The Health and Human Services Department said similar premium increases are threatening at least six other states despite robust profit growth for the companies boosted by a lack of competition in most states.

Congressional health care legislation is largely directed at helping those most affected by soaring health insurance rate increases — individuals and small businesses. While legislation would require most of us to be protected by coverage like mandatory auto insurance does now, legislation would also provide subsidies to make premiums more affordable. Best of all, it would create a new kind of insurance supermarket for individuals and small businesses to offer them competitive plans similar to the health insurance choices that federal employees already enjoy.

Residents Lose Jobs and Health Insurance in California

CNN reported that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency at the end of 2008, and called for fast legislative action to manage the state’s multi-billion dollar shortfall in revenue.

In 2009, the Governor begin the process of laying off state employees, and issued 20,000 notices to employees with the least seniority when California lawmakers failed to pass a compromise plan to deal with the revenue shortfall.

Likewise, Boeing originally estimated that it would make 10,000 job cuts for 2009. Late last year, it announced it would exceed that goal of 10,000 job cuts during 2010.

When at least 50 initial unemployment claims are filed against an establishment during five consecutive weeks, it’s called a mass layoff. Californians lost more jobs than any other state due to mass layoffs, with 54,150 employees losing their jobs in January of 2009.

California was followed by New York (which lost 31,890 jobs), Pennsylvania (which lost 29,660 jobs), and Ohio (which lost 27,970 jobs), according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Health Insurance for California Has Less Expensive Options

To deal with catastrophic medical costs, many healthy people just give up health insurance completely, or switch to bare-minimum policies so they can afford monthly premiums. Called “catastrophic” plans, these high-deductible health insurance plans typically offer protection from major medical expenses incurred as a result of severe illness or injury.

People are switching to these types of plans because such plans typically have lower monthly premiums. That’s because the insurance companies do not have to pay for the small, frequent charges they cover in other policies. These high-deductible health insurance plans can include a maximum limit on your out-of-pocket medical expenses, and that includes the deductible.

High-Deductible Health Insurance may even provide preventive care without a deductible, or with a deductible that is less than the minimum annual deductible for other products or services. Preventive care benefits can include annual exams, immunizations, prenatal and well child care, stop-smoking programs, and weight-loss programs.

These California Health Insurance Plans offer preventive care to reduce your risk of catastrophic medical fees for major illnesses while charging lower premiums. Some of these plans can also be combined with a health savings account, also known as a HSA. These savings accounts earn tax-free interest, like individual retirement accounts, and include other tax advantages. Contributions to a HSA are tax-deductible, and withdrawals from a HSA to pay for qualified medical expenses are tax-free.

Understanding the different types of benefits you can find in various forms of health insurance can help you decide how to deal with our medical care crisis.

Since Phil Bredesen was elected as governor in 2003, he has removed at least 300,000 people from the TennCare program, and it is now more difficult to qualify for TennCare. Even so, TennCare is projected to consume approximately 24 percent of the state’s finances under Bredesen’s budget proposals.

Cuts to TennCare have become so severe that when Bredesen proposed additional reductions to cut the TennCare budget, even hospitals suggested taxing themselves as an alternative. These cuts come at a time when more Tennessee residents need help with medical care as they face escalating job losses.

Residents Lose Jobs and Health Insurance in Tennessee

The Governor rejected a plan to close state government offices once every other week as an alternative to laying off more than 1,000 employees. That furlough option would have closed government operations for 24 Fridays over the course of a year, and would have been equivalent to a 10-percent pay cut for state employees.

State employees aren’t alone in facing layoffs. Initial unemployment claims for Tennessee skyrocketed from 3,097 (in the first quarter of 2008) to 9,837 (reported in May of 2009), according to U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When a minimum of 50 initial unemployment claims are filed against an establishment during five consecutive weeks, and at least 50 workers have been laid off for over 30 days, it’s called an extended mass layoff. In Tennessee, 63 extended mass layoffs affected 9,751 people in the fourth quarter of 2008. The percentage of women affected rose to was 40 percent in the first quarter of 2009, up from 36.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Alarming Health Insurance Premium Increases

The Obama administration reported that health insurance premium increases of up to 39 percent are a disturbing sign of our time. The Health and Human Services Department reported that those high numbers are in line with increases sought by insurers in several states in spite of robust profit growth for the companies, and a lack of competition in most states.

For example, Michigan’s Blue Cross Blue Shield plan requested approval for premium increases of 56 percent in 2009, and Washington State rates for some individual health plans increased by up to 40 percent.

These increases hit customers buying their own plans. Family premiums for those with workplace coverage rose a mere five percent last year, and that was nowhere near the rate increases seen among plans marketed to individuals.

Congressional health care legislation mainly addresses the insurance problems of individuals and small businesses. While requiring everyone to carry coverage (like mandatory auto insurance), it would provide subsidies to make premiums more affordable. Better yet, it would create a new kind of insurance supermarket for individuals and small businesses to have a chance for competitive plans comparable to what federal employees enjoy.

Health Insurance for Tennessee Has Less Expensive Options

To deal with catastrophic medical costs, many healthy people are dropping coverage completely, or switching to bare-bones policies so they can afford monthly premiums. These “catastrophic” plans are called high-deductible health insurance plans, and they typically offer protection against major medical expenses incurred from severe illness or injury. People are switching to this type of plan because they typically offer less expensive monthly premiums. These high-deductible health insurance plans can include a maximum limit on your out-of-pocket medical expenses, including the deductible.

High-Deductible Health Insurance may even provide preventive care without a deductible, or with a deductible below the minimum annual deductible. Preventive care benefits can include annual exams, immunizations, prenatal and well child care, stop-smoking programs, and weight-loss programs.

These Tennessee Health Insurance Plans offer preventive care to reduce your risk of catastrophic medical fees for major illnesses while charging lower premiums. Some of these plans can also be combined with a health savings account, also known as a HSA. These savings accounts earn tax-free interest, like individual retirement accounts, and include other tax advantages. Contributions to a HSA are tax-deductible, and withdrawals from a HSA to pay for qualified medical expenses are tax-free. Knowing your options can help however you decide to deal with our medical care crisis.

Long term care insurance or health insurance for catastrophic illnesses like a heart attack or cancer is a commonly heard element at present. These are such North Carolina Health Insurance Plans that are capable of providing benefits in case the policy holder is diagnosed with a particular kind of illness that is covered by the policy within the stipulated time period of the coverage.These North Carolina policies work more or less like the life insurance policies rather than a standard health insurance policy.Hence only a specific amount is paid out only when the policy holder or a family member is diagnosed with a catastrophic illness.It may at the same time also offer for alternative healthcare treatments like making necessary conversions at home for wheelchair accessibility.

These are specific kinds of advantages that are otherwise not in general covered by the standard health plans available in the market.And that is primarily because there is no guarantee of the fact that an individual will at all need catastrophic illness coverage in the entire life time.However,the odds are much more than one could think of.If the statistics are taken into consideration it is found that,

Every individual is more than 6 times prone prior to the age of 65 to be diagnosed with cancer than he or she is to die before that same age

There is a 1 is to 6 chance of every individual to have a stroke between age of 40 and 70

There is a 1 is to 6 chance of every individual to be diagnosed with some form of cancer before the age of 70

A deadly combination of high deductibles on the insurance plans and the treatments that are not covered by most of the policies along with the unforeseen medical expenses can be enough to wipe out the budget of a family once and for all.In such situations a potential bankruptcy is quite likely often forcing the family members to go for mortgaging the family house as well.

So what comes in really handy in such situations is the catastrophic illness health insurance, which is actually a form of a supplementary health insurance. It helps to take care of many of the expenses that are related to such serious illnesses that are left uncovered by the traditional and standard health insurance policies.