beauty and health

Posts Tagged ‘accident’

No Health Insurance Plans, No College? More Universities Mandate Coverage

Recently, more public universities have chosen to enact a mandate on their students. It is not a requirement that students keep their grade point averages above a certain level, or a code of honor that forbids cheating. Rather, they are forcing all of their attendees to have health insurance plans! Health insurance and studying don’t normally seem like related topics. However, many university officials have pointed to scientific studies, which show that students in good health are better able to concentrate on their courses. As a result, they earn higher grades than those in bad health. While having health coverage doesn’t necessarily improve a person’s health in and of itself, it allows one to use affordable preventative care services that catch illnesses before they worsen. If a student’s condition is not cared for properly, it can become serious enough to make them withdraw out of school altogether.

The majority of college students are covered through the health insurance plans of their parents. These plans are usually employer-sponsored, and the recession has seen an increasing number of people laid off from their jobs. COBRA family health insurance plans can cost over ,000 in premiums each month, so many families are forced to drop their insurance. College-age children lose their insurance, as well, when that is the case. A parent’s coverage of a university student as a dependent also expires when a full-time student reaches their 24th or 25th birthday; this affects many individuals who have chosen to return to school or switched majors. Students who receive health insurance through jobs of their own are also susceptible to either layoffs or cutbacks in hours that make them ineligible for employer-sponsored plans.

Despite most students already having health insurance, slightly over a quarter of college students are estimated to be uninsured. There are several reasons for this; many young adults believe they are invincible and in generally good health, so they believe health insurance is unnecessary. Also, the cost of student health insurance is daunting-even to those who recognize the need for insurance. Most colleges offer voluntary student health insurance plans, but relatively few individuals partake in them. In general, a large portion of this demographic doesn’t realize how important health insurance plans are until they are in a serious accident or diagnosed with a major illness. This is part of the reason health insurance mandates have been enacted in over a third of public four-year colleges, with 22 other state systems looking towards doing so.

There are several advantages to college students having health insurance. Most importantly, it will increase the physical and mental safety of students on campus. In addition, health insurance plans assist with significant medical expenses that would otherwise come out of the student’s own pocket. Since most college students are not flush with cash, many will either skip essential treatments or be saddled with thousands of dollars in medical debt for years. Medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy, and having student loans on top of that doesn’t help. Quality health care allows students to finish a degree in a reasonable period of time, without as many health-related distractions; this helps save money on tuition. Other universities are also concerned with the burden uninsured students put on local hospitals surrounding the campus.

On the other hand, there are significant drawbacks to mandating health insurance plans among students. The most prominent concern is that health insurance will force students to pay yet another fee, which many can ill afford as tuition rates continue to rise. Higher education will be further out of reach for some college students. Although health insurance plans have long been mandatory in many private universities, most public universities tend to have a less affluent student body that will feel the brunt of such mandates. To counteract this problem, state universities are pointing to the fact that they will be able to use the sheer volume of enrolled students to buy lower-priced health insurance plans from one company. For example, the University of North Carolina claims that they are able to provide health insurance that used to cost over ,100 in premiums per year (at least 15% of annual tuition in some states) for just 0.

Massachusetts, known to be a leader in healthcare reform among states, has required all students-with either full- or part-time status-to have health insurance plans since 1989. In most cases, the mandates have come from the universities themselves. Several prominent university systems, including those in California, Montana, and Minnesota, also have the mandate. Other states, like Florida, are using a pilot program in one state university to test the concept. California is set to expand the health insurance mandate to graduate students next year. Most current mandates apply solely to undergraduates, and some only apply to incoming freshmen and transfer students; however, graduate study often entails long work weeks of research and teaching lower-level courses, leaving no time to take a full-time position. In exchange, graduate students receive a small stipend but no health benefits, which leaves them in situations similar to uninsured undergraduates.

(Image: anne.oeldorfhirsch under CC 2.0)

Physical Therapy is Like Penicilin

It seems to me that sometimes, in physical therapy, people decide to stop scheduling their appointments before I’m quite ready for that to happen. I’m sure this happens to practitioners like chiropractors as well. For us, here in Spokane, physical therapy needs are based on many factors. Only one of those is the patient’s pain level. There are other reasons why people need physical therapy after a rotator cuff repair, ACL repair or car accident. When you first meet with your therapist you will probably remember that he tested lots of things about your injury, not just asked you about your pain. Why is this important you ask?

Physical therapy is like an antibiotic. Do you remember your doctor always telling you to take the whole course of the antibiotic even if your symptoms go away before you are done? The reason you need to do that is that the infection is not totally gone from your system until the antibiotic course is over. If you leave 5 or 6 pills in the bottle the infection will most likely make reappearance.

The same is true for physical therapy. When you therapist does your evaluation he finds lots of issues with your injury and only one of those is your pain. You may also have issues with range of motion, strength, endurance and function. At the end of your course of physical therapy, hopefully all of those issues will have been resolved. If you stop coming to your appointments because your pain is gone it is likely that all of your other issues have not yet been resolved. You didn’t finish your “course of antibiotics”. Most likely what that means is that with in a few weeks or if you’re lucky a few months your original pain will return. The good news is that your therapist knows not only how to decrease your pain but how to treat all of those other issues so that your pain doesn’t come back. If you commit to continuing your course of therapy until all your issues are resolved, not just your pain going away, it is much more likely your therapy will be successful for the long term. If your Spokane physical therapist completes your course of PT you will even be provided with strategies to deal with your issues in the future to help prevent their return. So when in doubt, talk to your therapist and if you still have issues with stability, strength or range of motion, continue your treatment until those are resolved and you will be much more successful.

After your physical therapy course has finished, and your physical therapist has discharged you from treatment, you will likely be given a home exercise program. Your PT should be able to give you some sort of timeline of how long you should perform your home exercise program. For some people this may mean for the rest of your life, but more commonly it will be for the next couple of months. Remember, pain is one of the worst indicators of biomechanical dysfunction.

There is nothing more terrible than to turn to discover the local news station just for the medication prescribed by your doctor in recent years the demand. One of the main reasons why we take medicines to help relieve pain from a medical condition - not a medical problem worse. What happens before a drug recall? Usually before a drug is recalled, whether drugs or of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a patient can have dangerous side effects in a few months or years of experience after use. When showing a group of people similar harmful side effects than the rule, if the action of the FDA and the drug maker ordered to withdraw a drug from the shelf. Drug recalls are not limited to drugs, medical devices may also recalls. Examples of medical devices that were recalled in the past, the Shiley heart valve Dalkon Shield and breast implants. Over the years, many drugs that have shown gaps were noted. Examples: Rezulin Vioxx Celebrex OF Benedictine In a perfect world, the consumer would be the top priority for pharmaceutical companies. When a drug is deemed defective, it would be immediately withdrawn. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in the real world. Often, incorrect drug recalled immediately. It usually takes time before actually being delisted. In the meantime, unwanted or malfunctioning of medical devices for the consumer continues to buy and the risk of illness or accident. There have been many cases where people are exposed to health problems, serious illness or even death. Why so many defects drugs on the market? Pharmaceutical companies have established a reputation for rushing potentially dangerous drugs on the market without sufficient testing, just to make a quick profit. There were cases where really that pharmaceutical companies have drugs on the shelf is, after warnings from doctors and patients. What if you have a defective drug or medical device has been exposed? If you have dangerous side effects of a drug recall suffering, you need a good lawyer Brooklyn represent you and fight for your rights. Depending on your personal situation, you can get the right to compensation for your injuries.