Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Health insurance reform needs to focus on the health, not the insurance, because you can never solve a problem by shifting paperwork to another party or bu denying services to an ever-expanding group of people. It's similar to the way in which the federal government wants to solve social security: just keep raising the qualification age until it's so high that almost nobody lives that long. How's that for security? "If you live long enough, we'll even pay you back all the money you worked for!"
In the realm of health insurance, we need to start talking about disease prevention. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 If I had a choice, I would buy car insurance with a $5,000 deductible or higher, but unfortunately no such deductible amounts are even offered by the insurance industry.
What's the deal with a high deductible? If you buy a low deductible car insurance policy, you are paying far more for that policy than you would if you had a higher deductible. |
| The cost difference between a $50 deductible auto insurance policy and a $500 deductible is so significant that you would probably save $500 every couple of years or less and be able to put that money in your own pocket rather than sending it to the insurance company. Furthermore, these policies are marketed to people with some rather unscrupulous sales tactics: the insurance agent might say "Gee, what happens if your windshield gets broken? You don't want to be more than $50 out of pocket do you? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Doctors are buried under insurance paperwork (which takes up about 70% - 80% of the staff at a given clinic or hospital), insurance companies play the "we won't pay" game with everybody, and the people end up paying for insurance that won't cover them when they need it anyway. This whole situation creates stress and worry for everyone, and it results in the needless deaths of individuals who are denied lifesaving medical procedures simply because their insurance won't pay. Want a picture of how the industry really operates? Just watch the behavior of the Dr. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Furthermore, these policies are marketed to people with some rather unscrupulous sales tactics: the insurance agent might say "Gee, what happens if your windshield gets broken? You don't want to be more than $50 out of pocket do you?" And the consumer, in a zombie-like state of mind says "Sure, I don't want to be more than $50 out of pocket!" And then the insurance agent says "Well, then you need a $50 deductible on your policy and that will only cost you $200 more every year! |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 It's like insurance. You buy insurance for your car. You buy it for your house or belongings. And if you're like most people, you probably even buy insurance for your body (health insurance). Insuring yourself against infectious disease only makes sense. Preparedness is cheap, but being caught unprepared can literally cost you your life.
If this is all a false alarm, and bird flu never becomes contagious in humans, then you've wasted nothing, because now you're prepared for anything: Hurricanes, floods, power grid failures, tornados, earthquakes and civil unrest (LA Riots, remember?). |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 People who buy the car rental insurance coverage at $10 / day even though they already have insurance. People who habitually play the state lottery and characterize it as an "investment plan." People who have a $50 deductible on their car insurance because they can't afford more than $50 out of pocket if there's an accident. People who think vitamins are too expensive but pharmaceuticals are a bargain because they get a 10 percent discount on some hare-brained Medicare plan. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| As long as their drugs are paid for by insurance, and as long as Medicare covers Viagra, they're sufficiently sedated to prevent any real cry for reform.
That's part of what prescription drugs really accomplish, by the way: the keep the population doped up in a never-ending state of brain fog from which it is impossible to rally enough people to demand real reform. Think about it: according to a new study published in The Lancet, the Vioxx drug alone seems to have killed as many as 60,000 Americans. Where's the outcry? Where are the demonstrations? The marches on Washington? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| People who buy the car rental insurance coverage at $10 / day even though they already have insurance. People who habitually play the state lottery and characterize it as an "investment plan." People who have a $50 deductible on their car insurance because they can't afford more than $50 out of pocket if there's an accident. People who think vitamins are too expensive but pharmaceuticals are a bargain because they get a 10 percent discount on some hare-brained Medicare plan. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| And then the insurance agent says "Well, then you need a $50 deductible on your policy and that will only cost you $200 more every year!" And most consumers don't do the math, so they fall for this trick and they end up paying far more out of pocket because they can't afford, they think, to pay out of pocket for some kind of claim or damage to their cars.
It's almost as if people are somehow led to believe that if they pay more money, they won't have to pay more money.
It's interesting to observe how people who are financially poor tend to make decisions. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Then people say, "Well, my insurance is paying for my health care costs."
Ben: You're still paying for the insurance.
Mike: Exactly. Who's paying for the insurance? I mean, if you're going to make an argument like that, you're a fool. "I'm going to be sick because insurance covers that?" What kind of an idiot thinks that? But it's true; people do. I say that being healthy is very inexpensive. It's an inexpensive way to run your life. Do you know how much money I've spent on health care costs in the last three years?
Ben: How much?
Mike: It's very close to zero. |
Mike Adams
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| One idea would be to have insurance rebates for people who attain and maintain certain health milestones. If a person can get under 15% body fat, for example, or get their cholesterol below 130, or maintain a healthy body weight, they should have rebates on their insurance compared to people who choose not to follow healthy lifestyles. This would create a financial incentive for people to pursue healthful dietary and exercise strategies.
And the long-term result is that everyone's insurance rates would go down, because healthy people cost a lot less in terms of medical expenses. |
Richard Bartlett
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 And here is the really good news; your insurance will pay the doctors for this test, which (surprise) almost always proves that you have the problem. In addition, once diagnosed, the treatment involves an expensive conttaption that you must wear all night. The apparatus ensures that your brain receives adequate levels of oxygen. The good news here, of course, is that your insurance will usually pay for this treatment as well. I wonder how many people, out of a random sample, would demonstrate positive for this problem if tested? |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 T 7C Thile the public was fed a steady barrage of V V revised, updated, and reworked regulatory guidelines, giving the appearance of rigorous scientific oversight, the insurance industry quietly let it be known that it would not insure the release of genetically engineered organisms into the environment against the possibility of catastrophic environmental damage."
—Jeremy Rifkin, president,
Foundation on Economic Trends
Quotes from insurance spokespeople:1 ii ' I ^he worry is that GM could be like Thalidomide— JL only after some time would the full extent of the problems be seen. |
Gregg Braden
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 The seemingly endless stream of presentations included a dizzying array of insurance policies and packages. Following the orientation, my new colleague and I found ourselves engaged in conversation about the policies with an intensity that surprised us both.
While I certainly agreed that it was a responsible thing for everyone to have the best insurance possible, after a full day of presentations, all of the packages began to look the same. I was ready to choose one and move on. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| The very idea that drug companies and insurance companies are right now profiting from disease and sickness is bewildering. Shouldn't health care be more concerned about the health of the people than the profits of the wealthy elite?
As I said in a previous article, no nation that neglects the health of its people can expect to have a future. America's current system of medicine has clearly abandoned the needs of its people while protecting the profits of influential corporations who run health care today (Big Pharma, insurance companies, hospitals and so on). |
| The campaign will highlight the need for reforms that prevent insurance companies from denying care, and send a strong signal to politicians in Congress, state capitals, and the presidential race who are promoting insurance-based reforms.
HR 676 and similar bills in several state legislatures would have one public entity collecting and disbursing all revenues for care delivered by our current, mostly private hospitals, clinics, and doctors, similar to how Medicare works. The system is universal, assures comprehensive benefits, guarantees freedom to choose your provider, and controls costs. |
Anne Harrington
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 To make matters worse, physicians don't want to take care of these people, and insurance companies don't want to pay for their care.1
So doctors become impatient and insurance companies skeptical when confronted with "patients like Linda," who make no sense, conceptually, to physicalist medicine. Meanwhile, the legions of Lindas in our society continue to suffer. Do any genuinely effective or empowering options exist for them?
The shortcomings of physicalist medicine, however, do not end there. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 In the past, an obese or overweight body weight was based on ideal body weight tables established by the Metropolitan Life insurance Company [6]. These insurance tables estimated an "ideal" weight for a given height, frame size, and gender based on collected mortality data. Overweight and obesity were then defined as some percentage above the estimated ideal body weight. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 It's easy insurance. You talk about insurance in some of your public presentations. This is great insurance for protecting your health, your family and maybe even your neighborhood.
Wolfe: Exactly. Again, I want to reiterate that not everyone is turned on to this kind of thing with natural health and what can be done with herbs. You may take it upon yourself to be prepared for your neighbors. They may be coming to you and saying, "Hey, what do you have, what do you think I should do?" And you're prepared, and what a gift, what an amazing thing to be able to give that gift. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 Check with your insurance provider, and if it's covered, ask for the insurance code and provide it to your doctor—you may find this number makes it easier for all.
4. Pneumovax: for people over fifty. Repeat at sixty-five years old (if five years since first one). Used to prevent the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in adults.
5. Influenza: yearly. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends it for kids, the elderly, pregnant women, and chronically ill persons and those exposed to the above groups, but everyone is exposed, so we recommend it for everyone. |
Stacy Malkan
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 Just like my uncle, the insurance salesman, they convince everybody they're going to die and then sell them insurance." (The theme was repeated throughout the day, with several speakers referring to environmental groups that are "in it for the money")
What's driving the Toxics Ingredients Movement? The internet is the great leveler making everyone's opinion as valuable as everyone else's; industry no longer has a one-way conduit of information to consumers. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 The life insurance industry, interested in assessing the financial risk posed by applicants, was an early advocate of routine physical examinations. At the turn of the twentieth century, insurance companies began to employ physicians to conduct such examinations. War played a role in the acceptance of this practice. During World Wars I and II, physical exams were used to assess the fitness of military recruits (these exams showed a "disconcertingly high percentage of physical defects among supposedly healthy young men"12) and were required annually for all officers of the army and navy. |
Stacy Malkan
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| Just like my uncle, the insurance salesman, they convince everybody they're going to die and then sell them insurance." (The theme was repeated throughout the day, with several speakers referring to environmental groups that are "in it for the money")
What's driving the Toxics Ingredients Movement? The internet is the great leveler making everyone's opinion as valuable as everyone else's; industry no longer has a one-way conduit of information to consumers. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| Check with your insurance provider, and if it's covered, ask for the insurance code and provide it to your doctor—you may find this number makes it easier for all.
4. Pneumovax: for people over fifty. Repeat at sixty-five years old (if five years since first one). Used to prevent the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in adults.
5. Influenza: yearly. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends it for kids, the elderly, pregnant women, and chronically ill persons and those exposed to the above groups, but everyone is exposed, so we recommend it for everyone. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
| It's easy insurance. You talk about insurance in some of your public presentations. This is great insurance for protecting your health, your family and maybe even your neighborhood.
Wolfe: Exactly. Again, I want to reiterate that not everyone is turned on to this kind of thing with natural health and what can be done with herbs. You may take it upon yourself to be prepared for your neighbors. They may be coming to you and saying, "Hey, what do you have, what do you think I should do?" And you're prepared, and what a gift, what an amazing thing to be able to give that gift. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
| You buy insurance for your car. You buy it for your house or belongings. And if you're like most people, you probably even buy insurance for your body (health insurance). Insuring yourself against infectious disease only makes sense. Preparedness is cheap, but being caught unprepared can literally cost you your life.
If this is all a false alarm, and bird flu never becomes contagious in humans, then you've wasted nothing, because now you're prepared for anything: Hurricanes, floods, power grid failures, tornados, earthquakes and civil unrest (LA Riots, remember?). |
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