Health Insurance Update

Probably one of the most affected group of residents and citizens in the United States in terms of health insurance coverage are the Asian Americans. The median income for a single race household is approximately $61,094 in 2005 which was particularly broken down as $73,575 for Asian Indians and $50,925 for Vietnamese Americans. Out of this particular race group comes an 11.1 percent poverty rate which represents a 9.8 percent increase from the previous year. The near double digit poverty rate increase undoubtedly affects the health insurance coverage for these families who are forced to course their earnings to more basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter. The number of single race Asians in 2005 without health insurance coverage reached 17.9 percent which is a dramatic 16.5 percent rise from last year.

With the U.S. Presidential elections looming just around the corner, the presence of what has known to be healthcare volunteers have been omnipresent in almost every political rally where no clear healthcare policy has been explicitly stated by any candidate. Usually a volunteer would approach a member of the crowd and place the question if the respondent is in favor of an affordable and quality health insurance coverage for each American. The answer would of course be a resounding yes and then after the volunteer would ask the respondent to sign a petition letter to signify his support. But come to think of it, the rising cost of health insurance is related to the decision of every American to eat foods that are bad for the health, become a couch potato, drink alcohol, smoke and do other activities that pose dangers to a person’s health. The result, a chronic self imposed disease that requires full time medical attention that contributes to the State’s medical coverage expenses.

The possession of a medical health insurance is important, but, equally important is to possess the correct medical health insurance scheme for your needs. The need for the right scheme is emphasized more for those who are first time health insurance policy holders who depend mostly on the automatic enrollment provided by employers without really personalizing their coverage for their needs. The result is that the policy holder does not really pay ample attention to the particulars of the insurance coverage until the time when he actually uses it and devastatingly finds out that most of the most important coverages for his needs are not present in the policy.

The leading distribution chain and probably the most successful in the United States, Wal-Mart had finally moved last year to expand the coverage of their employees’ health insurance benefits partly due to overwhelming public pressure. The company recently announced that at least one of the offered 50 health insurance plans of the company is availed of by its 600,000 workers.

This stunning number of health coverage is made possible by the company’s implementation of HDHPs or High Deductible Healthcare Plans wherein an employee would be paying as little as $5 a month for premiums. This strategy has not only placed the company in a better light in terms of public perception but has also provided its numerous employees with much needed benefits.