I have been talking a lot about mental health these days. Because it is just as important to take care of yourself mentally and it is to take care of yourself physically. At work we had a presentation by a local therapist about depression. This article is adapted from her presentation. Not really an upper right? But what she said was interesting. A lot of people would not admit that they are depressed. Thoughts of shame and guilt flood their mind. While breaking your leg seems to be an acceptable ailment, depression is not. Insensitive people might say, “Get over it; it’s no big deal.” But to those who suffer from depression, it is a big deal.

Some studies say that more than 9 million Americans suffer from depression. And t

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Last week, Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners expressing concerns about the approach some carriers have considered for child-only health insurance coverage. In particular, while endorsing the idea of open enrollment periods, she rejected the idea of denying sick children outside the open enrollment period, but accepting healthy kids year-round.

While Congress is in recess until the upcoming elections, we continue to closely monitor activity in Washington, contributing comments on a variety of issues directly as well as through trade organizations. Regulators continue to issue guidance and seek industry input.

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Axis Global Accident & Health, a division of Axis Capital Holdings, has appointed Giles Allen as senior vice president international accident & health insurance operations, Global Accident & Health.

The firm, which currently markets insurance products in the US, is expanding into the international market.

The new offering under development includes personal and business travel accident programmes for employer groups, as well as accident and specialty health cover for a range or institutions and organisations.

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Many travel out of their home country on a very limited basis, and so choosing from the traditional health coverage options is just perfect for them. These plans largely offer everything a person spending most of their time inside their country will need. However, other people travel extensively and some may even spend part of their year living overseas. These people may be retired and travel extensively around the world. They may have the need to travel for their job, or they may even have family overseas and visit their family every chance they get for extended periods of time.

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It is necessary to have health cover all the time if you are still within the childbearing stage.  However, it is particularly important to have such cover when you or your spouse is pregnant.  It is vital that a pregnant mother receives the very best medical care.  There is no way of knowing whether a pregnancy will be normal or involve complications.  Certain conditions leave the mother at risk while others are an enormous risk to the developing baby.  Even the healthiest pregnancy needs to be monitored.

The best plan of action is to have a medical plan in place before you start trying for a family.  Employees who have a group medical plan that takes into account maternity care are not as frequent as in previous years.  Many more of us have to arrange our own health insurance maternity plan.

Due to the current tough economic climate many individuals and families have to turn to public health offers regarding health insurance maternity plans.  Many of us are really struggling financially and the government health insurance plan is Medicare.  Due to the extra financial stress caused by the weak economy Medicare now includes care for pregnant women.  To qualify you must fall within the moderate to low income bracket.

Unfortunately, there are many families who fall just outside this bracket i.e. they earn

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Aetna’s president was recently interviewed and came down hard on our system of health care in this country.  Which is ironic of course as they profit so blatantly from our mismanged care system.

What is his chief complaint?  I would have guessed it to be something like rising health care costs are symptomatic of fraud and mismanagement.  But instead he targeted transparency in his summation.

Part of the problem he outlined including the contracts that Aetna is forced to sign with medical providers include gag orders which prevent Aetna from disclosing the contracts to the public.

Aetna and the other major health insurance companies are under increasing heat to justify their rate increases which I guess they can’t in that it would violate their contracts with providers.

A recent study of two cities in Texas by a Harvard surgeon found that in McAllen, Texas where health care costs are much higher than El Paso, there is no significant difference in outcomes.

Due to the scapegoating of the health insurance industry, people tend to blame the rising costs on them instead of the hospitals and doctors that the costs originate from.

Aetna for its part is jumping on the bandwagon by introducing new programs that test pay-for-performance models  most involve financial incentives for health care providers but also include pay fines for bad results.

A great point is that Aetna is raising premiums for people in its individual health plans and furhter described the individual market as deteriorating. It “has be

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In one of the more reasoned viewpoints on health care, Ron Paul seems to have the antidote for our health insurance woes.  Though many consider Congressman Paul to be a fringe element, the truth is that he is being embraced by millions that are simply tired of our two party system which of course is what our forefathers warned about.

He is also a doctor.   This is the transcription of a speech he gave right after health reform was passed.  See if you can find any point that you can debate.  I couldn’t.

Following months of heated public debate and aggressive closed-door negotiations, Congress finally cast a historic vote on healthcare late Sunday evening. It was

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One of the provisions of the new health care reform law is $5 billion in federal funding for high risk pools, set to begin operating this summer, that will provide health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions who don’t currently have health insurance.  This is intended to be a stop-gap until 2014, when high risk pools will presumably no longer be necessary, since private health insurers will have to begin accepting all applicants in 2014.

Although there are currently some states that have no high risk pool coverage at all, we’re lucky here to have Cover Colorado.  Cove

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