Tag: find

Health Care Shouldn’t Be This Expensive: How to Find Answers and Low-Cost Options

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This story is part of Priced Out, CNET’s coverage of how real people are coping with the high cost of living in the US.

Evan Stewart has epilepsy, so going a day without health insurance isn’t an option. When he left his job in the medical field to tour with his musical band, he was able to keep his benefits through COBRA. That meant a large part of his income — $800 a month — went toward keeping that coverage until he qualified for another insurance plan with his new employer. 


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The cost wasn’t bad considering the alternative. “If a seizure lasts me more than five minutes, an ambulance has to come to my house, and then I’ll probably go to the emergency room,” said Stewart, who lives in Seattle. “Without insurance, the ambulance ride would bankrupt me, and the hospital stay would keep me in medical debt for the rest of my life.” 

Stewart was nervous about switching his job because he didn’t want to give up his health care benefits. That’s fairly common in the US: One out of every six adult workers who get medical insurance through an employer stay in their jobs out of fear of losing coverage, according to a recent Gallup poll. While the majority of larger employers offer health benefits, annual premiums have soared in the last decade, reaching a yearly average of $7,911 for single coverage and $22,463 for family coverage. Many of these plans also have costly copays and high deductibles, requiring employees to pay even more. 

Even with a good insurance policy like Stewart’s, Americans often find themselves paying insurmountable out-of-pocket medical expenses. 

“We have an incredibly complex health care system,” said Amy Niles of the PAN Foundation, a nonprofit that helps underinsured patients in need. “And unfortunately, at the end of the day, a lot of the cost gets shifted onto the patients.” 

That’s why, according to Niles, it’s important to understand the price tag when considering your own health needs. Getting affordable medical care isn’t impossible, but it means sifting through an array of options: from private short-term plans to the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace tiers to government- or state-based insurance, all with different rules, requirements, enrollment dates, premiums and deductibles. It also means becoming a strong self-advocate. If a household can’t afford health insurance, there are other resources that provide

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Impression | Medical professionals Facial area a Stigma Versus Trying to find Mental Overall health Treatment

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Dr. Glen Gabbard, a medical professor of psychiatry at Baylor Higher education of Medication, has dedicated substantially of his job to treating physicians. He explained why his doctor clients wrestle to admit that they require treatment: “You’re supposed to know everything in a existence-threatening disaster. There isn’t home for self-question,” he stated.

Dr. Gabbard noted that a single way medical doctors achieve out for assistance is via a “curbside consult.” A mate can quit you in the hospital cafeteria and question for a fast prescription for Prozac. Not only are medical professionals awful sufferers, but we are frequently crunched for time and can give fellow physicians awful treatment, as well. According to Dr. Gabbard, these consults can be rushed, and some psychiatrists are as well brief to count on their colleagues’ health care awareness.

This all has served produce an underground sector of kinds for doctor psychological wellbeing treatment. An generally unspoken rule: If you have to search for mental health treatment, do it quietly. Come across a therapist exterior your city who paperwork only the bare least in your chart, pay back with funds only, really don’t permit it be billed to your insurance plan enterprise. Make confident there’s no paper trail.

As we enter the third yr of the pandemic and creep towards 1 million lifeless Americans, it is time for American overall health treatment to figure out the toll on its medical professionals and what it owes. The past two years have been characterized by violent assaults from medical practitioners, accompanied by even lengthier hours, sicker clients, confined hazard shell out and family members sacrifices. A survey conducted in the next half of 2020 discovered that around one particular-fifth of medical professionals have been thinking about leaving their practice in just two years. Potentially the saddest element is that the physicians we are generally shedding are the extremely types we have to have: the mild ones who you want keeping your mother’s hand, the considerate, meticulous types who call you on their day off.

The fastest and simplest treatment to this issue is to get rid of the inquiries about doctor psychological health from state licensing purposes and medical center credentialing kinds. This would call for a elementary change in paradigm for the healthcare community. Other alternatives contain extra medical doctor time off, extensive parental go away policies and satisfactory hazard pay.

A former colleague has

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How to find the best health insurance plan for you and your family : Shots

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A long document labeled "health insurance" turns into waves as the document stretches across the screen. Two people in a small boat ride the "waves" of the document, fishing for the jargon like "deductible" and "copayment."

If you’re buying health insurance outside a job-based plan, you’re in luck this fall. After years of cutbacks and — some say sabotage — of the Affordable Care Act during the Trump administration, the Biden administration is pulling out the stops to help people find good health plans on HealthCare.gov right now — the open enrollment period starts this week. You will have more time to sign up, more free help choosing a plan, and a greater likelihood you’ll be eligible for subsidies to help keep down the costs of a health plan you buy via the ACA marketplace.

Still, picking health insurance can be hard work, even if you’re choosing a plan through your employer. There are a lot of confusing terms, and the process forces you to think hard about your health and your finances. Plus you have to navigate all of it on a deadline, often with only a few-week period to explore your options and make decisions.

Applying for health insurance doesn't have to be confusing. Here's a handy glossary

Whether you’re aging out of your parent’s plan and picking one for the first time, or you’re in a plan that no longer works for you and you’re ready to switch things up, or you’re uninsured and want to see if you have any workable options, there’s good news. Asking yourself a few simple questions can help you zero in on the right plan from all those on the market.

Here are some tips on where to look and how to get trustworthy advice and help if you need it.

Tip #1: Know where to go

It’s not always obvious where to look for health insurance. “In this country it is a truly wacky patchwork quilt of options,” says Sabrina Corlette, who co-directs the Center on Health Insurance Reform at Georgetown University.

If you’re 65 or older, you’re eligible for Medicare. It’s a federally run program — the government pays for much of your health care. You might also be eligible if you have certain disabilities. For those already enrolled in Medicare or in a Medicare Advantage plan, the open enrollment period to switch up your supplemental health and prescription drug plans for 2022 runs through Dec. 7 this year.

For those under age 65, Corlette says, “the vast majority of us get our coverage through our employer. The employer typically will cover between 70% and 90% of your premium costs, which is pretty nice.”

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Transgender patients find health care on Rutgers student’s app

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Imagine checking in for an appointment with your primary care doctor, and you notice your forms show the wrong gender marker. You might feel confused, hurt, question how well your doctor knows you or how to offer you proper care. 

Transgender, nonbinary and other gender diverse people fear instances like this when they seek health care, like a nurse calling their wrong name or receiving incorrect treatment because of their outdated gender marker. Finding providers who know how to treat non-cisgender people would be ideal, but that’s not a simple feat.

Typing key words for transgender-affirming care in a search engine calls up LGBTQ-specific providers. It’s more difficult to find everyday health care services, like dentists or primary care doctors, who respect and understand gender diverse patients.

Creators behind an upcoming app, TranZap, want to make that search simpler for gender diverse people seeking care. 

Gender-affirming providers are not only doctors who perform plastic surgeries or administer hormone replacement therapy. They’re doctors, nurses, front desk staff and everyone in a medical office who know how to respectfully care for gender diverse patients. 

Second year Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School student Taylor Chiang is beta testing TranZap, an app that allows transgender people to review healthcare providers as a way to help other trans people find medical professionals who respect their identities. Chiang developed the app concept and is pictured with their mentor, Dr. Gloria Bachmann, a professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Associate Dean for Women Health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Some resources exist that help transgender people find plastic surgeons or endocrinologists who affirm people’s gender physically. Taylor Chiang, a second year student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School who came up with TranZap, wants people to find “gender-affirming [providers] to get regular old routine care.”

“A big barrier to health care is being afraid that you’re going to be discriminated against or not knowing information,” Chiang said. “Whether or not a primary care provider is gender-affirming, that information is lacking.”

Transgender people face a high risk of physical and mental health problems, but are “consistently and systemically underserved by the American medical system,” a Center for American Progress report reads. Some 62% of transgender respondents said they worried about being judged based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in health care settings, according to TransPop survey results.

Second year Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School student Taylor Chiang, not pictured, is beta testing TranZap, an app that allows transgender people to review healthcare providers as a way to help other trans people find medical professionals who respect their identities.

Chiang experienced uncomfortable conversations surrounding their identity in health care settings before. They typically searched for providers who accepted their insurance, or heard about affirming providers via word of mouth. Sometimes, they “risked” the provider lacking knowledge about caring for and talking to transgender and gay patients. 

They had connections to transgender people seeking similar care, but they wondered about gender diverse people who didn’t have that community, who struggled to find health care. That

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