consumer reports weblog

All the figures show the number of parents who don’t insure their children is rising. The reasons are all financial. No responsible parent wants to gamble with the health of their children. It’s not enough to refer to poverty as if only a small number are penalized and then move on. The way poverty is defined artificially limits the way in which the government reports the number who have fallen into the category.

The reality is that rising medical costs are now making it difficult for even middle class families to pay for health insurance. Gordon and Mary are typical. They have two children. Gordon is self-employed as an electrical contractor. Work’s been pretty good with the boom in housing. Mary works as a legal secretary.

They were comfortable until the housing bubble burst and contracting work dried up. He’s been doing odd jobs but their income has dropped to the point when there’s barely enough for the mortgage and food on the table. “The health insurancehealth insurance was the first thing we cut. That and selling the second car to pay off the credit cards.”

“In the end, I asked at work. It was a real benefit to be working for an attorney who cared. I became an instant expert on the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. With two uninsured kids under 19, we qualified under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. We were able to get both kids covered and Doug got the treatment he needed before things got too serious for him.”

Gordon was finding it hard to talk about it, so Mary took up the running. “We were embarrassed. Didn’t want to tell anyone we were having financial problems.” She looked round their home with pride. “We worked hard for all this. . . We tried to keep up appearances.” “When Doug, that’s our youngest got sick, we didn’t know what to do for the best. Mary wanted to go down to the Emergency Room at the first sign of trouble but, like I said, it wasn’t an emergency. Not at first.”

At least Mary had someone to ask. No matter what your situation, you should never let pride get in the way of your responsibility to your children. There are plenty of people and agencies around to ask. Remember, if you don’t ask for help, you never get any.

When you sit behind the wheel of your off-roader, there’s so much metal around you. It’s easy to think nothing can ever go wrong. Who needs auto insurance? Jack was driving down from Eureka to Frisco. “It was early in the day so we decided to take off into the Lost Coast trails.” He smiled and talked for a while about his family’s love for nature. “We stopped a couple of times and mooched around. When the kids got hungry, we ate the food we’d bought along.

He seemed calm talking about it now. Back then, it was different. “We climbed out of the car and tried calling for roadside assistance, but there was no signal. We were stranded in a wilderness, miles from anywhere. Guess that was the most frightening thing - being alone. We put up a warning round the tree so no one would plow into the wreck, then set off walking. It was about an hour before another vehicle showed up. They were local and knew a farm with a landline. Folks were really kind that day.

Perhaps it was the kids who were all shook up. They got everyone on our side.” The police came fairly quickly. A wreck on those unpaved roads is a real hazard. The tow truck had further to come. By then, Jack had contacted the auto insurance company so everything was on track for the rescue. He had a rental car policy but no local garage had cars to rent. So the family piled into a truck owned by a neighbor who took them down to Westport where they got a new set of wheels.

Having cheap health insurance is very pleasant don’t you think? You need to know that whether you believe it or not, having health insurance is necessary and affordable. There are some types of players who do not have the luxury of having health benefits given to them at work. Some folks like you can get health benefits and insurance from their work or place of employment. The others folks either work part-time, work for themselves, or are students. With this in mind, you should know that there are options for those who want to get the coverage that they need for proper health insurance. Get yours today when you check out the many resources available to you and your family online. Having the right coverage depends on your current health state, your lifestyle, and so many other things. In other words, there are always ways in which you can change the policy rate of your health insurance. Health insurance simply does not have to cost a fortune. Be smart about it all and be a wise consumer when you choose to work with the program presented to you and ask how you can get the most affordable health insurance possible. Start now.

As if you had the choice! Well, let’s take you through the arguments and you can make a better decision. There are two basic possibilities: Situation 1. Let’s say you’ve been unlucky. Your car got in an accident or there are hospital bills. This type of expense can push even the best laid financial plans out the window. Now you’re looking at a big hole. You tried to negotiate instalments for paying off the bill but the creditor is unsympathetic - wants the whole amount in one hit. If you do this, you’re going to be left with other bills due before the end of the month. No matter how you juggle between accounts, you’re going to come up short. In this type of situation, a fast cash advance is about your only alternative. This is a real crisis. The question is how quickly you can put the wheel back onto your financial wagon. Let’s say the shortfall is $400. What’s the slack in your budgets? How many months will it take you to make up the “lost” $400? The problem is that payday loans are not really designed for this. You would be better finding someone to lend you the $400 over, say, six months and you repay it without getting into trouble. If you cannot borrow this amount from anyone else, be very disciplined through the payday loan system. Take $400 the first month, repay and then reduce each subsequent month’s borrowing by $66. This will bridge the gap at the lowest possible cost. Situation 2. This is more worrying. Your monthly net wage/salary hasn’t changed for the last year or so but everything has gone up in price. It’s not just the gas, it’s all the essentials you can’t do without. You’re slowly arriving at the point where money in does not match money out. Borrowing any money through the instant payday loansystem is going to work out very expensive. You should take an axe to your costs and overheads. It may be hard, but reducing your outgoings is a better solution than borrowing because you are never going to have enough slack in your income to repay what you borrow. Perhaps you can add more to your income by working overtime or getting a second job. Frankly, anything is better than a payday loan in this situation.