Millions of Americans are without adequate health insurance in the United States, often because they are unemployed, self-employed or underemployed. This is because the vast majority of those insured are covered because their employers offer health insurance packages as a benefit of their employment.
But lately, some who are offered health insurance packages through their workplace are turning down the coverage because the cost of the plan is too expensive. This move, which was sometimes made by very young, healthy workers, is now becoming increasingly more common, despite the risks associated with it:
The rising cost of health insurance is pushing more South Florida employees to consider what had been unthinkable: Passing up medical coverage offered at work.
A strata of young, physically fit workers have always skipped employer health benefits they view as an unnecessary cost. But insurance agents say a growing number of older employees and even families are trying to save money by switching to low-priced health policies they buy on their own.
Insurance experts say employees can find credible, lower-cost coverage outside the workplace, through high-deductible plans. But they say it's a gamble because it takes a lot of work to find a good plan without big holes. Individual policies typically do not cover as much and often charge higher co-payments and deductibles. They also can raise your rates at will and drop you if you get sick.
"Dropping coverage at work? Generally a bad idea," said Carlos Castresana, South Florida unit leader at Wells Fargo Insurance Services, which designs health benefits for employers. "Even if you're healthy, you don't know if you'll get sick."
Yet more employees are thinking about it as they reach their open-enrollment period to sign up for 2012 coverage at work.
In a healthcare system where insurance plans are doled out by employers, but the nation is experiencing nearly 10% unemployment rates, there is bound to be a shift in how individuals choose to purchase insurance. However, the rising cost of insurance for employers is being passed along to employees, and more than ever before some workers are opting out of health coverage. Is it because they make less now? Is it because individual plans are cheaper? Is it because purchasing health insurance would mean not being able to afford the medications they provide, even at a discount?
You'd be hard pressed to argue that the health insurance system in the United States couldn't use some tweaking. But this trend in turning down employer-sponsored health insurance due to rising costs is unprecedented, and may be a sign of a shift in how Americans choose to take care of themselves.
Have you considered opting out of your employer's health insurance package? Know someone who has? Please tell us your stories of how you choose (or don't choose) to cover yourself and your family in case of medical emergency. Weigh in below.
[Photo by Quinn Dombrowski]
Have you heard about the federal program established to help certain individuals and families keep their homes in the midst of financial crisis? The program is in place in California, and, by its own claims, has helped over 700 families stay in their homes.
It's called Keep Your Home California, and it's a rescue program meant to "help California homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages. California has received nearly $2 billion in federal funding and is working with housing counselors, servicers and housing advocates to provide assistance that will help prevent avoidable foreclosures and keep Californians in their homes."
You don't even have to be behind on your mortgage payment to be a participant. Any California homeowner who meets the eligibility requirements can qualify. And just what are those requirements?, you ask:
General homeowner eligibility requirements for these programs include, but not limited to, the following:
If this program is one that can benefit you or someone you know, please pass this post along. More information abou Keep Your Home California at their website.
Not only are the number of Americans living below the poverty line higher than they have been since the 1950s, that number doesn't accurately reflect the amount of people who can't make ends meet. Just because someone isn't officially classified as living in poverty doesn't mean that a large segment of the population isn't forgotten, having fallen between the guideline cracks:
A family of four in California would need an average of more than $63,000 a year – nearly triple the federal poverty level – to cover its basic needs, according to an analysis of the state's cost of living to be released today.
The 2011 Self-Sufficiency Standard, released by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, a national research organization, shows that in every county in California, the federal poverty level falls short of meeting basic needs: housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and other essential household expenses.
Taking all these costs into consideration, the standard calculates the minimum annual income required for 156 family compositions in each county. The pre-tax income needed to make ends meet for a family of two working, married adults; a preschooler; and a primary school-aged child ranged from $53,775 in Tulare County to $86,629 in Marin County. For a family of four, the 2011 federal poverty level, which is based on the cost of food alone and does not take into account regional cost-of-living differences in the contiguous United States, is $22,350.
"The federal poverty guidelines miss this whole population of individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet," said Jenny Chung Mejia, an attorney and program manager for the center. "Essentially, what happens is they earn too much to qualify but yet don't have enough to make ends meet; they fall in this sort of policy-benefits gap."
Do you feel like the current guidlelines for what is and what is not poverty are fair in your area? Let us know in the comments.
[Photo by Obama-Biden Transition Project]
The sheer devastation that can come with job loss is well documented. Savings are wiped out. Retirement money is used to pay bills. Families lose their homes.
What about when you find work again? How does one rebuild, financially and emotionally, after such a blow? That is the focus of an interesting article worth your attention at DailyFinance.com:
Recovering from devastating financial loss can demand a radical shift in perspective, says Rabbi Benjamin Blech, 78, a tenth-generation Orthodox Jewish Torah scholar and author ofTaking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs.He published it in 2003 after turning his $50,000 nest egg into $7 million during the dot-com boom -- and then losing it all. Granted, he still had his house, his job as a professor at Yeshiva University and his pension, but the trusts he planned for his children, grandchildren and the university were wiped out
"We can't confuse our net worth with our self worth, but we often end up doing so because we absorb that from the culture," Blech says. "Even I was doing that for a while, thinking, 'Wow, I'm worth this.' I had to re-identify myself and say, 'I am a husband, a father, a professor -- what is my value to my family, to society?'
"The biggest challenge was not to lose self-confidence and become depressed, because then I wasn't good as anything -- and I had a lot to contribute," he continues. "I had to redefine my worth by a different standard, and to that extent, I thought it was an invaluable experience."
Blech coped with his loss by researching the philosophical and spiritual masters on the topic of money and meaning, as well as contemporary authors, humorists and celebrities, whose ideas he peppers throughout his cathartic tome. He is passionate about positive thinking: "To focus on fear is to allow it into our minds and hearts and potentially into our future," he says. "Say to yourself, 'I am going to get through this.' There are people who have gotten through much worse. There's an old Jewish saying that if 10 people brought bags of their problems and put them in the center of the room, each one would choose to take their own bag back."
Emotional recovery also requires a huge mental effort. "It's increasingly well-known that the brain [registers] not just absolute amounts but losses and gains," says Columbia marketing professor Eric Johnson. On average, losses loom twice as large as gains," leading to an effect known as loss aversion.
There is lots of good information here for those who are trying to start over after a period of unemployment. Head over and see if this article might assist in some way.
If the constant news reports, climbing numbers, disturbing data, foreclosure signs and Wall Street protests weren't sign enough, there is new evidence that the economic recession has taken hold and won't let go. Sesame Street is unveiling a new puppet character who is part of a low-income family who deals with hunger in their household:
The iconic kids show is set to unveil a new impoverished puppet named Lily, whose family faces an ongoing struggle with hunger issues. Lily will be revealed in a one-hour Sesame Street primetime special, Growing Hope Against Hunger, which is being sponsored by Walmart. The special will star country singer Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams Paisley, as well as the Sesame Street Muppets.
“Food insecurity is a growing and difficult issue for adults to discuss, much less children,” said the Paisleys in a statement. “We are honored that Sesame Street, with its long history of tackling difficult issues with sensitivity, caring and warmth asked us to be a part of this important project.”
The special will share the stories of real-life families to raise awareness of hunger issues in the United States, as well as strategies that have helped these families find food.
This is an important move by Sesame Street, but wow. This addition really drives home not only the severity of the recession, but the likelihood that the tragic downturn is here to stay.
There news is hard to bear, but it is everywhere, and ignoring it is certainly not an option. Poverty in this country is growing like a cancer in this country. The numbers are astounding. When you read even one story from an individual seeking assistance through Modest Needs and then you scale that to the millions who are at or below the poverty level, and the scope of this tragedy becomes clear.
Census data was released, the most up-to-date information available, and the numbers are devastating.
The Half in Ten campaign, an effort to cut poverty in half in ten years, created an interactive map based on this recent data that allows you to see the number of women living in poverty in each congressional district. The information is clearly presented, and paints, unfortunately, a pretty stark picture.
Again, it can't be ignored. See for yourself how many in your congressional district are struggling.
A copywriter for an advertising agency in North Carolina became fed up with the fallacy that poor people must make poor choices to become poor, and so she did something about it. She created a game.
The game is called SPENT, and it's an online Flash program that puts users in the shoes of those unemployed and out of savings. When one plays, they quickly see that it's not poor choices that make people poor, but a lack of choices.
Al Lewis of Market Watch reports:
Nicholson said her inspiration for Spent came from the social-networking game FarmVille, in which players run virtual farms, often scrapping around for farm supplies. It made her wonder: What if there were a game where people had to instead figure out how they could live on frighteningly limited resources?
I played Spent and got through the month with a little cash to spare, but I made choices I wouldn’t make in real life, like letting my dog die to avoid a veterinary bill and denying my kid lunch money.
“It’s a morbidly fun game,” Nicholson said.
At least when it’s just a game.
Nicholson’s mother died at age 46 from her third heart attack. She never got proper care. She didn’t have health insurance, and California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, denied her for years, Nicholson said.
“Her approval letter came three weeks after she died,” Nicholson said. “That was a huge lesson for me. Even as a poor kid, I had always thought, when you live in America, you’re going to be taken care of.”
While plenty of people don't need any sort of computer program to clue them into the devastation that poverty brings, but a good number of folks who think poverty could never happen to them might be surprised by the tough choices that must be faced.
