyond decades should be discouraged as it leads to development of vested interests of the old incumbents and denial of chance to the youngsters. Resource mismatching is a major problem in the govt. run health care system. There are dispensaries where specialists are posted and still many more civil hospitals where non-specialist are posted. These mismatching result in defective and inefficient health care. Nodal Hospitals can be created for round the clock emergency services by cannibalizing defunct and sick institutions where equipment worth crores is lying unused and salary bills are bleeding the exchequer white. Most of the medical officers retire in the same administrate rank. This undue stagnation has forced many a brilliant doctors out of service. By simply seeking options for place of posting, honestly implementing with minimum displacement on merit can also revitalize the govt. doctors’ cadres. Private sector health care delivery system is a totally market driven commercial enterprise. So called ‘market forces’ have least respect for ethical and moral value systems. Multi level marketing chains have evolved in the name of referral systems. End result is exploitation of the unsuspecting common man, who still regards his healer a holy person. This ‘incentive’ system is strengthening the hold of unqualified, unscrupulous and unregistered medical practitioners on illiterate masses. Not many qualified doctors are unscrupulous. A large section of private health care providers feel genuinely threatened by blackmailers of all sorts. Consumer protection act is a very convenient beating stick in the hands of their tormentors.

Under the constant threat of being blackmailed, the private health care providers are becoming more defensive in attitude. More patients are being referred to tertiary care institutions for this reason only, thereby flooding the referral institutions. People have a common feeling that sickness is an invitation for exploitation at the hands of private health care providers. Even the charitable hospitals are charging as heavily as fully private hospitals. Medical profession is fully responsible and capable of self-correction. Medical councils and associations can jointly evolve a fail-safe mechanism to keep their black sheep under check even without government help, but the buck stops with the government. Welfare state is duty bound not only in providing health care delivery system but also proper health care administration and social justice through its health care delivery mechanism.

Name : Dr. Pardeep Kumar Sharma

Email-ID : omfspardeep@yahoo. com.

(M) : 0988456296

Date of Birth : 12. 02. 1962

Education Qualifications : BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery)

MDS (Master of Dental Surgery in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery)

Educational Institutes Attended

Govt. High School Bargari : Matriculation (1969-1977)

Distt. Faridkot, Punjab, India

DAV College Chandigarh : Pre-University (1973-79)

(Punjab University)

Barjindra College Faridkot : Pre-Medical (1980)

Dental Wing, Medical College : BDS (1981-1986)

Patiala

Dental College and Hospital : MDS (2003-2006)

Amritsar

Professional Experience

House Officer, Christian : 1987-1988

Medical College & Hospital,

Ludhiana

Research Officer, All India : Jan. 1989 to June 1989

Institute of Medical Science

AIIIMS, New Delhi

Dental Officer, Indian Armed : July 1989 to August 1994.

Forces in the Rank of Capt.

3

Medical Officer (Dental) : w. e. f. Nov. 1995 till date

in Punjab Civil Medical Service

(PCMS)

Research papers Published

“Role of Programmed cell death in dental anomalies associated with cleft lip and Palate”. “Medical Hypotheses” Churchil Living Stone Publishers London-1991

Post traumatic polatoglossal adhesion, a case report stomatologica India (1990).

Research Project Undertakes

“Malocclusion and associated Factors among Delhi Children” a study sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Areas of Interest : Environment, Health, Defence, International Affairs and Rationalism

Getting and keeping affordable health insurance in your state is up to you. With health insurance market constant changing with new laws, new research and increasing cost of healthcare. It is up to us to do our research to understand health insurance and the ways on how we can control health insurance costs. Health insurance companies to stay competitive understand the need for affordable health insurance plans. Insurance companies are constantly changing their health plans to make them more affordable. The only real way to make health insurance plans more affordable is to exclude certain benefits. It is a risk that insurance companies are taking. Since most of the time when shopping for the health insurance plan most people do not understand what is exactly covered and what is not covered.

We have to agree that health insurance companies are not going to give away free coverage. With that in mind we have to agree that insurance companies are also not going to have a plan that cost less cover everything exactly the same as the plan that cost more. The cost of health insurance is almost the same across the board not matter which insurance company you go with. It is true that insurance companies that run more efficiently can offer better rates. What makes that largest difference in the cost of the actual plan is what and how it covers medical bills in case of emergency. The great thing is insurance companies are closely regulated by state insurance commissioner. State laws do vary and so do health insurance health plans in every state. For example in some states insurance companies can exclude certain pre existing conditions to offer you a lower rate. If you have some medical issue and it is being covered by workman’s compensation insurance then you would not need to have double coverage. In other states like California you either get approved or you will get a higher rate or you will get declined. Insurance companies in the state of California cannot exclude coverage on pre-existing conditions once you are approved.

With all of that in mind let’s look at all the options we have to make our health insurance plans more affordable. First is our deductible, which will give us largest control over health insurance premium we pay to Health Insurance Company. There are three types of plans with deductibles. One is a health plan where you have to meet the deductible to get any benefits, the second one is where everything is covered with small co-pay and deductible applies only for hospital stays and third the most popular and the most dangerous one in no deductible. No deductible plans in most cases are the creative work of the insurance companies. In most cases plans that have no deductible you will be responsible for what’s called daily fee and co-insurance. In most cases you could be more out of pocket with no deductible plans then a plan with a deductible.

Second we have more and more insurance companies offer health insurance plans with option of have brand name drug coverage or just generic prescription drug coverage. What does that mean to you? Well the simple way to explain this is that brand name drugs are the drugs that you see on TV commercials. Prescription drugs are regulated by FDA and by FDA rules after the brand name drug has been on the market for over five years over drug companies can copy it. That means that when Drug Company comes out with a new drug they can charge for it as much as they want and no one can copy their formula for that drug for over five years. The reason FDA has that type of rules is because they figure that it takes a lot of money to research new drug. By FDA regulations brand name drugs and generic drugs must have exactly same active ingredient. Basically they are exactly same drug just one cost a lot more. Talk to your doctor before you make any changes. Here is where we are getting with this is if you get a health insurance plans that covers generic drugs only you can save your self a lot of money on your health insurance premiums. With some health plans you can also customize your prescription drug deductible.

Third is health insurance plans that give you option of covering your doctor visits or not covering them. This option could save you a lot of money. What that means is some health insurance plans will allow you to pay for your own doctor visits versus having insurance company pay portion and you pay co-pay. You have to ask your self how many time do you really go to a doctor every year? Most regular doctor visit will cost you anywhere from $55 to $75. Therefore you if you go once or twice a year to a doctor and you can just pay out of pocket and save $50 a month on your health insurance, would you do it?

Well here you have it with these three options you can get affordable health insurance. There are some other options you can also take a look at like Health Saving Account qualified health insurance plans, which is a different topic. It all just makes sense, why pay for something you do not need and not going to use. With some simple decisions you can get the coverage you want at the premium you can afford.

NEED AND CONTEXT

It has been observed that the recent economic growth in the Asian cities indicate that there has been a breakdown of traditional support systems such as the family because of rapid urbanization and modernization. Moreover, a large number of people are living below the poverty line in impoverished environment in urban and rural communities. Their acute needs for housing, food, health, education, and incomes are the very forces that push adolescents to look for a means of livelihood on the streets, engage in prostitution, be hooked up with crime/drug syndicates, or become victims of sexual and physical abuse. It is a battle of bare struggle for daily survival and contributes in every ways they can. Any measure to penalize parents of such children will only result in further abuse and oppression of people who are already disadvantaged. Such children struggle hard in getting the most essential requirements to meet the basic needs of life and such children need special attention and educational intervention. These disadvantaged adolescents are generally malnourished and often anemic; many of them physically stunted, suffer psychologically from undue family pressures and abuses and are neglected at home. They tend to develop low self-esteem from broken families, single-headed households because of the death, separation, or labor migration of one of their parents. Moreover, they live in slums and squatter communities, sub-human conditions and are susceptible to crime syndicates and gang conflicts, substance/drug abuse, and gambling.

In the developing and under developed countries like India and Thailand a large percentage of population live below the poverty line and adolescents from such environment face difficulties in getting access to good education. It is therefore felt that in both the surround adolescents are of in the process of development and failure to meet their developmental need have lend to safe and serial destructions behaviors. Adolescents lack necessary life skills for cape up in to the realities and challenges of life. Adolescents accords for the largest portion of the world’s population and have been on an increasing trend and there are “230 million Indian adolescent in the age of group of 4 to 19” that (Population and Health IndoShare, 2006). Moreover, it is expected that this age group will continue to grow reaching over “214 million by 2020” (United Nations (UN) 2000) due to has traditionally been a male dominated society and has a strong son preference in most part of but Indian girls tend to be discriminated against by their families and also demographic trends indicate deep-rooted gender discrimination. In India, the condition of disadvantaged adolescents resembled that of their centers pail Thailand. Indian Young adolescents are facings serious problem of lack of access to reliable knowledge on the process of growing up reproductive health practices and value system. There has been a need to provide education on the developmental changes and needs during teenagers. This may reduce the risk of future.

Today, almost every Indian and Thai whether rich or poor, young or old, is exposed to much that is foreign, largely because in the last two decades India and Thailand has become one of the region’s most popular tourists destinations. At times, the growing economy and favorable investment opportunities have also attracted many foreign multinationals, which continue to add to the already fair large expatriate community. However, despite the intensity of their exposure to “foreign” influences, particularly western cultures and lifestyles, Indian and Thai culture remains a solid influence within family life and early childhood. From birth, Indian and Thai adolescents are still much more deeply immersed in culture than they are exposed to foreign influences despite the fast-paced changes that have been affecting Indian and Thai adolescents. The adolescents of deferred families are emotionally disturbed and driven adrift as wanderers, delinquent children with im-permissive behaviors such as loitering, gambling, drug addiction, crime, truancy, prostitution, and begging, illegal dealings. As the consequence of these adverse behaviors, cases of illegal pregnancy, baby abandonment, and HIV/AIDS infection are becoming more and more severe.

There also reported, “Thai Children are spending more time in talking and chatting on the phone and the trendiest models of mobile phones, love hanging out with their friends at night, the drugs problem and the loss of Thai identity and shopping for brand name products. The latest fashion among the hobbies of many of today’s Thai children is they are becoming increasingly violent and blaming society and their own families for their behavior and involve in premature sex, drugs and aggressiveness”. “The study found that despite the well-to-do family backgrounds of the teens surveyed, most of them shared a common problem of loneliness, depressive tendencies and a need for love”. The gap between parents and children is greater than ever before, arising from broken families or from families which faille to inculcate morals in their children because they havenless time for their children and had left them to the peril of sick and violent society in Thailand (Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, Thongbai Thongpao 2002), (Tong Thum Struggles, 2006)

With the best intention and efforts of the education as a social instrument, it is possible to promote the complete welfare of disadvantaged population. Among the several types of disadvantaged adolescents, Adolescents forced to enter the labour market, adolescents affected by HIV/AIDS and adolescents affected by narcotic drugs need special attention. They have trouble in getting proper guidance to overcome personal problems and require proper guidance and counseling to become aware of the ill effects narcotic drugs, labour market and HIV/AIDS. It may not be possible to develop awareness in the expected manner through normal school curriculums. Hence, a separate educational intervention, which is nothing but a planned programme of educational guidance, organized to meet the scientific and psychological needs of disadvantaged adolescents in the age group of 13-16. Hence, in this study, an attempt will be made to study the educational adjustment of disadvantaged adolescents and to find out the impact of a structured educational intervention programme in developing proper awareness and attitude towards reproductive health, drugs, sexuality and values.

The present study examined the impact of an educational intervention programme on the knowledge and attitude on disadvantaged adolescents in Northern India and Thailand. The study intends to assess and compare the knowledge about the process of growing up, HIV/AIDS awareness, values and attitude of teen-age students staying in the schools. Reproductive health education is a key strategy for promoting preventive measures among teenagers.

METHOS

The sample for the study consisted of 225 disadvantaged adolescents who included 125 adolescents from India (Chennai Himmat Slum area, Jammu region) and Thailand (Yong People Develop Chiang Mai and Teresa Anusorn Foundation (Ban Teresa) Chiang Rai, Province). The sample populations of disadvantaged adolescents are residents of orphanages and slum area and studying in high school classes in the age of groups from 13 to 16 years. Data was collected by administering knowledge test consisted of items on process of growing up HIV/AIDS, reproductive organs and their functions family planning and parenting and attitude scale to measure beliefs and practices about sexuality and abstinence. An experimental design consisted of experimental and control group was formed. Questionnaires were translated from English to Hindi and Thai, (mother tongue of the respondent), then back in to English to ensure that no meaning was lost in translation. There were use two groups of learner: both the groups were given Pre-Test as well as Post-Test, where experimental group were given intervention programme and control group was not be given any intervention programme.

Control group: – there were in two states: ten administrators conducted face-to-face interviews and Focus groups with disadvantaged adolescent in India and Thailand.

First state, in India country; 10 Indian administrators were called the Indian disadvantaged adolescents from there house at Slum area (Jammu), meeting for data collected were an adjustment questionnaire in each of person and groups by Hindi (mother tongue of the respondent).

Second state, in Thailand country: 125 questionnaires in Thai (mother tongue of the respondent) were administered to the Thai disadvantaged adolescent of two orphanages, I collected later the questionnaires.

Intervention / Treatment Programme

Experts: Facilitators who were willing to participate in the study were invited for receiving community sensitization, booklet distribution, and CD training;

Experimental group: 200 students (and also inmates) belonging to Channai Himmat, Slum area (Jammu, India), Teresa Anusorn Foundation (Ban Teresa), and Yong People Develop (Thailand) who had got least scores namely, were given one day training programme on intervention or treatment as;

In the morning: the orientation and participants programme concentrated on basic issues such as general framework of adolescent growth, and consisted of discussions and demonstrations. The training programme practiced the activities to develop the knowledge level and the attitude about HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and reproductive health education

In the afternoon until evening: the revised questionnaires were administered to the experimental group in 3 sessions as: (a) the personal details. (b) The knowledge level and attitude were administered to find out themselves and whenever they had doubt in understanding the items, the administrators made them easy by giving supplementary examples. In addition, (c) group discussed for preparation of suggestive measures to improve and policies.

Design of the study

An educational intervention programme consisting of awareness activities presented through media presentation, discussion and interaction was presented to the experimental group. Universals and multivariate analysis of the data were used to assess the impact of interventions and to identify the predictors of change in knowledge and attitude. Significant changes in terms of gain between pre-test and post-test was observed.

Analysis

The completed questionnaires were collated and entered into the computer. The data was entered and analyzed using SPSS. After verification and reduction of data, descriptive frequencies were completed. This was followed by uni-variate and multi-variety procedures to assess the impact of the interventions and to identify other predictors of change in knowledge and attitude. Analysis was stratified by sex shown how responses to the variables of knowledge and attitude, differ boys, girls, age, and education. Descriptive statistics was used to profile the study population. Knowledge and attitude was then used to explore the demographic variables associated with HIV/AIDS, drug abused and reproductive Health Education. The following statistical techniques were applied in the present project: Paired Samples “T”-test and “F”-test.

FINDINGS

The demographic profile of the 250 Indian and Thai respondent questionnaires is shown the relationships between demographic characteristics of Indian and Thai were founds Indian boys (54. 40%) less than Thai boys (56%), and Indian girls (45. 60%) more than Thai girls (44%). In the same age group of Indian and Thai 15 years old, and the same of the secondary school of Indian: (Standard: 9) and Thai: (Grades 3), had significant . 05 is shown in Table 1.

Answers were grouped in comparing scores from Indian and Thai disadvantage adolescent after received a treatment on knowledge and attitude about HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and reproductive health education, all participating (N= 200) were group interviewed and after the intervention had significant difference is (0. 05), are shown in Table 2-16.

The findings also revealed significant differences between boys and girls in knowledge and attitude towards reproductive health education. Implications of the study for the awareness programmes were suggested.

DISCUSSION

In many Northern states of India and Thailand, the HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and reproductive health needs of Indian and Thai disadvantaged adolescents are either poorly understood or not fully appreciated. Evidence is growing that this neglect can seriously jeopardize the HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and reproductive health education needs and future well-being of them.

The policies addressed the effectiveness of the programmed to highlights what there needs to be done to promote and protect to the disadvantaged adolescent in India and Thailand in the future as: all schools should develop textbooks making learning interesting by following extensive community sensitization in support of adolescent reproductive health education appropriate in Indian and Thai cultural and tradition. Because of Indian and Thai culture and tradition, adolescents kept learning by them long time ago that, made them grow up in the wrong life and have been against morality.

Indian and Thai adolescent problems erupt from families and by themselves after they have been sexually abused or because their families could not understand adolescent behavior and teach them about reproductive health education and sexual health education. Such as should improve in knowledge and attitude among school-going adolescents with the media modern of families. In addition, it was found that sexually abused violated in Indian and Thai adolescents should learn and practice self-protection and should gather knowledge of the Child Rights and much more.

India disadvantaged adolescents

1. Indian disadvantaged adolescents are neglected from home, school and there country of the knowledge. They tend to undeveloped of the confidents and very poorly of the knowledge, attitude about Reproductive Health, drug and HIV/AIDS. Thus as, should to improve and increase and learn the knowledge attitude and understanding of disadvantaged adolescents

2. In India, the responsible organizations both governmental and non-governmental of India have to develop policies for adolescent and should to include HIV/AIDS education and health programme in schools curriculums. In addition, those reproductive health educational services for adolescent girls are especially needed in schools and families.

3. Parents, families, teachers and administrators in orphanages or schools should be encouraged to discuss or give guidance and approval about reproductive health education, drug and HIV/AIDS with their disadvantaged adolescent.

Thailand disadvantaged adolescents

1. Should to improve and increase the knowledge attitude and understanding of disadvantaged adolescents in Northern about reproductive health education and sexual health education.

2. Especially, in Northern, Thailand having spread of higher Drug and HIV/AIDS, thus as should to teach or train to get about the knowledge attitude and understanding of reproductive health to adolescents and parents more then other.

3. The reproductive and sexual health education should be included in the curriculum for the second level – primary education (Grades 4-6), Third level – secondary education (Grades 1-3) and Fourth level – secondary education (Grades 4-6). It is too late to start from Third level – secondary education (Grades 1-3) in Thailand thus; the Ministry of Education has to prepare a new policy to put this subject at the Basic Education Curriculum Standard as soon as possible.

4. It appears that in Thailand media has caused a change in sex related values among adolescents. With the misuse of Internet in getting information on sex related issue supplemented by the use of Cell phone, TV, VCD, DVD and booklets is increasing Crime problems of sexually abused. Thus, the qualities of the textbooks or booklets to be distributed to the adolescents.

TABLE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank to Dr. Y. N. Sridhar, Guide of Research for me. I would like too many helpful and thank the following students, Mr. Kasame Sakonllapap, Mr. Santi Jongkongka, Mr. Prasarn Ruansang and people for their supported. I thankfulness to Father Carlo Luzzi, Mother Elisa Cavana, Father Niphot Thiengwiharn and my family, for contributing to this study by providing funding.

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Enhancing Services of Panchayat Raj in Public Health

* Ramaiah Bheenaveni

Panchayats in India are an age old institution for governance at village level. In 1992, through the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) were strengthened as local government organizations with clear areas of jurisdiction, adequate power, authority and funds commensurate with responsibilities.

Panchayats have been assigned 29 rural development activities, including several, which are related to health and population stabilization. The XI schedule includes Family Welfare, Health and Sanitation, (including hospitals, primary health centers, and dispensaries,) and the XII schedule includes Public Health.

“Thus the possible realm of influence of the Panchayats extends over a significant proportion of public health issues. The Gram Sabha, where empowered has the potential to act as a community level accountability mechanism to ensure that the functions of the village Panchayat in the area of public health and family welfare, actually respond to people’s needs”.

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment makes it mandatory that functions related to the provision of primary health care – maternal health and family welfare are the responsibility of the PRIs. Besides the various development sector departments come under the functional jurisdiction of the district panchayat. Creating a health system with the panchayats being made responsible for supervising and monitoring health services seems an ideal model.

The National Health Policy, 2001, also emphasizes implementation of public health programmes through local self-government institutions, especially relating to the national disease control programmes. The Planning Commission set up a Task Force to review PRI involvement in various sectors and to make recommendations on engagement of PRIs specific to each sector. A Task Force Report pertaining to five major programmes within HFW and the particular functions of PRI. The Task Force Report summarizes key functions for each of the tiers of the PRI in respect of five major programmes- Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), and programmes for Vector Borne Diseases, Blindness TB Control Programmes, and STI/AIDS. Many of the activities proposed are related to identification of people in need of services, in collaboration with the health system and monitoring of village level health workers, and Primary and secondary health care facilities. Currently the PRI are not equipped to take on such planning and monitoring functions, nor is there a cognizance in the health system of the role of PRI.

Critical Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in the success of the National Rural Health Mission

PRIs are seen as critical to the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the NRHM. The NRHM is seen as a vehicle to ensure that preventive and promotive interventions reach the vulnerable and marginalized through expanding outreach and linking with local governance institutions. Key to the success of the NRHM are: intersectoral convergence, community ownership steered through village level health committees at the level of the Gram Panchayat, and a strong public sector health system with support from the private sector. Underlying this is a commitment to systemic reform within the health sector for better regulation of medical establishments, public health oriented medical education, strengthened management capacity, and effective and rational human resource policies. Success of the NRHM in achieving its outcomes is significantly dependent on well functioning gram, block and district level Panchayats. It is anticipated that in the NRHM, a Task Force will be set up to specifically recommend and study the centrality of PRIs to the NRHM.

ASHA, the mechanism to strengthen village level service delivery, will be a local resident and selected by the Gram Panchayat or the Village Health Committee (VHC). She will be supported in her work by the AWW, school teacher, members of local community based organizations, such as SHGs, and the Village Health committee. ASHA’s role would be to facilitate care seeking and serve as a depot holder for a package of basic medicines. She will be reimbursed on a performance based remuneration plan.

The Village Health Committee (VHC) will form the link between the Gram Panchayat and the community. The VHC would be responsible for working with the Gram Panchayat to ensure that the health plan is in harmony with the overall local plan. It is anticipated that this committee will prepare a Village Health Plan and maintain village level data, supervised by the Gram Panchayat. Engaging the Gram Sabha and other groups in planning and monitoring the Village Health Plan will presumably enforce transparency and accountability.

Under the NRHM, untied funds of about Rs. 5000-Rs. 10,000 are to be placed with the ANM to meet unanticipated expenditures and to ensure that lack of drugs and other consumables is not an issue. At the sub center level planning and use of these funds will be supported by the appropriate tier of the panchayat.

Effective health care is not within the realm of the health department alone. At the village level convergence is required with agencies providing nutrition, sanitation, education, livelihood/poverty alleviation and empowerment schemes at the very least. Beyond the functionaries of each of the line departments, the only institution at the village level which can coordinate all these functions is the PRI. In reality however there is little convergence at the village level in many states, much less an active role

for the PRI in facilitating convergence. At the District level a District Health Mission will coordinate NRHM functions. Sanitation will be aligned with the NRHM.

Several Health Programmes Monitoring by PRI:

ACCELERATED RURAL WATER SUPPLY PROGRAMME (ARWSP)

Under ARWSP, the Central Government is to supplement the efforts of the State Governments in providing access to safe drinking water to all rural habitations of the country.

The role of PRIs in implementation of this scheme are :

 Panchayati Raj Institutions should be involved in the implementation of schemes particularly in selecting the location of standpost, spot sources, operation and maintenance, fixing of cess/water tariff, etc.

 The implementation of the Sector Reform Projects in the identified pilot districts, are also to be carried out either by the District Panchayats or through the District Water and Sanitation Missions (DWSM), which are to be registered societies under the supervision, control and guidance of District Panchayat.

 Wherever PRIs are themselves firmly in place and willing to take up the responsibility and are strong enough to do so, they implement the projects themselves instead of DWSM.

 At the village level, the individual Rural Water Supply Schemes are to be implemented through Village Water and Sanitation Committees which should be committees of Gram Panchayats.

 Drinking water supply assets are transferred to the appropriate level of Panchayats and such Panchayats are to be empowered to undertake operation and maintenance of drinking water systems.

CENTRAL RURAL SANITATION PROGRAMME (CRSP)

This programme aims at improving the general quality of life in rural areas; accelerating coverage in rural areas; generating demand through awareness creation and health education; and controlling incidence of water sanitation related diseases.

The role of PRIs in implementation if this scheme are :-

 Total Sanitation Campain (TSC) is a community based programme where Panchayati Raj Institutons are in the forefront.

 As per TSC Guidelines, the implementation at the district level is to be done by the District Panchayats. Panchayats at block and village level are to be fully involved for implementation of the programme.

 Where District Panchayat is not in a position to implement the programme, it is being implemented by District Water & Sanitation Mission which is chaired by Chairperson of District Panchayat and the Village Committees are chaired by the Chairpersons of Gram Panchayats. In the later case, the Village Water & Sanitation Mission are part of the Gram Panchayat.

SWAJALDHARA

This programme aims at providing Community-based Rural Drinking Water Supply. The key elements of this programmes are namely, (i) demand-driven and community participation approach, (ii) panchayats / communities to plan, implement, operate, maintain and manage all drinking water schemes, (iii) partial capital cost sharing by the communities upfront in cash, (iv) full ownership of drinking water assets with Gram Panchayats and (v) full Operation and Maintenance by the users/ Panchayats.

The role of PRIs in implementation of this scheme are :-

 Gram Panchayat shall convene a Gram Sabha Meeting where the Drinking Water Supply Scheme of People’s choice including design and cost etc. must be finalized. Gram Panchayats are to undertake procurement of materials/services for execution of schemes and supervise the scheme execution.

 A resolution must be passed in the Gram Panchayat meeting calling for users/beneficiaries to contribute 10% of the capital expenditure. However, GP can remit towards community contribution from its tax revinue (Not from Government Grants) with the approval of Gram Sabha.

 Gram Panchayat will decide whether the Panchayat wants to execute Scheme on its own or wants the State Government Agency to undertake the execution.

 After completion of such schemes, the Gram Panchayat will take over the Schemes for Operation & Maintenance(O&M).

 Panchayat must decide on the user charges from the community so that adequate funds available with Panchayat to undertake O&M.

Conclusions:

However, the extent to which reproductive health care is enhanced by the panchayats depends on the funds and functions devolved to them for carrying out these responsibilities. Clarity in the separation of powers between the elected representatives and the bureaucracy at the local government are important in this context. While the development targets include reducing the incidence of maternal mortality and morbidity, the question still remains whether the institutional interventions and resources allocated are adequate to address these problems. Gram Panchayat has a supervisory role in ensuring proper delivery of services. Many of them were not aware of what comprised the role and responsibility of panchayats in healthcare service delivery.

References:

1. Manual on Target Free Approach, Department of Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India

2. Panchayat Raj Institutions In India An Appraisal- National Institute Of Rural Development, 1995.

3. Vijayanand, S. M, Decentralization and Health, Paper presented at Role of Local Government Institutions in Population Stabilization, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, February 2003.

4. Dash, Dhanlaxmi (2006) – Women Environment and Health, Manga Deep Publications, Delhi.

5. The Constitution ( Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992,

6. Rosenstock IM. What research in motivation suggests for public health. Am J. Public Health. 1960; 50:295-301.

As stated by the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Legislature enacted three bills that allow small business employers to form cooperatives for the purchase of employer health benefit plans in Dallas, Houston and throughout Texas. All three types of cooperatives are private purchasing cooperatives under state law. Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1501, Subchapter B provides for the formation of Purchasing Cooperatives. Two of the three have special characteristics; for clarity, we will refer to the broader category as “private purchasing cooperatives. ”
Who may form a cooperative?
Two or more small employers may form a small employer health coalition. Any person – other than a health carrier – may form a health group cooperative. A health carrier may assist a sponsoring entity in forming a cooperative. A health group cooperative must have at least ten participating employers.
How do I start a cooperative?
All three types of purchasing cooperatives must be formed as a nonprofit corporation. For more information on how to form a nonprofit corporation, you should consult the Texas Secretary of State, specifically the Filing Guide for Business Organizations and Non-Profit Associations.
Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1501, Subchapter B provides for the formation of Purchasing Cooperatives. Small business employers interested in assistance with forming or joining a small employer health coalition should also consider contacting their insurance agent or one of the existing small employer health coalitions. Once the cooperative has received a certificate of incorporation or certificate of authority from the Secretary of State, the cooperative must file that document and the cooperative’s organizational document with the Texas Department of Insurance. The address for filing these documents is: Filings Intake Division, Mail Code 106-1E, Texas Department of Insurance, P. O. Box 149104, Austin, Texas 78714-9104.
What Type of Cooperative Should I Form?
This decision will be based on the goals for the cooperative and the employers interested in joining. You should consult the description of the types of cooperatives available and review the statutes and regulations associated with each. Things you should consider when forming a cooperative include the potential for growth in the cooperative, the complexities associated with potential growth, interest from a carrier and a sponsoring entity in the cooperative, and carrier requirements, such as participation levels.
How Do I Join a Cooperative?
All of the cooperatives registered and listed with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). Contacting a cooperative in your area is the first step you should take in joining a cooperative. For certain cooperatives, there may be an annual open enrollment period, which will limit your opportunities to a certain period each year. Small employers interested in joining a cooperative should also remember that, as individual employers, they are guaranteed issuance of coverage from an insurance company or HMO that offers coverage to small employers. Similarly, a small business employer must be allowed to join a health group cooperative and purchase coverage during the next annual open enrollment period.
What Type of Cooperative Should I Join?
Various factors will influence your decision about the type of cooperative to join, including whether your company is a small or large employer, the rates offered by the cooperatives in your area, a cooperative’s administrative or membership fees, and whether a particular cooperative is accepting new members or currently enrolling new members in an open enrollment period. You should review the different types of cooperatives to determine whether a particular type offers advantages for the employer. There is also a revolutionary individual health insurance plan you can offer your employees.
Health Group Cooperative – Sub (p)
SB 805, enacted by the 79th Texas Legislature (2005), created a new type of health group cooperatives with special rights and requirements.
- Any person, other than a health carrier, may form a sub (p) health group cooperative.
- Once a sub (p) health group cooperative is formed, it must have at least ten small employer members to be eligible to purchase coverage from a health carrier that is participating in the health group cooperative market.
- A sub (p) health group cooperative is not required to allow a small employer to join the cooperative if the cooperative has elected to restrict membership in the cooperative in accordance with legal requirements, and after the small employer has joined the cooperative, the total number of eligible employees employed on business days during the preceding calendar year by all small employers participating in the cooperative would exceed 50.
- A health group cooperative must make the election to restrict membership at the time the cooperative is initially formed.
- Employers that join a sub (p) health group cooperative must commit to purchasing coverage through the cooperative for two years, but may cease purchasing coverage upon demonstrating financial hardship.
- A sub (p) health group cooperative is considered to be a single small employer for the purposes of issuance of coverage and rating. Accordingly, a health group cooperative may purchase coverage from any small employer health carrier that is not already providing coverage to a health group cooperative in that county.
- Health carriers providing coverage to a sub (p) health group cooperative may offer a health benefit plan, specifically allowed by SB 10, which does not include state mandated benefits. This freedom from state mandates is specific to SB 10, but it is similar to that which authorizes consumer choice health benefit plans.
If you have a number of temporary, part-time or seasonal employees working for you, cooperatives have a number of limitations and may not be the best health insurance option for your small business. Group health insurance can be unaffordable for many small businesses, not to mention an administrative headache. Another alternative to group health insurance plans is to offer individual health insurance options to your employees. By law, an employer is not allowed to contribute to these plans, or that would be treated as group insurance under Texas state law. But you can still help your employees become insured in a good plan and improve their health and well-being and also improve employee retention in the process.
If you’re a small business owner who would like to offer affordable health insurance plans to your employees, but can’t afford group health insurance, you should consider offering your employees the revolutionary, comprehensive individual health insurance solutions created by Precedent specifically for young, healthy individuals.
Precedent offers affordable, individual health plans with catastrophic coverage, but without a high deductible, and we’ll offer these plans to your employees at a discount. For more information, visit us at our website. We offer a unique and innovative suite of individual health insurance solutions, including highly competitive HSA-qualified plans, and an unparalleled “real time” application and acceptance experience.

Florida residents who can afford health insurance pay an average of $11,480 per year for family coverage, which is about what the average minimum-wage earner brings home. Premiums are up 87% according to Kaiser Family Foundation. The days of “low-cost” health insurance are all but gone unless you have help from a professional insurance consultant.

The cost of caring for “disease” continues to rise faster than inflation according to an article this month in Newsweek magazine. It said “over 47 million Americans don’t have health insurance at all”. Those with low-cost health insurance usually get these from employers, but with costs rising, it is obvious that the health insurance situation in Florida is getting worse.

Taking care of employees is the primary concern of a good employer. But that has been perceived as “expensive” by some companies as it means providing the employee with vacations, bonuses, incentive pay, and of course, health insurance coverage. In the future, Florida businesses may be able to offer low-cost health insurance to residents who are willing to make a few changes in lifestyle.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a major study on health insurance recently that said low cost insurance rates may be made available to those willing to go through a certified “health risk assessment”. These health risk managers look at your lifestyle, and your current state of health, and certify that the person is “healthy” and a “low-risk” which can qualify the applicant for lower insurance rates. The only other way to get low-cost health insurance in Florida is to get it from your employer as part of their group health insurance plan.

There are many health insurance consultants out there who can help Floridians find low-cost insurance, such as Florida Health Insurance Web – www. FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb. com – insurance consultant, Morgan Moran said, “Change a few things about your lifestyle, and lower rates could be available”. The insurance industry believes, most people would change a few things to get lower insurance rates, and assure living a longer happier life. These changes may include a better diet, more exercise, and less high risk behavior like “skydiving” or “bungee jumping”. Until now, insurance plans rarely took behavior into account.

Many Floridians are looking for a quick fix. If they can take a pill or have a stint plugged into their heart they would, rather than change their lifestyle, after all, it does sound easier. The New England Journal confirmed what other research showed— that angioplasties and stints don’t prolong life and don’t even prevent heart attacks, yet $30 billion was spent on those last year. Mutual of Omaha found that almost 76% percent of people eligible for angioplasty or heart bypass surgery were able to “safely avoid it by making the comprehensive lifestyle changes”, saving almost $30,000 per person. It is plain to see that changing lifestyle is more cost effective than surgery. Low-Cost Insurance Consultation

In an effort to find affordable health insurance rates, many are turning to health insurance consultants for help. In a phone interview, consultant Morgan Moran said, “The best way to find affordable, low-cost health insurance is to have an employer-sponsored group health insurance plan. ” Group health insurance plans are the most affordable, low cost health insurance plans out there, aside from state-sponsored health insurance plans. If you can obtain health insurance from your employer, you will pay even less for your health insurance than you would if you purchased a group health insurance plan on your own.

Most employers have certain requirements an employee must meet before he or she can be a part of the employer-sponsored group health insurance plan. These requirements range from the number of hours the employee works, to the employee’s status, i. e. , whether the employee works full-time or part-time. Employers sometimes have time requirements as well. This means the employee must be with the company for a certain amount of time before he or she is considered eligible for the employer-sponsored group health insurance plan.

Employer-sponsored group health insurance plans are usually the most affordable, low cost health insurance plans for a variety of reasons. If you have an employer-sponsored group health insurance plan, the health insurance premiums are either divided between you and your employer, or paid completely by your employer. This means one of two things. Either you are required to pay half of the health insurance premiums plus a low cost co-payment or you are only required to pay an affordable co-payment.

Employer-sponsored group health insurance plans like this have become even more affordable and low cost when you factor in your spouse and children. Rather than purchase individual health insurance policies for each of your family members, or pay out-of-pocket for health care costs, you can add your spouse and your children to your employer-sponsored group health insurance plan.

Rates on health insurance policies change daily, and vary from carrier to carrier so it’s a good idea to speak to a consultant like Moran. Their fees are paid by the carrier without passing the cost along to the consumer. Find out more at www. FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb. com

Some strategies on finding affordable health insurance in Florida. I’ve been a health insurance agent since 1985. I help Connecticut residents find health insurance and have for the last several years have also managed a website that helps people in other states including Florida find health insurance. You can find a health insurance broker in Florida by requesting quotes through my site. Health Insurance Plans of Florida — Tips to Help You Pick the Right Policy Choosing the best health insurance plan involves the following: Finding a policy with or without using a health insurance broker in Florida who can offer you the lowest cost (but only with respect to the other two criteria) Finding one of the health insurance plans of Florida that has a network that meets your needs Finding the Florida health insurance plan with coverage that meets your needs Choosing the right medical insurance policy involves finding the best rate quote amongst the Florida health insurance plans that meet your needs as to network and coverage. Choosing the lowest price is of course very easy. Determining whether the health insurance plan’s network of doctors meets your needs is only a little more difficult. Choosing a health insurance policy that covers you well can be complex. You may want to enlist the aid of a licensed health insurance broker in Florida. Most of this article focuses on the basics of determining how well a policy covers you. In a perfect world, everyone would read and understand their insurance policies. However, I realize that many people will find a health insurance broker in Florida that they feel comfortable with and will want his or her recommendations. However, whether you use a broker or not, I strongly recommend that you contact the Florida office of Insurance Regulation in Tallahassee, FL (850) 413-3140 and make sure that any health insurance plan is approved by them. Insurance Departments cannot ensure that you get the best policy for your individual needs, but they do their best to make sure that each health insurance plan and each health insurance broker meets certain minimum standards. Be sure to work with companies and brokers that are in good standing. Choosing the Florida Health Insurance Plan with the Right Network Health insurance carriers usually have websites that will list the MDs and medical facilities that accept their plans. All that I’m aware of will have a printed list that they can mail to you. The right plan will have your physician on their list or at least physicians who are located a convenient distance from your home. If you travel it is important to find a plan that covers you well in other geographic areas as well. Choosing the Florida Health Insurance Plan with the best coverage for you Health insurance policies may be the most complex of the insurance contracts offered to individuals and families. Understanding how your medical plan will pay for your medical bills can be difficult. Fortunately most of the brochures and outlines of coverage that you may receive from a health insurance provider will have a similar structure. They will have sections similar to the following: What is Covered? Health Plan Exclusions and Limitations What is Covered? This section will detail what medical procedures your health insurance policy will cover. The policy should have a phrase like “reasonable and customary” or “usual, reasonable and customary” or something similar when describing how much they will cover. Watch out for health insurance policies with: Monetary limits for each procedure A long list of procedures that the medical insurance policy will cover Better health insurance policies will not list dollar amounts for each procedure. They will pay using a formula that is based on what other physicians and hospitals will charge you in the same geographic area. A phrase like “usual and customary” indicates that they use such a formula. The cost of medical care rises so quickly that a dollar amount that seems impressive today may not fully reimburse you even a year from now. Solid health Insurance policies will not have a long list of procedures that they will cover listed on the policy. The long list seems impressive because the list takes up a lot of space. Look at the statements below. It should be easy to choose between one and two. “Our health insurance plan will cover you for everything except for expenses caused by self-inflicted injuries and substance abuse. ” (”I’ve been to every city in Florida except Orlando. “) “Our health insurance policy will cover your nose, your ears, your toes, your hands, your right lung, your calf and your knee” (”I’ve been to Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami Beach”) Health Plan Exclusions and Limitations This section will tell you what is excluded. Typically plastic surgery will not be covered. Also experimental procedures and expenses caused by self-inflicted injuries will not be covered. You should understand each of these limitations before you commit to a policy. Most policies will not include maternity insurance, so if you want to get pregnant, make sure that you know how your policy will cover maternity expenses. Unfortunately, maternity insurance is not available in many states except as part of a group insurance plan. To summarize: Determine what health insurance plans will cover you in your area Determine which health insurance plans offer adequate coverage Choose the plans that offers the best value based on price and coverage The health insurance options Orlando residents have are similar to the health insurance options Miami residents have, since the plans will work in similar ways throughout the state. This article can be copied and reprinted but only in its entirety and with the links intact. The article was originally published on https://lovetherates. com/articles/health-insurance-broker-florida-article. htm. The article starts with the heading “Hospitalization Only Insurance” and ends with this sentence.

Packaged Long Term Care Policies

A majority of Long Term Care Insurance policies are sold as comprehensive and stand alone health plans. These plans have options of annual, semi-annual, quarterly or even monthly premiums. There are also other types of payments like an abbreviated payment plan. The comprehensive Long Term Care Insurance plan is similar to the group health plan or individual health plan. This type of plan covers most of the health care alternatives. There are four primary methods to package Long Term Care Insurance.

1. The Long Term Care Insurance may be packaged with life insurance with either or feature which is very beneficial and flexible. In case of policy holder dies, their beneficiary will get the death benefit. While in case of policy holder wants Long term care, prior to his/her death than instead of life insurance predetermined benefits are paid. You can buy this type of policy by either paying the one time premium of $ 50,000 or more or with quarterly, yearly premiums.

2. The Long Term Care Insurance is packaged as rider to life insurance policy’s cash value. This type of policy covers two different types and the premiums are also divided to pay for both.

3. The Long Term Care Insurance may be packaged with disability income policy. It can be used before the age of 65years. This type of packaged policy is mainly for disability income but there are possibilities of long term coverage if premiums are paid after the age of 65.

4. The Long Term Care Insurance may be packaged with deferred annuity that has single premium option. This type of packaged policy is for those people who has around $ 50. 000 or more money that is free and don’t mind if it is tied up. There is pending legislation which if passed will make Long Term Care Insurance premiums exempted form tax. What is Long term care?

The Long term care may be defined as when some one can not perform their emotional or physical needs without the help of other for extended time period than it is termed as Long term care. The external help required for activities like pain management, bathing, comfort and assurance, walking, toilet usage, meals providing, feeding, money management, phone answering, visiting doctor, shopping, taking medication, transport providing, laundry, grooming, paying bill, letter writings, small home repairs, yard maintaining, snow removing etc. are covered under Long term care. Able people take this type of activities for granted.

There are many reasons that are responsible for Long term care like disability, terminal condition, injury, illness, old age etc. It is found out that around 60 percentage of population require extended help during their life span. For some, the Long term care lasts for few days or weeks or months. But there are some persons for whom the Long term care goes for years. Depending upon the person’s condition they require different periods of care. The care may be divided in to two broad categories.

Ongoing Long term care: This type of care requirement is for extended period, may be for months or years. Ongoing Long term care is required when

1. Disabilities of permanent nature

2. Medical conditions which are chronic

3. Daily routine require help

4. Chronic pain

Temporary Long term care: This type of care requirement is for short period, may be only weeks or months. Temporary Long term care is required when

1. Recovering from illness

2. Recovering from surgery

3. Recovering from injury

4. Terminal medical condition

5. Hospital stay for rehabilitation

The Long term care services may be given in an adult day servicing home, in the house of the patient, even in the house of patient’s friends or any of the family member’s house, in a board and care house or in a nursing home or many other such places. Understanding Long Term Care Insurance benefits

Out of all insurance products the Long term care insurance is the most complicated health benefit product. The Long term care insurance provides around 16 options of different benefits. Out of this 16 options each option also offer 2 to 5 selections. The story does not end here, daily benefits gives other selections which may be rounded up to 30 in number. So theoretically there are hundreds or thousands of different policies possible in the same plan. With the results there is thousands of premiums combination. For lay man to grasp all this different combination of policy is very difficult.

So to make this thing simple, best way is to limit the choices. For example many employer will pre select only 2 to 4 different combination of benefit, and offer their employees only this with extra riders like inflation protection, shortened pay or non forfeiture. This procedure will leave thousands of options in to only 10 to 20. Many see advantages of this procedure but there are also some disadvantages.

Selecting from very limited options prevents many employees from selecting other batter and richer benefit plans. Some time it is also observed that limited number of benefits which is often proved to be inadequate. The obvious danger of offering limited benefit policy is employees may be under the false impression that they are covered for particular thing when actually they are not covered. For example to increase the employees’ participation rate they are offered incomplete protections which reduce the rate of premiums and superficially look very attractive. Some time initial payment may be lower but it increases as time passes.

It is always better to select a Long term care insurance plan that offers the option of additional benefits. These additional options are mostly medically under written, but the coverage is very broad. Contrary to belief that underwriting has very strict rules and it is very difficult to be eligible, around 95 % of employees are qualifies for medically underwritten Long term care insurance plan. Health Savings Accounts (HSA)

The Health Savings Accounts (HSA) is some what new in to the market of health insurance. Health Savings Accounts is based on entirely new concept and provide people with great option for health care insurance.

You should consider buying Health Savings Accounts insurance when you are seriously thinking health insurance as a form of investment. There are some restriction and regulations regarding Health Savings Accounts insurance plan. Different person find different benefits that is useful for them, for example if you are self employed than Health Savings Accounts insurance plan offer you the benefit like exemption from tax, up to the limit of $ 2,700 for individual plan and up to $ 5,450 for family plan.

For childless couple who does not own any health insurance, Health Savings Accounts insurance is good health plan, since purchasing Health Savings Accounts insurance and paying premiums regularly the amount of premiums will be accumulated in to tax free money. This money will be like lottery when after substantial time policy holder becomes old and their children becomes young. Large sum of money they will receive when they are old is really blessings.

Apart from many benefits, Health Savings Accounts insurance is not as famous as required. There are certain disadvantages which make Health Savings Accounts insurance good for certain types of people. Many people will benefit from Health Savings Accounts insurance but they don’t know about it. Slowly the situation is improving and people stated inquiring about Health Savings Accounts insurance. People become more aware about the savings on their expanses which is medical related. There are many people who opt for high deductible health plan combine with Health Savings Accounts. Now it is generally known that Health Savings Accounts insurance allow people to keep aside before-tax money, which can be utilize for future medical expenditure. This means that if people has Health Savings Accounts insurance and remains healthy than they may accumulate hundreds or thousands of dollar in their Health Savings Accounts at the time of retirement.

Florida Health Insurance Health plans can help you!

If you are in the market for a good health insurance company in Florida, then you should consider yourself lucky since there are so many of them available. With increasing competition there are many Florida health insurance companies, fighting for their share of the market. Choosing the right one can be quite a daunting task indeed. The internet thankfully is a useful aid in your quest for the right Florida health insurance plan.

There are many online Florida health insurance companies that come to you with a host of offers and options for your entire family. The internet is one good source to learn about Florida health insurance plans and the different options available to you. Go through as many web sites as possible. There are scores of web sites which give comprehensive information. Moreover it is very convenient to get rates through online resources once you have decided to go in for a Florida health insurance plan, you should make sure that you thoroughly analyze your needs. This would also mean a hassle free health insurance experience.

Consider as many Florida health insurance companies as possible during your initial search phase. One person who can help you out with your search would be your insurance agent advisor. They may be in touch with several insurers and may be able to guide you in your search for the right Florida health insurance company. They would also offer your honest and valuable advice on the various Florida health insurance plans that are available.

Make sure that you obtain all the available cost information from your Florida health insurance company. Analyze your paying capacity and find out what is that you can afford as a premium for your Florida health insurance and find out in detail about every kind of cost involved in a health insurance plan. Get to know all the possible information from the different insurers and agents you may be dealing with. This enables you to compare and then arrive at the best Florida Health Insurance Company and plan.

Ask relevant questions and clarify all your doubts. You should be able to elicit proper answers to his/her queries from the Florida health insurance company. Try and find out from each insurer the list of present plans and find out which is the most popular plan going around currently.

Choose a Florida insurance company which meets your needs and circumstances the best, since you will be dealing with the home loan company for a reasonably long period of time. It is always best to go through referrals as far choosing a reputed Florida health insurance company is concerned. A good health insurance company would have been in the business in Florida for a substantial period of time. They should be enjoying a great deal of goodwill in the market among people of Florida. Make sure that your Florida health insurance company is licensed to operate in the state. This is a good way to find out about the credentials of a Florida health insurance company.

Another good source that can help you out with your Florida health insurance plan would be some of your friends or even family members. They may have already availed health insurance plans from different health insurance companies in Florida and therefore be in a position to offer you honest advice.

If you are going to shop for an insurance plan on the Internet, be sure to check out www. FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb. com. They were voted the #1 health insurance consulting firm in the beautiful state of Florida.

Florida Health Insurance Broker can help you!

Florida Health Insurance Agency

Finding an affordable health insurance plan in the US can be a daunting task. There are many different kinds of health insurance plans. The health insurance plans that usually come to mind when people think about health insurance are employer-sponsored group health insurance plans, state-sponsored health insurance plans, and individual health insurance plans. If a person does not have the option of buying into an employer-sponsored group health insurance plan, he will usually look into purchasing an individual health insurance plan or state-sponsored health insurance plan. Many people overlook the affordable, short term health insurance plans available in the US. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding short term health insurance. What is short term health insurance? Short term health insurance is health insurance that lasts for six to 12 months, depending on your needs. Short term health insurance is an affordable way to obtain temporary insurance to cover your health care costs, and the health care costs of your family. What kinds of health care are available with short term health insurance? A short term health insurance plan usually provides the same kinds of health care available with any other health insurance plan. A short term health insurance plan may give you coverage for doctor visits, surgeries, inpatient and outpatient treatments and procedures, other hospitalization services, discounts on prescription medications, as well as dental care and vision care. Who should consider short term health insurance? An individual who finds himself unemployed or laid off should consider purchasing affordable, short term health insurance in the US. Just because an individual’s employment status changes does not mean his, and his families, health care needs change, too. Why is short term health insurance affordable? Some short term health insurance plans are actually designed with unemployed and laid off workers in mind. This means that short term health insurance plans are made to be affordable for people without steady income.