Health Insurance: Not Only for the Swine Flu Scare

Health Insurance: Not Only for the Swine Flu Scare

When the first U.S. swine flu death occurred, everyone grew alarmed and
alert. The doctors offices were flooded with those who believed they
had the disease.

Even though most of these cases were (thankfully) psychosomatic, the
doctors visits did cost money, and those who got the doctors to write
prescriptions probably went straight to the pharmacy to get their
antibiotics.

This whole situation was appalling for those without health insurance
policies. When a fear grows to a hysteria as the fear of swine flu did,
Americans don't care if they have health insurance or not; they're
going to the doctor come hell or high water. And they will pay for
those expensive antibiotics, too.

Millions of people in the U.S. don't have health insurance, but the
need for it is great - especially for families with children. The risk
of sudden illness or an accident is too big to ignore, and most health
insurance policies are so low that it's a very sound investment.

Antibiotics can cost hundreds of dollars without coverage, and
doctor visits can be pricey, too. As for broken bones? We're talking
thousands upon thousands.

There are always going to be viruses going around. Some just happen
to get more coverage than others. It's crucial to be prepared for every
illness and every accident.

Contact us today to talk about a health insurance policy that will fit your budget and family size. We're Headquarter Insurance..

Health Insurance Coverage

We
all need health insurance. Having a solid health policy in place helps
pay for the high medical bills that come with doctor visits,
operations, and medicine. Having health insurance can mean the
difference between getting treatment but still living comfortably or
getting treatment and running out of money.



Our health insurance
policies assist you in paying for doctor visits, prescriptions,
necessary types of testing, specialist care, and surgical procedures.



We
at Headquarter Insurance want to provide you with the best health
insurance advice and most competitive products available. Whether
you’re looking for individual coverage, group coverage for a business,
long term care, or any other type of health insurance, we’ll help
design an insurance program for you!



Contact us today or fill out our quick online health insurance form for more information!

The Battle of the Sexes

The battle of the sexes has long been played out in the home and in the workplace, but when it comes to health and biological makeup, are men and women created equally? Recent scientific research tells us the differences are vast. For more than a decade sex-based biology has been used to distinguish the many biological and physiological differences between the sexes. While anatomical differences have been known and studied for years, biological research has revolutionized the way we look at the distinctions between men and women, especially regarding health.

On June 10, 1993 the NIH Revitalization Act was signed into law in the US, mandating the National Institute of Health (NIH) to establish guidelines for the inclusion of both women and minorities in clinical research. Sex-based biology was beginning to emerge as a significant and necessary element of all clinical trials and research. Organizations such as The Organization for the Study of Sex Differences and the The Society for Women’s Health Research have been advocating on behalf of women’s health issues ever since and are committed to achieving a goal of implementing sex-based biology as a recognized and essential part of all health research.

In 2001 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter? The report examines the unique differences between men and women and how their bodies react to disease, illness and even drug interactions. Before women were included in clinical testing, many researchers believed that treatment options that worked for men would work just as well for women. The IOM findings most importantly reiterate how studying and acknowledging these biological and physiological differences can improve the health of both sexes.



The following findings from the IOM study are important indicators that men and women truly and drastically differ and that sex-based biology is essential to education, prevention and treatment of all health issues.

* Autoimmune Disease – Three out of four people suffering from autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, are women.
* Depression – Women are two-to-three times more likely than men to suffer from depression.
* Heart Disease – Heart disease is the number one killer of women. Although the total number heart disease deaths in women has decreased since the IOM report, it still kills 450,000 women every year-- 50,000 more American women than men.
* Osteoporosis – Women comprise 80 percent of the population suffering from osteoporosis.
* Pain – Certain pain medications are more effective for women than men.

The effort to understand and investigate biological health differences is not limited to the U.S. The United Kingdom’s National Health Services (NHS) reports that 1 in 4 women compared to only 1 in 12 men suffer from migraine headaches. Researchers believe hormonal differences in the sexes cause the increased number of females suffering from the condition. Since 1995, NHS reports cases of lung cancer have been declining in UK men, while a similar decline has not been seen in women. Scientific research has determined women to be more at risk of developing lung cancer because of a variety of biological and hormonal differences including the discovery of a gene that is more active in women that increases the speed of lung cancer growth.

The World Health Organization has reported that women account for more than two-thirds of all incidences of blindness worldwide. Cataracts, Trachoma and macular degeneration, all conditions that cause blindness, disproportionately impact women. Sex-based biological research gives healthcare providers the tools they need to deliver patients more advanced and specified treatments while taking their sex into account.

While scientific studies and clinical trials provide the background and knowledge needed to understand sex differences, education and advocacy are essential to improving overall health. The results of sex-based research is being applied to better allocate education and product development resources.

For example, since research has shown that women are more likely to develop heart disease than men, public interest campaigns such as The Heart Truth have been designed to educate women about how to prevent and treat heart disease. Whether it is learning more about heart disease or understanding potential drug interactions, personal health education is important for both men and women. Better understanding of sex-based health differences enable people to take more responsibility for their health.

Similarly, responsible health companies are in a unique position to generate positive outcomes based on this new field of research. Many have already begun to respond to the need for healthcare products that truly incorporate sex-based differences.

* Philips PageWriter TC50 cardiograph – Philips recently unveiled The PageWriter TC50 cardiograph which allows healthcare professionals to easily and efficiently take and record ECGs – tests of heart activity – assisting the clinician in making a timely diagnosis. The PageWriter TC50’s sophisticated analysis programme, the DXL Algorithm, uses different criteria for men and women to help clinicians interpret cardiac symptoms, including identifying acute global ischemia, the restrictions of blood supply to large areas of the heart.
* Zimmer® Gender Solutions™ Knee – Recently, Zimmer introduced the Zimmer® Gender Solutions™ Knee a knee replacement designed specifically for women. They developed the device by taking the average size of both women and men’s knees. This replacement allows for a more natural knee movement and has a shape that is specially designed for a woman.
* BONIVA® – Both men and women can suffer from osteoporosis but women make up the majority of the affected patients. BONIVA® is an osteoporosis prescription medication designed specifically for women, post menopause. This population of women have specific medical needs different from men or younger women who live with osteoporosis.

Governments are also looking for ways to translate the sex- based research findings into smart regulation. For example, in 1994, the FDA Office of Women’s Health was established to help address gaps in scientific research. One of the major pushes has been to ensure that regulated products, such as pharmaceuticals, are including an adequate sample size of women in clinical trials and that they are analyzing the trial data based on sex.

Sex-based biology is a relatively new yet profoundly important study for advancing research and medicine into the realm of concise and specialized care that incorporates gender related differences. From the non-profit organization advocating and educating on the behalf of sex-based biology, to the individual taking responsibility for their own healthcare knowledge, to the marketplace, where companies are committed to using the latest sex-based biology research to create products that ultimately provide better care for patients, it is clear that sex-based biology research will continue to provide insight and advancements to overall health outcomes for both men and women.

Health Insurance Coverage

We
all need health insurance. Having a solid health policy in place helps
pay for the high medical bills that come with doctor visits,
operations, and medicine. Having health insurance can mean the
difference between getting treatment but still living comfortably or
getting treatment and running out of money.



Our health insurance
policies assist you in paying for doctor visits, prescriptions,
necessary types of testing, specialist care, and surgical procedures.



We
at Independent Insurance Group want to provide you with the best health
insurance advice and most competitive products available. Whether
you’re looking for individual coverage, group coverage for a business,
long term care, or any other type of health insurance, we’ll help
design an insurance program for you!



Contact us today or fill out our quick online health insurance form for more information!

Women's Health

It is a simple but profound fact—gender plays a significant role in our overall health. Men and women not only have unique biological processes, but also distinct social norms. These two fundamental components of well-being, the biological and psychosocial, intertwine to set women on a particular health course.

As a sex, women tend to utilize health services more frequently than men. An increased demand for health interventions is partly due to reproductive issues unique to women and elevated rates of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and macular degeneration. Yet surprisingly, women universally live longer than men. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in developed nations, women live on average six to eight years longer than men.

In The Biological Battle of the Sexes GetInsideHealth examines the implications of sex-related biology, yet these factors are only one determinant of women’s overall health and well-being. In the United Nations 2006 World Population Prospectus, women in Japan are shown to live an average of 44 years longer than their female counterparts in Sierra Leone. This vast difference highlights the significance of variables apart from sex-related biology.

Personal choice and responsibility play a role in individual health, but there are many environmental variables that significantly impact the health and well-being of women worldwide. These include relative poverty rates, geography, climate, social norms related to education, literacy and paid employment opportunities, reproductive norms and access to preventive and interventional medical care and health insurance. For example, according to the WHO, women of all ages are at a significantly higher risk of becoming visually impaired in their lifetimes than men. While biology plays a part in this disparity for women in both developing and developed nations, many women in developing nations do not have equal access to preventive or interventional care to address eye health for example, which can eventually lead to blindness.

Women’s Health in the Developed World
While research shows that women in developed countries generally have better overall health than women in developing countries, there are differences in how women fare amongst developed countries as well. Key findings include the following:

• While all women in developed countries have life expectancies higher than the world average, women in Japan can expect to live six years longer than their American counterparts;
• Canada and Western European countries maintain lower rates of maternal and infant mortality than the United States;

• Whereas Western European countries have universal coverage, in the U.S. 18% of women under age 65 are uninsured according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of the U.S. Census;
• Women in the United States have a higher rate of survival for cancer than those in Canada and European countries;

SOURCE: Eurocare-4 and US SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) reported in 2007 edition of The Lancet Oncology

• The WHO ranked the world's health systems in 2000. They no longer produce these rankings due to “the complexity of the task.” But the findings are still interesting. France and Italy topped the list when compared to all countries. The US was 37th, the lowest of any country in North America or Western Europe. However, when the five criteria were looked at individually, the United States was number one in responsiveness, defined by the WHO as “a combination of patient satisfaction and how well the system acts.”

Women’s health and well-being throughout the world is impacted by many complex and often interrelated factors, from healthcare access issues to social norms and the nuances of healthcare delivery. While women outlive their male counterparts overall, women have a host of unique concerns, both biological and psychosocial in nature, that can translate into longer, but not necessarily healthier, lives. This fact is increasingly being recognized and studied and as GetInsideHealth discusses in The Biological Battle of the Sexes, research is already yielding results that are changing women's live for the better.