It is expected and predicted that millions of Americans will lose their jobs because of the recession. With these job losses they and their families will then become uninsured. This bill will enable states (through Medicaid programs) to provide immediate assistance to families like this while they search for new jobs. Other federal funding will be earmarked for hospitals, doctors, clinics, and pharmacies to enable them to meet their payroll requirements and continue to employ the staff necessary to care for the people who have lost their jobs.

Often these unemployed families are enduring economic crisis and any health condition may be enough to push them to bankruptcy. If middle-class Americans experience job and wage cuts and a loss of health insurance they may not be able to keep up with monthly expenses like mortgages and college tuitions. This bill will enable funding for families in dire need and will also enable coverage for everyone while in the process of the pursuit of comprehensive health reform.

With the unemployment rate expected to continue to climb, the number of people without insurance is also expected to climb. Under current legislation, eligible former employees can continue to receive health coverage through their previous employer’s insurance plan for up to 1.5 years. However, they must pay 102 percent of the cost of this coverage. This is called the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and it gives workers and their families who lose their health benefits the ability to choose to continue their health benefits provided by their former employer’s group health plan. This is a huge benefit to millions of Americans and it is important that newly unemployed Americans continue to have access to health insurance they can afford.

Three key provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for helping these American workers are:

1.Give a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to one year for workers who have lost their jobs between September 1, 2008 and December 1, 2009.

2.Make funding available to states that agree to provide Medicaid coverage to these unemployed and uninsured workers and their families.

3.Extend the COBRA benefits for older and long-term employees until they are able to find new health insurance coverage through future employment or they become eligible for Medicare.

1. Use COBRA if You Are Laid Off – If you get laid off from your job and need health insurance you can Use COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation). COBRA is available for 18 months after loosing your employer health coverage. COBRA allows you to keep the health plan that your employer used to provide as long as that plan still exists. If your employer is still in business and offering some health insurance to current employees you can usually qualify. COBRA will be more expensive than the premiums deducted from your paycheck but this is sometimes necessary if you are unable to get health care elsewhere. COBRA is often cheaper than private and individual health insurance plans.

2. Continue Preventative Measures – Without health insurance it is now more important than ever to live a natural and healthy lifestyle. Use preventative measures such as regulating weight, exercising, eating healthy, lowering your cholesterol (http://www.naturalnews.com/025715.html), and reducing stress from your life. When possible you can resume other preventative measures such as regular checkups and diabetes & cancer screenings.

3. Ask Your Doctor for Help – Ask your doctor about reduced fees or treatment and drug options for those with lower income or no health insurance. Your doctor may also be able to recommend a health care discount card that they accept.

4. Decrease Stress – Stress has a terrible effect on your body and your health. Make sure to get enough sleep, exercise regularly, eat natural and healthy foods, and actively use relaxation techniques such as yoga or breathing exercises.

5. Not Smoking – By not smoking you increase your chances of being approved for another health insurance plan including private and individual health insurance plans. Non-smokers receive much lower health insurance premiums and have less risk of overall health problems.

6. Apply for Medicaid – Almost every state has a local Medicaid office and toll-free numbers. Visit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services web site for information on how to apply: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/medicai…. Each state is different but Medicaid allows low-income and eligible people to qualify to have their medical bills paid directly. Some still require co-payments.

7. Apply for Medicare – Medicare is available only for those 65 years of age or older who meet special criteria. You can contact your local Social Security office or the main office at 1-800-772-1213. You are allowed to apply 3 months before reaching 65.

8. Alternative Natural Treatments – Alternative Medicine is currently used by thirty eight percent of adults in the United States. http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000… Acupuncture and herbal remedies are often cheaper than expensive prescriptions or medical treatments and can provide similar results.

9. Get Health Insurance through Spouse or Partner – Your spouse or partner may have a health insurance plan where you can qualify as a dependent. Although the cost can be high this typically results in fewer coverage rejections than applying for private or independent health insurance coverage.

10. Take a Lower Paying Job For Better Health Insurance – Consider taking a lower paying job for better health benefits. How important is your health? What is money without your health? It may mean taking a large pay cut, extra searching for a job with good health benefits, or asking more questions during a job interview. There are some employers out there that pay very little but offer a good health insurance plan. Make sure to ask about waiting periods

The new program would mandate that Americans buy health insurance, even if they don’t need it. Those who don’t buy it would be penalized by the government for failing to participate in the new program.

The new program does nothing to end the censorship of free speech about nutritional supplements or teach Americans about disease prevention through nutrition or herbal remedies. As such, it joins the cacophony of all the ignorant health “experts” who claim to be solving our nation’s health care crisis by simply forcing everyone to pay for more “sick care” coverage.

Leave it to Big Government punish people who take care of their own health and opt not to participate in a pill-pushing, scientifically corrupted Big Pharma health care system that only enriches insurance companies and drug companies while ignoring the real causes of disease.

Authors’ Quotes on Health Insurance and Reform
Below, you’ll find selected quotes from noted authors on the subject of Health Insurance and Reform. Feel free to quote these in your own work provided you give proper credit to both the original author quoted here and this NaturalNews page.

For better or worse, the “free” market will remain our nation’s choice for funding health insurance and delivering medical care. Our only hope of fixing the health care system’s biggest problems is to enact simple legislative reforms designed with one purpose: to allow the market to provide health insurance more efficiently and affordably. This is a significant and somewhat painful conclusion for the same author who wrote a book as recently as 1998 arguing that managed care would compel the market to reform itself.
- Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System by J.D. Kleinke
- Available on Amazon.com

In the absence of a sufficiently independent and militant working-class movement, national health insurance continued to be defeated in the decades that followed. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s the AMA carried on its vehement opposition to any federal intervention into the financing of medical care. Liberal reformers tried to get national health insurance included in the Social Security Act as part of the New Deal response to the Great Depression and the militant organizing among the unemployed and industrial workers.
- Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America by E. Richard Brown
- Available on Amazon.com

The traditional opponents of comprehensive change such as national health insurance have been the AMA, the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and certain other business interests. After the reform debacle of 1994, politicians looked at comprehensive change with the deference owed a third rail. Popular wisdom dictated that the only politically safe route to take in efforts at health care reform was the path of “incremental” change. What have the incremental efforts of the past decade brought us? We’ve seen an increase of about five million in the number of uninsured.