Archives for February 2012

Male Specific Health Insurance By Michael Bell Platinum Quality Author

It is widely known that women outlive men and more female babies survive than male. Nowadays men live an average of 5 years less than women, which is 4 years more than it was almost a hundred years ago. Why is this the case and how can men correct this problem? Some of the reasons are rooted in the way men take care of themselves in general and how they approach purchasing health insurance. Other reasons are simply because of how men don’t take care of themselves physically and when selecting or even purchasing health insurance policies.

Most men don’t even bother with health insurance, nor do they even consider looking for it. More and more women are purchasing health insurance for their spouses, but what about all the single men out there? If you obtain a quote for a man’s health insurance, it will usually be higher than that for women. Men don’t just slack off on the health insurance coverage, they don’t seek medical help even if they do have medical insurance. Getting a good health insurance policy is one of the few steps to a healthier and longer life.

A man’s health is not just important to him, but to his offspring and to his spouse. If you die, what will happen to your wife and kids? Health insurance and life insurance for men go hand in hand sometimes, and you should get both. Since the men tend to bring home the bread more, or earn more income, it is important that men have a decent health insurance plan to cover them and probably their family for when things go wrong. Being covered not only physically but financially by a good health plan will reduce the risk of death for not only you but for your entire family. It would be wise to obtain health insurance early on or just finding the best plans available on the market today.

Health insurance becomes more important for men as they age, as this is usually when more and more health problems and risks arise. Widows are left with expensive medical bills and post postmortem expenses after their husbands die from easily preventable diseases and complications. With health insurance men are more inclined to see the doctor and are better cared for by health professionals since necessary tests are covered. Guys wouldn’t bother with tests if they weren’t paid for and convenient for them, thus health plans will help them stay healthier.

Men leaving their wives in poverty is becoming more common as they die without life and health insurance, leaving their entire family to deal with the left over medical expenses. There are more elderly women than men in the United States and it seems to be getting worse while men don’t take care of themselves. Men need to get out there and find those popular health plans aimed specifically to males so you can be there for your wife and kids. For single guys this means living longer than your ex-girlfriends and your other friends!

Mike Bell is the owner and operation of the Insurance Options Guide. A site dedicated to providing users with appropriate information to make informed insurance decisions.

Hospitals Will Charge You More If You Do Not Have Health Insurance

Although there is considerable debate surrounding this particular subject there is no doubt that if you do not have medical health insurance then you will pay higher charges for hospital treatment.

The gap between charges levied on individuals paying hospital bills through insurance and those paying privately and has been rising steadily for more than twenty years now and we have seen particular divergence since the turn of the century. Indeed, the latest available figures show that private patients were paying no less than two and a half times as much as insured patients in 2004.

The American Hospital Association (AHA), to which the majority of America’s approximately 5,000 hospitals belong, disputes this figure and claims that, while there has certainly been a problem in the past, since these figures were issued in 2004 a great deal has been done to solve this problem.

A major part of the argument they use is that there was considerable confusion for a long time about whether or not hospitals could charge patients at different rates and that they have been waiting for guidance from the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid before they could authorize discounts for uninsured patients.

Well I don’t know about you but for this writer that sound like a lot of political hogwash!

The simple fact of the matter is that hospitals, like many businesses, deliberately inflate their charges when drawing up their pricelist (the ‘chargemaster’ in this case) because they know that the vast majority of their customers are major insurers who are going to negotiate substantial discounts as a condition of approving a hospital for use by their policyholders. This is fine and represents nothing more than normal business practice.

However, in a country with very little state aided healthcare this leaves anyone without insurance paying far more than those people who are fortunate enough to have insurance.

There are currently estimated to be about forty six million Americans without health insurance and without any ability to negotiate for lower hospital charges and, as things stand, it is unlikely that anyone is going to take up the fight on their behalf. Sooner or later of course somebody is going to have to overhaul the healthcare system in the US and hopefully this problem will disappear but, in the meantime, what is the answer?

The only real solution at the moment is, wherever possible, to ensure that you have at least some emergency health insurance cover. Yes health insurance can be expensive, but it is possible to get cover at quite affordable rates if you shop around and the cost of meeting your hospital bills will certainly be a lot less with health insurance than it will be without it.

MedicalHealthInsuranceToday.com provides information on all aspects of medical health insurance including individual and family health insurance plans, short term health insurance, expat medical insurance, health insurance for pre-existing conditions and much more.