On my way home from a BCBSNC meeting today, I stopped to indulge one of my guilty pleasures, eating at McDonald's, and a less-guilty pleasure, reading the Charlotte Observer. I practically choked on my chicken strip when I came upon this letter to the editor on the Forums page:

In response to "Health care insurers' profits up 56% in '09" (Feb. 12):
Huge profits to health insurers while uninsured die? Shameful
So health care insurers made a 56 percent profit in 2009, and there's no chance for red...
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It didn't occur to me until just recently (um, like yesterday) that the way I do business nowadays is WAY greener than it used to be. How so, you ask? Well, let me iterate some of the "old" ways:

1. Everything used to be on paper. Everything! Paper brochures, paper contracts, paper rate sheets, paper marketing materials, and on and on.
2. All that paper stuff changed constantly and so was delivered to me regularly in (you guessed it) paper envelopes and cardboard boxes.
3. All that paper and cardboard st...

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A short-term, or temporary, health plan might be just what the doctor ordered for some situations. If you'll have a coverage gap of of just a few month until other coverage (employer-sponsored, Medicare or an individual health plan) is set to begin, it can be the perfect filler.

I usually don't recommend that short-term coverage be used in place of a regular major medical plans because of its limitations. Pre-existing conditions and annual physicals are not covered. However, in those situatio...
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Health insurance rate increases happen - no big news there. And sometimes, they're either just too big to swallow or they're the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. But it really concerns me when I have a client who lets their policy lapse without ever having contacted me and who doesn't reply to my calls or emails.

There are almost always alternatives to just dropping health insurance coverage altogether. Even if you're healthy and "never" go to the doctor, going without coverage is...
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