family health insurance
Try looking for a family health insurance policy on your own and you will realize just how hard it is to find a good insurance policy that provides good coverage at a reasonable cost, with a low premium. Unfortunately it is just not out there. Many people wonder why the cost of insurance is so high. The reason is that our government refuses to put caps on the rates that medical doctors and hospitals are charging patients. In this society, the average person can not afford to lay out $150.00 to see a doctor. Do you realize that this is more than an attorney would charge you? A doctor on average spends less than 10 minutes in a room with any one patient. Think about that. He is making about $900.00 per hour. Now is that obscene or what. I am just talking about a regular family practitioner, not a specialist or anything like that. I don't go to the doctor very often, I usually only go when I find that something is really wrong, and honestly many times when I go I don't really get the answer I was looking for. If you think about it, why doesn't our government put a cap on how much these doctors can charge. Everyone tried to make the insurance companies out to be the bad guys, but actually they fight for our rights and they cap how much your doctor's and hospitals can charge you for services. If you are private pay, then you have to pay everything that a doctor or hospital charges and then some. When you are private pay, there are no reasonable and customary limits put on the charges, and believe me the cost is about 3 times as much.
I just think that we should try to revamp this system before it is too late. Regulating how much doctors and hospitals can charge for the same services across the board seems to me to be a logical solution to this overwhelming problem. When people can't afford health care, they just don't go, even when they need to. Where did the doctor or the past go the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take? The following is an excerpt from that oath:
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
Just remember it is the benefit of the sick, and not the benefit of myself.
family health insurance
I worked for a Company for over eight years, made good money and had excellent family health insurance. I have had back problems on and off for years and this manufacturing job was slowly taking it's toll. I worked out regularly and this helped with the pain. One time at work I pulled a muscle and they let me do light duty for two weeks. When I felt better I went back to my regular job and although a lot of people complained, I knew I had it pretty good. It was then announced that a new company was buying us out and everyone thought it was going to get a lot better in there. When the buyout was complete the trouble started, slowly at first. A layoff, the first I had seen in eight years. Then they started charging us more for our family health insurance followed by another layoff. Now we had one third of the staff doing the same job. Where as before I would spend an hour doing hard labor, mostly lifting before being relieved had now turned into six straight hours. I woke up the day after a hard day at work and could not move, but went to work anyway. Halfway thru the day I reported this to my supervisor and then found myself up in human resources with the new big shots. I told them what had happened and was told because I woke up with this it was not Workers comp but that I should take the rest of the day off and would be receiving a warning for missed time and to be back at work on Monday. Six of those in a year or five twice in a year was a termination. I had three missed days in the year and figured I could afford one more since I had two more coming off soon. So I left that Friday knowing I did not have to be back in until Monday. Well Monday came and still in serious pain went to work my twelve hour shift and then all of Tuesday. I ended up in bed for over three months and still in serious pain stayed out on short term disabilities. I received about one hundred and fifty a week and with four children that is nothing. I contacted several attorney's, even met with some of them, but because I admitted to waking up in pain instead of laying on the floor at work I could not get workers comp and lost my job after six months. So much for family health insurance!
promotional pens
When running a business it can be difficult when the holiday time comes around. Everyone needs to be acknowledged for the ways that they have helped you grow your business during the year, but it can be difficult to come up with different ideas on how to acknowledge everyone without breaking the bank. Well, I just recently read an article about such a subject and one of the suggestions that they made in the article was using promotional items as corporate gifts and business gifts. They even suggested doing such for your employees as well. This is not only a great way to acknowledge everyone who has helped your business grow, but also a great advertising dollar as well.
There are thousands of custom printed products to choose from ranging from low cost promotional pens, key rings, coffee mugs, shirts, caps, mouse pads, calculators, mobile phone holders and even promotional umbrellas to executive business corporate merchandise. They offer clothing items and carry bags, even laptop and notebook cases. The hardest decision will be what items to order. They even offer eco friendly items and with a very quick turn around your merchandise will be in your hands before you know it. Right now, prices on this merchandise seem to be at an all time low, so it is a good time to jump in and give it a test run today. The holidays will be here before you know it, so be sure to find yourself a good company whose merchandise you have already sampled prior to placing that big order.
With over 5000+ promotional items to choose from you will probably have to look over the items before landing on which ones best suit your finances and your business. Try to think of something different that you can do, something that has rarely been done before for your biggies, but be sure to include everyone with your promotional gifts. For instance you can give promotional umbrellas or nice promotional pens to the mail man or how about promotional golf gifts to some of your suppliers. Keep those advertisements flowing. I know it may seem like an expensive way, but the truth is buying employees, customers and supplier's gifts will cost you anyway, so why not be able to dedicate your dollars to serve a double purpose, happy customers and employees plus more business for you and your suppliers. Promotional items the gifts that just keep giving.
car insurance
These days you should not pay more for your car insurance then you absolutely have to. The cost of commuting has become very expensive with the cost of fuel going through the roof and the price of everything going up. Here are some tips on getting cheap car insurance:
1. No accidents for the past few years? See if your insurance company has a discount for great drivers. If not, shop around and see if you can get a discount with another company who does.
2. Have other insurance policies? Try combining them under one company and see what kind of response you get. Pool your life, home, health and auto insurance under one roof and you could see considerable savings.
3. How about other cars? Make sure your company is giving you a discount for insuring your fleet of two or three cars.
4. What about the preventative stuff? Depending on the state you are in, you may be eligible for a discount if your car has airbags, an alarm system, etc. So be sure to check with your insurance company on this.
5. What about my credit report? These days most insurance companies will pull your credit report to help determine your car insurance rate, so if you know that you have done some things to clean up your credit then be sure to let them know and they can check it again and maybe reduce your rate.
6. What about your education level? This has a definite impact on your car insurance rate, so be sure if you are furthering your education that you update that information with your insurance company as well to get the best possible rate available.
7. Should I change insurance companies? It is a good idea to check out the competitive rates at least every 6 months. If you find a better rate with another company, see if you can get your current company to match or even beat the rate. A lot of insurance companies will do this to keep you from switching.
Things like this can really affect your premiums and keeping your insurance company up on any changes in your life can really help you out in the long run. Keep in mind if you change jobs or stop working that you provide your insurance company with this information as well. This may seem like a hassle but if it keeps more money in your pocket and less in the insurance company's pocket, then it is worth the effort.
smart lipo
I was recently sitting in the doctor's office awaiting my appointment. Normally, I bring some type of magazine or something to read, but in my hurry to leave the house I wasn't able to bring anything to do. I began leafing through one of the medical magazines that rested on a table, and found an article on liposuction. Now, I'm not obese or even moderately overweight, so the article didn't apply to me. But out of curiosity, I read the article.
It turns out that liposuction isn't exactly the procedure I had thought it would be, and I was even more surprised to find that there were multiple variances of the general term "liposuction". I learned that liposuction was invented in the late 1960s, early 1970s in Europe. The first technique used was a "dry" technique, which didn't involve the injection of any fluids into the fat. This procedure was dangerous, however, because it led to blood loss and shock.
The improvement on the dry technique is the "wet" technique, which involves some injection of a small amount of fluid (usually less than the volume of fat being removed). The fat is then suctioned out. A variation of this, the tumescent technique, injects a large amount of fluid into the fat which reduces blood loss and makes it easier to remove the fat. But the article focused more on a new technology: smart lipo. At first, I wasn't sure if any liposuction is ever smart but then I realized that it was just a brand name. SmartLipo is a type of liposuction that involves using a laser to loosen fat then suctioning it out, versus the other methods of using liquid or even ultrasound to loosen the fat. According to the article, not only does smart lipo cost less than traditional liposuction, but it is more accurate, safer, and quicker than more traditional methods.
I couldn't help but wonder how could smartlipo cost less when a person obviously got so much more than they get with traditional liposuction. For example, it's called the "Lunchtime Lipo" because people require little to no recovery time after the procedure. It doesn't even have to be performed in a hospital! And according to the article, a person only requires local anesthesia in lieu of general anesthesia. Apparently smart lipo cost is not bad.
Of course, there are stipulations. It said that likely candidates had to be within a certain percentage of their ideal body weight and had to be in good health. Obviously, smartlipo is no cure-all for obesity and is really more of a method of cosmetic surgery (in fact, it fits under the category of cosmetic surgery) rather than one of weight loss. In fact, a person does not lose much weight with the procedure but will lose inches off their waistline.
I left my doctor's appointment that day feeling quite informed about this alternative to liposuction. If I needed or wanted a procedure like that, I may have actually considered doing it. But for now I'll just thank my lucky stars that I don't need it and wait for the next interesting new medical discovery to come up.
Bethesda chiropractor
After my car accident, I had low back pain like you wouldn't believe. I had sought treatment by many chiropractors to no avail. Then my husband was transferred to Maryland for his job, and I continued to seek out help from natural healers, acupuncturists, medical doctors, orthopedists, physical therapists, etc still with no positive results on my low back pain.
While thumbing through the yellow pages in search of a Bethesda chiropractor to cure my back pain, I came across an ad about Lordex technique and I since I had never heard of this before, I thought I should look into it further.
It turns out that through researching it I found out that Lordex was a technique specifically created as an alternative to surgery. I wondered if this could be what I was looking for. I made an appointment the next day and packed up my x-rays, which at this point in my life, I have my own set of, and set off hoping and praying that this would be the answer to getting my life back. I went in and met with the doctor. I brought my doctor's reports and told him all that I had been through, as well as my diagnosis and prognosis. He said that I was a perfect candidate for this technique and that problems like mine were exactly what this technique was created for. He said that he had several patients 2 of which were actually in worse shape than I was, and all had gotten excellent results from this treatment. He offered me the names and numbers of the patients that had been significantly helped using Lordex and I thanked him and went home to call these patients. Well, the stories I heard nearly brought me to tears. At one point I think that I was sobbing but so was the man on the other end of the phone, who told me his story and about how he thought he would never be able to play with his kids again after a work injury. Then he went to this chiropractic office. He said that it took a few months to get things back to normal and he still has some pain, but he spoke about these results as if they had been a miracle.
I couldn't wait to begin my treatment and started the following day. I am already feeling the results and I will tell anyone who will listen my success story.
chocolates
After a recent decision to go on a diet, I threw out basically everything in my fridge and cabinets and went to the local grocery store (this particular store is known more for its health food) to stock up on healthier foods. When I got to the store, I started to pick out fruit and vegetables to put into my cart and just browse up and down the aisle for anything that I thought looked gross (assuming it would probably be healthy then). After the first few aisles, I ran across an entire aisle devoted to chocolates. I was amazed. Knowing the healthy reputation for this grocery store, I just assumed I wouldn't come across anything besides maybe fruit that I thought was tolerable to eat. And there I was standing in heaven. Both sides of the aisles were covered in chocolates. There were chocolate covered fruits, and different flavored chocolate candy bars. I seriously could not believe my eyes. Now I know why people come here. They're pretending to be eating healthy but underneath all of the health food in their carts in a mound of chocolates. I had never seen so much chocolate in one place in my whole life. There were lava cakes and s'more desserts. Then I saw the sign above saying that it was made differently and that the chocolates were good for you. Could that be possible? It seriously had to be some kind of a joke. There is no way that I could walk out of this health food store with a ton of chocolate. So I went back to the fruit aisle and as I was walking I noticed more now than before that there seemed to be more people in the chocolate aisle than everywhere else in the store combined. Or maybe it was just me fixating on it. This diet thing is going to be really hard. It had only been 20 minutes into it and I had already been tempted to give up. So I went around the store, avoiding the chocolate aisle and filled my cart up with more fruits and vegetables and light drinks, a ton of bottles water (I had recently given up coke) and snacks like peanuts and wheat thins. Finally as I was about to get into the checkout line, I decided to go back to chocolate heaven. I looked around and picked out a few small treats. I figured I could use these to reward myself at the end of the week for staying on track with my diet. And anyways, if its chocolate covered strawberries, isn't it like eating fruit?
glow necklaces
My friend recently had one of the best parties I have ever been to. This is going to sound really wacky but she had a skating party. Yes, she had a skating party… in her house. She saw the idea online and thought she really could pull this off. She has a big house with all wood floors, which desperately needed to be redone anyway, so she figured this would be a great idea for a party and boy was she right. She went to the local skate rink and took a look around; she put tape on the floors for lines and got a cotton candy machine and a popcorn machine from the local rental place.
Then she picked up some little toys and tickets and used these as party favors (you know just like the little junky toys that you can pick up at the skate rink). She had lots of glow sticks that you could wear around your neck and also some of those skinny glow necklaces. She said it was really easy picking out the party supplies. As for the food she made little pizzas and sodas and hot dogs. She also got a snow cone machine and let everyone make their own snow cones. It was just a real blast. She played a lot of that really old disco music and even had everyone do the bunny hop on their skates. She also had everyone skate around to the YMCA song doing the gestures above their heads. When things quieted down a bit, she got out the broom and had everyone give the limbo a shot. We laughed our way through the whole thing, although I am not sure that alcohol and a skating party mix, especially in people that have not been skating in quite a few years.
Well, there was only one injury at the party which I thought was pretty good. Apparently, a friend thought he was a professional speed skater and went seriously barreling into one of her walls. Fortunately the guy just got a few bumps and bruises, but the wall needed a patch job. We fixed it with the help of a few friends the next morning, and all was as good as new. She said that she will be redoing her floors next month, but it is a shame because I think that everyone would love to give that party theme one more go round.
sql injection
My work study this summer is an internship with the campus computer network. I basically get to help out with anything they may need in terms of busy work and they will show me how the whole system works from a code perspective. I think that I will gain a lot of experience from this summer because they are running a system that is constantly updated and actually develops new technologies.
I finished my first week yesterday and it was pretty darn interesting. They were installing and formatting a new security scanner program because last year there had been a lot of security breaches. The mode that had been used the most was something called an sql injection which was basically invading the system every single time a handful of students would log in to their personal web space. The hackers then went in to the system and changed a bunch of programs. That is why we had all of those random days where the whole network would be totally shut down and the university would come to a halt. They also used their access to send out a bunch of e-mails that opened doors for them to come easier.
We spent this whole week trying to load and scan the entire system. Every day we would go through a different area of the network and do a very picky scan. Every single piece of information inside the system that ws not put there by the web masters was immediately deleted. So every student who comes back in the fall is going to have a rude awakening when they find that all of their e-mail and course files saved online have been erased. I don't feel too bad about having to do it though because it would have been just as evident to me today how much damage there had been done even without three years of school. It was actually sort of comedic to see how much they had taken over. At the peak of the problem they had actually sucked in about three thousand students in to their little network of destruction within our network of instruction. Sort of funny when I put it that why right?
gift baskets
I had a teacher this semester in one of my business courses that really changed the way that I look at business. His influence on me was so strong that when I began my summer job as a salesman for a private student venture I used his advice from the beginning. He had this whole mentality that no matter how much business changes and how much faster technology becomes, there will never be a replacement for simple human contact. Even in the business world where people like things to be as automated as possible to increase productivity, without a human sensibility and voice at the call centers then there is nothing for the consumer to grasp when searching for what will make them happy.
His theories of business where really no different than nay of the other common methods that people use today. The big difference though that set him apart was the fact that he had not belief in the idea of a totally automated business world. He saw that commerce, business, and trade are all based upon the fact that people are trying to make themselves happier in some way. When you pull out the humanity within a company and simply try to make it a means to an end and not a means to guide people along in life, then you are missing the mark in terms of your customer service. He would always talk about how when he does his business trip he always takes along corporate gift baskets. He has found that over the years the idea of a corporate gift basket and the statistical relationship to a sale thereafter is enough for him. So he is not throwing the rule book out the window for the gift baskets but he is not simply a numbers and stats kind of guy.
I hope that I can develop the type of insight that he has gotten from his business experience. I think that it takes a certain type of person to look at the very established system of business and think that you know better. I think it takes and even more special person to be able to actually make those changes you want to see.