When Short Term Health Insurance Is Be A Smart Solution}

Submitted by: Nash Bauder

Since the health law took effect, short-term health insurance plans have become very popular, especially among young adults, people who have a gap in employer insurance or those who have missed open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act.

There are a few major reasons why this plans are appealing:

– They cost much less than major medical plans;

– They can be purchased at any time during the year to provide temporary coverage while you are waiting for an employer or government sponsored insurance;

– They start almost immediately;

– They provide access to broader network of health service providers including many major medical centers;

– Often they are more flexible than ACA-compliant health plans.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZKNcx9sBA[/youtube]

– Other advantages of short term plans you can find at: http://1healthinsurance.org/short-term/

But you should clearly understand that short-term health insurance is not for everyone. It can work well for one person and be a completely wrong choice for another. It is not recommended for people with poor health or certain chronic conditions because they wont get sufficient coverage by short-term medical insurance. Also, people who have had serious health problems in the past two years shall look for other types of health insurance because pre-existing conditions are not covered by term policies.

Still short-term medical insurance can be a reasonable solution for many people in need of temporary health coverage while going through some of lifes transitions.

NEW EMPLOYEES WAITING FOR NEW JOB BENEFITS TO BEGIN

If you have recently found a new job, you may have to wait some time for your employer-sponsored insurance to begin. It can be a smart decision to buy a short-term plan for a month or two to avoid being completely uncovered during this period.

YOUNG ADULTS NO LONGER COVERED THROUGH THEIR PARENTS PLAN

Though the federal health care reform law allows children to be covered as a dependent up to their 26, some day children must be removed from their parents plans. If you are no longer covered through your parents insurance and still dont have a permanent job, short-term insurance may serve you well, especially if you are healthy enough.

RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATES

A lot of college students find themselves without a medical coverage after graduation. If you were insured under a university plan or under your parents one, you are no longer eligible for them after leaving a college. You may fill this gap in coverage with short-term insurance until benefits begin with your first full-time job.

PEOPLE BETWEEN JOBS

When you leave your job, you also lose your employer-sponsored health benefits. Many people find it too expensive to continue their employer-sponsored plan through COBRA. A short-term plan may be a good alternative for medical coverage while you are looking for new job.

PART-TIME OR TEMPORARY WORKERS

If you work on a part-time, seasonal or temporary job you are typically not eligible for employer health benefits, while private ACA-compliant plans can be too expensive for you. In this case short-term medical may give you reasonable coverage.

EARLY RETIREES TOO YOUNG FOR MEDICARE

Individuals who have retired before the age of 65, may be faced with a gap in coverage before their Medicare begins. You can consider a short-term insurance as a suitable solution until your Medicare coverage starts.

U.S. CITIZENS RETURNING FROM OVERSEAS

Term insurance offers reasonable temporary protection from medical expenses for people returning to the U.S. from living abroad.

RECENT U.S.IMMIGRANTS

If you have recently become a U.S. citizen, you may have a waiting period before becoming eligible to get a government-sponsored health plans. Short-tetm medical can be a good option for you to have U.S. coverage.

About the Author: Learn more about benefits of short term health insurance and get the best quotes at:

1healthinsurance.org/short-term/

. At our site you can also review other types of health, life and supplemental insurance.

Source:

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Wikinews Shorts: March 28, 2007

A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, March 28, 2007.

Contents

  • 1 US to seek less than 20 years for Hicks
  • 2 Global stock markets are lower
  • 3 Gunmen kill 50 overnight in Sunni district in Iraq
  • 4 UK releases GPS data in dispute with Iran
  • 5 First black airmen in US Airforce to be honored

The United States will reportedly seek a jail sentence of less than 20 years for Australian David Hicks. He pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism, but not an act of terrorism. Hicks may be sentenced by the end of the week. He could be returned to Australia to serve out his sentence, with credit for the years at Guantanamo Bay.

Related news

  • “Guantanamo detainee David Hicks pleads guilty to providing “material support”” — Wikinews, March 27, 2007
  • “US charges Australian David Hicks” — Wikinews, March 26, 2007

Sources

US stocks fell on Tuesday starting another round of global selling, as worries about the US housing market and weaker consumer confidence. Lennar Corp., one of the largest US home builders reported that profits fell 73%. Wednesday, Asia markets opened steady to higher, but fell as rising oil prices and the geopolitcal standoff between Britain and Iran made investors seek the safety of government bonds. European and North American markets are trading lower in the Wednesday trading session.

Sources

In an apparent reprisal for bombings in Shi’ite areas, gunmen went on a rampage in a Sunni in Tal Afar, Iraq, killing about 50 people. There have been reports that the gunmen included police.

Sources

The United Kingdom has made public GPS data that it says proves that the 15 navy personnel were well inside Iraqi waters when they were seized by Iran. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the dispute would be solved “based on rules and regulations” and that the female sailor would be released soon.

Related news

  • “UK prepared to go ‘into different phase’ if sailors and marines not released by Iran within days” — Wikinews, March 27, 2007
  • “British sailors detained by Iran “to be tried for espionage”” — Wikinews, March 25, 2007
  • “15 Royal Navy sailors captured at gunpoint by Iranian guards” — Wikinews, March 23, 2007

Sources

Surviving members of the 332d Air Expeditionary Group and 99th Pursuit Squadron, widely known as the Tuskegee Airmen, will be honored on Thursday by President Bush at a ceremony at the US Capitol. They will receive the Congressional Gold Medal for fighting both the Nazis abroad and racial segregation at home.

Sources

Self Catering Skiing Holidays

Self catering skiing holidays by Edward OckeltonSeptember 2009With the ski holiday booking season in full swing, it is clear that a number of people are looking for ways to save money in 2009/2010. One of the best ways to do this is to consider booking a self catered rather than a catered ski holiday.The initial advantages of booking a self catered ski chalet are obvious – a self catered chalet costs less to book than a catered chalet. However, many people are put off self catered ski holidays because of the perceived “hassle factor”. They picture queues outside French estate agencies to pick up keys, and trying to hire linen and towels in resort.Although these scenarios do still exist, with a bit of research it is easy to book hassle free and reasonably priced self catered chalets.There are a number of holiday companies which rent self catered ski properties, but offer a number of services which make things go a lot smoother on holiday. Some of the main services which you need to keep an eye out for:1) Someone to meet you in resort to give out keys.This may sound obvious, but after a long drive down France, or a flight with the kids, it is great to be able to call someone on arrival in resort who can meet you and show you into your ski chalet. This means you don’t have any problems finding the property, and when you get there you have someone who can show you around and show you how everything works. If it is your first time in a particular resort you can also use this opportunity to pick their brains about the skiing, and where to find things such as supermarkets.2) The facility to pre-book linen and towels.With airline baggage allowance constantly being cut, and with space at a premium when packing up a car, it is great to arrive at a property and have towels and bedding supplied. It is even better if your beds are made up for your arrival so be sure to check that this is an option when booking your holiday.3) Welcome basket on arrival.A lot of self catered holiday companies arrange for a small welcome pack to great you. This is usual a token selection of cleaning essentials, a bottle of wine and perhaps a little bit of snack food like croissants. However, don’t underestimate how tired and thirsty you can be after a long journey and having a few things to eat drink on arrival can really make the world of difference.4) Pre arrival supermarket shop.Some companies will go shopping on your behalf – you email them a list and they arrange it for you. If your holiday company won’t do this, check with the local supermarket. Some (like Sherpa) will offer free delivery on food shops over a certain value.5) Ad hoc catering arrangements.Many ski resorts now have companies who offer an ad hoc external catering service – from take away curries or pizzas to four course dinners prepared in your chalet, served and then tidied away. This means that self catered holidays can also benefit from a touch of catered luxury. Having the flexibility to mix self cooked meals with eating out, and in house catering is a great way of sampling the local produce and cuisine.Nowadays, self catered chalets can match (if not exceed) the quality and luxury of catered chalet properties. By confirming what services are offered by your holiday company, a self catered ski holiday can not only be easy on the pocket, but also as effortless as a catered chalet ski holiday.Ed Ockelton lives in the French Alps and runs All Mountain Holidays, a website which offers skiing holidays in ski resorts worldwide, and White-Peak Holidays, a ski holiday company offering self catered ski chalets in Chatel, France.Article Source: eArticlesOnline.com

Hurricane Richard makes landfall in Belize

Monday, October 25, 2010

We already boarded up everything, and we already got everything, office equipment and everything, stored in a safe place. We got all the tourists out, and get the whole place secured down.

Hurricane Richard made landfall in Belize about 20 mi (35 km) south-southeast of Belize City with winds of 90 mph (150 kph) at approximately 6:45 local time (0045 UTC) according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Richard is currently lashing the country with strong winds and heavy rain, which, officials have said, could cause life threatening floods and landslides.

Officials have revealed that 10,000 people are currently sheltering in schools and churches, while some have moved to Belmopan, as the country is battered by strong winds and heavy rains. Although tourists have been evacuated from vulnerable areas, some residents have decided to ride out the storm in their homes.

The area which Richard made landfall in is populated with neighborhoods made of wooden houses with zinc roofs. According to a clerk at a bed and breakfast, Fanny Llanos, “the winds are very strong [and are] getting stronger.” She also said that palm trees were struggling in the winds and there were loud sounds all around.

It has also been reported that 3 foot (1 meter) waves were beginning to hit the docks. Local emergency officials have advised store owners not to increase prices as people tried to stock up for the impending arrival of the hurricane.

Landslides have blocked one of the countries highways in the Colon province, blocking access to 40 towns leaving 15,000 people trapped. Teams are trying to clear the highway. Residents have advised that they have taken adequate preparations for the storm with one man saying that “he expected only some beach erosion and minor damage to homes.”

Full Wikinews coverage of the 2010 hurricane season

Home of Stonehenge builders found

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Scientists have uncovered the largest Neolithic settlement in the United Kingdom at the Durrington Walls and believe that the village was inhabited by the people who built the Stonehenge monument.

Scientists say that the village was built around 2,600 B.C., roughly when Stonehenge was believed to have been constructed, and housed over 100 people.

Inside the areas which would have been the interior of houses at the time, scientists also found outlines of what they think were beds and cupboards or dressers. Pieces of pottery and “filthy” rubbish around the site. Animal bones, arrowheads, stone tools and other relics were also discovered.

“We’ve never seen such quantities of pottery and animal bone and flint. In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards,” said Sheffield University archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson.

So far, the dig has revealed at least 8 houses roughly 14-16 feet square, but scientists say that they think there may have been at least 25 altogether.

The site was likely to have been occupied only seasonally rather than year-round and evidence suggests that a lot of “partying” went on at the location.

“The animal bones are being thrown away half-eaten. It’s what we call a feasting assemblage. This is where they went to party – you could say it was the first free festival. The rubbish isn’t your average domestic debris. There’s a lack of craft-working equipment for cleaning animal hides and no evidence for crop-processing,” added Pearson.

The Durrington Walls are approximately 2 miles from the Stonehenge site.

Toyota poised to recall 270,000 Prius vehicles

Friday, February 5, 2010

Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota is poised to recall 270 thousand gas-and-electric Prius vehicles (model ZVW30) sold in the US and Japan between May and December 2009, due to a flaw in the car’s anti-lock braking system.

Takayuki Fujimoto, a transport ministry official, said the government has yet to receive a recall notice from Toyota. “Nothing has been decided on whether we will recall or not”, he stated. Toyota cannot announce a recall in Japan until it notifies the ministry, but said it was currently discussing how to deal with the issue with Japan’s transport ministry and U.S. safety authorities.

Toyota has faced a US lawsuit alleging it covered up safety problems. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a formal investigation into the braking problems on Thursday after 124 complaints from consumers.

Since May 2009, two hundred thousand new Prius cars (model ZVW30) have been sold in Japan and another 103,200 in the United States.

Choosing A Tripod For Landscape Photography

By Mark Eden

A good landscape photographer knows that the most important piece of equipment (other than the camera itself) is a good tripod. Just like different lenses are built for different purposes, so are tripods. A photographer who travels and uses a tripod only occasionally will have different requirements than a photographer who photographs constantly in low light and difficult conditions. Here we are going to focus on things to consider specific to landscape photography.

Firstly, ergonomics. Landscape photography is often about waiting for long periods of time before the right conditions or lighting appear, so it is important to find a tripod that is comfortable for you. Before you buy, extend the legs of the tripod fully (but not the centre column) to see how far you will need to bend to look through the viewfinder. If after a few minutes your back starts to ache, then the tripod is too short. Not needing to extend the centre column is important because doing this increases the chance of camera shake dramatically, so should be considered a last resort.

Secondly, check that the tripod is easy to operate. Extend and collapse it to ensure you can set up and take it down quickly and easily. This could be essential in the field. Pay particular attention to the head and locking mechanism on the legs. You should be able to manoeuvre the head easily and smoothly to get your camera into position without having to wrestle with it. There are several options for tripod heads, including ball heads or the traditional tilt and twist type. Ball heads are popular because they allow you to set the position using one locking mechanism, but it is a matter of personal choice so experiment with both and choose the one that suits you best. As for the legs, make sure these are easy to lock and unlock and there is no slipping when locked in place. One way to do this is with the tripod fully extended, press down firmly on the top and check that there is no slipping.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ3bAPIw4SY[/youtube]

Lastly, the biggest factor in choosing a tripod is its weight. It must be able to support your camera and heaviest lens without any wobble. If you are using long exposures in low light conditions, any camera shake can destroy an image and make getting a large sized print impossible. Take your camera and longest lens into the store and mount the setup onto a few different tripods. If there is any wobbling or bounce when you gently tap the end of the lens, then the tripod is not sturdy enough to support the lens.

Some other considerations when choosing a tripod are the availability of spare parts and the possibility of adding optional features. Tripods, like most camera gear, may need servicing from time to time, especially if they are being used in wet or windy conditions. One example of an optional feature is to add a hook to the bottom of the centre column that will allow you to hang something heavy like a camera bag or sack of stones from the tripod to increase its weight. Look for a tripod that either comes with a hook or allows one to be attached later on.

A good tripod can make or break a landscape photo, so take your time in deciding which one is right for you and choose carefully.

About the Author: Mark Eden is a freelance

travel photographer

and writer, who creates images and articles for various print and digital publications. Expanse Photography is his

website and blog

.

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“Woofstock” dog festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

North America’s largest outdoor dog festival came back to Toronto last weekend for its fifth year. It ran from the 9th of June to the 10th of June at Toronto’s historical St. Lawrence Market. A Wikinews reporter was there on Sunday to report on some of the events that happened on the last day.

The “Woofstock” dog festival attracted as many as 140,000 people with their dogs. The festival had tons of accessories, sold under tents, to buy for dogs; food, toys, designer clothes, and more. About 400 vendors and exhibitors were there to promote their products, which also gave private dog companies or groups a chance to show their new products. The local SPCA and some animal rescues were under tents answering questions from visitors. While walking, all visitors could see the CN Tower and other very tall buildings.

One of the local TV stations, Citytv, was there. They hosted a live event at the show which was broadcast on TV. People came up on the stage and asked questions regarding their dogs and the host and co-host answered them.

A man, who called himself the “Chalk Master”, drew two pictures on pavement with chalk. He did it for free but donations were welcome. One was a picture of a girl’s head beside a dog’s head, and another with a wolf.

“Hello Humans. I’ve been invited here to provide your eyeball(s), with some pretty colours. I don’t get paid as I work this weekend strictly for tips… so, if you like what you see please make a DONATION. If you don’t like it simply reach into the pocket of the person next to you and give me their money. CHALK MASTER.”

A contest called “Canada’s top dog” had its own tent with a professional photographer taking pictures of dogs behind a white screen; the winning photo is to be published on the cover of “Puppy and dog basics” magazine.

Large “Gourmet” dog bones were also served from a cart and table.

Next year’s festival is expected to be bigger and better with even more attractions.

Zeus botnet trojan horse is back

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Trusteer, a web security company, reports that a trojan horse virus called Zeus can steal online banking details from infected computers. The virus has infected one out of every 3,000 computers of the 5,500,000 million which the company monitors in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The trojan can infect users of Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows, and steals login information by recording keystrokes when the machine connects to certain websites, usually banks or other financial institutions. The stolen data is transmitted to a remote server and sold to cyber-criminals. “We expect this new version of Zeus to significantly increase fraud losses, since nearly 30% of Internet users bank online with Firefox and the infection is growing faster than we have ever seen before,” said Amit Klein, chief technology officer at Trusteer, to BBC.

The trojan has also affected Wikinews users, including Brian McNeil, who is the founder of Wikinewsie, a restricted-access wiki used to collaborate on sensitive news reports. McNeil reported on his userspace: “On Saturday [April] 17, a Windows-based PC in the house issued a cry for help, the Avira package running on the system had just detected a piece of malware; full scans indicated several known pieces of malware and numerous hidden files. Additional scans revealed that all but one of the USB memory sticks and portable hard drives in the house were infected with something. The Zeus botnet, as it turned out.” E-mail accounts for accredited reporters have also been affected.

Volkswagen emissions scandal may affect thousands more cars

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The Volkswagen emissions scandal continued yesterday with the company announcing 800,000 mainly diesel vehicles may also be affected by carbon dioxide emissions problems.

The company stated “the safety of the vehicles is in no way compromised”. They estimated potentially this could cost them €2bn on top of the €6.7bn set aside to pay for the cost of correcting 11 million cars affected when the scandal broke, in addition to fines by regulators.

the safety of the vehicles is in no way compromised

This follows Monday’s revelation that the emissions scandal has affected up to 10,000 vehicles sold in the USA by brands in the Volkswagen group, although the company refutes the allegation. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the regulatory body which has been investigating Volkswagen, claims the company fitted a number of recent Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen models with technology that initiates secret components during emission tests to ensure the results are favourable.

The scandal began with damaging revelations that the car manufacturer has been using illegal software to enable diesel cars to cheat on mandatory emissions tests. This lead to a public apology on September 20 by then-chief executive Martin Winterkorn and the promise of an outside inquiry. He then resigned on September 23, and was replaced by Matthias Müller. The new allegation about Porsche is of particular concern for Müller, because he had previously been in charge of Porsche.

The company is expected to foot the bill for the recall of close to 500,000 VW and Audi cars affected at the time. There is also the possibility of Volkswagen having to pay federal fines of up to US$18 billion dollars because the US Clean Air Act sets a maximum fine of US$37,500 for each vehicle that contravenes the requirements of the Act.

An investigation into alleged breaches of environmental law was originally initiated on the advice of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a European non-governmental organisation. The EPA requested tests be carried out by West Virginia University, where the secret software was discovered.

The software, known as a “defeat device”, enabled cars to identify when they were being tested and to switch on the emission control system. The devices may have been adding urea to the car exhaust because that would reduce the amount of nitrogen dioxide. The car would release a fraction of the nitrogen oxide compared to when they were being driven normally. Emissions of nitrogen oxide contribute to smog and are thought to have caused a rise in respiratory illnesses like asthma.