Depending on your health plan, sometimes it can cost up to 33% of your effective salary (or more!) . In other words, your earnings are $30,000 but your health insurance (before deductibles, etc.) costs $10,000 or more per year.

At one time though, health coverage cost the equivalent of a day’s wage per year for a self employed person.

In the example above, health care coverage costs 3 MONTHS’ wages!

How could that be?

That was because doctors once actually competed to be contracted with mutual aid societies.

The “scarcity” that keeps you from getting coverage is largely produced artificially.

Here’s a reminder of how things were and how we might go “Back to the future”…

It’d be worth seeing if we could create such societies to do this again.

Medical Insurance That Worked – Before the Government Fixed It

Thanks to Healpth.com for sponsoring this post.

Regular family health insurance requires to you to incorporate and then have about $15,000 per year for family coverage.

To make the transition, many people are choosing high deductible plans that cover you for more “catastrophic” events, but don’t pay under a certain ceiling. Often these are combined with health savings accounts to cover amounts up to the deductible.

But how do you stretch your HSA dollars farther? If these were groceries, you’d comparison shop.

Until now you couldn’t do that with health fees. But now you can – at least in some instances. The problem is finding the data, but at least it’s starting to trickle out.

The Post and Courier notes:

Castlight Health, financed by the Cleveland Clinic and other investors, is one of a number of companies that have started publishing health care prices charged by doctors and hospitals. Others include Aetna life insurance company and the state of New Hampshire….

[In one example], Castlight found that colonoscopy prices in the San Francisco area ranged from $500 to $3,000.

As data sources like Castlight become more available to consumers, it’s likely that cost competition might reduce costs overall and pressure on insurance premiums to keep rising on high deductible plans could reduce.

But when you visit the Castlight website there’s no public data.

When health pricing data is as convenient as checking gasoline prices on your Gasbuddy.com iPhone app, then there’ll be the possibility for real savings! Until then, not so much…

Individuals are left with buying insurance or paying the penalty. As the law is studied, there are some exemptions…

It pays for people to begin now to do their contingency planning. To start yours I suggest you read this article about exemptions to the Obamacare mandate.

The Amish are exempt of course, but others who may feel comfortable joining Christian “health care sharing” plans may be exempt from the penalty too. Unfortunately, there are only 3 well known plans that meet the definition under the law and no provision for new available plans to start up.

Christian Healthcare Ministries, for example, is a 501(c)(3) cost-sharing ministry that claims its more than 100,000 members have shared more than $500 million in medical bills over the last 20 years.

“Christian Healthcare Ministries is not a health-insurance company,” the group’s website explains. “Rather, we are a group of thousands of Christians across the United States and around the world who share each other’s burdens in the area of health-care costs. We also pray for and encourage one another.”

Among similar groups are Medi-Share and Samaritan Ministries.

I’ve got to say I thought my immune system was doing pretty good, but this last 4 weeks has send me for a loop. It started with a cough, lots of antibiotics, and now has ended with a stomach bug.

To say the least, something like this makes most people think… “Maybe I need to reevaluate my health plan!” How about you?

Well, you know how it is when things get busy… you forget the steps you need to take to keep your health intact… too much stress, not the right supplements (or stopped taking them at all). Suddenly, you’re down on your strength and you get clobbered.

As I was rummaging through my vitamin drawer I found some empty brown dropper bottles. At one time when life wasn’t so hectic I had the time to make my own herbal tinctures…I really liked doing that. I enjoyed studying herbs, mixing herbs, and creating my own herbal tinctures. But, you know how things go, over time you get busy and lose that knowledge.

I was wondering how to get that information again and found this information kit you might find useful on creating home made herbal tinctures if that interests you.

Here’s the link:

Could You And Your Family Survive A Dangerous Medical Meltdown? Learn How You Can Make Powerful Herbal Medicines Secretly In Your Kitchen.

Note: This is an affiliate link to a product I believe you will find helpful.

I am amazed at the Wii technology and Wii Fit will be my next purchase. It’s pretty sassy, one friend of mine said when she starts again this next year, she’ll change her name. Otherwise the program will ask her where she’s been!

But failing the Wii Fit here’s what this article suggested for quick workouts…

When putting together a quick holiday exercise plan the focus was on working the core and building heart rate quickly. We performed a slew of exercises from push-ups with some bicycle kicks in between each rep to leg lifts with the bike kicks. All with a high intensity and short rest time. This got the blood pressure to rise and the lungs to begin to strengthen.

The next best suggestion from Barry was to work as many muscles with each exercise as possible. Remember that we are working in a short window of time. Maybe 20 minutes before breakfast, or a quick break in the action in the afternoon. The more you can accomplish with one group of exercises the better.

We started with a squat to shoulder press. No lie, but this was tough. We started with arms in the air with a broom stick. Then we went down to squat, bringing the bar down. Before we attempted to stand up, we raised the bar and then came back into the start position. Doing a set of 15 really whipped us into a quick sweat, working the legs, core and shoulders with one quick minute long exercise.

When you are creating your hotel workout, look for similar activities to work many areas of the body. There are plenty of add-on exercises and motions that can turn single muscle exercises into multiple with a little creativity and thought.

I’m sweating just thinking about it!

Image courtesy of article

Here’s what I loved about the book. Most of these books sell information but then try to sell you the author’s particular product.
In this book, Ellison goes through the shelves of the stores near you and has conducted Certificate of Analysis tests on supplements you can buy to address various nutritional issues. The kicker? He’s helping you find good stuff for around $10 per month! From things you can buy locally at Wal Marts, Walgreens, and other grocery stores and chain stores… These are not more “proprietary” or “secret” products that he has the exclusive rights to and sells at a whopping profit.

Cheap as I am, that’s why I loved the book!

Below is a video about the book. Below the video is how to get $100 in free stuff! Frankly, I liked the book enough to buy it, but if freebies are your deal, have at it!

The $100 in freebies are only for OCTOBER 6th unless he holds the special over.

If you’d like to purchase it, here’s my affiliate link: Over the Counter Natural Cures: Take Charge of Your Health in 30 Days with 10 Lifesaving Supplements for under $10

You can check out the video below for those freebies:

Over-The-Counter Natural Cures – Avoid Cancer Now – Offer from service@thepeopleschemist.com on Vimeo.

How to get the free reports shown below that Shane values at $100 value:

Step 1: Buy 4 copies of Over-The-Counter Natural Cures (Amazon.com) at http://www.amazon.com/Over-Counter-Natural-Cures-Supplements/dp/1402225059 on October 6th

Step 2: Forward your receipt to support@thepeopleschemist.com

Step 3: Get Shane’s total “Patient Power” bonus pack that teaches you to:

Yes, that’s certainly true.

I have been suffering the same bug except yesterday a fever developed.

A doctor friend who’s a public health expert told me I should immediately start taking Sambucol, a naturally derived extract from Elderberry’s that has been studied in Israel and elsewhere for it’s ability to minimize the impact of the flu.

I am taking the sublingual tablets with zinc because – well, that’s all I could find at the local drug store! In the past I have taken the liquid.

He was very clear that if things get worse to seek medical attention immediately because of H1N1 this year. But he told me today he even takes a maintenance dose.

Fortunately you can get this online or locally easily enough… just make sure you have a supply stocked up for you and your family incase it becomes wildy popular this year and you’re left without it.

Here’s my story: Because of working at a computer, long driving trips, etc, I’ve had my share of Back Pain. I’ve gotten benefits from chiropractic and massage but what my chiropractor has told me that once he adjusts my back, the muscles need to be strengthened to perform their correct function. This is where the Back Exercises of Back2Yourself come in to play. They help you take control of your back pain for yourself.

If you’ve had back problems, they have a free trial offer so you can start these Back Exercises for yourself and give them a “test drive”. What have you got to lose?

This employer is not exactly known for offering generous health benefits… most workers don’t seem to qualify given they have so many part time workers.

But this employer IS known for crushing their competition in every known way.

My guess is they’ll lobby for a plan like the one they have so they have no net tax impact (they think at least) but this type of legislation will likely destroy possible competition by adding an extra layer of overhead to any profit margin they might expect.

Call me cynical, but with Wal Mart already so big, why compete head to head when you can cut off competition from entering the race at all?

I believe that’s why Wal Mart is making their play now. To take the focus off what they don’t do and as an added benefit to eliminate potential competition.