Ecommerce Shopping Cart - Search Engine Marketing Software

Financial Planning & Money Management -- Is There Anything We Can Do About Rising Health Care Costs?

When we go shopping for something, whatever it may be, we can expect to pay more for higher quality. And as Americans, we are privileged to live in a country that offers the best health care in the world. On the other hand, everyone knows the cost of health care has become inordinately high. Disagreement only exists with respect to how to fix the problem.

There's an old saying: "The only thing we can really be sure of is death and taxes." But these days, worrying about health insurance and uninsured medical costs is enough to make us all sick, and some of us are paying more for protecting our health and managing our health care costs than we pay in taxes. We must first realize that responsibility for the rapidly increasing health care costs begins at home.

Do you have employer-provided health insurance? If so, consider yourself lucky. You have probably been accepted into a group that's large enough to offer you the same coverage that costs the rest of us significantly more, just because we're either self-employed or our employer cannot afford to split the cost. (Look at your payroll deductions for health insurance and multiply by three; that's roughly what it costs the rest of us.) Typically, employer group policies (or trade/association group health insurance policies) are non-cancelable as long as you continue to pay the premiums, and they cannot single you out for a rate increase because of your personal claim history. Your rates will go up every year based on the risk and costs incurred by everyone in your group regardless of how well you take care of yourself or how many claims you personally file. Essentially, this means the more claims you make the greater the benefit you'll receive for the premium paid, as compared to others in your group who make fewer claims but ultimately have to pay for your claims through higher premiums. Group health care systems reward those of us who are prone to take advantage at the expense of others, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

If you think the answer to our problems is in government sponsored heath care, you might want to think again. Government sponsored health care is potentially no different than a group insurance policy with the same exposure to abuse, but on a much bigger scale. What's worse, the bigger the government program, the more restrictions on personal choice and the more we all pay in higher taxes. Ask yourself: How well do you think the government has managed our existing tax-based Medicare and Medicaid programs? Regulation to protect the public safety and welfare is one thing. Expecting our government to go into the health insurance business and manage it better is another.

By current federal law, no one in this country can be refused medical care when needed regardless of whether or not they are insured, and there are tens of millions of people living here who are uninsured either because they choose not to be insured or they can't afford the premiums. Who do you think pays for their healthcare costs when the service provider cannot collect from the patient? Recoupment of costs can only come from one of two places -- your premiums or your taxes. (Do you see the "catch-22" here?)

Do you visit the doctor every time you have a sniffle or a hangnail? I bet you wouldn't if you had to pay the full cost of the visit from your wallet, instead of a minor insurance co-pay amount that lulls you into thinking the cost of your visit or prescription is cheap. This example is offered only to prove a point: Don't abuse your privileges; you'll end up paying for it later. And whenever you see the term "out-of-pocket" expense referenced in an insurance policy, remember that your premium is one of your biggest out-of-pocket expenses. The less attention you pay to what your insurance provider is shelling out to cover you today, the more you can expect the costs to keep rising tomorrow.

Have you ever had your doctor recommend a barrage of tests that you weren't sure you needed, and why were those tests were being recommended? Even the best doctors make mistakes just like the rest of us. But all doctors are paying increasingly high malpractice insurance premiums because of the increasing risk of frivolous lawsuits from those of us who expect them to be right all the time and then seek a fast buck if even the slightest mistake has been made. Just like in every other business, the cost of this risk is passed along to you.

When we go to the doctor, we're usually at a disadvantage because we don't feel well. Consequently, we will often defer to his or her advice without asking important questions like: "How much experience do you have? What are your references? Are your fees negotiable?" Yet these are the same kinds of questions we expect to answer when seeking a job, so why don't we ask our doctors?

We've restricted advertising for tobacco and alcohol in this country. But when was the last time you watched a commercial TV program without seeing an advertisement for some other kind of drug? Have you noticed how many of them there are? How many hundreds of millions of dollars do you think are being spent each year by all those drug companies to make you "tell your doctor" why you should have him/her recommend or prescribe their products? Did you ever actually consider buying one of these drugs or going to the doctor just because you suddenly realized you might have the same symptoms as described in one of those commercials? Do you think doctors are happy that drug companies are telling you to tell them what to do? Again, I ask you: Who do you think is paying for all of this? (Can you hear the cash register going "ka-ching?")

Short of becoming an activist for health care reform, there are a few things you can do right now to help you manage your current and future health care costs.

Be responsible for your own life and habits? If you don't currently have health insurance but can afford to buy it, then do so. Do your homework; you may be able to find affordable coverage if you look for it? Increase your health insurance deductible amount and/or co-pay amounts, which will reduce your premium costs? Open a tax-deferred Health Savings Account (HSA) and make regular contributions to it, to help you pay for your deductible and out-of-pocket expenses.

Even with health insurance coverage, some experts currently suggest that out-of-pocket medical costs for many of us can still be expected to approach $200,000 (or more) in the event of a major illness in our lifetime. (Without insurance, one major illness could bankrupt you.) When planning for retirement, it would be wise to allow for such out-of-pocket funding in your savings plans whenever possible. If you own your home, you might want to consider including the value of your home equity in your savings allocations for this. And while you're at it, don't overlook your potential need for long-term care insurance.

R. Gunnar Gelotte is a semi-retired Phi Beta Kappa honors graduate of the College of William & Mary in Virginia, with over 25 years experience as a corporate controller and personal money manager. He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. For an easy and comprehensive way to help you plan for and manage your personal or business finances, visit http://www.MyMoneyManagementTools.com

Shopping Cart Uses Top Google Keywords to Maximize Revenue
Ecommerce shopping cart hosting uses search engine marketing software to sell products online. Use top paying Google keywords and PPC campaigns to maximize revenue and boost your income stream. Get a merchant account for credit card processing and make money on the internet with merchandise sales.

MORE ARTICLES:

Website Marketing Firm Brick Marketing Launches Local Search Engine Marketing Product at Brick Marketing Local
Brick Marketing, a respected full-service website marketing firm known for its success in increasing the sales of clients through online marketing, has launched a new local search engine marketing product. The new local online marketing package gives brick and mortar businesses the opportunity to achieve higher exposure in a wide range of local search engines.

Shopping Cart Software - Making Internet Shopping Easier
People are increasingly turning to the Internet when they want to earn extra income or even begin earning a primary income from home. So many different jobs and sources of revenue on the Internet have evolved over the years that making money on the Internet has become quite easy. If you think about it, it's obvious why. The Internet can reach more customers than a physical store location can.

eCommerce Solution - Shopping Cart Software
Build Your Own Ecommerce Website Ecommerce has been the rage for the online community. Now over half of the world prefers to do shopping on Internet through various ecommerce stores. Every businessperson wants to build own an ecommerce website in order to get their business an impressive online presence and an ultimate global exposure. If you are also running a business and are looking for a perfect way out to reach the millions of customers from all over the world, there is no other way to do this than building an ecommerce website. However, if you are planning to build your own ecommerce website, you should not that it is not an easy task to do. You need to look into several factors. Let us go exploring. Professional Design W...

Shopping Cart Software - Boost Your Online Sales
More and more people are going to the internet in order to find a means of making a living. There have been so many advances in the ways of the internet that have made making money easier for many people. This concept is actually relatively simple; on the internet there is an increased ability to reach many more customers than in person.

Apply For A Credit Card Merchant Account Online
Who should? Why, you should, of course, if you want to grow your business and maximize sales volume! In this day and age, more and more business functions are moving into cyberspace, which means that business owners must be ready to travel to this relatively unknown domain if they want to maintain strong customer ties and stay a step or two ahead of the competition. Dont worry if youre not Web savvy; most online processes that are geared to the general consumer are not hard to perform. In fact, most are downright easy.

Pinnacle Cart Releases the Next Generation of Their Successful Shopping Cart Software  Pinnacle Cart 360
Pinnacle Cart announces the release of their latest ecommerce software solution, Pinnacle Cart 360. Designed from a marketing perspective, this tremendously successful shopping cart application is designed to increase website sales, average sales amount and organic traffic.

Xonca Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software Released
Ecommerce software company Arquan releases search engine friendly Xonca shopping cart software for web designers and SEO professionals.

PPC Marketing, PPC Advertising, Pay Per Click, Internet Marketing
PPC Means ProsPerous Campaigns!

4 Reasons Why You Must Try PPC Search Engine Internet Marketing
PPC (or Pay Per Click for those not in the know) search engine internet marketing is a form of internet advertising model that uses the power of the search engine, the flexibility and connectivity of advertising networks and a whole host of content based people pulling websites to generate audience volume

Search Engine Marketing Offline Sales Tracked With Online Advertising Analytics
ClearSaleing's new enhanced CRM integration program is an online advertising solution for search engine marketers.

Advertising Your Work From Home Internet Business With PPC Search Engines
If you want to make money online with a work from home business then you are going to need lots of good targeted traffic to your web site and or affiliate links. One way to get good targeted traffic is to pay for it.

Online Credit Card Processing - How to Accept Credit Cards - Ecommerce 101
Back in 1998 (through 2000 or so), I worked for a small company (called PaymentNet / then Signio) that handled online transactions. Verisign later purchased this company, and the product team I led integrated the "client" - the portion that took the credit card information and sent it to our servers for processing.

Arquan Announces Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software For Web Designers and SEO Professionals
Arquan announces Xonca 3.0 ecommerce shopping cart software for web designers and SEO professionals who need complete design control, power, simplicity, and search engine friendly features. Xonca is also very easy to operate for the end user.

Comparison Shopping Search Engines Equal Big Profits for Online Merchants
Holiday shoppers are expected to spend $32 billion online this season, with purchases happening well past ground shipping cutoff dates. That's according to "Online Retail Holiday Forecast, 2006," a report from JupiterResearch.

Search Engine Marketing Firm Netconcepts® Upgrades Powerful Ecommerce Web Solution for Online Retailers
Enhanced search friendly online retail management platform provides "baked in" optimization features.