Resources For the
NON-insured
And the UN-insurable!
© 2000
By Lin Stone
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CLICK HERE for the BEST You could save hundreds of dollars on health and dental care, identity protection, travel and leisure, pet care, legal protection and BARGAINS every day. |
Over half of the small businesses in America do NOT offer health benefits to their employees to begin with, while large companies are utilizing temporary workers and part timers in order to slash benefits!
The problem is huge, and it is devastating for individuals, as well as entire regions. For example:
Cigna Health insurance dropped 2 million seniors nationwide!
Humana dropped 113,000 people in Florida on December 1st, 2,000!
Then on top of that, many individuals are unable to obtain any health insurance due to pre-existing conditions!
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Have YOU too |
Many people have come to the American Insurance Roundup with coverage problems none of the regular insurance resources could help them with -- pregnant, overweight, pre-existing conditions, and other problems too. The first question I want to ask you is ARE YOU SURE you are uninsurable? For example.. Have you checked out CHIP coverage in your state to see if you are eligible there?
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On July 10, 2001, President George W. Bush called for all Americans without a prescription drug program to "acquire drug discount cards so they can immediately receive lower prices on prescription drugs." I have made an all out search to find SOMETHING that would at least be of a little bit of help. Having a beautiful wife who can not be insured at all made the search all the more imperative. Anything I found had to be good enough for her. Right off the bat, let me explain again that what I did find is NOT insurance. It's more like having an advocate reduce your medical bills for you before you ever start. Through group representation you'll carry enough clout to get prices reduced down to what insurance companies pay for those same services. I've been doing that on an individual basis all my life so I know it works. The last time my daughter was in the hospital the bill was reduced all the way down to zero; no, that is not an endorsement of these three companies as I did it on my own. I'm just saying it CAN be done.
Anyway,
if you are UNinsurable, if you are Under insured, if you are pregnant, or have some other
kind of pre-existing condition I suggest that you check out what these
companies offer.
There
are: ID cards are generally issued within 24 hours of receipt of your application. You can access the prescription drug network the day after the receipt of your application. The Health Assistance Hotline will be available the month following the receipt of the application. And, Legal Aid is usually included in the package.
This
Medical Healthcare Savings Program allows you ( as * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Now again, let me stress
But,
in fact, you can often utilize this Program if your
insurance plan does not cover some oddball procedure. |
Two weeks ago my
friend Carl let us know he was undergoing massive cancer treatments with
LITTLE chance of success. Just four months ago he noticed a small
knot where it should not have been. Having no insurance he put off
going to a doctor. That little knot is now the size of a small
grapefruit and the cancer has spread all the way up through his intestines
to establish a root in one lung.
LANCASTER, Calif., May 27 2003 -- Each day, millions of Americans put off going to the doctor because they cannot afford to pay for medical bills, insurance premiums or prescription medications -- or they simply don't have time to sit in a waiting room for hours, only to spend 15 minutes with a rushed physician. Now ezUrgentcare.com (http://www.ezurgentcare.com) offers an alternative: low-cost personal online consultations with nurses and doctors any time of the day or night. The website is unlike WebMD, HealthAtoZ, or other online health sites -- it is an actual Virtual Hospital designed to make personal interaction easy and affordable. Though it is not intended to take the place of an in-person doctor visit, ezUrgentcare.com's 24-hour service allows visitors to get the opinion of a medical professional for a co-pay of under $5.50. Patients list their symptoms for the nurse and are joined by a doctor for a one-on-one, private consultation. The doctor then discusses the symptoms with the patient, explains possible causes and their treatment and, when applicable, advises the patient on how to prevent a recurrence of the same condition. When a patient's symptoms indicate the possibility of a serious or life-threatening condition, the ezUrgentcare.com doctor advises the patient to consult his or her regular physician immediately. "ezUrgentcare.com was created to provide solutions for living," said the company's founder and CEO, Zane G. Tobin. "We are here to give people's health questions the attention they deserve now." Along with the virtual walk-in urgent care clinic, ezUrgentcare.com allows visitors to enter their personal medical records via a secure, password- protected page. The records can then be used by the ezUrgentcare.com doctors when evaluating symptoms or printed out by the patient and taken to in-person doctor visits. ezUrgentcare.com also offers a free library of articles on a wide range of health topics, from caring for convalescents and evaluating physicians to first aid, smoking cessation and weight loss. The site includes a glossary of hundreds of drugs, along with a glossary of common medical terms. The website's graphics are designed to be modern and warm in an effort to comfort the sick in cyberspace. Tobin created ezUrgentcare.com after his wife lost her aunt to a cancer that should have been easily diagnosed. "My hope is that this site will help people to shed their reluctance to see a doctor. ezUrgentcare.com is not overly expensive, it doesn't require a long wait or a drive across town, and it doesn't hesitate to refer people to their regular healthcare providers if their symptoms signal something serious," he explained. "Plus, our site provides a wealth of information on getting and staying healthy, and visitors can read it all for free and at their leisure. In the HMO-dominated world of healthcare today, that's a refreshing -- and much-needed -- change for the better." CONTACT: Zane G. Tobin ezUrgentcare.com 661-317-9263 ezurgentcare@earthlink.net http://www.ezurgentcare.com |
Now why, you should be asking yourself, WHY would a doctor or a hospital be willing to slash so much off their bill?
Remember that health insurance premium people send to insurance companies each and every month? A percentage of that premium is given to the PPO, (maybe $5 or $6 per month). So you see, the PPO is earning REVENUE on thousands of customers each month whether you need services or not!
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
Remember, I'm not telling you this is as good as insurance. We know better here at the depot; You should know better too. But, if you ( or someone you love ) can't be insured, or have a rateup, check these little packages out. You could save:
60% or more on Hospitalization and Medical
Services
40% on Prescriptions
(With this program we save more than $100 on just one prescription
that must be filled on a monthly basis)
60% on Dental
70% on Vision and Hearing
25% on Legal Services
50% on Chiropractors
30% on Home Healthcare and Nursing
Home Facilities
and just to top it all off you
can SAVE UP TO:
Not to mention l0%-50% on Pet
Supplies, Kennel Services and Grooming
Now, I've told you all I know, and maybe just a tad more because I told some of it to you twice from different angles. Now, let me help you get the information YOU need to make an intelligent decision about becoming a member of either -- ProCardInternational, The Medical Savings Program, Add Health, or Care Entree -- which are the best four programs I've seen so far.
When you first start searching the web for non-insurance care, all other roads seem to lead to Care Entree even when a different name is given. Care Entree is the one I signed up with first. They have a system of agents that (like Aaron Siegel) are dedicated and available to answer my stupid questions.
Some people are initially skeptical about how Care Entrée can save them so much money on their medical bills without being insurance. The reason is simple: Care Entrée provides you with access to providers through our contracts with major PPOs and other medical networks. Our members save by tapping into the buying power of our agreement with the networks. Care Entrée members pay the same low fees for medical services that the insurance companies pay! Your doctor benefits too because our members pay at the time of service, saving him or her the hassle of waiting for the insurance company to pay on the claims.
We used it for the first time to visit a doctor's office. The staff had never seen a card like our Care Entree Card before.
Even with the card it cost us $117.00 just for a short examination and a shot. Where were the savings? I could not tell. Care Entree couldn't either when we called to ask. Staff there agreed to ask the doctor's office to submit an itemized bill. Unfortunately, we never heard back from Care Entree.
The next week we went to see a surgeon. The staff there had never seen a card like this one before either. They called Care Entree as instructed, and when the dust settled, the entire staff was impressed enough with the savings they asked us for the address of Care Entree. We had saved over $240
The key there is SAVED. These programs only work if you can pay your share -- immediately. Otherwise, leave your gun at home and throw yourself on the mercy of the medical personnel!
Note again that Care Entree has an affiliate program. I'm not sure how much commission they pay, but ask among your neighbors to see if one of them is a dealer and let them make some money while you save, save, save.
Care Entree (at that time) charged a monthly policy of $40 -- plus the $20 signup fee. Today, there is one low monthly membership fee of $69.95 This provides access to medical savings for every member of your immediate family - even elderly parents who are living with you! That's a value that is hard to beat today.
| However, if you have a yearning to be in business for yourself then I suggest you try ProCardInternational. There is NO investment at all, about four different programs to work with, and FREE training is provided. |
I am signed on with ProCardInternational. The monthly charge of $14.95 (which includes the physician service) is much lower than Care Entree, but again there was an initial $20 signup fee. I love paying less, and can see no difference in the savings here and with Care Entree. Just yesterday we used Wal-Mart to get the same prescriptions Wal-Mart had filled the month before without the ProCardInternational card. We saved $44.XX on a $114 purchase. That is a 39.37% savings.
But, is that figure real? No. To see the real savings, subtract your monthly charge of $14.95 from the amount you save. In this case that is a savings of $29.93 If we had still been with CareEntree the actual savings would have been only $4.93 BUT -- from that point on your savings from either program are roughly equal. You simply save more if your medical needs are smaller. Our family medical needs are MUCH larger, but we intend to stay with ProCardInternational because of how much better we personally like the company.
Feel free to call me, Marleen K. Roberts, at 405 872 5556 for more information. Or, send an email to me by writing to VisitUs at Roundup.com
A final note: I keep remembering Robert A. Heinlein's sage epigram: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
In order for programs like these to keep working there MUST be months when some people are so healthy they aren't saving a nickel, so that EVERYBODY comes out ahead over the long run.
Epilogue: If you can afford good insurance to deal with those catastrophically damaging bills, see if you would save more money by getting a high deductible, and adding one of these savings plans.
There are MORE resources available to you from the Insurance Roundup Site.
Meanwhile: This question has been asked of me several times...
What is being done about the Americans who do not have Health Insurance of any kind?
There are University hospitals which give up on collecting debts owed to them rather quickly. Poor people automatically go to these hospitals, knowing they will never pay a dime for treatment.
University hospitals now conduct regular on-the-spot training sessions by going to community buildings, churches, and other public facilities such as shelters. There they teach -- as well as treat -- physical hygiene on specific subjects such as foot care, eye care, dental, arthritis, and other subjects, all at no cost to the community.
There are laws ordering hospitals to treat a certain number of the indigent, and the VA treats the veterans without charge. Don't think the VA is good service though. Waits of six to seven months for surgery are typical. Cancellations are the norm.
There are also charity drives and churches, community efforts, community organizations, and so forth for emergency operations.
In 1990 I interviewed every doctor in the Little Rock metro area. Only one physician was treating the indigent free of charge. He went to
them -- house calls, street calls, and back alleys. What I saw on the one
trip was a mess; His only payment at six stops was a sound cursing from the
patients for not doing more.
In 1995 I got my nerve back and began interviewing doctors in Oklahoma City. I quit after I reached 15 who were anxiously engaged in treating the
indigent in that area. There has definitely been a change for the better.
Just the other day I went as a priesthood holder with a woman to get her hands operated on by a specialist. When the doctor learned the financial circumstances of the woman she gladly reduced the cost of service by over
60% -- which we gladly paid on the spot.
Then there is a Dr. Axely in Waldron Arkansas who NEVER charges for services. This ex-Marine is somewhere around 6'6" and gentle as a lamb. He is also effective in his treatments.
What else could be done? This is just an idea: Offer free medical training to doctors and nurses who will serve the same amount of time in community clinics, for free.
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