Category: Health Insurance

When the coronavirus hit the world last year, travel came to a halt, leaving many to be refunded or credited for their airplane and cruise tickets, hotel rooms, and more. It was a tough time for everyone around the world, with many people unable to see their friends or family, but now, with millions of…

Do you often feel tired? While tiredness can be a symptom of many different health conditions, if it is accompanied by other symptoms like bacterial infections, anemia, and eye problems, you might be suffering from sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anemia. There are four main types of sickle cell disease, each caused…

Usher Syndrome Awareness Day is Sept 18. You might not have heard of Usher syndrome, but this rare, inherited disorder causes hearing and vision loss in infants. The hearing loss can be mild to complete, and the vision slowly deteriorates over time. Scientists have identified 3 major types of Usher syndrome, characterized by how severe…

The Open Enrollment Period for purchasing health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace is usually only from November 1 - December 15, unless you experience a qualifying life event. But this year, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden Administration opened up a Special Enrollment Period so Americans would have the…

Are you experiencing dry, scaly, or itchy skin? And have you been hoping that it will eventually go away on its own? Well, if it’s not going away on its own, but is persistent, you might have a skin condition like psoriasis or eczema. These two similar conditions, which both cause rashes, are very common:…

Is your child showing signs of motor delays? If so, this could be an early warning sign of a serious medical condition known as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare neuromuscular disease that causes the muscles to become weak and waste away. Approximately 10,000 to 25,000 children and adults have spinal muscular atrophy in the…

Someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease every 65 seconds; in 2020, it was estimated that 5.8 million Americans aged 65 or older had the condition. These startling statistics are made all the more unsettling by the fact that there is currently no known cure, and few effective treatments, for the disease. But…

August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Awareness Month, so let’s all take a moment and think about when we last took our children to the optometrist to get their eyes checked. If you’re like a lot of parents, you might not have taken them in a long time, or even ever, if they’ve never…

As of June 17, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is still intact, and the long, drawn-out fights over the legislation seem to be at an end. The ACA survived its third major Supreme Court challenge with a 7-2 decision in its favor, meaning the comprehensive health care reform law will continue…

Getting your child ready for college can be an exciting and scary time. You’re preparing them to leave your home and venture out on their own, and you might be experiencing a whirlwind of emotions as they prepare to separate from you, gain their independence and make new friends. Not only that, but you’ll be…

Are you feeling fuller after eating than you used to, or are you often bloated? While these symptoms could mean a lot of things, they are some of the common signs of gastroparesis, a condition marked by partial paralysis of the stomach, which leads to difficulties emptying food in a normal way. This condition is…

The dreaded OB/GYN appointment. For many women, seeing the gynecologist is just plain  nerve-wracking. You want it to be over and done with, and you also might get hung up beforehand on things that don’t matter; for example, the majority of us make sure that we shave our legs and bikini area to try and…

UnitedHealthcare, the country’s largest health insurance company, is looking to crack down on unnecessary emergency room visits with a new policy, which was originally set to go into effect on July 1st. The insurance carrier is planning to begin scrutinizing all emergency room claims to determine if they are actually medical emergencies; if these claims…

Your kidneys serve a very important purpose: they flush out the toxins from your body, removing waste from your blood, which gets turned into urine. But if there is too much waste and not enough fluid in your blood, the waste can stick in your kidney, creating clumps, otherwise known as kidney stones. These stones…

Did you know that approximately 1 in 500 Americans are living with a stoma, or a surgical opening in the body created for the discharge of bodily waste? According to the United Ostomy Association, more than 500,000 Americans have had an ostomy, which is surgery that creates a stoma in order to treat certain diseases…

Cancer is a scary word, and rightly so: an estimated 1,898,160 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, and 608,570 people will die from the disease in that same time. But while most of us know that cancer is common, and that it can be deadly, many of us…

In January, President Biden signed an executive order that opened up an ACA Special Enrollment Period, allowing people to sign up for health insurance outside of the usual Open Enrollment Period (November 1 - December 15). This Special Enrollment Period, which began on February 15 and will run through August 15 of this year, is…

President Biden recently signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law, which expanded access to health insurance subsidies to more Americans. These expanded subsidies, which became available on April 1, 2021, are making premiums more affordable to millions of people, saving many hundreds of dollars a year. Eligibility, though, depends on your income, so…