Health Care Reform Bill Summary

After what seems like forever, Congress has finally passed a health care reform bill. President Obama's major goal for the early part of his term seems within reach. The question is, though, what is in this bill? What real changes will people experience as a result of all this wrangling? Or are these all political games with little real impact? Read on for a summary of the actual changes to health care from the new health reform bill.

The most important thing to realize about the reform is that it's phased in - most of the changes don't come into play when President Obama signs the bill into law (which is expected to be Tuesday, March 23, 2009). The changes activate over the next decade. Here are the major changes and their impacts.

Health Reform Bill Contents

Before 2011:

* Small businesses get a tax credit to contribute to new health insurance for employees.

* Children cannot be excluded from receiving health insurance from providers due to pre-existing conditions.

* Until the new health insurance exchanges come online in 2014, current uninsured adults with pre-existing conditions will be able to buy subsidized health care coverage.

* Companies can use a temporary health "reinsurance program" to provide benefits for 55-64 year old retirees.

* Being diagnosed with a new illness is no longer grounds for losing your health insurance coverage. Additionally, insurance providers will no longer be able to cap your lifetime health benefits, and their ability to limit annual coverage will be restricted.

* There is currently a Medicare prescription drug loophole between roughly $2700 and $6200 worth of medicine. The reform bill both provides a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries that fall into this loophole and provides for the gap's closing.

* The age up to which children will be able to use their parents health coverage is raised to 26 up from the previous 19 or college graduation.

* Indoor tanning services with ultraviolet lights will see a 10% tax on their services starting July 1st, 2009

In 2011:

* Large pharmaceutical firms will be taxed additionally based on market share.

* General surgeons and primary care physicians will see a 10% raise in bonus payments.

* Medicare advantage payments are frozen at 2010 levels and will eventually come more into line with traditional Medicare payments.

* States will have a new program to offer in-home care to poor patients who would otherwise require a hospital visit.

* Employees will be able to see the value of their health benefits on their W-2 forms.

* An annual free wellness visit and customized prevention plan analysis will be offered free to all Medicare beneficiaries. Any additional new health care plans will be required to offer such services and their resulting preventive care at little or no cost to Medicare patients.

In 2012:

* At each level, hospital, physician, and Medicare, programs and controls are implemented that reduce readmission rates, improve quality outcomes for patients, and encourage more accountability among healthcare professionals.

In 2013:

* Higher income tax payers (>$200,000 for singles, >$250,000 for joint filings) will have their payroll tax increase from 1.45% to 2.35% as well as pay a 3.8% investment income tax.

* Tax payers can claim medical expenses on itemized tax returns at a 10% rate instead of 7.5%. Elderly tax payers can continue this till 2017.

* Non-public medical device taxes will be additionally taxed at 2.9%.

* The programs begun in 2012 are continued and extended.

In 2014:

* Employers with >50 employees will be fined $2000 for every employee after number 30 if they do not provide employer health insurance.

* Most people will be fined if they do not have health insurance, either through an employer or privately. Tax credits for purchasing health care through an exchange will be offered to those with incomes up to 400% of poverty levels.

* Similar to the 2011 pharmaceutical taxes, in 2014 health insurance companies will be taxed by market share.

* It will no longer be legal to exclude someone from receiving health insurance for having a pre-existing medical condition.

* State-level health insurance exchanges will open, allowing individuals and organizations to shop around for cheaper health insurance.

In 2015:

* Medicare shifts to rewarding quality of care rather than amount of services.

In 2018:

* Higher cost employer health insurance plans ("Cadillac" health insurance) is taxed, with exemptions for the first $27,000 for families and $10000 for individuals.

Molybdenum And Health

Molybdenum, its known benefits and side effects, and our tips and recommendation on where to find its best sources will be the focus of this article.

Molybdenum, an essential mineral for both animals and humans alike, is most heavily concentrated in the liver, kidney, adrenal gland, and bones.

The nutrient, a component of many enzymes, including sulfide oxide, supports the metabolism of sulfur amino acids, xanthine oxide, oxidates, purines ,and pyramidenes, as well a the production of uric acid. The enzymes alldehyde oxidase and xanthin oxidase share a common molybdenum factor.

Molybdenum, found in legumes, cereal products, and leafy vegetables, is usually easily absorbed.

The nutrient can, however, be affected by particular food components.

Signs of Molybdenum Deficiency

Molybdenum deficiency is normally seen only in individuals with serious disorders, caused by the metabolic defects identified with the absence of three molybdenum enzymes.

Deficiency in metabolic disorders results in abnormal excretion of sulfur metabolites, hypothyroxine and xanthine, and low uric acid concentration.

The absence of sulfide oxidase in metabolic disorders, causing toxicity and auto-immune disorders, can lead to premature death. Molybdenum toxicity is more likely than its deficiency. Common in cattle grazing in pastures with molybdenum-rich soil, molybdenum toxicity may cause gout in those who take dosages of 10-15 milligrams daily.

We need this nutrient, however, to maintain our overall health, so it is essential we get the right amount in our dietary intake.

How to Select Molybdenum

Because nutritional supplement production, both in the U.S. and other countries is largely unregulated, both governmental and private studies have shown that consumers of nutritional supplements have only a 1 in 5 chance of purchasing a supplement contain the amount of ingredients stated on the product label, or worse yet, a supplement that is not contaminated with health-impairing toxins.

We therefore advise consumers to buy health supplements from pharmaceutical GMP compliant facilities, which adhere to the world's most exacting manufacturing standards. Doing as we suggest will ensure you of getting contaminant-free Molybdenum, in the full amount for which you have paid.

Choosing A Homeschool Health Curriculum

When we were homeschooling high school, we used the book "Total Health" as our curriculum.  We used both the Jr. High and the Sr. High texts. My boys liked them both. If you are getting just one, I would get the one that best meets the age of your child. If they are 9th grade or under, or if they are highly sheltered and older, get the Jr. High. If they are over 9th grade, or hang out with their youth groups, other secular kids, etc., then I would get the Sr. High version.

We chose not to get the workbooks, however. I wanted them to learn the content but I had so many other high powered courses at the time, I didn't want to have yet another thing for them to be tested on. We were doing Latin and Biology and stuff at the time, and it would have been just too much. Both times I used Total Health, I combined it with their sports activities to make it a PE credit. I didn't list Health separately on their transcript. With their sports activities, I did have an EASY 150 hours of PE, and I did give them a full credit, but they were doing soccer, swim team and baseball at the time.

If I had listed Total Health alone on the transcript, I think I would have given it 1/2 credit, because even with the tests, I don't think it would take the time for a full year at 1 hour a day to complete. In Washington State, we are required to teach health at some point in their lives, but they don't specify when or how much, so I had no requirement as to it being a whole credit in high school. If you want to supplement for high school health to make it a full credit, consider taking a CPR or basic first aid course.

Total Health is a wonderful book, and both of my boys loved it. In fact, when I bought the first one, the kids ended up reading it on their own over summer before school even started. It had a wonderful tone, and had a nice balance between conservative concerns and some of the issues that Christian kids might face at school or youth group.

Health, Drugs, And Rock And Roll

Next time you see a cancer patient banging his head to the mammoth-beats of Led Zeppelin, do not ever ask why. He might just be channeling the music's healing property to his ailment and health as a whole.

Does it sound ridiculous? Wait until you hear about Music Therapy. Music therapy is a budding field in personal well-being and health care that uses music as a healing medium. Practitioners on this field believe in the profound impact of music on people's health and psyche. No wonder there are more and more medical institutions that utilize background music to help heal their patients.

Music, according to music therapists, is an effective way to calm the nerves of patients who are traumatized by a disease. It has a huge role in the success of the pain management stage of the healing process. Music also helps ease muscle tension and it keeps the patient more focused.

Music has a direct effect on our brain waves. Music with harder beats keep the mind alert and more focused, while those with sluggish tempos promote a calm meditative state-of-mind. This may explain why kids who listen to The Ramones are more hyperactive and their elder brothers who dig dirge-y stuff like Sabbath are more laid-back. Well, we can point out the possibility of other extra-musical inputs that these people might be taking, but that would be dwelling far off the topic.

Let us go back to the main issue. Music, including its beat and structural changes, can also reduce stress via altering the heartbeat rate and breathing to a much calmer state. This explains why musical therapy can effectively aid the treatment of a patient with chronic stress.

If there is one area of physical well-being that music really hits good, it is our mental health. Music can function as an agent that promotes a more positive mental state. Through soothing music, depression and anxiety are kept off our mental territory. The result of this is very advantageous. A positive state-of-mind thwarts the body's tendency to give in to stress. When the body gives in to stress, physical and mental health will break down next.

There are more benefits that music brings to our health. In fact, experts can write a whole treatise on the subject. These include the effect of music to a person's blood pressure, sickness immunity and other varied physical problems. In time, this field in health care will be common to all medical institutions. For the meantime, let us bang our heads to the beat for health!

Holistic Approach To Health

Holistic or Holism is an approach that emphasizes the whole being, the entire structure, but looks at how each part affects the whole. It deals with life situations with the whole being in mind, while treating the individual parts that are affected and not treating just symptoms. Your problem is not like a car that gets a flat tire and you replace the tire. It is more like a shopping cart that has a bad wheel, which affects and vibrates the entire cart.

Holistic medicine attempts to treat all the systems of the being: the mind, the body, the emotions, and the spirit. The holistic approach brings balance and harmony to the entire structure by paying attention to the specific parts and systems of the body. The symptoms are analyzed to identify the existing problem/s that are affecting the parts and then treated with the whole-being in mind rather than treating only the parts that exhibit the symptoms. The Holistic Approach deals with all of the life force energy available, which includes the physical and the energetic aspects.

The human body as a whole is made up of many parts, each of which is dependent upon the other for a balanced functioning of the system as a whole. Each system is interdependent upon the other. It's called looking at the bigger picture. Something we do that affects the whole is that we absorb, digest, and inhale toxins every day. These toxins develop free radicals (oxidation, which is rust in the body). Unless we offset the free radicals with anti-oxidants, our bodies will rust from the inside out. As we mature, our body continually changes; remove one critical molecule, or let one cancer cell become a rogue, and the entire structure changes.

From a Holistic stand-point the balance that everyone is looking for comes from:
A good diet, plenty of rest, re-learning how to breath effectively, drinking good water every day, learning how to handle stress, having a good exercise program and learning how to turn your life over to a Higher Power.

Health Insurance - Why So Many People Don't Have It, And Why You Should

Health insurance is expensive. This simple fact is a large reason why so many people don't have health insurance when they should. Some are fortunate enough to have employers that offer this insurance to the workers at a discounted or more affordable cost. However, many people are not. With the growing number of people starting their own companies or working from home, the lack of health insurance coverage is growing, as well. I am amazed to see how an industry that is supposed to help people actually prevents many of them from getting that help.

It's ironic that health insurance is supposed to help people avoid medical expenses, but those who need it most are denied coverage under the 'preexisting condition' clauses. If you're unable to get health insurance, you need to see what your other options are. There are discount programs and even credit lines that can help reduce or ease the high costs of medical care. It's unfortunate that health insurance is not more forgiving or affordable, but until something changes, we have to take what we are given. Take the time to shop around for health insurance if you don't have it. If you've merely been avoiding it because you know it is expensive, you might be surprised by a cheaper rate than you thought you'd get.

Of course, you might get quotes on health insurance that are still far higher than you can afford, but at least you took the time to look. The main reason that people don't have health insurance is because they can't afford it, followed closely by those who 'don't need it.' Most people never need auto insurance or home insurance, either. However, when something does go wrong, it's a great thing to have insurance on your side.

Living without insurance is like asking medical debt to swallow you whole. Hospital stays, doctor's visits, and even medication can get very expensive. If you don't take the time to at least consider health insurance or a discount medical plan, you're setting yourself up for failure. Don't learn the hard way and wait until you're $25,000 in debt because of an accident or sudden illness. Take the time to check out medical insurance now and see what you can do to help yourself be prepared for the unknown. I can't make you get insurance, but I would like to encourage you to try. After all, you've got nothing to lose.

Top 40 Health Quotations

1. "Health is the thing that makes you feel that now is the best time of the year." -- Franklin P. Adams
2. "He who has health, has hope. And he who has hope, has everything." -- Arabian Proverb
3. "To get rich never risk your health. For it is the truth that health is the wealth of wealth." -- Richard Baker
4. "There's lots of people who spend so much time watching their health, they haven't got time to enjoy it." -- Josh Billings
5. "Health has its science, as well as disease. " --Elizabeth Blackwell
6. "Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. " --Erma Bombeck
7. "Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do practice? " --George Carlin
8. "The poorest man would not part with health for money, but the richest would gladly part with all their money for health. " --Charles Caleb Colton
9. "As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself." --Adelle Davis
10. "Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady." --Francois de La Rochefoucauld
11. "You can set yourself up to be sick, or you can choose to stay well." -- Wayne Dyer
12. "Give me health and a day and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
13. "The first wealth is health." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
14. "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." -- Benjamin Franklin
15. "Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing." --Redd Foxx
16. "Health is not valued till sickness comes." --Dr. Thomas Fuller
17. "A Hospital is no place to be sick." --Samuel Goldwyn
18. "Health is not simply the absence of sickness." --Hannah Green
19. "Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos - the trees, the clouds, everything." --Thich Nhat Hanh
20. "A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses." --Hippocrates
21. "The groundwork of all happiness is health." -- Leigh Hunt
22. "The oneness of mind and body holds the secret of illness and health. " --Arnold Hutschnecker
23. "Health is worth more than learning." --Thomas Jefferson
24. "We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique." -- Benjamin Jowett
25. "One out of 4 people in this country is mentally imbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends-if they seem okay, then you're the one." --Ann Landers
26. "To insure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life." -- William Londen
27. "It's no longer a question of staying healthy. It's a question of finding a sickness you like." --Jackie Mason
28. "Quit worrying about your health. It'll go away." --Robert Orben
29. "What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease." --George Dennison Prentice
30. "The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results." -- Anthony Robbins
31. "Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live." -- Jim Rohn
32. "Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory." --Albert Schweitzer
33. "A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools." -- Spanish Proverb
34. "People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy." -- Laurence Sterne
35. "Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and Spring. " --Henry David Thoreau
36. "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." --Mark Twain
37. "The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." --François Voltaire
38. "Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it." -- Unknown
39. "Time And health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted." -- Denis Waitley
40. "Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can't buy." --Izaak Walton

Health! Happiness! Success!

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they have gotten lost." -H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Health, Happiness and Success can be vague ideas to most people. This article will help you put clear targets on what Health, Happiness and Success mean to you.

HEALTH- with the warm weather of Spring arriving, now is the time to jump on the natural momentum of the season and start moving! The key to health is very simple in theory but often difficult to practice. The simple path to health is: spend at least 30 minutes exercising daily, eat less calories than you burn, and eliminate toxic processed foods, drinks, thoughts and people. From my days as a Chiropractor, I gained tremendous experience in watching the body heal itself and witnessing the Mind-body connection. Health comes from within when the body is in a state of ease or normal function. Lack of health or disease is really just an imbalance within your natural body systems. Restore the balance and restore your health.

Here are some simple steps to help you on your way: wake up every morning and do 30 minutes of exercise (even just walking), eliminate highly processed foods, increase water consumption, eliminate soda/sugar drinks, decrease meat consumption, increase fish/vegetable consumption, decrease alcohol and dairy consumption. Increase raw foods and eliminate fried foods and fast foods. Think positive thoughts, spend quiet time everyday in thought and focus on positive future thoughts. Even if you just practice half of the items on this list, you will be amazed to see your health improve and your quality of life improve.

Set your specific health goal today: determine your ideal weight, what foods you will eliminate and what activities you will begin today. Start to achieve a specific health goal in the next 30 days.

HAPPINESS- this is the most elusive and hardest to explain of the three. It means dramatically different things for different people. For me, happiness comes from watching my children do the things they love, spending time writing, speaking, and being with people I care about most.

Achieving goals makes all people happy; we are naturally programmed to achieve goals. It provides a sense of accomplishment and it is rewarding. For me, hitting a sales goal at a restaurant, launching a new concept, or breaking an old company record inspires and energizes me!

Set specific happiness goals for yourself. Doing more of what you love will make you happier! Make a list of the things that make you happy and do more of them! Design your work life and family life to allow you to do more things that make you happy. Find ways to delegate the things you don't do enjoy and do more of what makes you happy! If you enjoy making sales calls and hate doing reports. Spend more time making sales and hire someone to do your paperwork. If you love doing yard work keep doing it! If you hate it then hire someone! Take the time today to write down the 10 things that make you happiest and start doing more of them. You will earn more, be happier and be more positive!

SUCCESS- Mark Twain probably best explains success. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do." Success can mean different things to different people. In the long run you will ask yourself if you lived up to your full potential. Living your life at your fullest potential is success.

What does success mean to you? Have you thought about your life and how you want to succeed? When you are 90 years old and you look back, how would you want your life to be remembered? What things would you like to look back at and celebrate? Put it on paper! Take some time right now to write out what success means to you. Break success down into the key areas of your life: Family, Career, Health, Financial, and Giving Back. What 5 things do you want to achieve in each of these areas in your life? Put them on paper and start moving towards them!

Charge!
Dave

Health Benefits Of Chillies

Over the years there have been many different views on the effects that regular chilli consumption can have on the the human body. This article attempts to summarise some of the main areas of discussion that have emerged over the last few years

Lower blood sugar

Research publishes in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (July 2006) suggests the regular consumption of chillies can help your body control insulin levels after eating which could benefit the overweight or diabetics.

As part of the study candidates followed a diet high in chilli content and had lower blood glucose levels than those eating a bland spice free diet. The author of the study Kiran Ahuja said "Chilli meals possibly result in lower C-peptide and insulin secretion and higher hepatic clearance of insulin, and the effect is larger if chilli is eaten regularly."

Anti Inflammatory

Capsaicin, the substance that give chilies their heat is well known to contain a neuropeptide associated with the inflammatory process. Chilli related alterations in plasma proteins have been reported in patients with auto inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid and arthritis. So next time you fall and bruise, maybe rub a little chilli onto the wound!

Congestion / Sinus issues

Now you do not have to be a scientist to work this one out. If you eat a dish loaded with hot chillies the heat from the capsaicin causes secretions, or in other words sweating and a runny nose, that help clear the nasal passage.

Cancer

Opinion seems divided as to whether chillies help prevent or cause stomach cancer.

Researchers at Yale University of Medicine concluded in 1994 that chili pepper consumption may cause increased risk of stomach cancer. Compared to nonconsumers of chili peppers, consumers had an increased risk of stomach cancer (odds ratio 5.49; 95%). Among consumers, there was a highly significant trend of increasing risk with increasing self-rated level of chili pepper consumption (high, medium, or low). That said the study said that "definite conclusion is not warranted" because there was no assessment of dose relationship.

A Berkley neurobiology study however found the opposite to be true. They concluded that capsaicin/chillie consumption to be "protective against stomach cancer". They pointed to the fact that the gastric cancer rates in Mexico, where chilli peppers consumption is particularly high, are relatively low> they also noted the correlation between increased chilli consumption in the USA and falling rates of gastric cancer.

Conclusion

Perhaps rather predictably there is no clear answer to the question 'are chillies good for you?'. As with all things I'm sure they are beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others. My advice would be to stop worrying and get cooking!