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I have really bad eyes. I like to get them checked often, but since I don't have health insurance, no doctor's going to really want to take a look at me," he said. He found out that he may qualify for Medicaid, which was long-drawn-out under Obamacare. So far, 9,123 have enrolled over Connecticut's ultimate goal is to sign up 275,000 people. Kevin Counihan, chief executive officer of Connecticut's health exchange, says he's not discouraged by the number of people signing up for private health insurance. "Buying health insurance is expensive and it's expensive and it's confusing and it's complicated. So no, I am not disappointed by it. However, we clearly have a strong goal to meet by March," he said. Counihan look forward to have 100,000 people enrolled by the end of March. He credits the state's computer system with the smooth even out. "Number one is, less is more. Do fewer things well than try to do more things inconsistently. Two is test the heck out of the system and make sure that before you go live, you are pretty darn confident that you know what is going to happen. And three is hire the best people that you can," he said. Counihan was implicated with Massachusetts' health insurance rollout in 2006. He says that taught him people don't buy insurance like they do a book or car. They usually consider the options an average of 18n times before making up their minds. He foresees a sprint of people signing up between Thanksgiving and Dec. 15, which in case is the deadline for coverage beginning on Jan. 1.

"Tuesday, November 12, statistics put out by Connecticut demonstrate that its website is the only one to sign up more folks for private insurance than for Medicaid. Angel Medina, 21, went to talk to an Affordable Health Care act navigator in Hartford. Medina was dropped from his mother's health insurance two years ago. "I have really bad eyes. I like to get them checked often, but since I don't have health insurance, no doctor's going to really want to take a look at me," he said. He found out that he may qualify for Medicaid, which was long-drawn-out under Obamacare. So far, 9,123 have enrolled over Connecticut's ultimate goal is to sign up 275,000 people. Kevin Counihan, chief executive officer of Connecticut's health exchange, says he's not discouraged by the number of people signing up for private health insurance. "Buying health insurance is expensive and it's expensive and it's confusing and it's complicated. So no, I am not disappointed by it. However, we clearly have a strong goal to meet by March," he said. Counihan look forward to have 100,000 people enrolled by the end of March. He credits the state's computer system with the smooth even out. "Number one is, less is more. Do fewer things well than try to do more things inconsistently. Two is test the heck out of the system and make sure that before you go live, you are pretty darn confident that you know what is going to happen. And three is hire the best people that you can," he said. Counihan was implicated with Massachusetts' health insurance rollout in 2006. He says that taught him people don't buy insurance like they do a book or car. They usually consider the options an average of 18n times before making up their minds. He foresees a sprint of people signing up between Thanksgiving and Dec. 15, which in case is the deadline for coverage beginning on Jan. 1."

Westhill Consulting Insurance - How to Avoid Health Care Fraud Mail-order medications Patients who buy drugs through mail-order companies could be rolling the dice with their health says Dr. Deborah C. Peel, a physician and founder of the nonprofit Patient Privacy Rights. There's a high probability in many cases that these drugs are counterfeit Peel added. "And you don't ever know because the fraudulent tablets look just like the real ones," says Peel. She says ordering from companies that specialize in mail-order sales that are not affiliated with a legitimate insurance company, especially from foreign countries, can be very risky. Not only could the quality be questionable, it could also be illegal. "But people are desperate because we're being so grossly overcharged for medication," she says. Peel says you can lessen costs by buying generic. You can spot it by: the best thing to do is to keep away from buying drugs from foreign or obscure pharmacies. And if you decide to go with the mail-order route, just stay with U.S.-based companies because if it's a U.S. company, you can report the health care fraud to the Food and Drug Administration while if it's a foreign company, there's little that can or will be done. False product claims According to the Federal Trade Commission, millions fall victim each year to false miracle cures. Especially vulnerable are victims of debilitating and potentially deadly illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV and AIDS. The FTC website says scammers take advantage of people with a grim diagnosis such as cancer and "promote unproven - and potentially dangerous - substances like black salve, essiac tea, or laetrile with claims that the products are both 'natural' and effective." But, say physicians and other experts, simply because something is advertised as "natural" doesn't mean it works. And while a patient is experimenting with bogus treatments, he or she can squander the opportu

"Westhill Consulting - Car Insurance Tips to Help You Buy Smarter Car Insurance Tips to Help You Buy Smarter  It doesn't have to be intimidating; buying auto insurance doesn't have to be stressful. There are many options to customize your policy needs base on your budget. If you are knowledgeable with some basic information you can make smarter insurance decisions. These car insurance tips can help you trim down choices and save time and money. * Make sure you're legally covered From state to state, requirements of car insurance vary but one thing is the same virtually everywhere in the U.S. and it is if you drive a car, you're required to have some form of car insurance or proof of financial responsibility. There are more than few factors such as your driving record and insurance history, may affect your policy rates. You may begin here to find the minimum requirements for your state. * Understand your insurance options Car insurance can sometimes be a bit confusing sometimes; it can be complicated to look at because of many choices available to protect you and your car. For you to understand basics, there are nationwide offers such as the following the difference between collision and comprehensive, before you call an agent or get a quote online. * Get at least three quotes It will help if you get quotes from at least three insurance companies you compare price and service options. It is necessary that you request the same coverage from each to get an apples-to-apples comparison. Rates may differ from one company to another. Remember that not because it is the lowest it is the best because the lowest priced insurance may not give you all the coverage you need. Check for every detail, look at price, amount of coverage, benefits and claims services before you make your decision. * Take advantage of discounts This may surprise you, a number of discounts available to lower you for auto insurance rates. An example is if you insure multiple vehicles

When shopping for a plan, start with the basics of what you're looking for and what you're willing to pay for, says Michael McMillan,Executive Director of Market and Network Services at Cleveland Clinic. Then make your selection carefully so you get what you're paying for, he adds. To help you navigate enrollment - either on health insurance exchanges or elsewhere - McMillan offers the following helpful tips: 1. Know what services are covered under a selected plan Start by reviewing what each particular plan offers. For example, what does the network of care providers look like? What services are most important to you based on your particular health needs or conditions, and are they available within a plan's coverage? "This will be a period of great change, and consumers will have a lot of options they haven't had before on the exchanges," McMillan says. "It's important to be clear on what's available and what isn't." 2. Make sure your providers are part of the network When choosing plans, this is a major factor. Look at any given plan to see if your doctors and hospitals you use regularly are listed as network providers. One evolving trend has been for health plans to create narrow networks - smaller versions of their standard network that help them achieve a lower price. The bottom line: Not all providers are included in these limited networks, so it's worth your effort to check first and make sure your new plan includes the doctors and other practitioners you see regularly, McMillan says. 3. Know your out-of-pocket costs These are costs associated with the care received. They include things such as deductibles - the amount you pay before coverage kicks in - as well as copays and coinsurance on services. Out-of-pocket costs vary by the "metal" level of plan you choose on a health insurance exchange. So, for example, you would pay 40 percent of costs of coinsurance in a bronze plan, and 30 percent for silver. In some high

Not long after she signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, Judy Shoemaker received a phone call that puzzled her. The caller said she was welcoming new members to the insurance network and then asked Ms. Shoemaker to take a survey about health care issues, so information could be provided to her physician. Ms. Shoemaker declined, saying she didn't understand why her insurer would be seeking medical information to give to her doctor. "I thought it was strange," said Ms. Shoemaker, a consultant to nonprofits in Indiana. "I can talk to my doctor myself." James Tuck, who runs a dog care business in Chicago, got a similar call after signing up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act in March. The caller said he was contacting Mr. Tuck on behalf of his new insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, to go over his benefits and ask him some questions. Mr. Tuck hadn't yet received his insurance card and was hesitant to answer questions, especially after he consulted a private health advocate, who had helped him evaluate insurance options. She advised him not to answer the queries. "She said their goal is to find a reason to get you booted off your insurance." Insurers say they are doing nothing of the sort. Lauren Perlstein, a spokeswoman for the Health Care Service Corporation, parent of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and plans in four other states, said in an email that the company contacted new policy holders to help "new members get the proper coverage and medical assistance they need, by helping guide them through the health care system." The company's "experts" contact new members to explain benefits and answer any questions, she said, as well as to "identify members who can benefit from our personalized medical management program so they can best manage their health."

A 27-year-old in Jackson pays $336 a month for the second-cheapest silver health plan on Mississippi's s federally run insurance marketplace. That is more than twice as much as the $154 a 27-year-old in Nashville would pay for the same type of policy, and the $138 for a similar person in Tucson. Across all 34 insurance marketplaces run by the federal government, the average is $287, about 25 percent cheaper. The reason for the higher prices in some markets? Paltry competition, say Leemore Dafny and Christopher Ody from Northwestern University, and Jonathan Gruber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jackson has only two insurers on the marketplace: Humana and Centene. By contrast, four insurance companies slug it out on Nashville's exchange. In Tucson, there are eight. Jackson's over-the-top premiums underscore one of the least-heralded shortcomings of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act: the scarcity of insurers on health plan exchanges, which is driving up the price of policies across the country. The research by Ms. Dafny, Mr. Gruber and Mr. Ody, to be published by the National Bureau of Economic Research next week, concludes that premiums on the exchanges are 11 percent higher than they would be if all the health insurance companies that sell policies in each state had participated in the new markets for health plans. More competition not only would lower premiums, but would also save the federal government money. It would spend $1.7 billion less in subsidies to low- and middle-income Americans buying policies on the health care insurance exchanges. "Half of the population in the states with health exchanges facilitated by the federal government is served by three insurers or fewer," Ms. Dafny said. "To have competition on the exchanges you need competitors." The findings are somewhat perplexing, though. By law, 80 to 85 percent of premiums must be devoted to medical spending. Insurers don't have particularly large profit margin

The typical cost of health care for a family of four with employer-based insurance this year is $23,215, according to a new report from the Milliman actuarial firm. The bad news first: That amount has more than doubled in the past 10 years. The goodish news: That cost grew just 5.4 percent between 2013 and 2014, the slowest growth rate since Milliman started keeping track in 2002. That $23,215 figure isn't what the employee pays, though. Employers pay about 60 percent of those costs ($13,520), while workers pay the rest through payroll deductions ($5,908) and out-of-pocket costs ($3,787). The employee share of the costs have been rising faster - increasing 73 percent since 2007 - than the employer contribution, which has grown 52 percent over the same period. The Milliman numbers are for family coverage under preferred provider plans, so it excludes the increasing prevalence of consumer-driven health plans, in which employees handle a higher share of the costs. Don't blame the four-year-old Affordable Care Act for these changes, though. Milliman says Obamacare has barely had any impact so far on these large employer plans, but that's about to change. The actuarial firm cites Obamacare's impending excise tax on "Cadillac" plans - valued at at least $27,500 for family coverage starting in 2018 - as a factor that will force employers to scale back health plans. Milliman points to other factors that will push down cost increases. Higher out-of-pocket costs are fueling efforts around health-care price transparency, and that's making consumers become better health-care shoppers. Conversely, an improving economy and an increase in expensive specialty drugs will pressure costs to rise.

When the Bergen County couple filing for unemployment certified they were "able and looking for work," they did so the same way thousands of others do from home every week - by logging into the state Department of Labor website. The online world, however, is not quite as anonymous as many believe. Every computer carries a unique electronic address so it can be found on the internet, and what alerted state investigators to this particular claim was the location of the network being used. It was not in New Jersey. It was registered to Royal Caribbean Cruises in Miami, and no one was under any illusion that the couple was looking for work at sea. Unemployment fraud is a multimillion-dollar business in New Jersey, say officials, with 1,600 to 2,000 attempts to bilk the system each week - from the couple on vacation certifying they were able to work while cruising to the Bahamas, to hackers from all over the world trying to game the system, to people still trying to collect unemployment benefits even after finding new jobs. "No one likes to be ripped off, but the volume of money we put out is staggering," said Harold Wirths, the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. New Jersey's Unemployment Trust Fund went broke in 2009, not only under the strain of the severe recession that led to high unemployment levels, but from years of fraud that went on through decades of neglect. Wirths said the fund is now solvent again, due in part to anti-fraud measures being put into play that he said have saved the state $448.7 million the past three years. "We're fighting fraud on every front," the commissioner said. It is a national issue, according to Douglas Holmes, president of UWC Strategic Services, a Washington, D.C., group that represents businesses on unemployment issues.

Wal-Mart endorsed ObamaCare in 2009 and helped drag the bill through U.S. Congress, and so far it hasn't recanted. By holding back economic growth and incomes, perhaps the law is expanding the retailer's customer base. Another plus-at least for management-is that Wal-Mart can jettison its employees into the ObamaCare insurance exchanges. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the largest U.S. private employer is dropping health benefits for some 30,000 workers, or about 5% of its part-time workforce. Earlier health-plan eligibility triage in 2011 had removed tens of thousands of Wal-Mart workers from the balance sheet, so this latest purge was probably inevitable. Wal-Mart cites its inability to manage higher-than-anticipated health expenses. Perhaps- wasn't ObamaCare supposed to bring those costs down? Obviously the company is also responding rationally to ObamaCare's incentives. With a subsidized government alternative now open for business, and since corporations aren't liable for a penalty for not covering people who work fewer than 30 hours a week on average, cost-control logic says to send such coverage ballast over the side. Other retail and grocery chains including Target, Home Depot and Trader Joe's have already done the same. ObamaCare's critics predicted that such insurance dumping was inevitable, and the only question now is how many and how fast other companies partake of the new all-you-caneat entitlement buffet. Get whatever you like, the bill's on taxpayers. The disruptions will be concentrated in industries with large numbers of low-skilled and low-income workers, like restaurants, hospitality and, yes, retail. The irony is that even as Wal-Mart drops insurance because it is too costly, President Barack Obama is claiming credit for lowering health costs. He boasted the other day that the law gave every U.S. family "a $1,800 tax cut" by supposedly reducing the rate of employer-premium growth. Obama

1. It's Smart to Prepare for a Breach How many data breaches from 2014 can you name? The freshest one in your mind is probably the Sony hack, but there were also attacks on Home Depot, Staples, Dairy Queen, P.F. Chang's the list goes on. Credit.com Co-Founder and Chairman Adam Levin recently wrote about the most important lessons you can learn from the Sony hack, encouraging consumers and companies to prioritize data security and behave with the knowledge that your personal information and correspondence could be exposed at any time. Prepare for the possibility of fraud by monitoring your credit, regularly reviewing account activity and knowing what to do if your personal information has been stolen. Do what you can to strengthen your data security, but know that so much of it is beyond your control, so the best thing you can do is know how to react to a breach. 2. Communication Is Crucial to Getting Debt-Free as a Couple We published several success stories about getting out of debt, but some of the most memorable involved couples working together to conquer their finances. The stories had similar themes: Ellie Kay married her husband without knowing about his $40,000 of consumer debt, and Ja'Net Adams was unaware her husband took out student loans to pay for college. Both families eventually hit breaking points where they realized debt was holding them back, and they needed to make drastic changes to get rid of it. Getting out of debt is never easy, and the more people who are involved, the more complicated it can be. At the same time, having someone to work through the challenges with you can be extremely helpful. Adams' and Kay's stories highlight two crucial elements of getting debt free: staying committed to a plan and remaining open and honest about the process' progress and challenges. Those lessons apply to any personal finance goal, whether you're planning with a family or on your own.

Study: More exercise, less sitting reduces heart failure risk for men More exercise, less sitting reduces heart failure risk for men By American Heart Association DALLAS - sitting for long period's increases heart failure risk in men, even for those who exercise regularly, according to new research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure. Preventing heart failure, researchers found, requires a two-part behavioral approach: high levels of physical activity plus low levels of sedentary time. The study is the first to examine the link between heart failure risk and sedentary time, said Deborah Rohm Young, Ph.D., lead researcher and a senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, Calif. "Be more active and sit less. That's the message here," Young said. Researchers followed a racially diverse group of 84,170 men ages 45 to 69 without heart failure. Exercise levels were calculated in METs, or metabolic equivalent of task, a measure of the body's energy use. Sedentary levels were measured in hours. After an average of nearly eight years of follow-up, researchers found: Men with low levels of physical activity were 52 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men with high physical activity levels, even after adjusting for differences in sedentary time. Outside of work, men who spent five or more hours a day sitting were 34 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men who spent no more than two hours a day sitting, regardless of how much they exercised. Heart failure risk more than doubled in men who sat for at least five hours a day and got little exercise compared to men who were very physically active and sat for two hours or less a day. Study limitations included: Since