HSAs: The best health plans you've never heard of?

Health spending accounts (HSAs) can be a flexible and cost effective way for a small business to offer tax-free health and dental coverage to employees. (iStock
Fiona Law examined a raft of traditional group insurance plans while looking to provide health and dental benefits for her staff at Calgary-based CompuTouch.
Her business, which uses technology to support interactive meetings and conferences, has just three full-time employees. She wanted something that was easy to set up and understand, a plan that would cover a wide range of medical expenses and offered the firm certainty of costs.
What she ended up choosing was not a traditional group insurance plan, but a health spending account (HSA).
"This was an alternative way of providing a benefit that was very straightforward and very transparent," she says. "It's a good compromise with a minimum of hassle."
HSAs have been around for many years and are now in place at thousands of small businesses in Canada.
But there are still many entrepreneurs out there who mistakenly think group health insurance is their only option to pay the medical bills that provincial medicare programs don’t cover.
What is an HSA?
A health spending account provides an attractive option for eligible small businesses to pay for all the medical expenses of employees and their families on a tax-free basis to the employee.
Eligible small business owners who provide HSAs can also deduct all their eligible medical and dental expenses from their gross business income, instead of making them a personal expense.
That makes HSAs an extremely cost-effective method of providing or supplementing health and dental benefits.
How do HSAs work?
Health spending accounts can be set up through third-party administrators/trustees or insurers that specialize in administering these plans.
Let's assume a small business owner has agreed to fund an HSA for his five arm's-length employees for up to $2,000 a year for each worker.
The employee (or a family member) visits a health practitioner and pays for an out-of-pocket medical expense (like prescription drugs, eyeglasses, or physiotherapy).
We'll assume they submit their receipts to a third-party administrator.
The administrator ensures the claim is legitimate and that the expense falls within the limit funded by the business. Once it's approved, the administrator sends a cheque to the claimant for the entire amount.
The claimant gets all their eligible medical expenses (plus any tax they may have paid) covered on a tax-free basis. And the business gets a 100 per cent tax deduction.
You can’t use a health spending account to cover your cosmetic surgery, though. Only medical expenses that qualify for the medical expense tax credit can be paid for through an HSA.
What does it cost?
Third-party administrators/trustees make their money by charging the business initial setup fees and sometimes annual fees, as well as transaction fees on claims that range from five to 15 per cent — 10 per cent is typical.
So a $1,000 claim would cost the company $1,000, plus the administration fee of perhaps $100, plus sales and premium taxes that vary from province to province. In Ontario, those taxes will add another $115 to the bill, making the total cost to the company $1,215 for a $1,000 claim.
That amount can in turn be entirely deducted by the business.
Depending on the nature of the business and the income bracket of the entrepreneur, the tax savings could be significant over having no plan in place./cbc.ca/

Cheapest health insurance group quotes

 

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Aetna Health InsuranceAetna can provide health insurance at affordable rates.

In these hard economic times, working-class families have to cut corners wherever they can in order to save money. Now more than ever, each and every dollar has to be stretched in order to make ends meet. As the economy continues to slide further and further into a recession, working class families have to make hard choices on where they save money in their monthly budget. Families eat out less, they look into carpools for work and school, and they limit frivolous expenditures as best they can. Some low-income families even consider forgoing health insurance. As health care costs continue to rise, health insurance premiums become more and more expensive every year, making it difficult for poorer families to stay covered. Some health insurance providers are oblivious to the economic crisis, and continue to raise premiums while their customer base gets smaller and smaller. Fortunately, Aetna health insurance is an affordable alternative to business as usual in the overpriced health insurance market.

 

 

 

 

 

Last day to enroll for health insurance

Before the April 15 deadline to submit tax returns, there's another important deadline every year to mark on your calendar: Feb. 15.
Those without health insurance coverage through their employment or a spouse's employment have until Sunday to enroll in Get Covered Illinois.
The state's Affordable Care Act health insurance market has new plans available, according to Betty Coonrod, Affordable Care Act program manager for an eight-county region including McDonough, Adams, Pike, Hancock, Mason, Fulton, Schuyler and Brown.
"It's been about what I've expected," Coonrod said of enrollment. "We've been able to help a lot of people who had plans last year and wanted a new one. Depending on the region, there's anywhere from five to 20 additional plans. That is why most people will switch."
Get Covered Illinois counselor Janet Kent is available for one-on-one help at the McDonough County Health Department, 505 E. Jackson St.
Kent says she's helped 27 McDonough County residents and 23 Hancock County residents enroll in Get Covered Illinois since she started her job on Dec. 8.
According to Get Covered Illinois, more than 800,000 Illinoisans have received health care coverage through the organization.
Residents without coverage who do not choose a health plan by Feb. 15 may have to pay a penalty of $325 or 2 percent of their taxable income, whichever is greater, on their 2015 taxes.
Get Covered Illinois does provide for an extension due to certain circumstances such as job loss, but the majority to those who miss the Feb. 15 deadline must until October for the next enrollment period.
The tax credit for those who do select a plan through Get Covered Illinois is based on income and family size, according to Coonrod.
Those who are preparing to enroll in Get Covered Illinois should have ready their social security number, employer or income information, and tax information from a document such as a W-2 form.
For more information and to enroll in Get Covered Illinois, visit www. getcoveredillinois.gov or call the Get Covered Illinois Help Desk at 866-311-1119 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. all week.
To reach Janet Kent, call the McDonough County Health Department at 309-837-9951, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday./mcdonoughvoice.com/

Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives?

Data Synthesis: 17 studies in humans and 223 studies of nutrient and contaminant levels in foods met inclusion criteria. Only 3 of the human studies examined clinical outcomes, finding no significant differences between populations by food type for allergic outcomes (eczema, wheeze, atopic sensitization) or symptomatic Campylobacter infection. Two studies reported significantly lower urinary pesticide levels among children consuming organic versus conventional diets, but studies of biomarker and nutrient levels in serum, urine, breast milk, and semen in adults did not identify clinically meaningful differences. All estimates of differences in nutrient and contaminant levels in foods were highly heterogeneous except for the estimate for phosphorus; phosphorus levels were significantly higher than in conventional produce, although this difference is not clinically significant. The risk for contamination with detectable pesticide residues was lower among organic than conventional produce (risk difference, 30% [CI, −37% to −23%]), but differences in risk for exceeding maximum allowed limits were small. Escherichia coli contamination risk did not differ between organic and conventional produce. Bacterial contamination of retail chicken and pork was common but unrelated to farming method. However, the risk for isolating bacteria resistant to 3 or more antibiotics was higher in conventional than in organic chicken and pork (risk difference, 33% [CI, 21% to 45%]).
Data Sources: MEDLINE (January 1966 to May 2011), EMBASE, CAB Direct, Agricola, TOXNET, Cochrane Library (January 1966 to May 2009), and bibliographies of retrieved articles
Conclusion: The published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods. Consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria./annals.org/

Living in the Land of Limbo: Fiction and Poetry about Family Caregiving

Carol Levine's anthology of stories and poems about the intimate caregiving that takes place within families and among friends and lovers reminds us that the experience of illness reaches beyond clinicians and patients. It can also touch, enrich, and exasperate the lives of those who travel with patients into what Levine calls the land of limbo. This land oddly resembles the place where some Christian theologians believe lost souls wander indefinitely between heaven and hell. For Levine the limbo of familial caregiving is an unmapped territory. In it caregivers perform seemingly endless medical, social, and psychological labors without professional training and with feelings of isolation and uncertainty. Caregiving in this modern limbo, created by contemporary medicine's capacity to extend the lives of those with chronic conditions and terminal illnesses, has become, according to Levine, "a normative experience" (1).
 By compiling this useful selection of well known and less familiar stories and poems, Levine increases the visibility of the experience of familial caregiving among works of literature about medicine. While illness literature is typically classified by disease or disability, Levine focuses instead on the relationships between caregivers and those being cared for. Her collection organizes the literature into five parts: Children of Aging Parents; Husbands and Wives; Parents and Sick Children; Relatives, Lovers, and Friends; and Paid Caregivers who assist families. The literature in each section tends nonetheless to represent particular conditions: dementias, including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and frailty in the first two sections; childhood cancer, hyperactivity, and mental illness in the third; AIDS in the fourth.
These and the less familiar works offer disparate responses from both caregivers and those they care for. The narrator of Tereze Gluck's "Oceanic Hotel, Nice" thinks "what a bad person I was to not even want to touch his feet. . . it made me shudder" (220). The wife in Ann Harleman's "Thoreau's Laundry" cannot place her husband with Multiple Sclerosis in a nursing home because "his presence, however diminished, was as necessary to her as breathing" (116). The caregiver in "Starter" by Amy Hanridge "didn't want to be the person people feel bad about" (180).  Several stories explore the limits of obligation. As is often the case, the son in Eugenia Collier's "The Caregiver" is sick himself, failing to schedule his own doctor's appointments and dying before his mother. Marjorie Kemper's witty, exuberant "God's Goodness" plays out an unexpected relationship between a dying teenage boy and his Chinese immigrant aide, while his parents remain in the background.
 Carol Levine's brief introduction to the collection explains that she excluded excerpts from memoirs and selected only very recent literature, almost all from the past three decades. A Resources section at the end includes some introductory medical humanities resources and practical resources for caregivers.
/medhum.med.nyu.edu/

Medicine and Art

Medicine and Art discusses the evolution of medicine and the changing role of the physician in
society as depicted through art. The book is organized in rough chronological order, beginning with a copper statue of Imhotep of Egypt and a vessel featuring Hippocrates of Greece. Artworks depicting Ayurvedic, Tibetan, Persian, Chinese, North American Indian, and African medicine are also included, but the main focus of this book is Western medicine as portrayed in European and American paintings. These paintings take the reader through history, from nuns caring for the sick in the 1300s to quacks attracting gullible customers in the 1600s to the use of the stethoscope and the start of vaccination. The final artwork is a 2001 embroidery piece by Louise Riley depicting the link between patient and medical researcher.
The book features 53 images that are organized into 53 bi-fold layouts, with a written description and discussion of the artwork on the left hand page and an image of the artwork on the right hand page. These images are generously sized, taking up much of the page, and the vast majority are in color. Concise paragraphs explain the image by providing both medical and art historical context.
Alan E.H. Emery and Marcia L.H. Emery are the husband and wife team who compiled this book. Alan E.H. Emery is a distinguished British neurologist, medical genetics researcher, and amateur oil painter. Marcia L.H. Emery is a librarian and a psychologist.
This is an engaging overview of the history of Western medicine as depicted through Western art. In the introduction, the authors note that their main focus was art “which reflect[s] the physician’s role in society and the relationship between doctor and patient.” (p. ix) The book is indeed a successful reflection of this goal, but it is also more broad in scope. It provides the reader with general knowledge about key figures and events in medicine, describes some medical treatments, and includes quite a bit about the painters themselves.  
The most important strength of this book is its accessibility. The reader does not need to have prior knowledge of art history, medical history, or medicine to understand the passages or appreciate the artworks chosen. This is an excellent resource for readers who are seeking a concise yet fascinating introduction to the intersection between art history and medicine, which will whet their curiosity and serve as a launching point for further exploration. 
/medhum.med.nyu.edu/

Literature of Illness and Trauma

To help orient yourself to the Medical Humanities and, in turn, to the concept of this course, please watch this interview with the "Father of Medical Humanities." - See more at:/engl2300.weebly.com/





More books:
Gretl Lam on Alan and Marcia Emery's "Medicine and Art"

"This is an excellent resource for readers who are seeking a concise yet fascinating introduction to the intersection between art history and medicine, which will whet their curiosity and serve as a launching point for further exploration."


Carol Schilling on Carol Levine's anthology "Living in the Land of Limbo: Fiction and Poetry about Family Caregiving"

"Carol Levine's anthology of stories and poems about the intimate caregiving that takes place within families and among friends and lovers reminds us that the experience of illness reaches beyond clinicians and patients."