It’s difficult to even begin to touch on how many ways new and growing technology has changed the medical field. The average lifespan today is between 75-85 years old in this country and continues to rise year after year. Is it that Americans are finally heeding warning of the Food and Drug Administration or is technology now able to erase the effects of years of unhealthy living?
Prevention
Doctors now know that genetics play a part in possibly passing on diseases from one generation to another. Knowing a patient’s health history because of the role genetic testing has played in identifying diseases passed on from generation to generation can give doctors an early start on what to look for in a patient. Vaccines have also played an important role in prevention of diseases and technology has allowed the newest vaccines to prevent certain types of cancers.
Testing
Regular blood tests and lab work can reveal anything from a lack of iron in your blood to certain types of cancers, diabetes and possible heart conditions. These simple tests can be a life saver with early detection.
Early detection
With the use of x-rays, MRI’s and Cat Scans doctors are able to have an “inside” look at your body and what diseases or ailments may be hiding within. Doctors are able to detect and diagnose problems before they become life threatening.
Surgery
Advances in this field have transformed surgery as a “risky art” into a scientific discipline capable of treating many diseases and conditions.
Treatment
The manufacturing of legal drugs has allowed the medical profession to prescribe anything from painkillers to mood enhancers to radiation and chemotherapy. There seems to be a medication for almost every ailment these days and it wouldn’t be possible without modern day technology.
For the past 200 years the medical field has made enormous progress in the fight against deadly diseases with the help of new technologies. From the invention of the first vaccine to surgeries that can give someone a better quality of life, technology continues to improve the medical field.
For more information about medical technology look to a sandiego medical equipment supplier, http://www.akwmedical.com/.
Filed under Health Insurance by on Sep 30th, 2009. Comment. 
What are some of the best Illinois maternity health insurance plans? What is the average cost of pregnancy in Illinois? How do I find the best Illinois health plan with maternity benefits? These are all important questions for anyone in the state of Illinois that is considering becoming pregnant to ask.
Many females will eventually experience the miraculous 9 month period of pregnancy, possibly more than once. Approximately 4.1 million children were born in the year of 2005. It is an important thing to have maternity insurance during these wonderful 9 months so you can make sure that bundle of joy will be healthy and delivered safely. If you are a part of the 13% of women who are without maternity added onto their health insurance or that simply do not have any health insurance at all, then don’t wait any longer and do something about it as soon as possible.
Having a child is a very big financial burden, that’s why every pregnant or soon to be pregnant female should have this much needed coverage. There are hundreds of health insurance companies that don’t automatically cover maternity. As soon as you have the intentions of becoming pregnant, make sure to check that it is included in your plan. If it is not, then you have to contact your insurance company as soon as possible to add it on. The state of Illinois has an estimated 12 million in population and there has to be some women out there who do not have this type of coverage. For this reason it is important to understand what choices are out there when it comes to Illinois maternity coverage.
One great Illinois health insurance company which is rated to be an “A” (Excellent) by A.M. Best and that optionally provides maternity care to their customers is, United Healthcare (known as Golden Rule Insurance in the individual market in many states including Illinois). United Healthcare has been in business for 40 years providing customers with great health coverage. It is for this reason that they are one of the largest insurance companies in the United States serving an estimated 18 million people.
Another wonderful Illinois medical insurance company that gives you the option of maternity care is Humana. The official sponsor for health care of the PGA Tour is one of the largest publicly traded health benefit companies in the nation. The company founded in 1961 has kept growing through the years and today they have approximately 6.4 million members. Usually with Humana you will have the option of maternity care if you pay an extra $1,000 in deductible and then you will be subject to the co-insurance.
Lastly another great IL medical insurance company that should be looked at is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois which was founded in the middle of the Great Depression in the 1930′s. It is an independently operated health management company from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Insurance Company and for this reason they offer different plans that what other states do. They also offer a maternity coverage, but although you won’t have to pay a deductible on it; it will raise your monthly premium.
If you’re a women that might have gotten pregnant unexpectedly and now it is too late to sign up for maternity insurance, or if you simply cant afford it. Don’t worry, because there is still hope. There is a pregnancy and maternity coverage provided by Affordable Health Care Options (AHCO) called the “Maternity Card”. AHCO has been giving customized non-insurance health care benefits since 1994 and they have become very famous around the United States.
The Maternity Card is a discount card that could save you up to 60% in pregnancy related expenses. Some of the services given to you if you apply and are accepted to receive this discount card include doctor visits, hospital stays, lab works, sonograms, new born tests, new born immunizations and prescription drugs.
You have to pay a small monthly fee of course, but applying to this card will in no way harm you considering they have a “certificate of guarantee.” This certificate states that “you will save at least the cost of your yearly membership or we will pay you the difference plus $200, if you are expecting a baby”. That’s really something you can’t turn down, because it is a guarantee that you will save money if you sign up.
As said before maternity care is very important in a woman’s everyday life. An unexpected pregnancy can happen very easily since not even condoms are 100% effective and you must be prepared in every single situation. If you do not have Illinois health insurance and you become pregnant then there is a good chance you will be in debt after you have your baby, plus pregnancy brings prenatal tests, doctor visits and much more.
If you do not have maternity and prenatal care coverage it’s time to go get it, with the rising cost in health care it is important to be protected against becoming pregnant and being uninsured. The options are out there, so go out, shop around and see what is best for you. The best way to find a cheap Illinois maternity health insurance plan is to compare rates from different companies in order to find the best deal for your particular situation. Get started finding maternity health insurance today!
Filed under Health Insurance by on Sep 30th, 2009. Comment.
I had a chance to watch quite a bit of one of PBS’s series American Experience: The Presidents on Franklin D. Roosevelt (www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/32_f_roosevelt/index.html). Not only did it give me a better insight into the man (and his wife and co-theorist, Eleanore Roosevelt), it also deepened my understanding of the social and political climate of the post-crash/pre-war age. Although the American Experience has always been marked by unprecedented opportunities for oppressed peoples, unrestrained free-market capitalism had sliced the population into a wealthy class, a small entrepreneurial class, and an under-class of poor farmers and workers. For all intents and purposes, there was no ‘middle class.’
What does that really mean, after all, that the US had no ‘middle class’? It meant that many foundational concepts of the ‘American Dream’ such as home ownership, travel, vacations, luxury items, higher education and leisure time were essentially beyond the reach of the vast majority of citizens. The Roosevelts’ huge innovation that they introduced through the ‘New Deal‘ consisted in a series of publicly-sponsored ‘safety nets’ to give the general populace some insulation from catastrophic events. For the first time in history, the majority of a population could begin to afford some of the benefits that only the upper classes had enjoyed until that time.
Since then, the sacrosanct ‘American standard of living’ has survived largely as a result of the public promotion of the common good: the minimum wage and occupational safety and health, unemployment insurance, medical and retirement benefits, child welfare and student aid, etc. The most vulnerable of our people (the young, the aged, the unemployed and low-income workers) have been given a reasonable shot at survival. Perhaps we member of the middle class have taken for granted how much our own standard of living depends on the continued functioning of these safety nets.
In one brief expression, I can say that the existence of a middle class in the 21st Century is completely dependent on the public promotion of the common good. Yet, right now, I’m watching the middle class lurch from disappointment to disappointment as that safety net unravels under the guidance of people who seem more concerned for their own wealth than for the common good. You and I are being bombarded with high-sounding slogans about government spending and taxation that are being used to justify the dismantling of the New Deal.
The Savings and Loan Crisis (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_Loan_crisis) that begin in the US in the 1980′s resulted in the largest redistribution of wealth (upward) in the history of the world. The current economic crisis (centered in the housing and mortgage industries) is continuing the trend. The care of our weakest citizens (the poor, the unemployed, the young, the aged, the infirm) is eroding quickly. The theorists are having their way, as the gap quickly widens between the rich and the poor – a gap that used to be filled by what is now a rapidly-shrinking middle class.
What does this have to do with living a balanced life? As ‘success’ for the majority of us gets defined downwards and the requirements for attaining this ‘success’ get redefined upwards, each one of us has to cope with increasing stress and anxiety. You have to work longer and harder to achieve less. If you consider ‘balance’ to consist of meeting your needs (as defined in Maslow’s hierarchy) and still having uncommitted resources available for investment in attaining at least some of your wants, you can see what’s happening: everything gets scaled down. You have to be satisfied with getting fewer of your needs met, which prevents you from attaining your higher goals, and consequently, you have fewer resources available to move forward.
This country is still a democracy. You still have a chance to stem the self-inflicted bleeding that’s weakening and threatening the very life of the middle class. You can recognize the fact that the best way to promote your own enlightened self-interest is to promote the common good actively and effectively. To paraphrase one of Jesus’ sayings, ‘Whatever you’re doing to the least of your brethren, you’re doing to yourself!’
H. Les Brown, MA, CFCC
ProActivation® Coaching
Website: http://www.ProActivation.com
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Filed under Health Insurance by on Sep 30th, 2009. Comment.