| Groups target making health care affordable for hospitality workers
With health insurance costs expected to rise again in 2008, a variety of local groups are looking for ways to make coverage more available and affordable. The Hilton Head Island Hospitality Association has overhauled its year-old program to offer limited medical coverage to hospitality workers who aren't part of company group plans. The new plan, called Basic Plus, is run by a subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, said Sandra Bockley, a benefits consultant at BB&T Carswell Insurance Services, who set up the program. The plan, which costs about $100 a month for an individual, will cover some costs associated with some doctor visits, hospital stays and even surgical costs, depending on what options the buyer chooses, Bockley said.
Free-Market Wall Protects Insurers, Not Your Health
Their only potential competition is a Medicare-like single-payer system that takes out the profit motive at the insurer's end, which is why the private-insurance industry peddles all sorts of lies about single-payer systems eliminating choice or imposing inefficient socialized medicine. There is no medical system more inefficient than the American one — certainly not in the West, and many Asian and Latin American countries care for their citizens better as well — or more socialized, although perversely so: The medical-industrial complex is primarily designed to keep the insurance industry healthy. People's health is more of a collateral. The proof is in the tax credits. They would supposedly help individuals and families buy health insurance by making it more affordable.
VHS secretary N S Murali, vice-chairman of CTS Lakshmi Narayan and Dr ...
Quality medical care should be made available to the poor sections of the society and medical insurances to such sections would go a long way, Dr N S Murali, secretary, The Voluntary Health Services has said. Speaking to reporters to share his views on the newly launched non-invasive cardiac laboratory at the institute here yesterday, he said that city based hospitals should open mini-health centres offering quality medical care in the rural areas at an affordable cost. The secretary pointed out that the institute is focusing on preventive cardiology, as curative cardiological care involves huge amounts of infrastructural expenses. He also noted that of late, diagnostic services have become a money-spinning area with corporate hospitals fleecing the common man.
Calculating Penalty-Free Early Retirement Account Withdrawals
YOU PROBABLY KNOW that taking withdrawals from a tax-deferred retirement account before age 59 1/2 generally results in a 10% penalty. The penalty applies to payouts from traditional IRAs, simplified employee pensions, or SEPs, and qualified retirement arrangements such as pension plans, profit-sharing plans, stock bonus plans, 401(k) plans, Keogh plans and the like. Even worse, the penalty is on top of the income taxes you'll owe. So we are talking insult added to injury here. While I certainly discourage raiding a tax-deferred retirement account before actually reaching retirement age, it sometimes can't be helped. In these situations, a key objective is to dodge that darned 10% penalty whenever possible. The good news: Several exceptions allow you to take early withdrawals without owing the penalty.
Success Stories!
The situation in Juarez and Chihuahua is so bad, however, that the U.S. Congress could no longer ignore it. Congress has now unanimously called on the secretary of state and the U.S. ambassador to Mexico to take specific steps to ensure that addressing these horrendous murders becomes a part of the U.S.-Mexico bilateral agenda." Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA)Mexico, USA: Amnesty International USA welcomes the congressional passage of legislation calling on the United States and Mexico to work together to find an end to the violence against women in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where more than 400 women and girls have been murdered since 1993. Read more. »2006-05-05 .
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