Child Insurance

Colton updates insurance policy to protect against child abuse allegations

2011-12-19T04:36:00.000-08:00

By MATTHEW BULTMAN
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2011

COLTON — The town of Colton and its insurance company have been paying attention to the child abuse scandals that have dominated headlines nationwide.

On Wednesday, the town added a layer to its municipal insurance policy, hoping for added protection against claims of sexual abuse or molestation of children in town-sponsored programs.

The added supplement was discussed long before news of alleged abuse at Penn State and Syracuse universities broke, Town Supervisor Lawrence C. Patzwald said. But, he admitted, allegations there have raised awareness both for the town and its insurance provider. “Those issues have been issues for years and years,” he said, referring to child sex abuse. “But whenever things like that start to surface, insurance companies get scared about potential exposure.”

The selective abuse or molestation supplement will require the town to adopt more stringent measures to prevent the abuse of children enrolled in town-funded programs.

Leaders will have to create a policy regarding potential abuse, which may include prohibiting one-on-one contact between adults and children. The town also will have to conduct criminal background checks on all volunteers in youth programs.

“Basically they are dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s with regard to youth programs,” Rose & Kiernan Insurance Agency representative Lee Pollock said. “They want to know what you’re doing in terms of child protection because there have been problems.” It is something that youth programs across the country are dealing with, from Boy Scouts to Little League baseball, Mr. Pollock said.

By enacting this protection, the chances the town could be found liable in the event of child abuse allegations are minimal, he said. And even though there have been no abuse accusations in Colton, the move is a defensive measure should any arise.

The addition of the supplement will not cost Colton any extra. However, the unstable financial status of the town’s workers’ compensation provider will.

Public Employer Risk Management Association Inc. artificially lowered its rates years ago, believing workers’ compensation costs would go down, Mr. Pollock said. When that didn’t happen, the provider was left with a huge financial hole to fill.

“Their financial status right now is not good,” Rose & Kiernan representative Jeany Danielson said. The insurance provider has predicted Perma will survive the financial misstep but towns under its coverage will be asked to make up that difference, she said.

For Colton, renewing its contract with the provider will cost $76,561 next year, $12,000 more than it is paying now. But as long as the town’s finances don’t change dramatically, its coverage cost will drop to $74,647 in the second year of the two-year deal.

Child Insurance Plans – The Next Big Objective Of Insurance Agencies

2011-11-30T01:05:00.000-08:00

Life Insurance Industry is in full bloom. With wide marketing from Private Players, LIC and Government insistence, people from all class are realizing the importance of taking Life Insurance Cover. Short term, long term, pension and child insurance plans are on boom. People are investing in these plans initiated either by self awareness or by the glam of insurance advertisements.

After the flight of pension plans (sale of pension plans have boomed up dramatically in the past years), the next big thing, most insurance companies targeting on is Child Insurance Plan. Even Life Insurance Corporation of India, which majorily targeted on Money Back and Term Plans, is now moving towards child plans.

Child Insurance Plans began from the Child age 0, so it’s easy for most of the parents to plan the future of their “to-be-born” child. Child Plans – cut only for children are meant to cover the education, higher education and marriage needs. Sum assured or guaranteed returns are the main features of child plan. The main attraction, insurance companies like ICICI Prudential and HDFC insurance companies tap on is the Maturity Benefit Plan wherein the family need not pay further in case of insured parent death during the policy term and the policy continues with sum assured and the bonuses declared.

Tapping on other benefits, which in fact are beneficial, insurance companies are putting up their best. Child insurance plans have some of the basic attractions like cheques when the child reaches a certain grade/class or age and beneficiary concept where beneficiary (in this case the child) is the sole person to receive the benefit. To add to the icing is the Tax benefit. Parent/s who is taking the child policy is eligible for Tax Benefit under Section 80C and Section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

- Under Section 80C: You can save tax each year as premiums up to Rs. 1, 00,000 are allowed as a deduction from your taxable income.

- Under Section 10 (10D), the benefits you receive from this policy are completely tax-free subject to the exclusions.

Securing ones child future is one of the biggest relief for any parent. With so many insurance companies coming in the child insurance, life insurance field, this should not be a dream too far…

Fire safety and insurance tips for college students

2011-09-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

Fire safety for college students

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety State Fire Marshal Division (SFM) reminds college students that fire safety needs to be extended to campus life.

In December 2010, an off-campus housing fire took the life of a St. Thomas University student. According to investigators, the fire was caused by a smoldering cigarette, and despite working smoke alarms, the student was unable to escape and perished.

“Almost every residential fire, including the ones that kill and injure college students, is preventable,” says Minnesota State Fire Marshal Jerry Rosendahl. “Often, we send our students off to college without educating them about how to protect themselves from fire.”

Lifesaving behaviors students must know when they begin living on their own include:

* Stay focused when cooking. Most residential fires start in the kitchen when someone walks away from the stove “for just a moment.”

* Use candles responsibly, or not at all. Unattended, candles can turn deadly fast.

* Don’t overload electrical sockets or misuse extension cords. Make sure circuit breakers are working and report frayed or dam-aged wiring.

* Make sure smoking materials are (1) used outside and (2) properly extinguished. Most fatal fires are smoking-related.

* Make sure smoke alarms are properly placed, and keep the batteries fresh.

* Know and practice fire escape routes.

If alcohol is in use, be aware that it may reduce ability to respond to alarms and escape a fire.

Safety tips and other tools are available online at sfm.dps.mn.gov under the public education tab.

Check insurance for college students

Remembering to pack everything a college student will need during the school year is a challenge. But understanding a student’s changing insurance needs is sometimes even harder.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) are teaming up offer consumer-friendly tips to help college students and their parents review and update their insurance policies.

“College students across Minnesota are moving into crowded dorm rooms, buying their books, and starting their classes,” said Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman. “But in the rush to begin the semester, students shouldn’t forget to review their insur-ance coverage needs.”

Health Insurance: Nearly all young adults up to age 26 can now stay on their parent’s insurance, following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Prior to this, many health insurance policies covered dependents who were full-time students only until age 23.

Coverage with the new law extends benefits to adult children regardless of marital status, financial dependency, enrollment in school, or residency.

Before leaving home, students should obtain copies of their relevant insurance cards and know how to obtain referrals and ap-provals (if necessary) before seeking medical treatment.

If the student is insured by a provider network, check to see if he or she will be inside or outside the network service area while away at school. This will make a difference in out-of-pocket payments.

If your student’s health care coverage has ended because of the maximum coverage age, or if coverage is limited by the network service area, another option is a student health insurance plan. In general, these plans have more limited benefits and more exclu-sions than traditional health insurance plans. Many such policies will also exclude routine examinations and injuries sustained while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Renters Insurance: Many students bring thousands of dollars worth of personal items with them to school, including electron-ics, textbooks, clothes, furniture, bicycles, and more. With an enrolled student living on or off campus, check with your insurance agent to determine whether your family homeowner’s policy extends to children away at school. If not, consider a renters policy.

Many renters mistakenly believe that a landlord’s insurance policy on an apartment will protect them in case of a disaster. A landlord’s policy doesn’t cover a renter’s personal belongings. A personal renter’s policy will pay to replace stolen or destroyed property with items of the same type and value up to the coverage limit of the policy.

A comprehensive list of a student’s possessions – including purchase prices, model numbers, and serial numbers – will help par-ents and students decide how much renters insurance is needed. It is also a good idea to have a detailed inventory in case of a disas-ter, as it will help parents and students in filing insurance claims following a catastrophe. Make sure to take photos or video of the possessions, and store the inventory in a secure, off-site location.

To learn more about how to take a home inventory, check out these tools and tips on the Minnesota Department of Commerce website. There is also a student-friendly mobile app that consumers can use to quickly and easily complete a home inventory.

Auto Insurance: A significant move away from home can have a big impact on an auto insurance policy. If a student is taking a car to school, check with your local agent about the existing vehicle insurance policy. Ask about the rates for the college’s city and state before deciding whether to keep the student’s car on the family’s auto policy.

In addition, the insurance company should be notified each semester if the student maintains good grades. Maintaining a certain grade point average (GPA) might make your child eligible for a good student discount.

Identity Theft: Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, costing victims more than $5 billion annually.

College students are more likely to be hit by identity thieves because they are generally unprepared to protect themselves when the steady stream of requests for personal information begins.

Identity theft insurance cannot protect parents or students from becoming victims of identity theft, and it does not cover direct monetary losses incurred as a result. Instead, this insurance provides coverage for the cost of reclaiming you or your student’s financial identity – such as the costs of making phone calls, making copies, mailing documents, taking time off from work without pay (lost wages), and hiring an attorney.

Check to see if your homeowners policy includes identity theft insurance, and ask your insurance agent if this extends to your student living away from your primary residence. If not, you might be able to purchase an endorsement to amend such coverage.

If a student is renting an apartment, ask if his or her renters insurance covers identity theft, or if that could be added to the policy.

Read more: Chaska Herald - Fire safety and insurance tips for college students

Critical window for children’s health insurance highlighted

2011-03-09T03:41:00.002-08:00

SACRAMENTO – On Friday California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and Assembly man Mike Feuer held a media conference call to highlight the critical open-enrollment period for kids’ health insurance that began on Jan. 1 and ends next Tuesday, March 1.

Jones and Feuer were joined on the call by Novato resident, Julie Walters, the parent of a child with a pre-existing condition.

During the open enrollment period, parents can sign up their children for more affordable health insurance.

As a result of President Obama’s federal health care reform plan and AB 2244 by Feuer, children with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage – they also cannot be charged rates that are more than double the rates of healthy kids.

Parents of healthy children without insurance should also sign their kids up during this period; kids who don’t sign up during open enrollment periods may be subject to a 20 percent surcharge on their insurance rates for a full year.

“One of the most important changes that federal health care reform has initiated is allowing for children with pre-existing conditions to attain health coverage,” Commissioner Jones said. “This initial open enrollment window is critical and there are only a few days left before it closes, so parents should take full advantage of it by signing their children up for coverage.”

“Under my new law, kids can receive the health care they need, even if they have a pre-existing condition,” Feuer said. “But it's crucial that parents act during this open enrollment period by signing up their children for health insurance. If they don't act by March 1, covering their kids could be much more expensive.”

Feuer authored legislation, AB 2244, that helps to implement this component of federal health care reform in California.

The new law, which has been in effect since January 1, gives California children access to affordable care and a healthy future by ensuring that certain children cannot be denied coverage or priced out of the market.

It also prohibits insurers that sell individual market policies in California from refusing to sell or renew coverage to children with pre-existing conditions – it also bans insurers from the individual market for five years if they do not sell policies to children.

“Parents need to take this opportunity seriously and enroll their kids immediately, because this is a unique chance to make sure children – especially children with pre-existing conditions – have health coverage at very affordable rates they may not be able to find later on,” Julie Walters said. “Even though my daughter does have health coverage, if anything should happen to that coverage through job loss or other circumstances, it is a tremendous relief to know that she cannot be denied coverage, even with her pre-existing condition.”

Bill requiring autism insurance coverage signed into law

2011-03-09T03:41:00.001-08:00

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- Gov. Mike Beebe will sign into law a bill requiring insurance companies to cover autism diagnosis and treatment.

There is new support for autistic children in Arkansas. Tuesday, Governor Mike Beebe signed an autism bill into law. It requires most health insurance companies to cover autism diagnoses and treatment for children under 18.

It's a signature with the power to lift a financial weight. Ten-year-old Briar Miller with his mom Dayna were in the center of it all. "I'm glad the law passed we've been trying to pass it for two years," says Briar Miller.

Most major health insurance companies can no longer deny Arkansas families coverage for treatment for children with autism. "I just truly believe that children in Arkansas deserve the same right as children across the United States especially when it was a research proven approach," says Dayna Miller.

Miller estimates she borrowed $100,000 to pay for applied behavior analysis. It's treatment using positive reinforcement recommended by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Miller says for Briar it works. " He went from a nonverbal child, he's in the fifth grade getting straight A's although he brought home a B last week that's we're going to get up," says Miller.

The CDC estimates that 1 in 110 children are diagnosed with autism and that ABA treatment ranges anywhere from 30 to 60 thousand dollars a year.
Veronica Tess Myers says in 1996, when doctors diagnosed her son Alexander with severe to moderate autism.

You definitely feel alone, there's a lot of tears being cried there's a lot of frustration there's a lot of sitting alone trying to figure out what the next step is going to be to help you child to succeed," says Myers.

They told her told her it was either ABA or a group home for life. "And that's the part that breaks my heart that so many families want to help their child and couldn't get therapy," says Miller.

What should you do as a parent if you have an ill child and no health insurance?

2011-03-09T03:40:00.000-08:00

Q: What should you do as a parent if you have an ill child and no health insurance?

A: In the case of a medical emergency, insured or not, take your child to the nearest emergency room. The majority of hospitals are required by law to treat a patient with a health emergency. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which was passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, includes that hospitals and ambulance services must provide necessary emergency health care regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. Though you may not be able to pay, you still will be legally responsible for the cost of your child’s care. However, you cannot be held criminally liable for not paying, unless you intentionally and knowingly provide false identifying information to avoid paying for care.

You should not rely on emergency room care for all of your child’s medical needs. Hospitals under the emergency medical act are not required to care for nonemergency medical conditions, and they may discharge a patient after the patient has been stabilized and can care for himself or be cared for by another. Because of these limitations, obtain insurance for your child as soon as possible.

Fortunately, under the Affordable Health Care Act signed in 2010, a child’s pre-existing condition must now be covered in a health insurance policy, and a child with chronic health conditions cannot be denied coverage. Adults are not scheduled to receive similar protections until 2014.

If you cannot afford private insurance, then apply for Medi-Cal coverage for your child. If your income or assets exceed the limits for Medi-Cal eligibility, your child may qualify for health care coverage under the Healthy Families Program. This government insurance program offers low-cost health, dental and vision coverage.

Additionally, California Children’s Services, or CCS, is a state program that provides assistance to children with certain diseases, physical limitations or chronic health problems. To obtain CCS assistance, a child must be under 21 years old, have or be suspected of having a medical problem that CCS covers, be a resident of California and be in a family with an income under $40,000 (adjusted gross income on state tax return). A few examples of the many health problems that CCS covers are cancers, diabetes, cerebral palsy and broken bones.

If your child is not experiencing an emergency health problem, there are clinics in San Diego that may treat your child at little or no cost.

For example, Family Health Centers of San Diego accept a broad range of payment and insurance plans. These clinics offer affordable services to all income levels, with a special commitment to low income and medically underserved individuals.

Another option is provided by Volunteers in Medicine San Diego, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve access to health care for the underserved and uninsured. This charitable organization is staffed by retired physicians, dentists and other medical professionals who provide care without compensation.

Further, some local hospitals provide medically necessary health care services to patients requiring admission to the hospital at low or no cost.

For example, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego is committed to providing care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Consistent with this commitment, its financial counselors will first work with a child’s family to determine their eligibility for governmental program assistance. State and County eligibility workers knowledgeable in Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and California Children Services assist in determining eligibility and in completing the application process. If a patient does not qualify for a government program, an Rady Financial Assistance Program is in place to provide discounted care to eligible patients based upon their family income.

Another resource that a social worker may refer you to is the San Diego Ronald McDonald House. This charity provides a “home away from home” for children and their families while their child is admitted at any hospital in the San Diego area.

Its Family Care Center also is available during the day to anyone with a child in a hospital. This unique offering provides a place for a family to enjoy a hot meal, relax in a family play area, obtain medical information online, nap, or simply take a break from the often stressful hospital environment.

Additionally, if you are struggling with financial or legal issues while your child is ill, the Professional Alliance for Children may provide relief. The Alliance is a nonprofit organization that aligns professionals — attorneys, Certified Financial Planners, and CPAs — to provide free assistance with these issues. Along with the other charitable organizations described in this article, the Alliance’s mission is to better the lives of children by helping them and their families in their time of need.

All children should receive quality health care regardless of the current financial status of their family. You are not alone when there are resources available that will help you to care for your child.

Most families have no life insurance

2011-03-09T03:38:00.000-08:00

A new study has found that most families in the UK currently have no financial protection such as life insurance . The research, carried out by insurance giant Aviva, showed that 61 per cent do not hold life insurance cover, while 93 per cent admit to not having sufficient financial protection.

It was also revealed that 87 per cent are without critical illness cover, and that 89 per cent did not have income protection, all of which means that millions of families face financial disaster if the main breadwinners were to lose their job, become ill or die.

The most concern is about single parent families, as the research found that 76 per cent of single parent families and 68 per cent of divorced parents with two or more children said they believed they were financially underprotected.

Even previous problems do not persuade people to sort out cover, as the research showed that four in ten families said they had been seriously affected by illness in the past, but still had not taken out a policy. A fifth of all respondents said they had not taken out life insurance because of its cost, and five per cent thought it never paid out anyway.

Louise Colley, head of protection marketing at Aviva, commented "Life insurance and income protection can provide families with financial peace of mind in the unfortunate event of a sudden loss of income, and critical illness insurance can provide a lump sum cash payment should the insured suffer serious illness or disease."

10 tips for health insurance open enrollment

2010-11-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

Wedged in between Halloween and Thanksgiving is health insurance open enrollment season for many employees. That means it's time to review health benefits and pick what plan to enroll in for next year.

This year, things are a little different in light of the health reform bill signed into law in March. So we consulted Optima Health and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for these health insurance open enrollment tips.

Expect premiums to go up. Optima Health estimates a 1 to 4 percent increase to the base rates of large group plans and a 2 to 3 percent hike for small group and individual plans. This reflects the added medical expenses of providing coverage of dependents up to age 26, the elimination of member cost sharing on preventive services and other new mandates. At Anthem, premiums increases on average are in the mid-single- to low double-digit range, said Scott Golden, an Anthem spokesman.

Keep Your Kids Insured

2010-10-10T02:08:00.001-07:00

Adult dependents can stay on their parents' group or individual health-insurance plans until their 26th birthday under the new federal health-care overhaul provision that took effect last month.

The child doesn't have to be in college or live with parents to qualify. He or she can be married, although a child's spouse can't be put on a parent's plan.

Many parents of adult and college-age children may be wondering if this is the way to go or whether adult kids should stick with other options, such as an individual health-insurance policy, public health programs for low-income adults or student health plans.

Currently, about 30% of adults age 19 to 29 are uninsured, a problem the law was meant to help address. Some states, including New Jersey and New Mexico, already had similar laws. But age limits and requirements varied.

Most Employers Included
Under the new law, most big employers will make adult-child health-insurance coverage available for workers starting in the open-enrollment period this fall for the plan year beginning in January 2011, though some may permit enrollment sooner.

In states where some adult children can stay on parents' plans beyond age 26, employers must abide by state laws, says Dean Hatfield, senior vice president and corporate health leader at Sibson Consulting.

About 75% of employers surveyed by human-resources consultant HighRoads said employers will include information about this and other health-care reform provisions in their materials during open enrollment. Parents have to be provided with a written notice by the first day of the plan year.

The new law applies to all health-insurance plans created after March 2010. If the plan existed before March, an employer can opt to exclude young adults if they have access to an employer-sponsored plan of their own, Mr. Hatfield says. (The rule remains in effect until 2014, when all adult kids will be able to get on a parent's plan.)

Parents also can put adult children on their Cobra plan, which allows terminated workers to continue under their former employer's group health-insurance plan. And adult children who have passed a state's age limit for Cobra coverage under a parent's plan in the last 60 days may be able to stay or get back on the plan, says Phil Lebherz, executive director of the Foundation for Health Care Coverage.

Limited Added Cost
From an insured parent's standpoint, it's hard to beat the cost savings of keeping an adult child on a parent's employer-provided health plan, some experts say.

Covered employees pay an average of 30% of the premium for family coverage under group health insurance and employers pay the rest, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Employees who pay part of the premium often have only two options -- individual and family -- so an additional dependent typically doesn't cost much more.

If there's a gap before you can sign up an adult child for coverage, look for a short-term insurance plan or other health plan, including public plans for low-income adults and families. One resource: the Foundation for Health Care Coverage, coverageforall.org or 1-800-234-1317. A Spanish-language edition is at espanol.coverageforall.org.

Check for exclusions, co-pays and deductibles if you opt for an individual plan. Also, check whether an employer-provided or individual plan covers your child in another state.

The Conservatives' child benefit plans sent precisely the wrong signal

2010-10-10T02:06:00.000-07:00

As they staggered from the train wreck that was the child benefit fiasco last week, Tory spokesmen were handed a new message to enunciate. Stumbling glassy-eyed around the receptions in Birmingham, they recited pretty much word-for-word the new official defence: this measure was admittedly not much of a step towards dismantling the deficit (in the weird times in which we live, a saving of a billion pounds is relative peanuts) but it was intended as a “signal” that the well-off were going to have to bear their share of the burden.

Well, the signal it was supposed to send got blown away in about 20 minutes. In the blizzard of condemnation which made clear that this testament to “fairness” was quite grotesquely unfair to traditional families with a single earner, and to couples who had made the mistake of actually marrying (cohabiting parents will be unaffected, since there is no way of proving that they are connected to one another), an even more unfortunate signal escaped unnoticed.

The Conservatives have been making a real effort over the past year to take back the word “fair” from the Left. Labour has always used the word as synonymous with “equal”: if wealth or achievement was not evenly distributed, then that fact in itself meant that we lived in an unfair society and that this injustice needed to be rectified by government intervention. Many of the speeches at the Conservative Party conference this year (including David Cameron’s) made the case quite explicitly that the proper meaning of the word “fair” involved just rewards for effort and virtuous behaviour, rather than everybody ending up with roughly the same outcome, however much or little they had contributed.

This is, as I am getting tired of saying, what most people believe: that getting something for nothing, while other people are working hard for what they have, is not fair at all. Of course, there must be compassion and protection for those who are truly the victims of disadvantage. But generally speaking, a fair society is one in which you get out of life pretty much what you put in. This is perhaps the single most important argument for the Tories to win if they are to have a hope of changing the country in the way that they must.

But what exactly was the concept of fairness that was being invoked in the farrago over middle-class child benefit? That the affluent (on £44,000 a year – cue hollow laughter from the south-east of England) must expect to lose their benefit payments just as the poor will lose theirs: that if the welfare-dependent classes are to have fewer state handouts, then the prosperous will have to take their share of the cuts, too – because “we are all in this together”.

Health Reform to Cover Most Young Adults by 2014

2010-10-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

More than 12 million of the nation's 15 million uninsured young adults ages 19 to 29 may be able to get health insurance in 2014 as a result of the healthcare reform law, according to a report released Friday by the Commonwealth Fund.

"By providing multiple insurance options for young adults at key life transition points, including graduation from high school and college, the law will significantly reduce both the short- and long-term gaps in health insurance that have historically plagued this age group at all income levels," wrote Sara Collins and Jennifer Nicholson, both of the Commonwealth Fund.

The number of uninsured young adults rose from 13.7 million in 2008 to 14.8 million in 2009. In addition, 5 million insured 20-somethings have very high out-of-pocket costs, leaving them effectively underinsured, the authors noted.

Children-Only Health Insurance Going Away

2010-09-18T01:18:00.001-07:00

DENVER -- Thousands of Colorado children will soon have fewer options for health insurance. And parents who may not be able to afford it for themselves, but want it for their children won't have that option.

Ironically the change is as a result of the health care reform act.

7NEWS learned several large insurance companies are no longer offering child-only health policies.

Child-only policies are typically obtained by families because sometimes it's cheaper than a family health plan through an employer. But most often parents who cannot afford health insurance for themselves purchase a child-only policy to make sure their kids are insured even if they are not.

According to Dr. Larry Wolk, with Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics, child-only policies are for parents who may make too much money for Medicaid, but not enough to afford health insurance.

Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics has three clinics in the metro area -- Thornton, Denver and Aurora.

"We see kids whether they have insurance or not," said Wolk.

On Thursday Brandee Lucero took her 4-month-old daughter, Antoinette Daniels, to Rocky Mountain Youth Clinic in Thornton for her check-up.

"I got blessed," said Lucero. "(Antoinette) is very healthy."

Lucero said she is double blessed because her daughter qualifies for Medicaid.

"It is very relieving knowing she is getting it because I think of people that cannot get on it and they don't have anything," said Lucero.

Luckily, even people without insurance have safety-net clinics and hospitals across the metro area -- Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics is one of them.

But Lucero worries that once she gets a job she may not have health insurance for Antoinette because she may make too much money to qualify for a public program such as Medicaid or CHP Plus and the company she works for may not offer insurance or a plan she can afford.

In the past, families in such predicaments used to be able to purchase child-only policies. However, because of the Affordable Care Act those options are disappearing in Colorado.

The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies which offer child-only policies to take all kids, even those with preexisting conditions.

Student Insurance a Must-Have for University

2010-09-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - Sept. 17, 2010) - Of all the items students may find helpful in their study careers, a wi-fi enabled laptop must be among the most versatile. Compact and easy to carry, laptops are great multifunctional devices for students on the go. Most universities contain numerous secure wi-fi hotspots that allow students to connect to the Internet. With a laptop, students can access up to the minute research and stay in contact with their friends and family through email, online chat and social networking services.

Staying connected is an important aspect of student life. From standard mobile phones to smartphones and iPods, mobile devices can help students maintain the all important balance between work and play.

Whether a student moves into residential halls or commutes to university every day, a bicycle can be a convenient and more affordable mode of transport. In addition, a bicycle is a green and efficient way to get around, which is an important factor in light of current environmental concerns and the need to reduce carbon emissions.

Laptops, mobile devices and bicycles are but a few of a student's possessions that can be costly to repair or replace, making a student insurance policy essential. A policy of this nature, such as Endsleigh student insurance, will provide cover for these and other possessions in the event of theft or accidental damage.

Choosing Insurance for the College Life (Grades Not Included)

2010-09-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Many risks that college students face — from property and identity theft to liability cases — can be reduced through proper insurance. The problem is that many parents are as uninterested in talking about these things as their college-age children.

Yet the number of insurable risks faced by college students have gone up tremendously in the decades since their parents lugged stereos and crates of vinyl records into dormitory rooms. The reality is the theft of an iPod should be the least of most parents’ worries, because there are far graver risks. And that is why the start of college is a good time to review all the potential liabilities.

“Most parents shy away from talking about these difficult things because they touch on our deepest fears,” said Christie Alderman, vice president at Chubb & Son, an insurance firm in New Jersey. But, she noted, not talking about a risk does not make it go away.

I have written about the physical safety risks faced by children away at college. This week, I want to look at what insurance can do to reduce other types of risks faced by many college students.

PERSONAL PROPERTY When most parents think of insurance, they think of theft and probably figure their homeowner’s policy covers it.

Most homeowner’s policies cover items like computers or other digital devices stolen from dorms. But Robert Courtemanche, chief executive of ACE Private Risk Services, said that the deductible on the policy still applied. “To get around this, parents could schedule items that are easily lost or stolen — such as a laptop — on their valuables policy, which has no deductible,” he said. “Or, they could ask if the college offers access to an insurance program with much lower limits and lower deductibles.”

For wealthy students who may go to college with expensive watches or jewelry, Mr. Laconi said putting those items on a valuable personal property policy was a must. An existing personal property policy may have been written based on the security of the child’s home. That may well change now that the child is living in a dorm.

For children living off campus, taking out a renter’s policy may make sense. These policies have lower premiums and deductibles to cover damage to furniture, appliances or the apartment in general. The insurer USAA said premiums could be as low as $10 a month for $2,500 in coverage, with more comprehensive policies offering $100,000 of coverage for $30 a month.

Renter’s policies have the additional benefit of teaching children about fiscal responsibility. “That first renter’s policy begins to build the child’s financial responsibility and insurance résumé,” said Ken Kilday, wealth manager at USAA.

Of course, the résumé could be tarnished if the child loses everything and files mountains of claims.

LIABILITY The more serious risks are those that can ruin students’ lives — and their parents’ finances — like being sued by a student who drank a beer in the child’s dorm room and then got in a car accident. This is where liability, or umbrella, policies come in. Their coverage starts when the liability on, say, an auto policy is exceeded.

Most affluent parents have these policies, with $1 million to $2 million in extra coverage. But Ms. Alderman said Chubb had written these policies up to $50 million. She said the wealthy had to ask themselves, “Would your job title or role in the community make you an appealing target for a lawsuit?”

Mr. Laconi recalled a claim in which a family was sued because their son was working at a party where another student drank too much, fell down the stairs and died. Because of that state’s laws, the lawyers for the dead student’s parents sued the student with money, even though he had not served the dead student any alcohol.

Aetna announces it will stop selling child-only health insurance polices in most states in October

2010-08-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Aetna announced today that it would stop selling child-only individual health insurance policies after October 1, 2010. A child-only policy is one sold to [for] a child who is under the age of 19. Many parents who cannot afford to insure the whole family will buy a policy just to protect the health of their children.

The announcement affects only new business sales. Aetna policy holders who already own a child-only plan will not be impacted by new rule. Current policies will continue as written and these policies will also be renewable. Child-only polices had been written under the Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, Families and the Self Employed.

Is change in response to new federal law?

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers who sold health insurance policies would be prohibited from excluding children with pre-existing conditions from coverage beginning in 2010.

Just after the signing of the new federal law, insurance company lawyers attempted to argue that children with pre-existing conditions would have to wait until 2014 for guaranteed issue coverage, just as adults do.

The Obama administration through Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius immediately announced that it would publish regulations making the change effective September 1, 2010.

The insurance industry grudgingly accepted the direction. Karen Ignagni, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), responded that the insurance industry would “fully comply” with the principles set forth in the Secretary’s letter. AHIP is a trade organization and political advocacy group that represents over 1300 insurance carriers.

Are insurance companies finding new ways to avoid the requirements of the federal law?

Aetna admits the reason for stopping the sale of child-only policies is to allow the company to handle the upcoming changes which resulted from health care reform. Specifically Aetna notes that the requirement to insure children under the age of 19 on a guaranteed issue basis with no guidelines as to coverage requirements has the potential to increase the cost of these policies and make them unaffordable.

What remaining options are available for child-only policies?

Aetna says that if an application for a child-only policy is submitted for an effective date of October 1, 2010 or later, the underwriters will suggest the following options for covering the child:

add the child as a dependent to a parent's plan,
apply to your state’s CHIP plan (if eligible), or
check with federal government for alternative options at www.healthcare.gov
Currently the federal website has no options to suggest for child-only coverage.

Aetna’s announcement has indicated that this policy will become effective on October 1, 2010 in the following states: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MO, MS, NC, NE, NV, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV, and WY. A later announcement will establish the effective date for the change in CT, MD, OH, and OK

HHS permits insurers to establish open enrollment periods for child coverage

2010-08-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

Responding to concerns that the new health care law’s prohibition on denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions would significantly drive up costs, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has clarified that plans may set up specific enrollment periods. Insurers had predicted that the non-discrimination coverage requirement that takes effect for most plans beginning on or after September 23 would result in parents enrolling their children only once they became sick.

Amid reports that many insurance companies were considering dropping child coverage altogether, the HHS on July 27 issued a fact sheet explaining, in question and answer format, how the prohibition on pre-existing condition exclusions applies to insurers offering coverage to children under 19 years old in the individual market. Specifically, the HHS clarified that:

Insurance issuers in the individual market may restrict enrollment of children under 19 to specific open enrollment periods – the number and length of such periods to be at the insurer’s discretion – if permitted under state law. Insurance issuers must abide by more stringent state laws, if applicable, that require issuers to maintain a continuous open enrollment period or regulate the number and/or frequency of these enrollment periods.

Child-only individual market insurance plans that existed on or prior to March 23, 2010, and that do not significantly change their benefits, cost sharing, and other features, will be “grandfathered” and thus exempt from the regulations prohibiting pre-existing condition exclusions.

The administration will issue new regulations if it determines that insurers are using their enrollment periods to limit coverage access, or if children with pre-existing conditions are being diverted inappropriately from Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) to private insurance plans.

New Health Bill Permits Children to Remain on Parents’ Insurance

2010-03-20T21:29:00.001-07:00

At a rally on Friday at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., President Obama got some of his loudest applause when he talked about a provision in the health care legislation that would allow adult children to remain on their parents’ health insurance policies until the age of 26.

The provision cited by the president is of the more significant changes included in the reconciliation bill in terms of what the legislation will mean in the short term for consumers of private health insurance.

The Senate-passed bill would have required insurers to offer dependent coverage for adult children, but only in new insurance policies. Existing policies would not have had to include the change.

Currently, states determine the age at which dependent children no longer must be covered by their parents’ plans, and the limits vary.

The reconciliation bill, which is to be voted on by the House on Sunday, would allow parents to keep their adult children on their insurance plans and would require all insurers to make such coverage available through existing policies. Of course, insurers could still charge for it, and the coverage might not be cheap.

The change would take effect six months after adoption of the legislation. The reconciliation bill says that the dependent coverage must be made available only if the adult child has no option to enroll in group health insurance coverage through an employer.

The provision is among the most popular aspects of the legislation because of its potential benefit to Americans who already have health insurance through the employers, which is to say a majority of the population.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also stressed the inclusion of that provision in the bill, noting at rallies and news conferences in recent days that college graduates would be free to pursue their dreams without worrying whether they could immediately obtain health insurance on their own.

A parent's worst nightmare: sick child, no insurance

2010-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

Every parent knows it. The late-night sound of a child coughing uncontrollably. A flushed face that can only mean fever. A normally active child rendered listless by illness. For most, the worry is wrenching, but the routine is simple if urgent -- scoop up the child for an immediate trip to the family pediatrician's office, present an insurance card, fill out forms and perhaps fork over a co-pay.

But for some -- a growing number in Santa Cruz County, and elsewhere in this economy -- insurance for their children is something they just cannot afford. And for doctors treating children, they see an increasing panic among parents who cannot provide for their kids, who must take risks and shortcuts with their children's health.

Here are the stories of parents and families, of children and doctors. Here are the voices of mothers like Andrea Eaton, who has spent countless panicked hours navigating a bureaucratic labyrinth because she makes a few dollars too many to qualify two of her children for a state-funded insurance program.

Donna Gilmartin knew that panic, too. She'd just moved to town with Bryce, her then-10-week-old son. She could work only part-time, so she had no health insurance. Each day, she felt increasingly vulnerable. When her boss mentioned Healthy Kids, she quickly investigated and enrolled. The program was a boon to Bryce and a salve to Gilmartin's psyche. Healthy Kids came through for 1-year-old Tawny, too. When Dina Larsen, Tawny's mother, lost her job and her insurance, she said she experienced 10 of the most frightening days of her life. It was Healthy Kids that got life in balance again.

Then, there are the doctors, devoted pediatricians like Madhu Raghavan and Christine Griger, with a half-century of Santa Cruz pediatric care between them. They say they see an increasing number of kids like Bryce and Tawny -- but many of the ones they treat are children whose parents haven't been able to solve the insurance problem. They have no insurance.

And these physicians see something else. All too often, parents who can't afford to bring their children in try to care for their medical needs through long phone calls with doctors. When these uninsured kids show up, it's only when their condition is too bad to ignore. A once easy-to-care-for illness has become something serious.

These are the parents and the doctors who provide care for their children. These are the voices of the still unresolved children's insurance problem.

Richard Kipling works for the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting.

Free Dental Work For Kids

2010-01-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

Omaha, NE (KPTM) - Getting kids to go the dentist can be a challenging task.

But one program is making it easy for both kids and parents to polish the pearly whites.

It's called "Give Kids a Smile" and it was held today at the Douglas County Health Department Dental Clinic.

Ronald McDonald was there performing magic tricks and kids were having fun.

It sure didn't look like your normal dentist visit, but this event brightened the smiles on a lot of kids' faces. 6–year–old Lyssa Halterman is one.

It's probably because going to the dentist is a scary thing for most young kids.

But this event provides free dental work to youngsters who may not have gotten it otherwise.

"Dental care is the number one aliment with childhood diseases and a lot of kids just don't have access, parents can't afford it or don't have dental insurance so it's a big need," says Ronnett Davis, Supervisor of the Douglas County Health Department's Dental Clinic.

All the dental supplies were donated by local dentists, dental supply companies and the Ronald McDonald house.

About 10 dentists and 20 dental assistants are all volunteering their time and doing a little bit of everything.

"Basically we're providing exams, X–rays, cleaning, fluoride treatment, sealants, some restorations, some extractions, it just depends on the child," says Davis.

All of that work coming free of charge is important for the parents as well.

"It teaches children to take care of their teeth because you don't want your teeth rotting, so I think it's a pretty good deal," says Antanas Lizdas who brought his 2 kids to the event.

The Omaha District Dental Society and Douglas County Health Department teamed up for the "Give Kids a Smile" event.

This was the second year of the event and they look forward to continuing it in the years to come.

Program for Children Has Uncertain Future

2010-01-10T03:46:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON — As Democratic Congressional leaders work to merge the House and Senate versions of major health care legislation, a big question is what they will do about the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which now provides coverage to more than nine million children and pregnant women and is expected to cover more than 14 million by 2013.

The House bill, by contrast, would end CHIP and redirect the millions of children either to Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor, or to new health insurance exchanges where moderate-income Americans would be able to buy private coverage using new federal subsidies to help offset the cost.

Unlike many of the issues facing Senate and House negotiators, the question of what to do with CHIP is not just a cerebral policy point. In recent years, states have made huge strides in covering children, particularly those in low- and moderate-income families, and experts say those gains could be put at risk.

“Attention must be paid to the possibility that some children who lose CHIP coverage could fall through the cracks and become uninsured,” Genevieve M. Kenney and Allison Cook wrote last month in a brief prepared for the Urban Institute, the Washington research group.

Some House Democrats, including Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and a lead author of the health care legislation, have said it is difficult to defend a stand-alone government insurance program for children once subsidies are available for entire families.

In Transition, Risks

But many children’s health advocates cite numerous risks. Simply shifting children from one program to another could result in some losing coverage, even on a temporary basis. And there is a chance that parents, even with new subsidies, will find coverage unaffordable and choose not to buy it for themselves or their children, despite a new mandate in both bills that nearly everyone obtain coverage.

Then there are more complicated situations, like those of children whose parents have mixed immigrant status. Under both the Senate and House bills, illegal immigrants would not be eligible for the insurance subsidies.

Some experts project that as many as 14 percent of children with health care through government programs come from such families. And while the bills would provide for the creation of child-only insurance policies, it is unclear how those policies would work and whether children would face difficulties obtaining coverage that way.

The bills also seek to push people with access to employer-sponsored health insurance to buy it, allowing exemptions only for families for whom such coverage would be extremely expensive. Many low-income workers already choose to enroll their children in CHIP because private coverage is too costly.

“The country has made remarkable progress in covering kids in recent years because of the success of CHIP and its companion program, Medicaid,” said Jocelyn A. Guyer, co-executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. “It would be a major problem if health reform undercut these gains by shutting CHIP down too abruptly or by moving kids into coverage that isn’t as affordable and as well-designed to get them the care they need to develop and grow.”

In an effort to tilt the debate in favor of maintaining CHIP as a standalone program, Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Casey prevailed upon the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, to include two more years of federal financing — through 2015 — which would serve as a bridge beyond the creation of insurance exchanges, where people would be able to buy subsidized private coverage.

Under the Senate bill, state-based exchanges would begin in 2014. The House bill calls for a national insurance exchange to begin in 2013.

Factoring in Medicaid

Tied directly to the question of CHIP’s future is the proposed expansion of Medicaid to include many more low-income Americans, particularly childless adults.

Medicaid would grow under both measures, with eligibility expanded to individuals and families earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (currently about $29,327) under the Senate bill, and up to 150 percent of the poverty level ($33,075) under the House bill.

States have generally expressed apprehension about the proposed Medicaid expansion, because they would eventually share in the cost of covering new enrollees. Medicaid generally provides more comprehensive coverage than CHIP, but potentially offers fewer choices of doctors and other health providers because of Medicaid’s low payment rates. States currently must provide Medicaid coverage to all children through age 5, from families earning up to 133 percent of the poverty level, and to children ages 6 to 18 with family income up to 100 percent of the poverty level.

The House bill, in addition to more broadly expanding Medicaid eligibility, would also increase payment rates for primary care physicians — a step that many health advocates say is needed to improve access to providers for children and adults. The Senate bill does not increase Medicaid payment rates.

In a statement after the Senate adopted its health care bill on Dec. 24, Dr. Irwin Redlener, president of the Children’s Health Fund, a New York-based advocacy group, praised the preservation of CHIP, but criticized the Senate bill for not lifting Medicaid payment rates. “Unfortunately, the Senate bill fails to improve reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers and omits a provision to automatically enroll otherwise uninsured infants, both of which were in the House bill,” Dr. Redlener said.

The Fight Ahead

Mr. Rockefeller, in an interview just before the Senate adopted its bill, said that he was prepared to battle against his colleagues in the House to preserve CHIP in the final health care legislation. “I am not going to drop kids,” he said.

But Mr. Rockefeller also said he was optimistic that House Democratic leaders, however reluctant, would make the adjustments needed to get the final legislation through the Senate, where Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote.

“The House doesn’t like the Senate, anyway,” he said. “I don’t blame them.”

News digest of local media -- Child insurance

2010-01-10T03:44:00.000-08:00

At a strong push from local attorney C.V. Chen to prevent insurance fraud involving the murder of minors, the legislature on Thursday passed an amendment to the Insurance Law that bars any compensation in the event of the death of insured children aged under 15.
The following is a digest of some local media reports on this topic (Jan. 8,2010): United Daily News: The amendment forbids any payments at all in the event of the death of an insured child less than 15 years of age.

It requires that if a minor is insured for accidental death and dies before 15 years of age, the insurer shall return the premium plus interest accrued.

Under the existing law, the beneficiary can receive up to NT$2 million (US$62,700) in funeral expenses for an insured minor aged 14 or under, or those diagnosed as suffering from a mental disorder who die before the age of 14.

The amendment was written to reduce ethical risks to children at the urging of C.V. Chen, a local attorney and president of the Republic of China Red Cross Society.

Although there is no provision for death benefits to the beneficiary of the policy in the event of the death of an insured child, the funeral payout can still be an attractive enough incentive for parents to murder their children, said Chen, while explaining his motive to push forward the law revision.

Hailing the passage of the revision as a manifestation of society caring about children's human rights, Chen said it is the results of concerted efforts of the Legislative Yuan, the administrative sectors and media outlets.

Liberty Times: With the amendment not to retroactively apply to insurance policies sold prior to the amendment, about 520,000 insured minors will be not affected by the amendment.

Regarding accidental death insurance for insured who are mentally challenged, the amendment provides that in addition to funeral expenses, all other death benefits are void.

The amount of funeral expenses is limited to 50 percent (which currently is NT$555,000) of the deductible amount set forth in the Estate and Gift Tax Law. There have been numerous cases of murder for the purpose of claiming life insurance benefits, according to data provided by police authorities and insurance businesses.

As an example, Chen Jui-chin was sentenced to death in 2004 for a record fifth time for killing three sons and two wives for about NT$18 million in insurance payments between 1985 and 1998.

China Times: The amendment will not be retroactive, which minimizes the impact on insurance companies.

The amendment states clearly that a policy holder must be 15 or above before death benefits can be received in the event of the policyholder's death.

In future, if a policyholder under 15 dies, the only benefits that can be collected are the original premium fees plus interest.

The Ultimate Back-to-School Health Checklist

2009-08-19T21:23:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK -- The first day of school always requires preparations -- notebooks, pens and a new set of clothes. But don't forget to prepare for your child's health, says Dr. Luz Adriana-Matiz, pediatrician and medical director of Win For Asthma at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. "Children spend the majority of their days in the classroom and the first step to achieving a healthy school environment is to have healthy students."

Dr. Romina Wancier, assistant attending pediatrician in the Division of General Academic Pediatrics at the NewYork-Presbyterian Phyllis and David Komansky Center for Children's Health and instructor of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College, adds, "Your child should be physically and mentally prepared to go back to school. By ensuring a healthy start, parents can lay the groundwork for children to achieve their highest academic and extracurricular potential."

Dr. Adriana-Matiz and Dr. Wancier provide parents and caregivers with tips to help their kids get a smart start to the academic year.

* Are your child's immunizations up-to-date? The last thing you want is for your child to be turned away from school on the first day because he or she is not properly immunized. If you have recently moved from one state to another, check to see if your child meets the new state's regulations. In addition, new immunizations, such as hepatitis B, are now required. Check with your child's pediatrician.

* Has your child been vaccinated against influenza? More than 36,000 people die every year from influenza (flu). Children, the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions such as asthma and chronic lung disease are at greater risk for contracting influenza and experiencing its complications. The influenza virus changes every season so your child needs to be immunized every year against this illness. As you prepare to send your child back to school, make an appointment to have your child immunized.

* Have you noticed your child scratching his or her scalp since camp ended? It may be a sign that a case of lice was contracted during the summer. It is important that you check your child's head yourself, and, if you are unsure, contact the school nurse or your child's pediatrician. Head lice will not go away by itself, but can be treated with over-the-counter remedies.

* Does your child receive medication on a regular basis for diabetes, asthma or another chronic problem? School nurses and teachers must be made aware of your child's needs, especially if they are the ones who administer the medicine. Be sure to speak with them about these procedures before school begins, and work out an emergency course of action in case of a problem. Make sure emergency medications are close at hand -- that your child, their teacher and the nurse know where they are.

* Have your child's vision screened. It is important for children to have an annual vision screening because young children, especially, often don't know if they can't see adequately. If your child wears glasses, be sure that the prescription is current. If your child cannot see, they cannot learn properly.

* Have your child's hearing tested. Most states now mandate hearing tests for babies. But many school-age children have not been tested. If your child is listening to the television or music at a very high volume, or tends to favor one ear over the other when listening to you speak, it may be a sign of hearing loss.

* Does your child eat breakfast? Studies show that children who eat breakfast are more alert in class. Also, be sure that your child has a balanced, nutritious lunch, whether it is one you send or one provided by the school cafeteria. If your child is allowed to bring a snack, try to avoid junk food and focus more on fruits and other healthful food.

* Be equipped for sports. For children who wear glasses, the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends one-piece wraparound polycarbonate sports frames for all contact sports, including soccer, field hockey and basketball. All children wearing spectacles need sports frames for gym. All children are being urged to use sports frames for contact sports.

* Is your child anxious and apprehensive? Most children are naturally anxious about the new school year. It normally takes about a month for children to adjust to new situations. A new school, fear of a class bully, or taking a school bus for the first time may cause anxieties. If after a few weeks your child continues to be anxious and apprehensive, bring this to the attention of his or her teacher so that you can identify the source of his or her anxiety and work out a solution.

* Do you suspect a learning disability or dyslexia? If you suspect that your child is not processing information as he or she should, speak to the teacher or learning center in your child's school as soon as possible. A professional diagnosis usually requires two days of testing.

* Are your emergency phone numbers up-to-date? Make sure that the school and your child know how to reach you or another caregiver at all times. The school administration and teachers should always know how to reach you if there is an issue that needs to be discussed.

Looking Beyond The Public Option

2009-08-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration claims its motivation for a public plan option--government insurance for all--rests on the more fundamental goal of increasing competition among health insurance providers. But we now hear rumblings that the "public option" is not necessarily a required part of the administration's reform package.

The public backlash against the public option seems to have yielded reconsideration--and no wonder. We already know a "public option" actually reduces access and choice of health insurance coverage to Americans. Public insurance expansions erode private insurance coverage, rather than provide coverage to the uninsured. They also increase the likelihood that small-business employers limit their coverage, cutting back on employees' choices to funnel them into subsidized government plans. Choice of insurance is reduced, not increased, by a public option.

We also know that the costs of a public plan would represent a massive burden to taxpayers. Look at Hawaii, our most recent failed experiment with universal government insurance. Just seven months after offering the only state-wide universal child health care insurance program in the country, Hawaii terminated the program because public funds had essentially replaced private coverage that children already had. More than 80% of those taking up the state's insurance for children were already covered by private insurance. Massive costs were shifted onto taxpayers from those who were already buying their own insurance. When this happens, costs to the American taxpayer end up dramatically increasing.

Here are five straightforward steps the government could take, right now, that would increase the competitiveness in the health insurance markets.

First, allow a national market for health insurance so people can shop for insurance they actually want to buy at competitive prices. It is ill-conceived, unnecessary and self-defeating to force Americans to restrict their purchases to in-state goods or services. Government can rapidly lower the price of health insurance by breaking down these anti-competitive barriers that result in shocking price variations--on the order of several multiples--among states for equivalent health coverage.

One specific and immediate action would be to allow small businesses to band together through trade associations to purchase coverage for their employees. If regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, they would be exempt from state health insurance mandates and regulations. Just like large businesses, small businesses need this capacity now, so their employees could get coverage they actually want while saving money compared with bloated plans they don't desire. Since small-business employees make up the biggest proportion of uninsured workers, this one change would have a high impact.

Second, government can force a more transparent system, ensuring that Americans have a clear understanding of the price and quality of their doctors and hospitals. They would also have enough information about health and diseases to make informed, value-conscious decisions.

Let's leave the experts--medical scientists in their peer-reviewed literature--to determine efficacy and clinical utility. A far more important governmental role needs to be explored: to make transparent the pricing of medical procedures. Public knowledge of price will provide an impetus toward competitive pricing by both physicians and hospitals. In our current system, few patients are aware of the charges about to be incurred for their medical care, generally because patients have no reason to ask--the current third-party-payer structure makes patients believe that "someone else is paying." This has allowed hospitals and doctors to cloak their pricing methods in a shroud of mystery. The government should require posting of prices for medical procedures and services, as well as qualifications of doctors. Information is power, and price visibility is essential to coaxing competition.

Third, it is time to reduce the mandate-created distortions of health insurance markets. State-based mandates alone now number over 2,000 and are an abuse of government dictates. They increase insurance costs by anywhere from 20% to 50% and force Americans to buy policies covering massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractors, in vitro fertilization, wigs and other services used by only a small minority of American families.

Governments can put a halt to the unending stream of mandates advocated by these special interest groups and start stripping away some of these costly and ill-advised regulations. How about letting patients themselves decide what sort of coverage and benefits they want for their families by watching what they actually purchase, rather than declaring appropriate coverage as if they are naive children or simply incompetent?

Fourth, expand the availability and simplify the rules and regulations of lower-cost health plans with health savings accounts, like high deductible plans for catastrophic coverage. This will make insurance an attractive purchase for the millions of Americans who can afford insurance but choose (arguably wisely) to forgo buying something they consider a poor value with their money.

Health savings accounts increase choice for consumers, expand individual ownership and control over health spending, promote price visibility to allow value-based purchasing, and provide incentives for savings to prepare for future health care needs. Congress should allow more flexibility in employer contributions to "disease management accounts" in lieu of traditional third-party benefits. It should also support tax reform proposals to allow HSA balances to transfer to their children's HSA tax-free and permit holders of HSA plans who relocate because of a job change to purchase health insurance across state lines without being subject to state mandates.

Fifth, government can empower the consumer by revamping the tax treatment of health care expenses, so that all Americans will truly shop for--and ultimately own--their health insurance. A national system of refundable health care tax credits--actual cash even for those who pay no income tax--would foster personal ownership and control of health plans and increase the competition for a newly engaged and expanded market of consumers.

The essential portability of insurance truly owned and designed by American consumers eliminates the fear of job loss and exposure to financial disaster and creates a new group of value-seeking shoppers for insurance. Empowerment means having control of the health care dollar. This single policy change would reduce health expenditures on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars, simultaneously eliminating the crippling burden of health costs on American businesses created by historical accident rather than intention.

We know the disastrous consequences of opening government insurance to everyone under the guise of spurring competition. And we must be wary of any administration plan that forces guaranteed issue and community rating on private insurers as a "compromise" to dropping the public plan option. According to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, the cost of health insurance will increase 75% to 95% for most Americans who buy their own coverage in that scenario.

If Congress enacts reforms that remove artificial barriers and constructively open markets to competition, private sector creativity will generate innovative, low-cost insurance products for the tens of millions of newly empowered shoppers. In America's long history of innovation benefiting consumers with new products and services they value, that innovation has always come from the private sector, not government, and there is no reason the health insurance industry should be an exception.

Scott W. Atlas

Children's insurance helps generate funds

2009-08-19T21:19:00.001-07:00

Life insurance plays an important role in an individual's financial planning exercise. Insurance can assist individuals in planning for their own life stages as well as provide for their children's future.

It also secures a child's future in case of any unfortunate event. Various kinds of child insurance products are available in the market.

Parents need to build a sufficient corpus for their children . They should start planning for their children at an early age.

One of the biggest financial commitments for parents is to meet the expenses incurred in bringing up and settling their children. Child insurance plans play an important role in securing a child's future. With a number of children's insurance plans available in the market, it becomes difficult for most parents to evaluate them objectively.

The factors to be kept in mind include the timeframe for building a corpus, age at which the funds would be required, approximate amount needed to build the corpus, investment avenues to be considered and the amount available to the child in case of death of parents.

As inflation rises, the first impact is on the education sector. Planning for a child's future is an important step. It is advisable that parents go for a term policy.

That will take care of the child's financial needs in case of untimely death of any of the working parents. For the child's future, one can create a specific financial plan through systematic investment planning (SIP) in mutual funds.

Health Officials Urge Immunizations

2009-08-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

SAN ANTONIO -- As summer break comes to an end, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and its partners are making a final push for back-to-school immunizations.

Metro Health, the University Health System and the Northside Independent School District plan events in the coming weeks before school starts to maximize opportunities for families to have access to services. The goal is to prevent potentially life-threatening diseases like whooping cough, measles and meningitis.

There will be clinics throughout the city and a major immunization event on Aug. 18 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Freeman Coliseum. NISD officials said they plan to enforce a "no shots, no school" rule, which means that children without up-to-date shot records will not be allowed to attend class.

"It is one of the big jobs that our school nurses have," Shirley Schreiber, NISD director of health services, said of making sure that students are immunized. "So that it can be a safe and healthy environment."

New state-mandated immunizations will be required, especially for those children entering kindergarten or seventh grade.

Parents are also reminded to bring their child's most current shot record and insurance card when they their child immunized. No fees will be charged for children enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. For children with private health insurance, fees will be based on level of benefits.

Health officials said the new school year will pose an even bigger challenge due to the H1N1 flu virus. They said the virus continues to affect the community and expect a significant number of cases when school begins.

Kids will also need to be vaccinated against the virus when it comes available, probably in late October.

Governor signs bill assuring kids health insurance

2009-08-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

PORTLAND — Thousands of Oregon children without insurance can now get coverage for their medical care — and by January the same will be true for all youngsters in the state, following Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Tuesday signing of “Healthy Kids” legislation.

The Democratic governor’s signing of House Bill 2116 into law, along with his earlier approval of a companion bill, clears the way for one of Kulongoski’s longest-sought goals: bringing all Oregon children into the ranks of the insured, especially those whose parents don’t have access to private coverage and have not met low-income standards to qualify for the state-run Oregon Health Plan.

“We will, at long last, bring health care to every Oregon child,” Kulongoski said at a gathering of lobbyists, health care bureaucrats, politicians and even a young patient at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital on the campus of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

Through a combination of increased “provider taxes” on most Oregon hospitals and a new 1 percent tax on health insurance premiums, Oregon is adding 200,000 uninsured children and poor adults to the ranks of the insured.

Combined, the two taxes will generate between $300 million and $400 million in the next two years, jumping to about $500 million in 2011-13. Hospitals eventually supported the tax, because it’s expected to be fully offset by new federal Medicaid dollars coming to Oregon by the jump in state health care spending. Insurance companies stopped short of supporting the plan, instead agreeing not to oppose it while warning that it would drive up health care costs for companies and individuals who pay for private insurance.

Kulongoski said Congress, in the midst of its own debate on overhauling health care coverage, could take a lesson from Oregon.

“Together we have set Oregon on the path to create a health care system that will be a model for the rest of the nation,” Kulongoski said.

The expansion of coverage will be phased in until it’s fully in place in January.

Dr. Bruce Goldberg, head of the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the program, encouraged all families without insurance for their children to register now, either online or by telephone. Those who aren’t immediately eligible under federal poverty level guidelines will be enrolled as soon as they are eligible, Goldberg said.

Price of immunization shots to change

2009-07-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

A tight state budget for the new fiscal year may change the price of immunizations paid by some families in the Magic Valley. State-provided immunizations for all children, regardless if they're covered by health insurance, ended on July 1st.

To help alleviate what officials with the South-Central Public Health District are calling a considerable financial burden, they will continue to bill Blue Cross of Idaho or Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, for families with coverage.

The health district will require an initial 20 percent payment at the time of the immunizations, with the remaining 80 percent of the costs billed to the child's parent or guardian.

Families enrolled in Medicaid, those with no health insurance, or health insurance that doesn't cover immunizations will continue to receive the state-provided immunizations through the 'Vaccine For Children' Program.

Many children without coverage

2009-07-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

Craig — Listen to health care officials, and they’ll say it hasn’t been easy persuading families to enroll their children into Medicaid or Child Health Plan insurance, even when those children are eligible and uninsured.

Evette Simmons, eligibility and outreach coordinator for the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association, said her office tried several gimmicks, with varying effectiveness.

However, despite the fact that children’s Medicaid and CHP insurance costs nearly are nonexistent for enrolled families, some still are reluctant to sign up.

Simmons hopes a $40 million grant package for children’s health insurance — announced Monday and available through federal recovery funds — may help the VNA carry its message further.

That message is simple: Providing health insurance to children is important.

“That’s a question like, ‘Why should people be insured,’” Simmons said. “To be eligible and be able to get that coverage but just not do it, is a shame.”

A widespread shame in Moffat, Routt and Rio Blanco counties, she added.

Of the children eligible for Medicaid or CHP insurance in Moffat County, an estimated 20.5 percent are uncovered, equal to 217 children.

In Rio Blanco County, that number jumps to 22.8 percent, or 99 children.

Routt County has the worst participation rate, with 38.2 percent of eligible children — or 323 children — now without insurance.

As tough as the numbers are, though, they may, in fact, be worse, Simmons said. Each of those estimates is based on 2007 data, collected before the recession forced the region’s unemployment rates to double.

Simmons said the Colorado Health Foundation recently quoted a statistic that about 19,000 people across the state lose their health insurance for every percentage point increase in statewide unemployment.

Those numbers won’t directly translate to Northwest Colorado, but Simmons said there is a correlation between fewer people with health care coverage and rising unemployment, which has struck this region, too.

From September 2008, when the stock market began to crash, until May 2009, which is the most recent data available from the state, unemployment in Moffat County went from 3.4 percent to 6.7 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

During the same time period, the state recorded an increase in unemployment in Rio Blanco County from 2.3 percent to 5.5 percent.

State records also show Routt County, in addition to having the highest percentage of eligible but uninsured children, had the highest unemployment spike of the three counties, from 3.4 percent in September 2008 to 8.7 percent in May 2009.

“Those numbers of unenrolled children are really high, and they’re probably even a little higher now,” Simmons said.

The VNA is now assessing what benefit the government’s recovery grants may have.

Simmons said the grants are for “outreach,” but that’s a very broad term.

“Can we use it for staffing here, to bring people into the office, or for marketing?” she said. “And once we bring more people into the office to enroll their children, can we use any of the money for extra staffing to see those people?”

Hopefully, the money will enable the VNA to get more people to enroll their children, Simmons said, though she thinks the organization may have an uphill battle against some people’s perceptions.

“I think part of it is a stigma about Medicaid and CHP, especially in Routt County,” she said. “They don’t want to come out in public and say, ‘I need help.’ Some people say they’ll never go on Medicaid because they don’t want the government’s insurance.”

Getting people to be proactive and enroll their children in a health care plan before they need to see a doctor also can be a struggle, Simmons said.

“When you can’t pay your electricity bill, signing up for health insurance isn’t always a top priority,” she said.

The grant application will be a complicated process, and like all recovery grants, there won’t be much time before applications are due, Simmons said.

In that regard, the VNA hopes to know what grant applications it will submit by this week or early next week, she added.

However, residents don’t have to wait until then to enroll their children or see whether they’re eligible.

The VNA provides eligibility experts who can consult with families, Simmons said. VNA offices are at 745 Russell St. or 824-8233 in Craig, and 940 Central Park Dr., Suite 101, or 879-1632 in Steamboat Springs.

Medicaid and CHP eligibility is determined by family size and annual income. Simmons said a family’s cost to have a child insured under Medicaid is zero, while CHP can cost up to a one-time $25 enrollment fee for a year and $5 co-pays for office visits.

Children are eligible for both programs until age 19.

Children's bills approved by Legislature

2009-07-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

Three House bills affecting the care and education of the state’s youngest residents sailed through the Senate late Thursday and are headed to the governor for his signature.

The bills, all sponsored by Rep. Teresa Schooley, D-Newark, passed unanimously.

House Substitute for House Bill 119, gives schools more financial flexibility to shift public dollars into the classroom and away from administrative overhead.

House Bill 139 allows parents whose income exceeds the current limits for the Children's Health Insurance Program to purchase coverage. This will cost the state nothing because parents would buy into the program at the price the state would have spent.

House Bill 199 requires insurance carriers to cover developmental screenings for infants and toddlers, which has been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Early screenings, which cost about 3 cents per policy holder, will improve the detection of developmental problems and allow more effective treatment, proponents said.

The three bills were part of a package of five child-centered pieces of legislation advocated by Lt. Gov. Matt Denn, who held a rally outside Legislative Hall on Thursday to promote them. The two other bills, which both originated in the House, also passed the Senate later that day.

One replaces the Delaware Student Testing Program with a computerized test that students will take at least twice a year to benchmark their progress, with their highest results counting. The other bill creates a two-year academic achievement awards program to give financial incentives to the schools that make the most progress in educating at-risk children. The awards would be paid for using federal stimulus money.

Health insurance for all U.S. children would be a bargain, study finds

2009-06-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Some things make so much sense they shouldn’t need explaining. Take children’s health insurance. If it leads to better outcomes for kids, their families, their communities and the economy in general, and if it’s been shown to be substantially cheaper than the alternative, isn’t it worth serious consideration?

To most of the world, yes. But to the United States, and to Texas in particular, it’s apparently not a priority. The figures are disturbing.

Among the world’s 30 most developed countries, the United States is nosed out by only Mexico and Turkey for the highest percentage of uninsured — one in seven Americans, for a total of more than 46 million, 8 million of whom are children. Texas leads the nation in uninsured, with 5.5 million. Of these, about 1.5 million are children.

Yet studies have shown that investing in children’s health is a bargain, according to a timely report from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, “The Economic Impact of Uninsured Children on America,” by Vivian Ho, the institute’s chair in health economics and associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and Marah Short, a senior staff researcher in health economics.

They wrote that research provides “compelling evidence” that coverage of all American children would yield immediate health improvements as well as “long-term returns of greater health and productivity in adulthood.” And the bottom line is that while the “upfront incremental costs” are relatively modest, they will be more than offset by the value gained.

The research showed that a lack of health coverage currently costs about $15,500 per male child and $11,600 per female child in lost “health capital.” Other research suggested that insurance per child through age 18 would cost about $7,500.

We should be paying close attention: On the national front, President Barack Obama and Congress are engaging in the most drastic overhaul of health care in 40 years, in which children’s issues will play a major role.

Here in Texas, we have just witnessed the demise of bipartisan legislation that would have expanded the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover about 83,000 more Texas children, by including families who currently earn too much to qualify for the program, but still cannot afford private insurance.

It was sensible, cost-effective legislation, especially given that the federal government pays 72 cents of every dollar spent on CHIP, and state funds had already been set aside. But it fell victim to grandstanding from both parties on other issues, which ran out the clock, and to hints of a veto from Gov. Rick Perry were it to survive the session.

That’s just one example of what Obama, in a news conference Tuesday, called the “unsustainable” state of the nation’s health care. “Reform is not a luxury,” he said, “it is a necessity.”

Few would disagree. The trick will be how to effect that reform. Studies such as this one from the Baker Institute can be valuable tools in getting there.

Florida child first in state to die from swine flu

2009-06-18T01:23:00.000-07:00

Boston (HealthKnowItAll) - Health officials in the state of Florida have announced that a 9 year old boy is the first victim of swine flu to die in the state.

The boy haled from Miami-Dade County and is one of 417 Floridians to have fallen ill with the virus.

Since the outbreak of swine flu was reported earlier this year, globally more than 28,000 cases have been reported resulting in more than 100 deaths.

The virus originated in Mexico, and it is there where the majority of deaths have been reported.

Drug makers are rushing to develop a vaccine for the flu, but they say it will not be ready for up to 6 months.

Japan lifts ban on child organ transplants

2009-06-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's lower house voted to scrap a ban on child organ donations, paving the way for patients aged under 15 to receive life-saving transplants here for the first time.

Current law bans organ transplants by children, a situation which activists say has claimed thousands of lives and forced many families to send children in need of transplants on costly overseas trips for surgery.

Under Japanese law, transplants have been rare even for adults because tough rules require donors to give prior written consent to having their organs harvested when they are brain dead, while their families must also agree.

The amended bill would scrap the age limit and the need for prior consent, unless the person explicitly opposed having their organs used, but it would still require family members of the children to agree.

The bill was approved by 263 to 167 votes and sent to the opposition controlled upper house. If it is rejected in the upper chamber, a two thirds majority in the lower house could turn it into law anyway.

The major political parties had told their legislators to vote according to their conscience. Only the Japanese Communist Party abstained, claiming that deliberations had not been sufficient.

The bill would also recognise patients who are brain dead as legally dead, long a controversial topic in Japan where many religious groups say a person is only deceased once their heart and lungs have stopped.

Japan adopted an Organ Transplant Law in 1997, but since then only 81 transplants have been carried out, compared to several thousand each year in the United States and several hundred annually in Europe.

The long-debated reform plans were fast-tracked this year after the World Health Organization signalled it would ask signatory nations in early 2010 to limit organ transplants to within their national boundaries.

In the move against so-called transplant tourism, which seeks to limit abuses, Australia, Britain and Germany have already announced they will refuse Japanese patients seeking organ transplants.

Rising cost of child care leads more women to work from home

2009-06-18T01:18:00.000-07:00

According to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), there are more than 96,000 women in the workforce in Arkansas with children under the age of six. This is more than 63% of mothers in the state. The national numbers are even greater, with more than 9,000,000 mothers of small children currently employed outside the home. This translates to a huge amount of money being paid by these families each year for child care costs.

The average yearly child care cost in Arkansas is between $3,900 and $5,500. The national average is even higher with costs soaring to as much as $15,000 per year. However, these costs, or at least a significant portion of them, could be saved if just one parent could work from home or telecommute. Many companies offer telecommuting options and there are a plethora of legitimate work at home jobs out there. Many women have begun taking advantage of these opportunities and saving their families a bundle in the process.

Have You Joined the Work at Home Revolution?

If you’re one of the many women struggling to balance the cost of child care with other living expenses, there is hope. Legitimate work from home can be found with perseverance, and there are many companies that will allow you to telecommute for some or all of your work hours. If you have a job that would allow for home work, create a telecommuting proposal to present to your employer. Many employers are jumping on the telecommuting bandwagon as it cuts down on overhead costs and generally results in happier, more productive employees.

If your employer won’t allow telecommuting and you continue to struggle to pay for child care, it may be time to look elsewhere for employment. There are many different jobs which can be done from home for pay that rivals the state average income. Virtual assistants, freelance writers and graphic designers, editors, programmers, customer service representatives, and tutors are just some of the positions that can be found for the aspiring work at home mom (or dad). Taking a job with slightly lower pay that allows you to work from home could still be beneficial to your family if you consider the money saved on child care costs, gas, clothing, lunches, etc.

Work at Home Moms: The Future of Motherhood

We live in an age where data transfer and the speed of information exchange gives almost anyone the opportunity to stay at home and earn a living. The number of women who choose to work at home and remain the primary caregivers for their children has raised more than 60 percent from 1975 to 1990 according to the government’s last major population survey. These women do not pay for child care costs and are still able to contribute to, or in some cases provide all of, the family income.

The modern woman seems to want more out of her life and career than corporate jobs can provide. Professional freedoms, flexibility, and fulfillment are what many working mothers are seeking, and as such, they turn to telecommuting or work from home positions in large numbers. Not only does this choice negate the excessive costs of childcare, it also provides a way for her to be available to her family while still earning a salary.

Making it Work for You

Although not all jobs will lend themselves well to staying at home with children, some are extremely flexible. Customer service jobs often require blocks of quiet time in which to work on the phone. Mothers of young children may find this impossible. Women with little experience or technical skills may also feel that they could never work at home, but this just isn’t the case any longer.

Freelance writing from home requires no experience to get started, as well as more entrepreneurial undertakings such as becoming a content publisher or affiliate marketer. More experienced workers can also find suitable jobs which allow them to stay at home with their children, such as becoming a virtual assistant or freelance graphic designer. No matter who you are or what your background may be, in today’s world becoming a stay at home mom is no longer just a dream – it’s a reality, and child care costs may well become a thing of the past.

K-ID-napped

2009-06-10T02:34:00.000-07:00

Identity theft is on the increase, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and ever-enterprising identity thieves are spreading their range, finding new fields to sow and new victims to reap. Some of those victims are very new: infants and children. "It's one of the ID theft areas that's growing," says Lyn Chitow-Oakes, chief marketing officer for Trusted ID (www.trustedid.com), based in Redwood City, Calif., south of San Francisco, which offers ID protection services. Chitow-Oakes says the main reason for the increase "is that people are not thinking about it. And there are lots of ways of getting access to children's information. They're easy prey." Children are also easier to prey on because most now get a Social Security number at birth. Experts say you should guard that number as closely as you would protect your own. The Social Security Administration (www.ssa.gov/pubs/10023.html) says getting a Social Security number for a newborn is voluntary, "but it is a good idea." "If your child is born in the United States or is a U.S. citizen born abroad, you need a Social Security number to claim your child as a dependent on your income tax return," the agency Web site explains. "Your child may also need a number if you plan to open a bank account for the child, buy savings bonds for the child, obtain medical coverage for the child or apply for government services for the child."

To ease the process, parents can apply for a Social Security number for their baby when they apply for a birth certificate. "The state agency that issues birth certificates will share your child's information with us and we will mail the Social Security card to you," the Social Security Administration's Web site says.

The agency does recognize the potential for abuse.

"To verify a birth certificate, Social Security will contact the office that issued it. We do this verification to prevent people from using fraudulent birth records to obtain Social Security numbers to establish false identities."

However, the agency can't protect those numbers from people hovering over the cradles, figuratively speaking, waiting to steal them, Chitow-Oakes says.

Thieves use children's Social Security numbers the same way they do those of adults and even the recently deceased - primarily to open lines of credit or for employment fraud.

Chitow-Oakes says some thieves have even used the information in doctors' offices to acquire medical benefits under a false name. That's particularly dangerous where insurance companies place a cap on the dollar amount of benefits, she says. Imagine that the child needs expensive surgery and the parents discover that somebody has been exploiting the account. In many cases, medical records become commingled and trying to separate them becomes a nightmare, she adds.

UNDISCOVERED CRIME

What makes ID theft of children all the more insidious, she says, is that it can take years to uncover.

"If your child's identity is stolen, you may not find out for many years, maybe not until the child is 18 years old and looking to buy his first car or trying to take out a student loan," opening a bank account or applying for a first credit card.

Suddenly it turns up that somebody has rung up thousands of dollars of debt in the victim's name. And straightening out the record can take years.

The Associated Press recently reported that the San Diegobased Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter. org) is trying to help a 3-yearold whose Social Security number is being used by someone for employment purposes and "a 5-year-old whose identity is linked to driver's licenses, arrest warrants for drunken driving and a warrant for unpaid child support."

More than 34,000 reports of identity theft that came in to the Federal Trade Commission from 2005 to 2007 concerned children under age 18, the AP reports, noting that frequently, the thief is a parent or other relative.

That was the case for Randy Waldron Jr. of Revere, Mass., now 27, the AP reports.

Waldron's father allegedly began using his Social Security number in 1982. He didn't find out until 16 years later, when he was applying for college, that his father had run up a total of $22.5 million in debt in his son's name, including myriad accounts from unpaid utility bills to defaulted credit cards and back taxes. There was even an unpaid storage facility rental that had ballooned to a $10,000 debt.

Waldron says it has taken a decade and $30,000 in legal fees to clear his name, and "I am still hounded by credit card companies [and] collection agencies."

Gabe Holmstrom, a spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, says the attorney general's Consumer Protection Division has received "a couple [of] incidences" of identity theft of children, mostly the work of estranged parents. He said the office gets very few claims involving false credit histories established by outsiders or involving employment fraud.

The office's Web site, www. arkansasag.gov/identity_ theft_more_info.html, offers tips for protection against and how to report identity theft and links to other government agencies' identity theft sites.

UNGUARDED INFORMATION

Chitow-Oakes says ID thieves can also obtain data through school or community sports programs that ask parents for children's Social Security numbers and other identifying information.

Thieves also prey on older children online, as more and more children, teens and college-age adults frequent social networking sites or reveal identifying details in instant messages.

"They pose as people with like interests," she explains. "Maybe they claim to have a pet in common." It only takes a few seemingly innocent questions to obtain "all an identity thief needs."

To defend against online ID predators, she suggests making sure your profile is more private than public; don't share personal information; and, similarly to avoiding predators in the "real" world, don't talk to strangers.

At home, parents should make sure that children's personal information is stored safely, away from the possible prying eyes of caretakers or workers. Only share information that's absolutely necessary.

"The only real need for a Social Security number is to apply for a passport, for taxes or employment," she adds. "Your child normally isn't part of those activities."

For an added layer of protection, ask the three credit reporting agencies - Equifax, (888) 766-0008; Experian, (888) 397-3742; and TransUnion, (800) 680-7289 - for a copy of your child's credit report.

"If the child has a credit report, the child should not have a credit report," she says, because minors are unable to enter into contracts. It's pretty much proof-positive that somebody has stolen your child's identity.

Here are some other tips to protect your child's identity:

Shred all papers that contain account numbers or Social Security numbers before throwing them away.

Store your child's Social Security card in a safe place at home or in a safe-deposit box. Neither you nor your child should carry the card in a wallet.

If you receive a pre-approved credit application or similarly unusual offer in the mail in your child's name, investigate. Some banks may add a child's name to a mailing list if an account has been opened in his name; it could be a red flag that your child's identity has been compromised.

If you do discover a credit report in your child's name, ask to have all accounts, applications and collection notices removed and have a security freeze put on the file. It's free and it will remain on the file until you request it be removed or temporarily lifted.

Ask if adults who work with your child who might have access to sensitive information - such as coaches, scout leaders or other activity leaders - have had a background check. Also be careful when providing documents like birth certificates to activity leaders and ask to be notified if they will be shown to other people.

Child well-being slumps along with US economy: report

2009-06-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The recession has put US children at greater risk of everything from obesity, as parents substitute cheap fast food for healthy meals; to poverty, as adults lose jobs; to crime and instability, a report has found.

"We are in a period where, at least in economic well-being, we may be back where we were in 1975," Ruby Takanishi, head of the Foundation for Child Development which funded the 2009 Child Well-Being Index, told reporters at the launch of the report Wednesday in Washington.

The index, which uses US government data to assess how American children are doing in areas ranging from health to community-connectedness, shows that the welfare of US children began to decline last year as the country plunged into recession, and projected it would continue its downward slide.

"As the impact of the current recession reverberates through parents' employment and income patterns in families, as people are forced to move, lose their houses or otherwise have severe economic restrictions on what they can do, there will be impacts on child well-being," said Kenneth Land, research coordinator for the index.

Comparing current data with information from past recessions, the report predicts that child well-being will continue to sour until at least 2010, even though, said Land, economists are projecting that the economy will round the corner this year.

"The decline in child well-being will be driven most directly by the decline of material well-being," Land said.

"The number and percentage of children living below the poverty line will go up. The percentage of children living with at least one parent employed full-time, year-round will decline as the impact of job loss is felt," he said.

Median family income was projected to decline as unemployment rises, and single-parent families headed by men would be the hardest hit because more jobs are being cut in sectors like construction, dominated by male workers, than those in which women traditionally work, such as health care and education.

The decrease in family economic well-being would be felt in the short term and long term by children.

"Extreme deprivation and poverty in early childhood ... and persistent poverty really matter in terms of cognitive outcomes and later life economic outcomes," said Greg Acs, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute's Income and Benefits Policy Center.

Another danger faced by American children enduring economic hardship was "recession obesity", said Land.

"There is a concern that parents will substitute fast food, high carbohydrate and high sugar-content food, for healthy food, and that this will cause an uptick in the rate of overweight children and adolescents," he said

Nearly 32 percent of US children are overweight and 16 percent are obese, according to a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

With obesity bringing with it a higher risk of developing heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes, a rise in the rate of obesity would mean a fall in children's overall health, the Index predicted.

To compile the Index, researchers at Duke University analyzed dozens of indicators to to assess how American children are faring today, compare their current situation with the past, and project what they might face in the future.

"Mortality rates for children aged 1-19 in past recessions have picked up a bit and so we anticipate this may occur again," Land said.

"In past recessions, we've seen an upturn in the rate of violent crime among adolescents ... We anticipate this will occur again," he said.

A growing number of youths aged 16 to 19 were found by the researchers to be neither working nor in school, leaving them particularly vulnerable to delinquency and crime, said Land.

A unique aspect of the current recession, the housing crisis, could also add to the disruption brought to American children's lives by the economic downturn.

"Residential mobility typically slows down in recessions, allowing kids to maintain social connections with friends, peers, family and their neighborhood.

"But because this recession started with the housing crisis, there's a lot more loss of homes and mobility will be less reduced," said Land.

Top five tips to help manage your family's health

2009-06-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

(ARA) - As kids head to summer camp or back to school this fall, moms everywhere will be digging through their files searching for immunization records and other health information. Some will find exactly what they need with just a few flips through an organized file cabinet. But many busy moms will be sifting through piles, shoe boxes, or drawers full of papers trying to find the most recent health records.

Managing health information, making appointments, keeping track of medications, and monitoring self-care recommendations are just a few of the routine tasks of today's family health advocate, a role often played by mom. In addition to managing their kids' health and their own, many moms are also in charge of managing health matters for their spouse or partner, and sometimes an elderly parent or other relative.

Taking care of yourself and your family can be overwhelming at times. Mayo Clinic suggests five tips for managing your family's health:

1. Ask yourself a few questions.
Take a few minutes to sit down and figure out the questions you'll most likely be asked in the event of an emergency or in common healthcare situations. If your child's school nurse called today and asked for his health history, what details would you be able to provide? If your mother fell in the shower, would you have access to critical information needed by emergency caregivers?

2. Get organized.
It seems that health information is never where you need it, when you need it. An online tool like the Mayo Clinic Health Manager gives you the opportunity to store and update personal health records and those of your family members. This free and secure online application gives you a place to store medical information and receive real-time individualized health guidance and recommendations based on the expertise of the Mayo Clinic. You can give access to family members or your doctor and use the tool no matter where you receive medical care. The Mayo Clinic Health Manager isn't just a place to store and organize your health information, it helps you become more active and engaged in your healthcare.

3. Make doctor visits more efficient.
The time you spend with your doctor is typically brief, but valuable. Take advantage of your time by arriving to the appointment prepared. Before you go, write down any questions you have so you don't forget to ask them. Bring a list of any medications, vitamins and supplements you're taking.

"I truly appreciate when my patients are actively engaged and informed about their health," says Dr. Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel, a primary care physician. "The Mayo Clinic Health Manager can help patients share information more easily with their doctors and manage their own health better between office visits."

4. Know and use your history to be more proactive.
Use the Mayo Clinic Health Manager to track wellness visits and immunizations for you and your family, as well as to gain control of medication schedules and chronic condition symptoms. Sharing this information with your doctor could help determine future treatment.

5. Build your health assets.
Finances, retirement savings and home equity are all viewed as long-term personal management projects, but people don't often see their health the same way. Look at your health as a long-term investment and take steps to quickly address any issues while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Health Reform that Works for Kids

2009-06-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

Congress has set the stage for further steps toward providing affordable coverage for all Americans with the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and significant investments in health care infrastructure in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. As the nation’s attention turns to systemic health reform, one challenge will be to ensure that all children enjoy stable, affordable coverage.

Leaders of the push for health reform appear committed to ensuring that all children enjoy the health benefits and enhanced financial security of health coverage. Yet proposals currently under development in Congress will not automatically achieve this goal. Current proposals pay more attention to expanding coverage for uninsured working-age adults than for uninsured children, while delivery system reforms may not necessarily benefit pediatric patients. Congress must ensure that systemic health reforms work for children. Children’s advocates will need to identify and pursue opportunities embedded within health care reform proposals to ensure that all children will have affordable, meaningful coverage that meets their unique needs.

Congress is now weighing new approaches to providing affordable coverage for all Americans. Congressional committees have not yet released initial legislation, but it is already evident from option papers and other materials that the legislation will build on the framework of “shared responsibility,” also embraced by President Barack Obama’s campaign plan. This approach seeks to expand health coverage and reform the health care delivery system through a combination of public insurance program expansions, subsidies for private coverage, restructuring the health insurance market, and investments in delivery system improvements.

How well these reforms will work for children is an open question. Policymakers must carefully consider their choices to ensure that all children can enjoy the benefits of health coverage.

Psychiatric Drug Use on the Rise

2009-05-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

Psychiatric drug prescriptions have soared amongst Americans, with 73 percent more adults and 50 percent more children using such drugs in 2006 compared to a decade earlier.

Seniors citizen prescriptions have doubled in the same time period.

The researchers, Sherry Glied and Richard Frank, attribute the increase in prescriptions to primary care doctors becoming more familiar with psychotropic medications, not to a trend in over-prescribing medications for concerns that in the past would have been treated by other methods (or simply left untreated).

The researchers also suggest that lower-cost drugs have become more widely available and that their data reflects an overall trend in improved access to mental health care.

“Greater availability of medications to treat conditions like Alzheimer’s and increased access to prescription drugs through the Medicare Modernization Act may have also played a role in doctors’ prescribing drugs to seniors,” said Sherry Glied, Professor and Chair of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, at Columbia University.

The researchers examined national prescribing data from 1996 to 2006.

Rather than a trend toward overprescribing, this trend reflects improved access as more insurance companies are offering mental health services and more psychiatrists are accepting health insurance, according to the authors.

Children’s access has grown through the expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The number of children diagnosed and treated for mental health conditions during primary care visits doubled between 1996 and 2006.

In addition, more people with serious mental illnesses are imprisoned or incarcerated. The authors estimate that 7 percent of people with persistent mental illnesses are put in jail or prison every year.

In a related study, Richard Frank, Professor of Health Economics at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues found that mental health care spending grew 17 percent from 2001 to 2003, exceeding historical averages, which the authors attribute to increased spending on new prescription drugs.

Source: Health Affairs

Don’t toy with children’s health – Parents told

2009-05-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

Mr. Justice Quansah, Project Co-ordinator of Compassion International (CI), a Non-Governmental Organization, has advised parents and guardians of beneficiary children of the child development project being implemented by the NGO to take good care of the diets of their children.

He said parents could use vegetables and other locally-produced items to prepare balanced diets for their children instead of relying on imported ingredients.

Mr. Quansah was addressing parents and guardians of beneficiary children at an orientation course at Kasoa Pentecost Child Development Centre.

He disclosed that over 200 children have been registered under the Compassion International Child Development Project since it commenced work in the area.

Mr. Mark Zutah, project health worker, reminded participants that it was only when their children were properly fed that they could absorb what their teachers impart to them.

He said whereas the NGO and the Church were doing their best to promote the spiritual and educational well-being of the children, parents and guardians of the beneficiary children must also play their part to protect their good health.

Mr. Patrick Ozor and Mr. Francis Donkor, both workers of the project, stressed the need for participants to adopt prudent financial measures in whatever business they pursue to ensure maximum returns to supplement what the NGO is providing for their children’s development.

Earlier, Mr. J. Y. Owusu-Kwarteng, Public Relations Officer of the Awutu Effutu Senya Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (AESMHIS) had taken participants through the various aspects of the health insurance policy.

Mr. Owusu-Kwarteng reminded Ghanaians who have not as yet registered with the Scheme of the need to avail themselves of the immense benefits the policy provides, and counselled such people not to waste anymore time to register with the Scheme.

He also urged all premium holders of the Scheme to ensure that their Health Insurance ID Cards were renewed in good time to avoid embarrassments during critical times.

Parenting and the high cost of autism

2009-04-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

education, a release to adulthood. When upon this cycle is added the filter of autism, those concerns and costs easily balloon, sometimes to unmanageable levels.

Today 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism, with a new case diagnosed every 20 minutes and is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States. Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or limited activities and interests.

Because autism is a neurological condition and can be triggered by multiple factors, there is neither single cause nor single therapeutic treatment for improving the lives of those with ASD. Rather, there are multiple options, various possibilities that – based on the severity of the individual’s autism – may have differing results. One thing is clear, early identification and intervention is a key component in affording a better opportunity for mainstreaming into general society. This education and these therapies, however, are often times quite costly, sometimes ruinously so.

Children, ages 5 to 11, who attend the Brooklyn Autism Center Academy which offers intensive educational instruction as one example have an annual tuition of $85,000 per year. Individual therapists can easily run $100-200 or more per hour, with a child’s needs easily requiring dozens of hours a week in therapy. While there is a general tide – slowly turning – for health insurance companies to cover some of these costs, there is no universal coverage across every state in the country, and many therapies are not covered at all. Families are often forced to choose between financial stability and going out of pocket for treating their child. It is not uncommon in this cycle for families to dig themselves into debt, sell their assets, and in some cases be forced into foreclosure or bankruptcy over the medical costs incurred in seeking to better their autistic child’s circumstances.

The costs for a child with autism only continue on as that child grows into an adult, as more social services are required for that person over his or her lifetime. According to a Harvard School of Public Health study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in the spring of 2007, the typical American spends about $317,000 over his or her lifetime in direct medical costs, incurring 60% of those costs after age 65 years. In contrast, people with autism incur about $306,000 in additional direct medical costs, implying that people with autism spend twice as much as the typical American over their lifetimes and spend 60% of those incremental direct medical costs after age 21 years. The societal costs to support a single person with autism is $3.2 million over his or her lifetime, and as a group, upwards of $35 billion each year in direct (both medical and nonmedical) and indirect costs to care for all individuals diagnosed with ASD.

There are organizations, such as Easter Seals, that provide a variety of services and programs to help defray some of these costs, as well as new organizations such as Aid for Autistic Children Foundation, Inc. that seek to help those families who are in financial distress from helping their children. More such programs need to be created and supported to aid not only those with autism but the families that are bearing the financial burden of guiding these children into adulthood.

Schools will lose nurses as their roles become more demanding than ever

2009-04-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

HAMPTON — A brown-haired girl muffles a constant cough as she walks into the clinic at Booker Elementary. She shows a freshly-ripped thumbnail to the nurse.

Martha Wayman bandages the thumb, listens to the girl's lungs with a stethoscope, then calls her mother to recommend cough medicine.

Next year, students may not find such quick help when they stop by their school's clinic.

Every school will open with a full-time nurse but may lose them through attrition. When nurses resign, schools with 299 or fewer students will be allotted a half-day nurse. Four schools have enrollment lower than 300 in Hampton.

The shift is a casualty of a $7.6 million shortfall in the district's budget.

Losing full-time nurses will move the 22,500-student school system at least a decade back in progress, said Linda Lawrence, the district's health services coordinator.

The responsibility for health care will fall to teachers and secretaries if a nurse isn't available, Wayman said, and staff will have to dial 911 if they can't handle a situation.

At Booker, Wayman works daily with two diabetic fourth graders. They measure their blood sugar in her clinic, count carbs after they eat lunch and calculate how much insulin they need.

Students with asthma drop by her office to puff on their inhalers. Others come in with stomach aches to lie down. A line forms after lunch time of students who need daily behavior medication.

Chronic illnesses have shot up in the past few years, Lawrence said. As of October, there were 3,300 asthmatic students and 780 received inhalers at school.

There were 149 students with documented seizure disorders, 1,612 students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. About 140 students have epi-pens at the school clinic for severe food allergies.

Without a full-time nurse on staff, the burden to treating students will cut into a teacher's day, Wayman said. She's worked at Booker for six years.

"It'll be hard for everybody," she said. "If the kids are sick, they may not be learning. I just don't think teachers should have to be nurses, they are busy, busy, busy."

Fourth-grade teacher Nancy Trimble has worked at Booker for 36 years and remembers the days when nurses weren't there full time.

"Now we much more readily send a child to the clinic because we know there's an expert there," she said. "If someone's not there, we'd have to screen them more carefully, which takes us away from instructional time."

And since she's not a triage nurse, Trimble said there's more room for error when untrained staff members treat children.

She sends children to Wayman about three times a week for everything from diabetes treatment to sore throats.

"She's very alert to every child's needs," Trimble said. "She personalizes every child."

As more parents lose jobs and insurance because of the economy, Wayman anticipates them depending even more on school nurses.

Special delivery : Pediatric dentists try to give kids the care without the scares

2009-04-22T02:56:00.000-07:00

Raquel Gari and her husband took their son, Jacob, for his first dental visit when he was 2.

“It was traumatizing to him,” she remembers. “He got sick to his stomach, he was so nervous.”

It didn't help that she and her husband have their own fears of the dentist, “but we knew we had to do it.”

After that bad experience, the Garis started searching for another dentist. Raquel asked about 100 parents for recommendations and found that most of them had not yet taken their young children in for treatment.

“Most of them had the same fears I had about going to the dentist,” she says, and were delaying that first visit.

That's not always possible for families who can't find a dentist who will take their insurance or have no insurance at all, but the foundation is among those advocacy groups working on that, too, because the American Academic of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that children see a dentist after the first tooth appears or by age 1.
The Garis know that now, and they know that Jacob's cavity probably was the result of on-demand breast-feeding in the night, with no cleaning of his teeth afterward, leaving milk sugars to eat away at the enamel of his teeth, making him vulnerable to decay. The same is true, say dentists, for children who toddle around all day and go to bed at night, with a “sippy” cup of juice. Juice is good for kids, but the sugary liquid constantly bathing their teeth is not.

Del Fierro says the increased attention on dental health issues specific to children came about because, while the general population is enjoying a decrease in cavities, children are not.

“The main thing for earlier visits is to educate parents to prevent progression of tooth decay. I see a 3-, 4-and 5-year-olds with rampant decay – in neighborhoods where you wouldn't think of this as being a problem.”

Some of the push for earlier visits is due to the development of the pediatric dental specialty. There are about 400 of them throughout the state of California, says Cohen. His organization, pediatric dentists and others have campaigned for more public awareness of the need for even infants to get that first assessment.

“The general thought before was the kids weren't cooperative until age 3,” says Dr. Jean Chan, a pediatric dentist in El Cajon, who treats quite a number of children 2 and younger.

The first things these professionals say to do is find a dentist, one you trust and one who makes your child feel comfortable. Even if it takes visiting several offices. And determine whether, given your insurance coverage and personal preferences, whether you want a general or pediatric dentist. That, too, may take a few visits.

Make appointments early in the day when the child is well rested.
Please do not bribe your child to go to the dentist or threaten a visit as a punishment.

Del Fierro explains that “a lot of the first visit is a routine type of exam. We look at the teeth, if they have them, and make sure they look normal, sometimes we clean the teeth or do a fluoride treatment.”
And there always is a lot of talk about diet and properly brushing and flossing. So much so, say the Reis and Gari families, that their children bug them if the parents dare to forget the rituals.

Chan's office does what she calls an orientation visit.

“It's free,” she says. “The parent comes in with the child, we walk around the office; we show on a stuffed animal what to expect at the first visit; and we mimic what we're going to do. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes.”
Chan says it's all about de-sensitizing the children, helping them feel comfortable and safe.

“I taught swim lessons when I was younger, and I had to teach children to get over their fear of water,” says Chan, who takes the same approach as a dentist. “If we do our job right, we build a relationship – with the parent and the child. We work together to get the job done.”

HELPING KIDS CARE FOR THEIR TEETH

Pediatric dentists Jean Chan and Dino Del Fierro both address the importance of brushing and flossing with new patients and their parents. And they encourage parents to not only model those behaviors but also do them for their children until youngsters are able to use dental products on their own. Here are some tips on caring for kids' teeth.
After the first teeth appear, the doctors say it's crucial for parents to wipe the teeth with a washcloth after an infant drinks milk or juice to remove the sugars inherent in both.
In between meals and after brushing your teeth at night, stick with water for drinking purposes.
When it comes to brushing, use a soft-bristle brush that is the right size for the child's mouth. “If the brush is too big, it can't angle properly in a small mouth,” Chan explains. “Look at the packaging. Usually ages are printed on the package.” The dentists says electric toothbrushes, toothbrushes that play music indicating how long to brush, and those with a favorite cartoon character all are fine if they get the child to brush.
Once there are enough teeth in the mouth, they'll contact with one another, and that's time to floss. “A toothbrush can do an effective job of cleaning the teeth, but flossing is important once those back teeth are in,” says Del Fierro, who urges parents to do the flossing on their kids. “When the time does come for them to do it on their own, it will already be part of the routine, part of the process.” Once a day, at night usually, is fine for flossing, the dentists say, and there are products that help. “A floss handle, or dental floss, whatever works for a parent in a small mouth,” says Chan. The Crest Glide Floss Pick is good for smaller mouths, she says, and the Reach Access Flosser works on older children.
The best “product” is the example set by a parent. Margaret and Juan Reis' 3-year-old son, Marcanthonee, taught them that. “If I forget, he won't let me,” says Margaret. “He'll say, 'You've got to brush my teeth and floss me!' ” The dentists agree with Marcanthonee. “Parents should be responsible to brush their children's teeth until they can write their name in cursive,” says Chan. “Kids don't know how to do it well. They can't do the gumline; they can't always hold the brush at the proper angle, until they are between 7 and 9 years old. Then they have the motor skills to do a thorough job.
– JANE CLIFFORD

Dental care for needy facing uncertain future

2009-03-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

Genevieve Allen, a fourth year dental student at UNLV, works on Joseph Guarine Saturday, as the UNLV Dental School of Medicine faculty and students put on three clinics to treat local children, veterans, and women referred by Shade Tree Shelter. The clinics are designed for people who do not qualify for Medicaid or are uninsured. The event also provides UNLV dental residents with clinical experience.

By Becky Bosshart

When Vietnam veteran Ted Mattos, who is on partial disability for post-traumatic stress disorder, needs his teeth cleaned, he goes to the UNLV School of Dental Medicine. He donated $20 for his care on Saturday, and that was optional.

When single mom Patricia McCreery needed fillings for two of her children, she took them to the UNLV Shadow Lane Clinic, which offers a monthly Saturday morning children’s clinic. About every six weeks, the clinic also brings in low-income veterans and women from the Shade Tree Shelter. About 67 patients were served Saturday morning at the free dental care clinic by 110 dental school students, staff and faculty volunteers.

“They didn’t go for five years,” McCreery said about her youngest children. “I didn’t have insurance for five years, I worked at Wal-Mart. Sure, they had Medicaid, but the wait was so long for that and things just came up. Now I want to teach them to keep their teeth right. Both my parents had dentures at the age of 25. I don’t want them to have the same.”

These Las Vegans, and about 38,000 others a year, regularly go to the UNLV programs, which offer care at reduced prices and regular free clinics for those who qualify. Could Mattos get this anyplace else? He shakes his head. He’s looked. And it would cost McCreery, who now has insurance in her job as a city bus driver, $350 in co-pays for each child to catch up on all that needed dental work.

That doesn’t add up.

But neither does the state budget. And that’s not looking so good for 2010.

Dental school officials fear that higher education budget cuts will devastate their program and the population it serves.

“We serve children whose parents can’t afford care,” said dental student Jeremy Cox. “A lot of them have cavities that are so bad, they can’t sleep at night.”

The dental school, 1001 Shadow Lane, is looking at a proposed 19 percent cut next year. It’s operating now on a $23 million budget, one-third of which comes from the state. To make state budget cuts in 2008, the school already laid off 16 full-time staff. Dr. Michael Sanders, dental professor and interim chair of clinical sciences, wonders when it’s going to end.

“If budget cuts are implemented at the level proposed, it would be devastating to this institution,” he said. “If we lose that money, faculty would have to be cut, appointments would be cut.”

Sanders would have to eliminate all his part-time employees and 10 of his full-time staff to make that proposed cut.

“And I couldn’t run it (the school and clinic) with 16,” he said. The school employs 26 full-time faculty in clinical sciences.

Sanders couldn’t teach all the classes required by the American Dental Association and run the clinic. Appointments would be reduced substantially. The school graduates about 75 dentists a year. It has 82 freshmen this year.

He wonders how putting people out of work helps the crippled economy. And he questions how cutting dentistry for the needy is a solution, since teeth can make or break an employment interview. “Someone who is being interviewed for a job, and that employer sees bad teeth, that turns people off,” Sanders said. “Right away people make assumptions about you that often aren’t true.”

Good dental care encourages self confidence and that’s integral to success in employment.

“There’s always a story I tell about a patient we had who worked in a stockroom for years, his teeth were so bad,” Sanders aid. “But we fixed him up with a pair of dentures and now he’s a salesman working in the front with customers.”

For information on registering for future clinics call the school at 774-2400. The next free children’s clinic is May 23. The free clinics are designed for people who do not qualify for Medicaid or are uninsured.

America Takes a Stand to Fight Childhood Obesity

2009-02-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Boston (HealthKnowItAll) - America is taking a stand when it comes to obesity and children.

Major insurance companies and health groups are joining together to provide services to help those children who are obese, and to take a proactive approach to curb obesity before it even occurs.

Under their joint efforts, initiatives will be put into place to curb obesity in children by providing access to prevention options including consultations with diatitions, multiple yearly doctor visits, and education dealing with healthy living.

More than 1 third of US children are considered overweight or obese, a fact that is ominous for their future.

Being overweight or obese as a child, can only raise health risks when that child becomes an adult.

These health risks include, but are not limited to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertention and so on.

Moran touts health care initiative

2009-02-14T01:08:00.000-08:00

By Bob Stuart

Published: February 14, 2009

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Brian Moran made a Waynesboro stop Friday to unveil a health-care plan that would insure every Virginia child and assist small businesses and seniors with coverage.

Moran’s “Healthy Virginia: Cover Every Kid” plan would raise the eligibility of families for the federal state children’s health insurance program from 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, eliminate the four-month waiting period for children who lose private insurance and qualify for the program and offer automatic enrollment at birth for all children from qualifying families.

Moran said this initiative would cut the number of uninsured Virginia children, currently estimated at more than 200,000, putting the state 32nd among the 50 states.

The candidate said the state could appropriate money to match federal funds for the insurance program.

“No parent should go to bed without access to health care,” said Moran. “It’s a moral obligation and an economic necessity. It’s a smart investment for the future.”

In addition to the health care for children, Moran’s plan calls for new financial incentives for affordable long-term care for seniors and eliminating waiting lists for home-delivered meals.

The plan also would create small business insurance pools to allow owners to insure their employees and allow young people to stay on the family insurance plan until age 26.

“In a struggling economy, creating jobs is extremely important, but health care is also important,” Moran said.

One in every seven Virginians lacks health care, Moran said.

A former Northern Virginia delegate and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Moran is locked in a tough three-way fight for the party’s gubernatorial nomination with Bath Sen. Creigh Deeds and national Democratic insider Terry McAuliffe. The race will culminate with a June 9 statewide primary.

Deeds’ press secretary, Brooke Borkenhagen, said his campaign will roll out a health care plan in the next few weeks after he finishes this session of the General Assembly.

She said Deeds “continues to fight to make health care more accessible and affordable for all Virginians.”

Borkenhagen said Deeds “has crafted innovative legislation to ensure Virginians have the right to choose which doctor they visit and the ability to purchase prescription medicines at a reasonable cost.”

Elisabeth Smith, McAuliffe’s press secretary, said he is conducting economic roundtables across the commonwealth and will unveil policy initiatives after finishing the roundtables.

Moran made noise at last weekend’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Richmond, where he questioned whether the Democratic Party would be one of the people or big money.

In an obvious swipe at McAuliffe, Moran said he was a “fighter not a fundraiser.”

On Friday, Moran reinforced his ties to the last two Virginia governors, Timothy M. Kaine and Mark Warner.

“It’s one thing to talk about governing like Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. I was there in the trenches fighting with them,” he said of his legislative experience.

£194000 price tag of raising a child

2009-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Raising a child born today could cost £193,772 up to their 21st birthday.

Bringing up a child in modern times is a costly affair, getting more expensive every year and forcing parents to cut back spending significantly, according to the sixth annual Cost of a Child survey from LV= Insurance.

LV chief executive Mike Rogers said: "Every parent knows how their hard-earned savings can dip thanks to eye-watering education and childcare costs."

The cost of raising a child rose four per cent over the last year - with rises in every category of spending – except pocket money allocations.

Equally startling is the figure of £133.7 billion – the cost of raising all 690,013 children born in the UK in 2007.

This equals £9,227 a year, £769 a month or £25 a day per child.

This rising cost is compounded by the new figures which show families are cutting back on all aspects of family life – with spending on holidays, clothing, food and leisure activities all affected.

Mr Rogers said: "Our research shows that parents are being very resourceful when it comes to budgeting and cutting back on non-essential spend.”

The survey of 4,027 adults showed that 81 per cent of parents have cut down on family spending, while 79 per cent admit to buying lower cost and ‘value’ items.

A spokesperson for LV commented that these cut backs are a result of families feeling the pressure financially in the economic downturn.

Based on these statistics, the cost looks set to rise further, with LV predicting the cost of a child reaching £265,577 by the year 2012 – approximately £12,500 a year.

David White, chief executive of The Children's Mutual, said: "These headline figures may look intimidating, but when you consider that nearly a fifth of the amount being quoted is the cost of university, there is hope for parents."

He added saving – though difficult in the recession – will help to reduce the financial hit of costs such as university fees.

"While in these credit crunched times finding significant sums for saving may be difficult, we believe it will be far harder for families to find the same amount as a cash lump sum in the future.

"We’re urging parents of younger children to talk to wider family today, to ask if they would consider saving for the child’s future so that in 18 years' time, they don’t miss out."

John Ellul

NCLR Urges Senate To Include Legal Immigrant Children In Health Bill

2009-01-19T03:48:00.000-08:00

Washington, DC-Calling it "an investment in a stronger and more secure future for all Americans," Janet Murguํa, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today at a press conference on Capitol Hill called for the U.S. Senate to include legal immigrant children and pregnant women in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill. Along with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), NCLR praised the House of Representatives for including this vulnerable segment of the Latino community in its SCHIP reauthorization bill, and it urged the Senate to make the same commitment to promoting a healthier America by passing the legislation.

"It is inexcusable that Latino children, who make up a significant portion our nation's population, continue to be the most uninsured ethnic group in the country," said Murguํa. "Excluding legal immigrant children from this bill would result in an irresponsible and dangerous health care policy."

Under the 1996 welfare reform, immigrant children and pregnant women are subject to a five-year bar before they may qualify for coverage through Medicaid or SCHIP. "I haven't met anyone who isn't outraged when they hear what the current five-year bar on legal immigrant children means: that a girl with asthma has to go through five years of attacks before she can get an inhaler, and a boy with cancer has to wait five years for chemotherapy," said Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). "Five years truly is a lifetime for a child. It's time to remove this bar and include coverage for legal immigrant children and pregnant women in the bill to reauthorize SCHIP, so we can take a major step toward making sure no child goes to bed at night without health care in the greatest nation on earth."

Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who introduced the measure under the "Legal Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act" (ICHIA), stated, "I have worked hard for a decade on this legislation, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to follow the lead of the House and include ICHIA in SCHIP. The need for child health insurance coverage in states with large immigrant populations is reaching crisis proportions. The law should not discriminate against legal immigrants; health care is too important an issue."

"The five-year waiting period can mean the difference between preventing or treating health conditions that can affect a child's prospects for a healthy and productive life-or leaving those conditions undetected and not treated, costing taxpayers much more in the long run. This is not only a matter of common sense, but also an opportunity to show the values that define us as a country," said Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA).

My most perfect day: Brave Hannah at home for what could be her last Christmas

2008-12-26T03:44:00.000-08:00

By Tessa Cunningham
Last updated at 10:35 PM on 25th December 2008

For Hannah Jones, it was a Christmas Day perfect in every way. Lots of lovely food, presents and, best of all, she was at home.
Hannah was determined to spend the day with her loving family because this could be their last Christmas together.
She is the brave 13-year-old leukaemia victim who recently won a High Court battle for the right to refuse a heart transplant which could save her life.

At the time she declared: 'Being in hospital reminds me of bad times. I've spent long enough there. I just want to be home - even if my life might be shorter.'
Those poignant words hung over Hannah's family as they put in an extra-special effort to create yesterday's magical Christmas.

Even though money was tight, they spared no expense decorating their house in Hereford with the tallest tree from the garden centre, the twinkliest decorations and of course, the best and fanciest presents for all their four children.
'It was the most perfect day,' said Hannah. 'I'm just so lucky to be here. Being with my family is all I want. It's been very important to celebrate this Christmas as if it were the last. I believe it won't be, I have so much to live for, but the truth is no one knows exactly how long is left.'
Hannah has been fighting acute myeloid leukaemia since she was four.

Last year tests showed her heart was severely enlarged as a side-effect of chemotherapy and doctors said her best chance was a transplant, although it would be risky with no guarantee of success.
When she refused and asked to go home, Hereford Hospital started High Court proceedings to remove her from her parents' custody to allow the transplant - accusing them of 'preventing' their daughter's treatment and threatening to send police officers to remove Hannah forcibly from her home.

It was only when she convinced a child protection officer that she knew her own mind, that proceedings were finally dropped.
And that gave her the chance to spend Christmas at home with her parents Andrew and Kirsty, brother Oliver, 11, and sisters Lucy, ten and four-year- old Phoebe.

'I had a brilliant Christmas morning,' said Hannah, grinning from ear to ear.

'I felt a little tired, but we all got up at the crack of dawn to rip open our presents. I got loads of make-up and a new High School Musical game for my Nintendo DS.
'I also got the Addams Family on DVD so I'm going to get into bed and watch that later when I'm too tired to stay up. My best present was a Disney bracelet from my dad - it's really pretty.

'I know the doctors don't expect me to live much longer. But I've proved them wrong and I will do so again if I have to.'
The family's Christmas celebrations actually kicked off earlier in December with a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.
It was touch and go whether the family could fly because Hannah's health was so precarious until an anonymous benefactor offered £200,000 in insurance cover.
The family stayed at Give Kids The World - a village specially designed for sick children. Hannah's face lights up as she recalls the treats she enjoyed.
'The chalets were all painted bright colours and lit up with fairy lights. It was magical,' she grins.
'We had our meals in the Gingerbread House where the tables were all made out of sweets. It was amazing. There was a miniature train running around the village taking us to whatever play park or ice-cream parlour we fancied. We could eat free banana splits all day. It was fantastic. Seeing Phoebe's face when she met Mickey Mouse was just amazing.'
The Disney trip was followed by another special event when Hannah and her mother were invited by Prince Charles to help him and the Duchess of Cornwall decorate the Christmas tree at their London home, Clarence House.
'I had to pinch myself that it was really happening,' says Hannah, still brimming with excitement. 'Not many people get the chance to meet Prince Charles.
'We got a letter saying what we were supposed to wear. It said, "No denim please" which was fine as I don't wear a lot of denim. I was so excited. I showed the letter to all my schoolfriends - it was the only way they would believe me. There were eight children and we each got to chat to Prince Charles - Camilla was ill in bed on the day. He was so sweet - much smaller than I'd imagined and quiet.'
Hannah's mother, an intensive care nurse, said: 'Seeing her with the prince by the Christmas tree and Hannah asking, "Can you just stand over there while I take your photo?" was magical.
'After the children had decorated the tree, we all went through to the dining room for lunch. It was a real family room full of snaps of William and Harry as boys.
'There were bow-tied waiters who served the children sausage and mash in the shape of faces. The mums had salmon sandwiches and champagne.'
Although Camilla was too unwell to join the party, she made a surprise appearance at the end.

'Just as we were leaving she appeared on the stairs,' recalled Mrs Jones.
'She had no make-up on - I don't think she'd even brushed her hair. She waved at us and said, "I can't come down because I've got flu but thank you for coming".'
Back at home, Hannah helped prepare the family's festive meal and organised a party on Christmas Eve for family and friends.
'I was excited about opening my presents on Christmas morning but the best part was watching Phoebe,' she said.

'She was wild with happiness. She was ripping the paper into shreds and throwing it over her head like confetti.'
The celebrations were in marked contrast to the same time last year, when Hannah returned home from the hospice where she had been staying for a fortnight. She was too ill to eat or even leave her bed for more than a few minutes.
'This year was wonderful,' she said. 'We have a tradition that we set fire to the Christmas pudding. When Mum brought it into the room all flaming, I knew it had been the best Christmas ever.'

Their dreams are insured

2008-12-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

MYSORE: Sameeulla (31), who has studied up to VIII standard, works as a head loader at Devaraja Market in Mysore. He dreams of making his daughter Noor Afreen, born on April 25, 2006, a doctor. He hopes that Bhagyalakshmi scheme will come in handy for this.

After the birth of the child in K.R. Hospital, the doctor on duty informed him that their daughter was “lucky” as she will get the benefit of Bhagyalakshmi scheme. With the help of the anganawadi worker, they received an insurance bond from LIC in just three months, says Noor Asma, mother of the child.

“I have a son studying in pre-nursery school. I wanted her to study and get educated like him. I learnt that Noor Afreen will get a scholarship till she completes her PUC. But I had decided to allow her to study whatever she wants, even before learning about the scholarship. I was impressed by the doctor, who conducted the delivery, and I dream of making my daughter a doctor. The scheme will help me realise that dream,” she said.

When a Job Disappears, So Does the Health Care

2008-12-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

ASHLAND, Ohio — As jobless numbers reach levels not seen in 25 years, another crisis is unfolding for millions of people who lost their health insurance along with their jobs, joining the ranks of the uninsured.

The crisis is on display here. Starla D. Darling, 27, was pregnant when she learned that her insurance coverage was about to end. She rushed to the hospital, took a medication to induce labor and then had an emergency Caesarean section, in the hope that her Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan would pay for the delivery.

Wendy R. Carter, 41, who recently lost her job and her health benefits, is struggling to pay $12,942 in bills for a partial hysterectomy at a local hospital. Her daughter, Betsy A. Carter, 19, has pain in her lower right jaw, where a wisdom tooth is growing in. But she has not seen a dentist because she has no health insurance.

Ms. Darling and Wendy Carter are among 275 people who worked at an Archway cookie factory here in north central Ohio. The company provided excellent health benefits. But the plant shut down abruptly this fall, leaving workers without coverage, like millions of people battered by the worst economic crisis since the Depression.

About 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed has increased by 2.8 million, or 36 percent, since January of this year, and by 4.3 million, or 71 percent, since January 2001.

Most people are covered through the workplace, so when they lose their jobs, they lose their health benefits. On average, for each jobless worker who has lost insurance, at least one child or spouse covered under the same policy has also lost protection, public health experts said.

Expanding access to health insurance, with federal subsidies, was a priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the new Democratic Congress. The increase in the ranks of the uninsured, including middle-class families with strong ties to the work force, adds urgency to their efforts.

“This shows why — no matter how bad the condition of the economy — we can’t delay pursuing comprehensive health care,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio. “There are too many victims who are innocent of anything but working at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Some parts of the federal safety net are more responsive to economic distress. The number of people on food stamps set a record in September, with 31.6 million people receiving benefits, up by two million in one month.

Nearly 4.4 million people are receiving unemployment insurance benefits, an increase of 60 percent in the past year. But more than half of unemployed workers are not receiving help because they do not qualify or have exhausted their benefits.

About 1.7 million families receive cash under the main federal-state welfare program, little changed from a year earlier. Welfare serves about 4 of 10 eligible families and fewer than one in four poor children.

In a letter dated Oct. 3, Archway told workers that their jobs would be eliminated, and their insurance terminated on Oct. 6, because of “unforeseeable business circumstances.” The company, owned by a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Conn., filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Archway workers typically made $13 to $20 an hour. To save money in a tough economy, they are canceling appointments with doctors and dentists, putting off surgery, and going without prescription medicines for themselves and their children.

Archway cited “the challenging economic environment” as a reason for closing.

“We have been operating at a loss due largely to the significant increases in raw material costs, such as flour, butter, sugar and dairy, and the record high fuel costs across the country,” the company said.

At this time of year, the Archway plant would usually be bustling as employees worked overtime to make Christmas cookies. This year the plant is silent. The aromas of cinnamon and licorice are missing. More than 40 trailers sit in the parking lot with nothing to haul.

In the weeks before it filed for bankruptcy protection, Archway apparently fell behind in paying for its employee health plan. In its bankruptcy filing, Archway said it owed more than $700,000 to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, one of its largest creditors.

Richard D. Jackson, 53, was an oven operator at the bakery for 30 years. Mr. Jackson and his two daughters often used the Archway health plan to pay for doctor’s visits, imaging, surgery and medicines. Now that he has no insurance, he takes his Effexor antidepressant pills every other day, rather than daily, as prescribed.

Another former Archway employee, Jeffrey D. Austen, 50, said he had canceled shoulder surgery scheduled for Oct. 13 at the Cleveland Clinic because he had no way to pay for it.

“I had already lined up an orthopedic surgeon and an anesthesiologist,” Mr. Austen said.

In mid-October, Janet M. Esbenshade, 37, who had been a packer at the Archway plant, began to notice that her vision was blurred. “My eyes were burning, itching and watery,” Ms. Esbenshade said. “Pus was oozing out. If I had had insurance, I would have gone to an eye doctor right away.”

She waited two weeks. The infection became worse. She went to the hospital on Oct. 26. Doctors found that she had keratitis, a painful condition that she may have picked up from an old pair of contact lenses. They prescribed antibiotics, which have cleared up the infection.

Ms. Esbenshade has two daughters, ages 6 and 10, with asthma. She has explained to them why “we are not Christmas shopping this year — unless, by some miracle, Mommy goes back to work and gets a paycheck.”

She said she had told the girls, “I would rather you stay out of the hospital and take your medication than buy you a little toy right now because I think your health is more important.”

Private deliveries costly

2008-12-07T03:56:00.001-08:00

IN THE island's public hospitals, including Victoria Jubilee in Kingston, delivery services are free. If one walks through the doors with a referral, one will not pay for antenatal care, doctors' fees, the paediatrician, a Caesarean section (C-section), or any tests to be done, including ultrasounds.

At the islands' private hospitals, fees, including the charge made by doctors in attendance, can leave parents out of pocket by as much as $160,000.

But, the service is said to be a cut above the rest, with some facilities promising personalised service, gift baskets and even a photo-shoot afterwards with baby and mom.

Ann-Shauna Greenfrom Kingston paid a total of $120,000 for the birth of her first child in 2005, and in 2007, $165,000 for the second.

Today, the cost might be higher. Our research shows that doctors' fees in December 2008 range from $30,000-$135,000, a sum which does not include hospital charges, which start from $40,000 upwards in private facilities.

On both occasions, the costs for Ann-Shauna Green included the price of a C-section.

She explains, "I had to do a C-section because I had fibroids and the second time I had to do a C-section because I did a C-section the first."

Green selected Andrews Memorial Hospital she said, because her doctor worked there and also because she did not know she had to register months in advance to get into a public hospital.

For both deliveries, the couple used insurance, which helped them to cover about 70 per cent of the costs.

Little things

Green claims: "I was appalled at the cost of little things, like needles and bed sheets, that the hospital billed us for. It was outrageous! I had to shut my eyes and pay it or I wouldn't have been able to get my child registered."

To have a child delivered at Andrews Hospital, currently, one has to register in the seventh month and pay a deposit of $45,000. The final bill, which might be between $55,000 and $60,000, will depend on materials used and length of stay in the hospital

These charges do not include the fee for C-sections, the doctors' bills, the paediatrician's bill, and any additional tests done.

The paediatrician's fee is $4,500 per visit at Andrews. The cost of a private room at the hospital is $8,000 daily. For a semi-private room in which there are two persons, mothers will pay $7,000.

Hospital stay might be as much as three days to a week if there is a C-section done or if other complications arise.

University Hospital

At the University Hospital of The West Indies (UHWI) in St Andrew, which is not classified as a public hospital, those using the public clinic for delivery will pay $12,000 and up for a normal delivery. This includes antenatal care, plus one night's stay at the hospital. The mother's booking fee or deposit will be $10,000.

The cost of doing a C-section at the training hospital is $30,000. A deposit of $15,000 is required for this operation.

If one needs additional tests or needs drugs, the bill will go up. The UHWI charges $1,200 for one day's room and board, a cost which will be multiplied if a C-section is done or if complications set in and the mother's stay needs to be longer.

Private-birthing services are also offered at the UHWI. For this, the cost of antenatal care is $30,000. An ultrasound will cost $3,500. There are no private rooms at this hospital but the private fee ensures that you are assigned the doctor of your choice. Those who use the public clinic will be seen by any doctors available.

Nuttall

Nuttall Memorial Hospital in St Andrew also offers private-birthing facilities. A deposit of $40,000 is required at this hospital.

The cost of a C-section here is $120,000 without insurance. For normal deliveries, the hospital bill otherwise might be as high as $60,000, depending on medication, room and board and the use of disposables.

The cost of room and board at Nuttall is $6,500 per night. If your doctor does not work at Nuttall, you will be assigned to one who does.

At Nuttall, the paediatrician's fee is $15,000 upwards, which is different from the doctor's delivery fee. To use services at Nuttall, one must book delivery by the seventh month of pregnancy.

After mother's slaying, daughter awaits dad's fate

2008-12-01T03:04:00.000-08:00

By MEGHAN BARR, The Associated Press 2:01 a.m. November 30, 2008

JACKSON, Ohio — Her father waits behind a glass wall, clothed in the jail standard gray-and-white striped shirt and pants. He has tidied up some since their last visit: What's left of his thinning hair has been trimmed, and his face is clean of stubble.
Debby Crabtree approaches the row of prisoners. They are seated in small glass pods – like telephone booths, she thinks. The inmates have just 30 minutes to connect with the outside world before the guards will lead them away.
"I wanted to know, was he OK, was he getting his medications?" Crabtree explains. "You know, things you would want to know about your dad. It's almost as if he were in a hospital."
Instead, her father, 74-year-old David Evans Sr., is one of the oldest souls locked up in the Scioto County Jail. If convicted at trial in January, he could become one of the oldest people ever sentenced to death in Ohio.
The story of how Evans got here began decades ago, when he was just a teenager who fell head-over-heels in love and married his high school sweetheart. Together they raised an old-fashioned farming family, tilling land in a lush valley of southern Ohio.
But now his wife, Carol Evans, is gone – and police say he hired someone to kill her. Day by day, memory by memory, their eldest daughter looks into the past and struggles to understand what might has happened.
"By the time it all settles out, I've lost my mom, I've lost my dad," Crabtree says, fighting back tears. "I've never seen my father as a person capable of this kind of evil."
Dave Evans has pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, among other charges.
During these fleeting jail visits, Crabtree, 55, does not dwell on what she calls the ugliness.
"Over the years," she observes later, "love and hate can get mixed up."
She tries to forget how, on a sunny morning in March, she drove along a road rimmed with cornstalks to the sand-colored farmhouse where she grew up. She tries to forget climbing the staircase to her mother's bedroom, and the sight of her mother's body, strangled with an extension cord.
Crabtree takes a seat on a stool facing the window and picks up the phone.
–––
The man came alone, and he had a key.
A few hours before dawn on March 26, he slipped inside the house where Carol Evans was sleeping.
Spotless as usual, the brown-paneled home bore signs of her orderly routine – shoes laid out neatly in front of the couch, suitcase packed for an upcoming trip.
At the foot of the stairs, arranged in a perfect row in order of age, hung the photographs of her five children: Dave Jr., Debby, Mike, Randy and Ellen.
"She used to tell people that she would pray for her kids in order at night," Crabtree says. "And sometimes she fell asleep before she got to Randy, and she felt bad about that."
Her assailant climbed the stairs. When police arrived, they found closet doors ajar, blankets and sheets pulled from shelves and tossed around the upstairs hallway.
The man stole a revolver and a lockbox containing cash and jewelry. The gun and some of the jewelry were later recovered.
Left untouched was the display case filled with Carol Evans' prized collection of elephant figurines: elephants made of glass and brass, some with their trunks raised to the sky, for good luck.
The crime rattled this town of about 6,000 people where murders are rare, according to Lt. John Manering of the Jackson County sheriff's office.
Carol Evans was a gracious, well-respected former high school principal, and the family name is prominent locally. There's the Evans Center, a downtown strip mall, and the Evans-owned Chevron gas station, which shut down last fall. And there's the Evans farmland, more than 900 acres of it, trampled by cattle and hogs, planted with corn and soybeans.
The clan is among a fading breed of farming families here. They work and play together – aunts, uncles and cousins included. They go to high school football games, cook Sunday dinners. They've always lived this way, Crabtree says, only they used to congregate at her mother's house.
"One time at Myrtle Beach last summer, a lady came up and asked if she could take a picture of us because she could see that we were four generations of women," she said. "She just thought that was wonderful."
But the investigation into her mother's death led police to the center of the family. On June 9, police arrested Dave Evans Sr.
"He was a prime suspect from the beginning," says Jackson County Sheriff John Shasteen. "As for motive, as far as I'm concerned it's just pure greed. He wanted all the assets, all the money."
–––
He was a football player, she was a cheerleader. They were picture-perfect sweethearts, their images sealed forever in the pages of their high school yearbook: the broad-shouldered, athletic boy and the pretty, dark-haired girl.
Dave Evans and Carol Miller got married on March 1, 1952, when she was president of the junior class and he was a senior at Oak Hill High School, a few miles outside of Jackson. Nine months later, their first child was born.
"They were just young and crazy in love," Crabtree says.
They had four more babies, purchased a large plot of farmland and set about raising their children. Carol Evans would drive a tractor while her sons helped their father in the fields.
She went back to school and steadily climbed the ranks as an educator. Her husband farmed and ran a string of successful small businesses.
"He liked to start things and watch them grow," Crabtree says. "And then move on to the next thing."
Their land holdings grew, and so did the family's assets. At the time of Carol's death, the couple's revocable trust was worth at least $1 million. Her life insurance policy amounted to $500,000.
But as the years passed and the children grew up, the marriage began to disintegrate.
"I knew there were times maybe Dave and Carol had marital problems," says Mayor Randy Heath. "It's not a big town. Everybody talks."
The courts documented their fractured relationship. Dave Evans filed for divorce in 1984. They remarried 10 years later. Four months after that, he filed for divorce again.
"I mean, what can you say?" Crabtree says. "We used to joke about it. `Does anyone know if Mom and Dad are married right now?'"
They remarried for the last time in 1996.
Her father was the driving force behind each divorce, Crabtree says.
"My mom never left. She stayed at the farm," she said. "My mom has always been the heart of the family. She has always been his rock."
In the weeks before the slaying, Dave Evans spent most nights in his apartment downtown. But Carol still looked after him, arranging his medications – aftereffects of a debilitating stroke in 2006 – in small pill containers so that he wouldn't forget to take them, Shasteen says.
"Dave was a hard-working man who made some very bad decisions," says county Prosecutor Jonathan Blanton.
"At what point do you make a decision that your wife ought to be dead?" he asks. "That's the $64,000 question. When did this seem like a good idea?"
–––
Sometime during the summer of 2007, police say Dave Evans Sr. began offering money for the killing of his wife.
At the time, according to authorities, he was having a relationship with a 28-year-old named Heather Speakman. She was a drug addict who often ran into trouble with the law, police say. Her criminal record lists charges ranging from petty theft to assault. Her mother, Rhonda Bailey, ran the Evans Chevron station.
"When Heather was in jail, that was the first time we really suspected something," Crabtree says. "Someone told us Dad went to visit her."
Her father was behaving strangely – taking phone calls from strange people, handing out money to people who couldn't pay him back, Crabtree says. Speakman later told police that Evans gave her more than $100,000, but denied having a sexual relationship with him.
Privately, the family wondered if Evans had fully recovered from the stroke, suffered as he was climbing into the back of a pickup truck. They wondered if he might be getting himself into some kind of trouble. It never occurred to them, Crabtree says, that their mother might be in danger.
Police say the scheme to kill Carol Evans dragged on for months.
The turning point came on March 19, a week before her death. Speakman introduced Evans to a friend of hers: Terry Vance, 30, who had been convicted years earlier of drug possession.
Vance agreed to kill Carol Evans for $50,000, police say. To facilitate the crime, Dave Evans Sr. obtained a 1999 Mazda Protege and a key to the house, Manering says.
Arrests came in quick succession.
Vance and Speakman struck deals, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, among other charges, and agreeing to testify against Evans. Vance later confessed to the slaying but was sentenced to 18 years in prison on the original charges, Blanton says.
A third person, 49-year-old Randy Faught, pleaded guilty to extortion and was sentenced to five years in prison. Authorities say Faught blackmailed Evans and threatened to expose the alleged plot to police.
Blanton says all three – rooted in Jackson's illicit drug scene – accepted money to kill Carol Evans at some point during the past two years.
"No one came forward and gave police the opportunity to stop this – in spite of all the knowing," Blanton says.
Evans' attorney, Rick Faulkner, insists that his client is not guilty.
Crabtree says the notion that her father could have arranged her mother's death for the money is incomprehensible. Her siblings declined to be interviewed.
"If it's about numbers, there's always been a lot of money," she says. "I can't reconcile that."
As the days grow shorter in southern Ohio and Crabtree watches autumn bleed into winter, every day brings a new reminder of her mother's absence.
Crabtree's daughter Sarah, who says her grandmother was her best friend, is adamant that this tragedy will not define the family's legacy.
"It's so far from what our family is and has ever been and ever will be," says the 31-year-old law student. "It's not my Grandma's legacy, I know that for sure."
But as family members wait for this chapter to be committed to history, they struggle to make sense of it.
"It's not all about my dad, for lack of a better word, losing his mind and coming up with a plan to do away with Mom," Crabtree says. "He wasn't going to replace Mom with Heather Speakman."
She pauses, thinking.
"But maybe it'll be just this simple. Maybe it'll be exactly what they say it is."

Number of US children without health insurance declines

2008-11-28T04:48:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: According to a new report by Families USA, the number of American children without health insurance declined by about 6 percent last year.

The report also found that most uninsured children - 88.2 percent - come from families with at least one parent working, and more than half live in two-parent households.

The report said, to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a program jointly financed by the state and federal governments to provide health insurance for about seven million low-income children.

Massachusetts had the lowest rate of uninsured children in the country - just 4.6 percent.

Momma Chol Helps Sudanese Refugees Cross 'Bridge' to US Society

2008-11-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

By Alyssa Zamora
Jacksonville, Florida

This is American Profiles, VOA's weekly spotlight on notable Americans who are having a positive impact on the world. Alyssa Zamora introduces us to Sharon Svihel, who has made it her life's work to help Sudanese refugees adjust to American society.

Sharon Svihel became interested in Africa in 1997 when she fostered a teenage Lost Boy from Sudan. Chol Ajang is now a proud college graduate and inspirational public speaker, and Svihel is still involved with Sudanese refugees.

Now known as Momma Chol, the spirited grandmother of 11 has helped hundreds of those who fled genocide and political unrest in Sudan.

Momma Chol enjoys a hug with Anthony Akech's older daughter

Momma Chol spends most mornings visiting a handful of Sudanese families in Jacksonville, Florida. This region - with its warm climate and network of community support - has become one of the major resettlement areas for refugees from Africa as well as from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

On a recent day, Momma Chol arrives at Anthony Akech's apartment with a bag full of presents for his two young daughters.

For more than a decade, Momma Chol has done whatever she can to make it easier for Sudanese refugees to find a home, make a living, learn English and get an education. She grew up in a strict religious family, and after college, she took a job in business. But a seed planted by one relative pulled her away from that traditional career into a life of service.

A Prophetic Vision Fulfilled

A young Sister Theophane after she decided to become a missionary in Hong Kong
She says her Aunt Theophane, a lifelong missionary in Hong Kong, made a lasting impression on her as a child.

"She would say to me, 'I just really believe God is going to make you a missionary someday, and out of everyone in the family, I think God has chosen you,'" Momma Chol recalls. "It wasn't until adopting my daughter from Korea that I thought maybe someday I'll be going over there [to Asia]."

"Little did I know that God had a different plan, and he was directing me to Africa," she adds.

Momma Chol has traveled to Africa on behalf of various resettlement agencies, including World Relief and Lutheran Social Services. She also was instrumental in starting Jacksonville's Aid Sudan Foundation in 2004. Momma Chol's faith in God and drive to help others eventually paved the way for Bridges to Sudan.

She co-founded the nonprofit group last year with former social worker Tina Jaeckle, now a social and behavioral sciences professor at a local college. Bridges to Sudan offers classes on relationships, parenting, cooking, time management and American social norms.

Sudanese mothers at a nutrition class sponsored by Bridges to Sudan

Momma Chol says she has found her purpose in life.

"Being able to watch a child smile or see a family be together and be able to make a living for themselves without having to feel like they have to ask for help," she says.

But, she stresses, "We know they need help."

Bridges to Sudan fills the service gaps that Momma Chol says government programs fail to consider.

"It's just horrible to watch someone that is struggling so much," she says. "But because services are not in place, they wouldn't have a chance, and we need to give them that."

She points out that Sudanese refugees have left behind a horrific experience. In addition to surviving war and torture, they were living with no water, no sanitation and no electricity.

"And coming here, to a modern area that has everything," she says, "it's very unrealistic for anyone to … expect that they're going to learn English and expect them - in two or three months - to get everything they need."

She says adapting to the American way of life does not take months, but years.

An Everyday Hero

For Anthony Akech, who came to the United States in 2001, a good life in America was perhaps beyond his reach before he met Momma Chol. He says it was difficult to keep a job and support himself. His wife was still in Sudan at the time. But he says Momma Chol gave his family hope for a better life.

"She cooked for us, and that time I don't have bed to sleep, so she send people to buy bed, blanket and bring them to my apartment," he says. "She helped me a lot. She helped me pay bill for my doctor. I don't have insurance at time. I don't have anything. I can't pay it. And she find a way."

Anthony Akech, now on the organization's board of directors, returned home with Momma Chol in 2004 to deliver medical supplies to several villages

Akech is now a U.S. citizen, studying for his associate's degree at a local college and working at a stable, full-time job. He says he is most grateful to Momma Chol for always treating him like family.

After he was shot in the leg during a carjacking, he says she was the only person who came to his bedside.

"She stayed with me for all day and all night every day. I was having severe pain in my leg," he recalls. "If you need help, then she can be a hero for you."

But the humble Momma Chol says she is the lucky one for having the opportunity to meet people like Anthony Akech, who are survivors, who can teach Americans a lesson about the value of life.

Halloween safety tips

2008-11-01T02:46:00.000-07:00

Halloween es un tiempo de diversión para los niños, pero también puede ser de miedo para los padres y conductores.
“Con chiquillos emocionados yendo frenéticamente de un vecindario a otro, los conductores necesitan estar particularmente cuidadosos”, indicó Ray Palermo, Director de Información Pública para el Plan de Seguro de Maestros. “Sin embargo, siguiendo algunos consejos simples, los padres, niños, conductores y propietarios de casas pueden todos tener un momento seguro y agradable”.
Los siguientes son unos consejos que los conductores, los pequeños pidiendo “dulce o travesura” y sus padres, pueden seguir para ayudar a garantizar un Halloween divertido y seguro:
Si los niños están fuera en la noche, los conductores necesitan ser particularmente cuidadosos en la penumbra y cuando conducen en colinas y alrededor de las curvas, donde la visibilidad es limitada . Utilice las luces altas para ver y ser visto.
* Los que piden dulces siempre deber estar acompañados por un adulto o viajar en grupos. Se les debe decir a los niños que no coman ningún dulce o golosina que no esté envuelto hasta que regresen a casa, donde sus papás puedan verlos. Asegurarse de que sus hijos ya hayan comida antes de salir, puede ayudar.
* Los padres quizá quieran limitar a los niños para que acuden a eventos locales organizador por las estaciones de policía, bomberos, centros para personas mayores o negocios locales – u organizar su propio evento a través de sus escuelas.
* Los padres deberían incorporar cinta reflectora a los disfraces o colores brillantes para incrementar la visibilidad. El maquillaje, en vez de máscaras, deberá utilizarse para asegurar que los niños no tengan una visión obstruida de sus alrededores.
* Los pequeños pidiendo dulces podrían quedar atrapados por la emoción del día y no ser tan cuidadosos como deberían. Ellos siempre deben cruzar en las esquinas y ver hacia ambos lados antes de cruzar. Los conductores deben estar atentos al camino y en las aceras, en caso de que alguien salga de entre los coches estacionados.
* Los niños deben permanecer en las aceras – o si no están disponibles, caminar viendo de frente el tráfico. Deben llevar consigo una linterna.
* Los propietarios de casas deben limpiar sus jardines de cualquier cosa que pueden ocasionar un tropezón y asegurarse de tener una luz en puerta frontal o el camino y evitar decoraciones que utilicen una flama abierta que pudiera incendiar el disfraz de un niño.

Carnation couple charged in "worst case" child abuse of teen daughter

2008-10-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Carnation couple charged in "worst case" child abuse of teen daughter
Calling it the "worst case" of abuse a detective had ever seen, King County prosecutors have charged a Carnation couple last Friday with criminal mistreatment after police found their 14-year-old daughter emaciated, dehydrated and suffering from severe malnutrition.

By Sonia Krishnan and Christine Clarridge

Seattle Times staff reporters
Calling it the "worst case" of abuse a detective had ever seen, the King County Sheriff's Office arrested a Carnation couple last Friday on suspicion of criminal mistreatment after police found their 14-year-old daughter emaciated, dehydrated and suffering from severe malnutrition.

King County prosecutors today filed criminal mistreatment charges against the girl's father, Jon Pomeroy, 43, and her stepmother, Rebecca Long, 44.

The couple were arrested Friday evening and released on their own recognizance after a first court appearance on Saturday.

If convicted of first- and second-degree criminal mistreatment as charged, Pomeroy and Long could face three and four years in prison, according to King County prosecutor spokesman Dan Donohoe.

An arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 27 in King County Superior Court.

Police said they do not intend to arrest the couple immediately.

"We have no reason to run out and arrest them," said Sgt. John Urquhart, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff's Office. "The judge didn't believe they were a flight threat or a threat to the community, and neither do we."

The investigation began Aug. 13, when a sheriff's deputy went to the house on a welfare check after a call from Child Protective Services (CPS), police said. A neighbor had called CPS "after hearing screaming coming from the house the night before," according to a news release.

Authorities say Long and Pomeroy, a software engineer who worked at Estorian Inc. in Bellevue, had withheld water from the girl as a form of punishment. She weighed only 48 pounds and was 4-foot-7 when the investigation began. Police described her as resembling a 7- or 8-year-old.

Hospitalized two weeks

The girl was admitted to Seattle's Children's Hospital for treatment of severe malnutrition, where she stayed for two weeks.

Her 12-year-old brother appeared to not have been treated as badly; he was a normal height and weight. However, neither child was enrolled in school, said Urquhart.

The lead detective on the case, who has been with the special-assault unit for 16 years, said "he's never seen a case of abuse this bad," Urquhart said.According to police, the girl said her stepmother disciplined her by "restricting her water intake" to about half of a small Dixie cup per day.

The girl and her brother "were forced to sleep on the floor in the same room as their parents, and a heavy dresser was pushed in front of the door to keep her from sneaking out and getting water."

That happened after the girl was caught one night sneaking out of her own room to drink water from the toilet, according to police. She told police she feared her stepmother would hear the faucets if she used them. For food, police said, she was mostly given toast.

The stepmother, who did not work outside the home and claimed to be home-schooling the children, also directly monitored her stepdaughter's showers and bathroom habits "to keep her from surreptitiously drinking water," police said. Showers were restricted to every two or three weeks.

The girl told police that her stepmother once duct-taped her hands behind her back and dunked her head in the toilet to discipline her.

Eroded teeth

Doctors evaluated the girl's teeth and found all of them to be eroded and chipped. She told investigators her teeth hurt when she eats, and she recently broke a tooth while eating celery.

Doctors extracted six teeth under general anesthesia and capped the rest. They said the extreme dental erosion was "likely due to the shutdown of her salivary function due to extreme dehydration over an extended period of time," according to police.

Doctors found she has not gained weight since age 9.

Detectives served a search warrant on the residence and found the girl's room had a double deadbolt on the door, indicating that she was locked in the room at times during the day, police said.

They also collected evidence that the family had health insurance and the girl's brother had seen a doctor in the past few years. The family's two dogs were in good health and had recent trips to a veterinary clinic.

Two-month investigation

Even though the children were removed from the home in August, it took two months to complete an investigation before deputies could arrest the parents, Urquhart said.

Prosecutors said the couple were investigated by Child Protective Services in 2005 when the girl reported being locked in her room for extended periods of time. The CPS investigation concluded that the allegations were founded after Long admitted to locking the girl in her room, but the case was not referred for criminal prosecution, prosecutors said.

Urquhart said the girl and her brother are in foster care and doing well. They are now enrolled in school. The girl's foster father reports that she has gained 20 pounds in the past six weeks, goes to a private school, is making friends and does not appear to have behavioral issues, police and prosecutors said.

Grandfather fell out of touch

The children's biological mother and Pomeroy married in the early 1990s in Albuquerque, where he was working for Word Perfect, according to the mother's father, Robert Stokes, 73, of Bosque Farms, N.M. Stokes said Pomeroy was "quiet, and just a little odd."

The couple moved to Orem, Utah, in the mid-'90s and had the two children. The couple separated and divorced while in Utah, and Pomeroy was given custody of the children.

Stokes said he had received a few "nice letters" from his grandchildren in the beginning, but the contacts became less and less frequent. "I haven't heard from him in some time — years," Stokes said.

Stokes learned that his grandchildren had been taken into custody when he received a message on his answering machine from a Department of Social and Health Services caseworker.

"I haven't had a chance to get back in touch," Stokes said. "I'm just sick about this."

"To themselves" kind of people

The house where the family lives is on a cul-de-sac near the north end of Lake Marcel, about 40 miles east of Seattle, between the communities of Duvall and Carnation.

One neighbor, who declined to give his name other than to say his first name was Jordan, said he'd talked to people at the home only twice in about two years.

"They're very 'to-themselves' kind of people," he said. "I never knew they had a daughter," he said. "They just stayed inside a lot. I never heard any screaming. Police took the kids awhile ago."

He said a sport-utility vehicle and a car normally were parked in the driveway at the home, but no vehicles were there today and the house appeared unoccupied.

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times staff reporters Mike Carter, Peyton Whitely and Christine Clarridge and news researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.

Kidney transplant recipient has a fresh take on life

2008-09-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

Just six months after receiving a new kidney, Todd Mills was ready for a 4.5-kilometre walk to help others like himself.

"I haven't jumped into too much physical activity yet ... Next year I'll probably do the run and get right into it," said Todd before the start of the Give the Gift of Life Fun Run and Walk on Sunday morning.

The White City resident, who will turn 28 in two weeks, was the lucky recipient of a kidney donation in March. He, along with his wife Crystal and three-year-old daughter Eve, led the first annual walk, which raises money and awareness for organ donation in Canada.

Todd and Crystal were newlyweds and expecting their first child when he learned that, at age 24, he was turned down for a life insurance application.

"I was kind of surprised and sort of in disbelief. I found out I had a kidney disease and went from there. It progressed pretty rapidly and I ended up on dialysis. That was quite the life changing experience," explained Todd.

Crystal said it was devastating at first to learn of his illness. She admitted it was very tough to be juggling a baby while caring and worrying about her husband.

"If you can take it away from that individual at that point is what you try to do and carry a lot of it on your own. It was difficult at first because we had no idea what to expect," she explained.

Todd started dialysis when he was 26 due to the deterioration of his kidney function and was placed on the waiting list for a transplant. He received his new kidney on March 15.

"I had a couple rough patches after that but beyond that, I'm here now and everything is looking good so far," he said.

Roughly 100 people were expected to take part in Sunday's event with recipients of organ donations wearing green T-shirts to distinguish them in the crowd.

The event was designed to raise awareness of organ donation for which Canada has one of the worst records in the developed world.

Todd admitted organ donation was something he really didn't think about until he was in need of one.

"People do take their bodies for granted and it is such an easy thing to say, 'I'll donate my organs to someone else' but people don't do it. I don't know what it is, I was the same way. It took something like this to open my eyes. That's why I'm out here to hopefully encourage other people to do that same," he said.

Todd credits his wife and daughter for pulling him through the difficult time. While there were a few bumps in his recovery, Todd's admitted he is feeling really good.

"Maybe in the last six or seven weeks, I've really turned the corner and started to feel like myself again," he said.

Health fair brings attention kids

2008-09-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

By Carolyn Casey
Rocky Mount Telegram

Residents gathered on the east side of Rocky Mount Saturday to better understand health issues affecting youth today.

Opportunities Industrialization Center’s Medical Center held a child health fair at its office to educate the community on the major health problems in the area and the resources available to residents.

“We have a lot of health fairs that are always geared to adults and seniors,” OIC Medical Center Office Manager Rita Boddie said. “We really fell we need to bring a lot of attention to our children’s health.”

One of the fair’s main objectives was to inform children, as well as their parents, about the risks youth face, Boddie said. The two major health problems pediatric physicians at OIC see are juvenile diabetes and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The OIC Medical Center estimates between 30 percent and 40 percent of its youth patients have ADHD, when the average statistic hovers around 5 percent in school-aged children.

Dr. Kari Lewis with ADHD Behavior Education Services said some surrounding counties, such as Johnston County, also are seeing higher numbers of children with the disorder.

Lewis couldn’t explain the numbers, but she said, “sometimes it’s overreported because of possible lack of discipline.”

Lewis was one of several speakers that addressed the crowd as she stressed ADHD is a disorder that people continue to cope with into adulthood.

“It’s really a prevalent problem,” she said. “I think a key thing to remember is it used to be characterized only as a childhood problem.”

In addition to speakers, organizations set up booths along the center’s parking lot handing out free information and discussing local resources, and free Tdap vaccines were given.

Representatives from Almand’s Drug Store, which has a location across the street from the medical center, shared information on its medical assistance program that allows patients who can’t afford private insurance to buy prescriptions for $4.

Community Care Plan of Eastern Carolina was on hand, teaching children about nutritious food and proper food portions.

The day also included a few fun perks. Children jumped in a bouncing inflatable play house and had their faces painted.

As Mikayla Edgerton, 10, stood in line to get her face painted, her dad, Tony Edgerton, said attending the fair was his children’s suggestion.

“It’s something to do for the kids, and it’s teaching them something,” he said.

Organizers said they hope the fair becomes an annual program. The plan is to continue the quasi-back-to-school event a few weeks into the school year, so parents can bring their children to the medical center once they know which vaccines each child needs, Practice Manager Queen Bethea said.

“We’re hoping this can be an annual event,” she said. “and recognize our kids and let them know we appreciate them.”

Study: stressed mothers may raise fat children

2008-09-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, Sept. 3 -- Millions of poor children in the United States may be getting fat before age 10 because their mothers are stressed out and the youngsters seek escape in unhealthy comfort food, researchers said on Tuesday.

The stress is rooted in poverty and can be brought on by money woes, work loads, insufficient health insurance and other factors, said Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois, who led the study.

"People will eat in response to feeling stress," he said in a telephone interview, and in this case children may be eating more in response to stress-related trouble at home.

The findings show there is a need for a firm social safety net for poor families with protections such as food stamps; better financial education to help people better manage money; and adequate health insurance coverage, he said.

Gundersen and colleagues at Iowa State University and Michigan State University looked at data on 841 children in families living below the poverty line who were part of a government nutrition survey conducted from 1999 to 2002.

"We found that the cumulative stress experienced by the child's mother is an important determinant of child overweight," the research team reported in a study published in the September issue of Pediatrics.

Children in stressed homes where there was plentiful food were more likely to be overweight or obese than those living in stressed situations where food was scarce, they added, because while both were reacting to stress, the former group had food available in which to find refuge.

"Children in food-secure households may have a greater ability to consume more 'comfort foods,' which are often unhealthy, in response to the (stress) they experience," they wrote.

Because most American children do not live in settings where food is scarce, the findings on maternal stress "may be an important factor for children in the United States who are overweight or obese," they concluded.

"Our findings are particularly relevant for children between the ages of 3 and 10," the researchers wrote, because older children can find release outside the home through friends or work.

An estimated 17 percent of US children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese and another 16 percent are overweight.

"A number of mothers in this study suffer from at least one symptom of depression and anxiety. By providing these women with relevant medical care and counseling, these symptoms may be alleviated with the further indirect benefit of reducing childhood overweight," the researchers wrote.

Hulshof Rolls Out His Health Care Plan

2008-08-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

(Springfield, MO) -- Many people believe a key issue in this year's Missouri gubernatorial campaign is affordable health care.

Wednesday, the Republican who wants to lead the state came to Springfield to unveil his plan.

Congressman Kenny Hulshof wants to establish the "Healthy Missouri Access Exchange -- or Health MAX.

The idea is that any individual, small business or employer will have the option of naming Health MAX as their plan.

Once in the system -- users can choose from a variety of plans to fit their needs.

Hulshof says Health MAX addresses the needs of low income Missourians because they would be able to save money in a state sponsored health savings account.
"And part of the savings, we have a modest co-pay," Hushof said. "We think part of the situation we're in now is that people don't take ownership of their own health care decisions. And so we want them to be involved in their own health care decisions."

Hulshof also says health max will also offer health spending debit cards -- and tax incentives will be offered for Missourians to join the program.

Hulshof's opponent, Democrat Jay Nixon's health care plan has a buy in option for any Missouri child into the children health insurance program which right now is only for lower income children.

It creates a one-stop-shop website for Missourians to compare insurance options and restores the health care cuts made in 2005.

Dad of slain boys offers to plead guilty to avoid death

2008-08-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

A Glendale Heights father accused of setting his two sons on fire has offered to admit he killed them, but only if his own life is spared.

DuPage County Public Defender Robert Miller said in court Thursday that Kaushik J. Patel wants to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison if prosecutors drop their intention to seek the death penalty.

DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett declined to say if he will accept the plea offer, but a decision may come as early as the next court date on Sept. 11.

Patel, 34, is charged with causing the fatal injuries Nov. 18 after luring his two sons with new toy cars into a bathroom of their home on the 1800 block of Harvest Lane and setting them on fire with gasoline.

The boys' mother was not home when the fire broke out.

Afterward, Kaushik Patel buckled the children into the back seat of his car and drove them to his older brother's house about five miles away in Hanover Park. A relative called 911.

The boys weren't expected to survive that first night, but struggled for months inside Loyola Medical Center's burn unit in Maywood. The youngest child, Om, 4, was the first to die, on Jan. 17. Vishv, 7, survived several surgeries but took a sudden turn for the worse and died Feb. 19.

Their father survived severe burns. He has remained in DuPage County jail on a $10 million cash bond since his Feb. 15 release from the hospital.

Kaushik Patel declined a request Thursday to be interviewed. But, in a March 7 jailhouse interview, he told the Daily Herald it was an accident and he meant to harm only himself in a botched suicide attempt.

"It wasn't murder," he said. "No one understands. I love my kids. I was not trying to kill them, only me."

Patel said he was suicidal over marital problems that arose after his mother-in-law moved in with the couple a few years earlier. He and his wife, Nishaben, wed Aug. 12, 1997, in an arranged marriage in their native India, five years after he had immigrated to the United States.

The couple divorced July 1 after reaching an agreement in which Kaushik Patel voluntarily relinquished any right to their home, two cars, $25,000 in jewelry and the boys' life-insurance policies.

Authorities said they don't believe the accident defense. They said both boys' injuries were much more severe, indicating they had more gasoline doused on them than their father. Police also said Patel made incriminating statements that night to his brother in which he admitted it was a botched murder-suicide attempt.

Frugal Family Challenge: Can these parents trim expenses?

2008-08-18T04:09:00.000-07:00

Some people spend too much on clothes. For others, it's stuff for the house. Mitzi Walker's financial downfall is food. Walker loves to eat out. Her family goes to O'Charley's or Ruby Tuesday at least once a week.

On other nights, they get takeout. Add in quick trips to McDonald's and Taco Bell, and she and her family eat out somewhere nearly every day. And with three kids, ages 1 through 5, even a quick visit to a fast-food restaurant can get expensive, Walker says.

Jimmie Walker has his own financial temptations. He likes to buy high-end electronics. An iPhone. Computers. A flat-screen TV.

Mitzi admits that she also likes to buy clothes for the children even before they outgrow the outfits they already have. And pretty soon, she'll need to buy even more clothes. The Walkers are expecting their fourth child by Christmas.

Jimmie, 30, is a government engineer; Mitzi, 28, is an accountant. They make a comfortable living, but they're spending more than they earn. As a result, they often turn to credit cards to make up the gap. They have at least 15 credit cards with a combined balance of about $30,000.

The Walkers, who are both from Memphis, try to visit their families at least once a year. They usually spend about $3,000 for airfares and hotel rooms.

"And every time, we have to charge it," Mitzi says. "Especially if we know we're only going once (a year), it seems like we should save the money."

Putting aside money for the trip is particularly important now, because by next year, their youngest child will be too old to sit on his parents' laps during the flight. That means they'll have to buy a ticket for him. And in a couple of years, they'll have to buy a ticket for the new baby, too.

The Walkers have some savings, but not much: about $21,000 for their retirement, $1,700 for the children's college educations and $500 for emergencies.

To help the couple gain more control over their spending, financial planner Tim Wyman has given both Walkers a small notebook and instructed them to write down every expense, from a 50-cent candy bar to the mortgage bill. That's the only way they'll get a handle on their spending, he says.

"Budgets don't work," Wyman says. "I want them to be thinking in terms of a spending plan, and the beginning work has to be understanding where the dollars are going."

By tracking their expenses, Wyman says, the Walkers should be able to save $500 during the 30-day challenge.

That's an ambitious goal. But the Walkers have already managed to make some small changes. Jimmie recently downgraded their satellite service, saving $15 a month. And after discovering that they're spending $50 a month on movie rentals, the Walkers are planning to switch to a less-costly subscription service.

Reaching their goal will require more sweeping changes, such as cutting back on trips to the mall. But Jimmie believes his competitive nature will help him resist the temptation to spend.

"I'm always up for a challenge," he says.

Young cancer survivors receive special support

2008-08-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

By 2010 -- just two years from now -- one in every 250 Americans between ages 15 and 45 will be a survivor of some form of childhood cancer. That number may seem small, but it represents big strides in battling what is the leading cause of death by disease in young people.
As more children and teenagers near the end of or complete treatment for cancers, the focus shifts from getting them cured to making their adult lives healthy and enriched. Hospitals across the country have created cancer survivorship programs geared specifically for children and adolescents.

The Center for Survivors of Childhood Cancer at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital started its Kids Kicking Cancer program in 2004 with a grant from the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Other services at the center include a long-term follow-up clinic and a school liaison program.

The Cleveland Clinic's High-Five Clinic at its children's hospital works with young people who are at least five years removed from an initial diagnosis and off therapy for at least two years. That program, also started in 2004, has financial backing from the Scott Hamilton CARES (Cancer Alliance for Research Education and Survivorship) Initiative.

Both hospital programs tackle the physical, mental and financial issues that come with being a young cancer survivor. The overall survival rate for childhood cancers is around 80 percent to 85 percent.
"We're at a point now where we have a better handle on the impact and significance of what a child survivor means," said Dr. John Letterio, Rainbow's chief of pediatric hematology and oncology. "We've had two, three decades to see the impact."

Rainbow's Kids Kicking Cancer has created sports clinics to promote physical activity and fitness. The first soccer clinic was held in 2006. In July, the program held its first golf skills clinic. Tennis and swimming are on the way.

It's a way for the Rainbow staff to keep connected with the families while physically preparing patients for life after treatment, Letterio said.

With gentle reminders not to run, jump or spin on the golf greens, 17 Rainbow patients took their first tentative steps on the greens a couple weeks ago.

As siblings played nearby and parents took photos, several coaches and golf pros showed the children -- all either undergoing treatment or who have completed it -- the finer points of putting and driving.

"This is an environment that's safe," said Pamela Martin of Lakewood as she kept an eye on her 6-year-old daughter Claire, diagnosed with leukemia at 2½. "She's with other children with similar issues.

"A lot of times, parents of children with cancer are afraid of putting them in the mainstream because of their immune systems," Martin said. "But it's important. All kids need to be active."

Transitioning patients back to their regular pediatricians, working with families on insurance and other financial matters, and coming to grips with long-term "late effects" of cancer treatments -- including the development of aggressive sarcomas and lower-than-normal levels of bone mineral density -- are all issues that survivorship programs continue to grapple with, said Pam Gabris, director of the National Children's Cancer Society.

In 2005, the St. Louis-based society started Beyond the Cure, which works with children 18 and under and their families. It sponsors survivorship conferences across the country and works with programs at a handful of hospitals.

Many families are so focused on their child getting better that they don't have the capacity to deal with anything beyond that, said Gabris. "You've got to constantly try to find ways to reach them."

One challenge in particular is communicating the long-term effects of radiation and chemotherapy that, short-term, are designed to keep a child alive, said Rainbow's Letterio.

Almost no one is thinking about fertility issues when a child is first diagnosed with cancer.

That's true for Rick Buzinski, who said he has not broached the issuewith his son, Christopher. The 11-year-old, who also has cerebral palsy,is being treated for an optical glioma that doctors discovered behindhis eye when he was 6. The tumor is treated withextensive chemotherapy, which Christopher received for more than ayear.

"It's kind of hard at this age, especially dealing with his special needs," Buzinski said. "But we're trying to get him to be more independent. We tell him that he can do whatever he wants to do because people will be there to help him."

The family of a girl diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 16 may not realize that she now has a higher risk of developing breast cancer as an adult.

A child struggling with school work may unknowingly be suffering from "chemo brain," in which the effects of chemotherapy have been shown to hinder concentration and memory.

"How do we help [families] understand the risk of therapies?" he said. "As we move forward in the future, we have to really start thinking carefully about the management of the survivor."

Miraculous recovery

2008-08-10T04:29:00.000-07:00

EAST COUNTY – Skylar Potter is no different from most toddlers – cute and curious, entranced by cartoon character Dora the Explorer and in love with her orange tabby, Freckles.

Yet the 2-year-old is dealing with challenges no child should face.

She is relearning how to talk, how to walk, how to throw a ball. Just three months ago, Skylar did these things with ease. That was before she suffered a traumatic brain injury May 17 in a horrific traffic accident near her home just east of El Cajon.

For weeks, Skylar's parents, Ricky Potter and Ashley Pederson, feared she might not live. If not for a neighbor who administered CPR and rescue breathing, the firefighters and paramedics who cared for her, and the doctors and nurses at Rady Children's Hospital, she might not have.

After a two-month hospital stay, including three weeks in a medically induced coma in the intensive-care unit, Skylar went home July 18. Tomorrow, Potter, 24, and Pederson, 19, will host a barbecue at El Monte Park in Lakeside to thank the people who helped save their daughter.

The only thing, Potter said, is that “ 'thank you' really doesn't do justice.”

Firefighters and paramedics from the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District and the Santee Fire Department have visited Skylar at the hospital and at home. Businesses also came to the family's aid, donating a steel-reinforced car seat, a gently used car and free auto insurance for a year.

New director brings vision to Centro de Ayuda

2008-07-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

By ELISABETH HULETTE, Staff Writer

Bits of Americana have appeared around the Centro de Ayuda, a Hispanic help center in Annapolis.

There's an American flag right inside the door and a picture of an eagle on the wall. And in the office of new director Irene Zoppi, there's a painting of the Statue of Liberty.

They tie together Ms. Zoppi's hopes that the center will be a bridge between longtime residents and the city's growing immigrant community.

"They want to be Americans," she said. "They want to be here. We need to work together."

Ms. Zoppi took over as director in the spring, when founder Mary Schumaker retired. She brought with her two elements key to its survival - a vision for growth and the will to keep it going despite cuts to its funding by the county.

"We're here to help," she said. "Lack of funding? We'll still be here."

Born in Puerto Rico, Ms. Zoppi moved to the United States in college. She holds a master's degree in business administration from The Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in education policy from the University of Maryland at College Park. Her father's side of the family is directly descended from President Lincoln, and she's a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She's also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve - she served in Operation Desert Storm and speaks passionately of her belief in duty, honor and loyalty.

The mighty Quinns keep it in the family

2008-07-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

John O'Keeffe profiles the very private Quinn family, whose chief recently suffered a staggering €1bn loss at Anglo Irish Bank

Depending on who you believe, Sean Quinn is either one of the most astute businessmen that this country has ever produced or an uncomplicated quarry man who has got ahead of himself and is now about to suffer one of the greatest financial free-falls that this downturn can offer.

The success of the Quinn Family Group has been well documented and has held the attention of business journalists in recent years. Observers can rest assured that, should the portents of doom prove correct, any cataclysmic fall from grace will be met with even greater interest both here and abroad. The story over the last week has, after all, not been good for the group, which is estimated to be nursing a €1bn loss from Sean Quinn's 15 per cent leveraged derivative position in Anglo Irish Bank.

He has said that he will continue to tough out the market downturn and convert his contracts for difference (CFD) into ordinary stock. CFDs allow investors to buy an interest in a stock for an initial outlay of as little as 10 per cent of its market price. However, when share prices fall, the holder must then cover the losses from their CFD provider. Nice work if you can get it. The problem is, sometimes it can get you first.

Amid all the media commentary about Sean Quinn's well worn path to riches (from the paternal gift of a gravel pit to his position last year as the world's 177th richest man, and the UK's 12th, with a business value then of €4.4bn), little is known about the family who surround him. He "jealously guards" his family privacy and, as he rarely gives interviews himself, commentary on his family has invariably remained vague.

His brother, Peter Quinn, is regarded as the real strategist of the family and not a man averse to risk-taking. As GAA President in the first half of the Nineties, he is credited with being the brains behind the commercialisation of Croke Park and, indeed, the GAA as an organisation. Unafraid to speak his mind, a year ago he attacked almost every institution in the State while also having a go at what he called the "non-risk taking dead hands" in Ireland.

A chartered accountant by profession and a significant shareholder in the Quinn Group, Peter once described his brother Sean as "an eternal optimist, which is necessary in business". The next few months will prove instructive as to whether this optimism was groundless or not.

Sean Quinn's wife and five children are the people who have been most sheltered from the public eye, yet they are also riding the current financial tsunami that has beset the group. In fact, an internet search on any of his offspring's names -- Aoife, Ciara, Sean Jr, Colette or Brenda Quinn -- reveals little more than unrelated Facebook entries or doppelgangers who are experts in golf and pottery. To be central cogs in the Quinn family group and yet avoid internet detection may prove to be among family members' greatest achievements.

His wife Patricia, 55, owns 9.4 per cent of Quinn Group -- which, even at its current market valuation, would make her a paper millionaire many

times over. All children are now believed to work within the group in various capacities and they hold various stakes, though each will almost certainly end up with a fifth of its assets in due course.

Ciara, 31, is the eldest and perhaps the most well known offspring, having married Blanchardstown solicitor Niall McPartland in November of last year in the media glare. She holds a whopping 22.7 per cent share of the company but, like her father, would appear to choose frugality over excess. Her wedding reception was held in the family-owned four-star Slieve Russell Hotel and, despite the presence of two brand new Rolls Royce Phantoms (costing €350,000 apiece), much to the disappointment of the paparazzi and onlookers, ostentation was not the order of the day. She is a director of Quinn Hotel Properties and is thought to have a major input into the nine hotels in the Quinn Hotel Group.

Sean Jr, 29, holds 20.3 per cent of the company and is considered by many to be the heir apparent. Indeed, he may be one of the few family members able to raise a smile as he is listed as having only one directorship in the Republic --in the Quinn Insurance Group, which last week came out as a winner in the risk equalisation legal battle.

He lives in a penthouse apartment in the exclusive Farmleigh Woods, which adjoins Farmleigh House in Dublin and where until recently three-bed penthouse units were selling for prices from €2.3m. Then there is the small matter of a golf course. He also owns The Belfry, one of Britain's most exclusive and historic golf venues. In short, life's good.

Colette, 32, holds 6.8 per cent and directs the pub and hotel companies and is listed as having 13 directorships within the State.

Aoife, 26, has the smallest stake of 6.7 per cent, according to company records, but even after the battering the group has taken since last week, this represents more than €200m. She is also a director of the Holiday Inn in Nottingham, valued at about €8m.

Youngest child Brenda has a 20 per cent share of the company held in trust by her parents. All the Quinn children are believed to have further significant assets outside the main group.

Commentators have noted that the family could suffer huge financial losses and still have a war chest that most of us could only dream of, but to Daddy it was never about that; for him, creating jobs remains the priority.

"The more you have, the more you want and the more you expect," he said in a recent interview, adding that when he started in the business he used to get excited when he saw his only lorry on the road. If less is indeed more, then Quinn and his family may yet have even better days to come.

Notwithstanding what many regard as the ill-timed investment in Anglo Irish Bank, it is said that Sean Quinn can read financial statements better than any accountant. Write the Quinn family off at your peril.

Reliance Life Insurance launches Project School on Wheels

2008-07-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

Project ‘School on Wheels’ aims to bring a mobile school close to children living in the slums of Mumbai. Before any intervention, every child is counseled to ascertain his or her profile

Reliance Life Insurance, one of the fastest growing life insurance companies in the country, today launched its project ‘School on Wheels’ in association with Project Crayon, an NGO focused on Child Rights and Youth Development.

The project, which is a part of Reliance Life Insurance’s Corporate Social Responsibility endeavor, was launched by Tina Ambani here today.

Ambani inaugurated the mobile school amid a large group of children, parents, project coordinators and senior officials from both Reliance Life Insurance and Project Crayon.

Project ‘School on Wheels’ aims to bring a mobile school close to children living in the slums of Mumbai. Before any intervention, every child is counseled to ascertain his or her profile. The overall approach is to prepare these children for admission to a formal education stream, impart appropriate moral and social values, and bring them to the mainstream of society.

“Education equals empowerment, the ability to craft a better future,” said Mrs Ambani. “Our vision is to provide access to basic education to underprivileged children and open their eyes to their own potential and the world that awaits them. This initiative is in line with the Group’s commitment to bring value to the lives of underprivileged children across India.”

The focus of the project will initially be on the slums around Chembur and Mankhurd. The mobile school will cater to the slums in and around these areas in the first phase with more than 50 children having been already identified and selected for this project.

“It is a small but important step towards making a difference in the lives of these children and thereby leading them to a better future,” said Mr. P. Nandagopal, CEO, Reliance Life Insurance. “We are sanguine that the success of this project will serve as a precursor to many such wonderful opportunities for us to truly make a difference in the lives of a wider segment of society.”

The bus, customized to function as a school, is fully equipped with a computer and library, and has dedicated teachers to conduct classes. In the course of its daily routine, it will cover a few selected slum areas and will run a three-hour class at each of these centres. The teaching methodology will be non-formal and largely based on the Avehi Abacus syllabus.

The computer will provide a platform for educational software, movies, music and other entertainment-based educational programs to be delivered to the children. Activities such as clay making, card designing, theatre/play acting and art classes shall form a part of the overall curriculum.

“We are extremely pleased to see leading organizations such as Reliance Life Insurance take up their socio-economic responsibilities with such zeal and enthusiasm,” said Devika Kulavoor, Founder Trustee, Project Crayon. “It is of interest to note that as a result of the preparatory work for this project, five children have already joined a formal education stream and have been enrolled with a private English medium school in the vicinity. We are sure that this project will be a great success and have a positive impact on the lives of many children.”

These children will also be provided with toys and educational games as incentives to keep them motivated to attend the school. Various other support services such as first aid, transportation to schools and health camps will also form a part of the programme.

‘School on Wheels’ is a one-year project, which will be monitored and reviewed quarterly.

Boosting Population a Vague Science

2008-07-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

11 July 2008
By Nabi Abdullaev / Staff Writer
The fact that Russia's population is shrinking should come as a surprise to no one. According to the State Statistics Service, 12 million more Russians died than were born from 1992 to 2007, with the arrival of 5.5 million immigrants only partially compensating for the loss.

It is clear from statements by political leaders that the government is aware of the problem and the serious threat that it poses to future economic growth and security as the country's work force shrinks.

What is also clear, according to demographers and public health experts, is that the government hasn't made enough effort to get to the root of the problem or to measure whether the policies it has put in place to deal with the demographic crisis are really helping. Although some financial incentives have been created to help couples have more children, experts say a much more comprehensive approach is necessary.

Given existing trends, demographers say the population will shrink from the current level of 142 million to something between 125 million and 135 million by 2025, and could fall to as low as 100 million by 2050.

This demographic decline has serious economic consequences -- there will be as many as 8 million fewer people in the work force by 2015 and possibly 19 million less by 2025, according to study by a group of Russian demographers sponsored by the United Nations and released in late April.

Population change is dependent on three main factors: the birthrate, the death rate and immigration rates. Last October, then-President Vladimir Putin approved a government demographic strategy through 2025 that sets targets in each of these three categories. But while this strategy shows that the government is concerned about the current situation, the program's goals suggest that it has little interest in understanding the roots of the problem, preferring to throw money at it instead.

Demographers have calculated that, in Russia, the replacement fertility rate -- the number of births per woman necessary to maintain the current population -- is 2.15. In 2006, the fertility rate was 1.3 children for every woman.

The number of babies born last year jumped to about 2 million -- up 8.3 percent from the year before and a post-Soviet record. Still, the fertility rate rose only to 1.4 children per woman.

State officials wasted no time in claiming that government policy was to thank for a new baby boom, with Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova only the most recent example.

"It is a true demographic explosion that no other developed country has generated," Golikova said in a speech on April 26. "We are proud that ... Russians have had the right reaction to the measures to encourage births."

The measures introduced by the government included an increase in monthly social payments to mothers, making it easier for young families to get mortgages, and "mother's capital" -- a one-time payment of around $10,000 for those women giving birth to a second child. Access to the money comes only three years after the child is born, and it must be used for the child's benefit, such as improving the family's living conditions or paying for education.

Demographers doubt, however, that government perks were the sole or even the main cause of the rise in births.

Vladimir Arkhangelsky, of the Research Center for Population Problems at Moscow State University, said the latest spike in births is the result of an increase in the number of women reaching their peak childbearing years. These women were themselves products of an early 1980s baby boom, which followed increases in Soviet-era social payments and an anti-alcohol campaign.

Arkhangelsky and other demographers say the number of children being born will likely fall off again in about five years as the women of the 1980s baby boom move out of their most fertile years and are replaced by the much smaller generation born in the 1990s.

According to the State Statistics Service, in 2007 there were 24.1 percent fewer females from the age of 10 to 19 than in the 20 to 29 age group. There were 44.1 percent fewer females under the age of nine than in the 20 to 29 group.

An added concern is that, even if the new benefits are partially responsible for the increase in births, they may still have a negative effect on the country's wealth disparity in the future. Women living below the poverty rate experienced a more significant rise in birthrate than any other segment of the female population, said Valery Yelizarov, head of the Research Center for Population Problems.

According to the Social Insurance Fund, the government body that issues birth certificates, about half of the women who gave birth last year reported a monthly income below the poverty line for Russia -- 3,500 rubles ($150). About 70 percent of the mothers reported a monthly income of less than 7,000 rubles ($300).

"The government needs to think of how to stimulate [births among] those who are more successful in life," Yelizarov said.

According to the government demographic strategy, incentives designed to get families to have more than one child should boost the birthrate by 50 percent by 2025. But the global trend, and particularly in developed countries, has been away from larger families, leading some experts to express doubts that the target can be met.

Karl Kulessa, the UN's population agency chief in Russia, said there were many social and economic factors that work against bigger families.

Benefits for larger families introduced by the French government have played at least some part in a jump in the birthrate from 1.7 babies per woman in 1994 to almost 2.0 in 2006. But to achieve similar results in Russia, the government needs not only to provide families with the financial resources to provide for more children but also to influence attitudes in a country where one-child families are the norm, Arkhangelsky said.

Attention all agents: Japan Airlines international fuel surcharge increase

2008-07-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

NOTE:
• International Insurance surcharge is USD3.20 per person for each segment. This should also be collected as YQ’.
• Insurance surcharge for Japan Domestic sectors is as follows: JPY300 - When Japan Domestic fares are purchased separately from international fares, the insurance surcharge will not be applied. When Japan Domestic sectors are included in international fares, the insurance surcharge will be applied. This should also be collected as ‘YQ’.

Applies to: All fares and tickets (including child, and JMB award tickets.) Infants without seat are exempted from fuel surcharge.

Collection Method: Fuel Surcharge and Insurance surcharge will be collected on international air tickets or MCOs. The Special fees and Charges code ‘YQ’ will be used and entered in the TAX/FEE/CHARGE/BOX. The current BSR at time of ticketing will be used to convert from USD to AUD.

Ticket Reissue/1St Intl Flight Change: When the first international sector of the ticket is changed or rerouted (regardless of fare type), difference between previous Fuel Surcharge and the revised Fuel
Surcharge will be collected. (All tickets must be reissued). If reissue is due to any other sector than the 1st international flight the fuel surcharge increase is not charged.

Unions demand National Insurance hikes for top earners in exchange for rescuing Labour from bankruptcy

2008-06-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

TRADE union leaders are drawing up a shopping list of policy demands - including tax hikes for the middle classes - in exchange for rescuing Labour from bankruptcy.

Senior union figures are highlighting 'cuddly' measures such as more flexible working rights and free school meals for all primary school children.

But behind the scenes they are also pressing for new rights to strike - and, most explosively, National Insurance hikes for middle earners.

The GMB union is understood to want the upper earnings limit on National Insurance to be abolished, making higher earners pay far more.

National Insurance is charged at 11 per cent on an employee's income between ?5,460 a year and ?40,040 a year, and 1 per cent on anything earned above that.

Gordon Brown will fiercely resist such a move as electoral suicide. But the unions are ready to flex their muscles at a time when the Prime Minister is politically vulnerable and the Labour Party is in desperate financial straits.

Gifts from individual supporters have collapsed in the wake of the cash-for-peerages affair and Labour's catastrophic slump in the polls.

With Labour almost totally reliant on them for funding, the unions want to push for a detailed list of policies in crunch talks with ministers next month.

Labour has had its annual accounts signed off by auditors and they have now been sent to the Electoral Commission for publication.

The figures will show that the party remains about ?20million in debt.

Party sources insisted the role of the unions in keeping the party solvent had been 'massively overstated'.

Instead, a string of wealthy businessmen who loaned the party millions of pounds are understood to have agreed not to call in their money now.

One party source insisted: 'As for this so-called list of union demands, it's made abundantly clear to anybody that gives us money that they don't get anything in return except a greater possibility of a Labour government.'

The unions are proposing several measures designed to appeal to Labour's core vote.

Unite, the largest union, suggests that employees are given more rights to flexible workplace leave.

The public services union Unison wants all primary school children to get free school meals and the GMB wants to instal environmental workplace 'shop stewards' to encourage green workplaces.

The GMB - headed by general secretary Paul Kenny - has already voted to cut funding to a third of the 108 Labour MPs it sponsors, saying they have failed to back its policies.

Union leaders are said to be wary of explicitly demanding traditional workers' rights at this stage, for fear of unnerving the Government ahead of next month's talks.

But Unite, which gave ?2million earlier this year to Labour, is also said to be preparing a campaign to overturn the ban on secondary strike action, which was introduced by Margaret Thatcher.

Other possible demands include a provision enabling unions to ballot their members by phone or email.

Yesterday former Labour Party treasurer Baroness Prosser warned the party's finances were 'a worse situation than we have been in ever'.

She claimed some donors had abandoned the party because they were only prepared to support 'something that's a winner'.

Lady Prosser said Mr Brown was 'not exactly a sunbeam' but insisted there was no alternative leader who could attract more donors.

Life Insurance - At last Children attained the Attention

2008-06-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

Summary: Life insurance policies are available to cover the life of children. This article gives a first hand information regarding the advantages and terms of these policies.

Children avail least life coverage by insurance companies. All most all insurance companies have a few policies designated specifically for children . The objective of these insurance plans is to provide financial security to children, additional savings along with life coverage.

Broadly there are two types of children policies available in the insurance sector. In one type the child is the life is insured whereas other loan plan ensures the earning parent or guardian of the children. In policies like like Jeevan Kishore or Komal Jeevan( product of LIC) the child is the target audience. These policies are also considered as disciplined investment plans to make money at predetermined future dates. Being a conventional insurance policy, the monetary returns from this type of plan may not be such lucrative.

Other life insurance policies are available with few specific benefits for children . In all these insurance policies, the parent is the life assured. Some insurance companies offer plans where any one of the living parents can be the life assured and any one named as beneficiary of the sum insured. If there is an unfortunate event like the death of the insured the child or the appointee ( if the child still remains a minor) is paid the full sum. In such case, further premiums are waived. The insurance company owes the burden of paying the premium for the remaining tenure and at the end of the term the child receives another sum assured with full accrued bonus amount.

If the life assured survives till the end of the life insurance policy, the child is paid the maturity benefit as per policy terms and condition. These insurance plans are available as a conventional endowment type plan or Unit Linked Plan from most of the insurance companies. The most popular among the life insurance policies for children, are Jeevan Chaya from LIC and Smart Kid and Youngstar from Pru ICICI and HDFC SL .These insurance policies not only ensure that money is available to the child when required but also provides the financial assistance if the bread winning parent die premature. This policy is equally useful to parents who have more than one child. Such parents can manage with one policy and make the mother nominee who can ensure appropriate distribution of the funds.

For more information about banking and credit cards. Please visit our website: http://www.paisawaisa.com/

Parents cautioned against baby extravagances

2008-06-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

HAVING a baby is one of life's greatest experiences but can also be one of the most financially frightening.
As well as the prospect of losing one partner's wage for weeks, months or even years, expectant parents have a multitude of new costs to think about.

Clothing, nappies, food, formula, furniture and childcare are among the items that need to be considered, but experts say that planning and shopping around can result in significant savings.

According to research released this month, four out of five Australian parents worry about baby expenses, a figure which includes households earning more than $100,000 a year.

The independent research commissioned by online shopping website eBay found that 87 per cent of new parents were confused about what baby items were a necessity and what were simply nice to have.

Two-thirds of parents bought more expensive versions of baby items and later wished they had shopped around, it found.

In South Australia, the biggest cause of financial stress was that the household was going to lose one income, followed by the fact that there are so many baby items to buy.

EBay's research also found that seven out of 10 South Australian parents admitted buying expensive baby items when they knew they could have obtained a better deal by shopping around.

The main reasons given for not shopping around were difficulty and lack of time.

EBay spokeswoman Sian Kennedy said baby goods was one of the most popular categories on its ebay.com.au website, with a baby item selling every 27 seconds.

Financial planner and author of How to afford a baby, Justine Davies, said planning ahead and shopping around were the keys to real savings. ``Shopping for baby can be quite emotive - it's one of the first experiences of parent guilt,'' she said.

``Wanting to do the best for baby though, doesn't have to mean spending the most.''

About Finance director Karen Bruce, who specialises in finance and lending for women, said when a baby was on the way, the extra pressure both financially and emotionally could be overwhelming if there was no plan in place.

"So much time is spent preparing for the birth and reading about pregnancy that it is almost an afterthought that financially life is going to be very different,'' she said.

"For many couples, going from two incomes to one brings about the realisation that budgeting is essential and a little planning would have gone a long way.''

AMP financial planner Darren James said extra stress could be avoided if people thought about family planning and financial planning as going hand in hand.

"There are so many things people should consider, such as the loss of an income and the addition of hospital and specialists' bills, and health, life and disability insurances to protect their loved ones,'' he said.

BANKROLLING TIPS

Money Editor ANTHONY KEANE asks the experts for tips on making the arrival of a new baby as financially painless as possible.

NEW parents have so much on their plate - such as sleep deprivation and coming to terms with a strange little creature that completely dominates their lives - that financial matters often take a back seat.

However, failing to plan for a huge variety of new expenses - not to mention the disappearance of one income, in many families for an extended period of time - can be very dangerous.

"I think many people have a `we'll be right' attitude and in fact they won't,'' said About Finance director Karen Bruce, who specialises in finance and lending for women.

"The decrease in income and extra costs associated once the baby is born is something that needs to be well thought out and planned,'' she said.

"Budgeting is always a good idea and even more so when you are looking after every dollar. I have advised clients to live on one wage for at least eight months before the arrival of a new baby, and a change in spending habits can ensure the adjustment is seamless.''

Ms Bruce said another tip was to visit government websites to work out your income entitlements for payments such as Family Tax Benefit A and B.

"Planning a post-baby budget needs to include all the extra costs per month, including nappies, formula, baby wipes, baby food, bottles, bibs and unknown costs like chemist trips and doctor visits,'' she said.

"I would estimate at least $50 per month at the chemist, not including money for nappies and formula.''

AMP financial planner Darren James said disposable nappies for a new baby would add about $30 a week to the grocery bill, or $1560 a year, while formula for bottle-fed babies would set parents back about $20 a week, or more than $1000 in the first year.

"The importance of re-doing the budget before the arrival of a baby can't be overstated - there is a lot more to consider than a new little mouth to feed,'' he said.

"A budget is the cornerstone of good financial planning and it can relieve some of the monetary stress surrounding this life-changing event.''

"Online budgeting tools can help people consider their income and how far this has to stretch to cover all expenses. Such tools will also assist people to work out what's really important and what could realistically be put aside to cover child-rearing costs.''

Mr James said new parents should make their savings work for them, by investigating different bank accounts that paid high rates of interest but still provided flexible access to their money.

"It may sound obvious, but people should only buy the things they need and can afford,'' he said.

"Careful use of credit cards is a must. By limiting spending and paying off the balance each month, people can avoid interest charges and reduce their fees.''

Financial planner Justine Davies, the author of How to Afford a Baby, said budgets were a boring but necessary part of preparing for maternity leave.

People should list all their baby-related expenses, she said.

"Start writing down what you will need, and look at some ways to accumulate them cost-effectively.''

Ms Davies also recommended people investigate available government assistance and also check their work-related benefits.

"There are certain benefits that you will have, irrespective of who your employer is, and these basic parental leave entitlements are covered on the government website www.workplace.gov.au.

"But in addition to legislated rights, your employer, if you are lucky, may offer additional benefits such as a period of paid maternity leave,'' she said.

Another important factor in financial planning for a new family is reviewing your insurances.

"If you have personal insurance cover such as income protection you may need to advise your insurer in writing that you are taking leave,'' Ms Davies said.

"Also, now that you are going to have a family you may need more life, TPD (total and permanent disability) and trauma cover as you have your child's care and welfare to consider in the event that one of you is disabled or no longer there,'' she said.

The biggest expense faced by most people - with or without children - is their home loan, and there are several strategies that can help people navigate mortgage payments and a new child.

National Australia Bank state general manager retail banking Ann-Marie Chamberlain said the most important thing was not to over-commit yourself at the time of taking out a home loan.

"This applies equally to all home buyers, but carries even more weight if you think you will be going from two incomes to one for a period of time,'' she said.

"If your budget will be stretched to the limit, it may be worth reconsidering how much you're prepared to spend on a home.''

Making voluntary payments off a home loan before the baby arrived could also help, Ms Chamberlain said.

"If you're far enough in front, this may give you the flexibility to lower your repayments for a period of time while you're living on one income,'' she said.

"Another option is to convert to an interest-only loan. This means you will only be required to repay the interest owing on your loan, which will lower your repayments. However, home owners do need to be aware that if they are only making interest repayments, they will not be reducing the loan principal.''

Members of Fenton's Freedom Center open their hearts to help family of ailing tot

2008-06-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

by Theresa Roach | The Grand Blanc News

GRAND BLANC, Michigan -- One-year-old Elijah Palmer was born with half a heart, but the final stage in a series of surgeries could give the toddler a chance to live a normal life.

On Aug. 6, Becky and Jason Palmer of Highland will take their youngest son to C.S. Mott Children's Hospital for his third and final open heart surgery to repair hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a disorder in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped.

The Palmers and their older children -- Travis, 4 and Hannah, 6 -- will stay at the hospital for at least one month while Elijah recovers from surgery.

Meanwhile, a group of church friends will host a garage sale and bake sale from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at 8229 Peninsula Circle in Hidden Ponds subdivision in Grand Blanc to help the family cover expenses while they take time to focus on the child's recovery.

"Jason won't be able to work while Elijah is recovering and (Elijah's health) already (has) been a strain on them financially," said Alise McAleer, whose will host the sale at her home.

"They've only been married a few years," McAleer said of the Palmers. "They have three young kids. It (has taken) a toll on their family."

Elijah's body does not receive proper oxygen flow, which causes breathing problems, a bluish tint to his fingernails, toenails and skin, developmental delays and difficulty in developing strong muscles. Just one week before his second birthday, he finally is walking.

This final surgery would give Elijah normal blood flow and help ease many of his health troubles, said Becky Palmer.

Medical costs are covered by health insurance, but Jason Palmer, the family's sole provider as a manager at a Wendy's restaurant, does not qualify for paid time off from work for a year. He must work during Elijah's recovery or take the time off without pay.

McAleer and other church members of Fenton's Freedom Center want Jason Palmer to be with his family.

"It's phenomenal," Becky Palmer said. "When you don't know what you're going to do and someone suggests something like what the girls are doing, it's just phenomenal. When they said they'd do this, I started crying. ... It's hard. We went from two incomes to one," said Becky Palmer, who quit her job when Elijah was born.

"Jason was thinking about working, but now with this, I will have the support of my husband and Elijah will have the support of his daddy."

Docs eye paternity leave

2008-06-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

Public-sector doctors are asking for a three- day paternity leave to bolster low staff morale.
"There simply aren't enough hours in a day for me to fulfill my work and family roles," said Queen Mary Hospital doctor of international medicine Pierre Chan.

During a week of 30-hour shifts and regular 12-hour work days, he has only been able to spend an hour and a half with his one-year- old daughter each time they have met.

"Our family is socially and psychologically unhealthy," said Chan's wife and family doctor Eunice Chan Yin-chiu.

When she was seven months' pregnant she quit the public sector fearing job-related stress would affect her pregnancy.

Although her husband stayed in the public sector, she accepted a pay cut to enter the private sector to have more time with their child.

According to surgeon Kelvin Ng Kwok- chai, Chan's departure to the private sector is a familiar story as more doctors are switching over to get better hours and a more balanced work life.

"The problem is some doctors are also fathers, and they have to play their family roles as parents - of course they do their best to serve patients but they don't have time to take care of their family life," Hong Kong Public Doctors' Association vice president Ho Pak- leung said.

With colleagues working more than 70 hours a week or 33 hours more than their contract stipulates, Ho said introducing paternity leave would not only help doctors balance work and home life but also be an important olive branch and first step in upcoming negotiations between public-sector doctors and the Hospital Authority.

He said unless services are redefined and a hybrid public/private solution found, manpower shortages will continue to wreak havoc on job satisfaction and morale among public sector health-care workers.

"Wives need the support and care of their husbands," Federation of Trade Union lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing said during an FTU and Men's Concern Group march in Central yesterday - Fathers' Day.

He said offering leave to fathers would improve workplace morale and help divide child- rearing responsibilities between parents.

An authority spokeswoman said it will consider initiatives to boost morale.

Standard Chartered, HSBC and Lehman Brothers offer five days' paternity leave, while China Light and Gas offers three. Australia and New Zealand offer unpaid paternity leave to workers, and two weeks of paid leave is provided in Britain and France through social insurance.

Community benefit helps special 4-year-old

2008-06-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

By: News 8 Austin Staff
The Austin community held a benefit Saturday to help with the high costs of one special little boy's medical bills.

The Joshua Jam Benefit Concert and Silent Auction was held Saturday at Dave & Buster's.

Joshua Edmondson is an excited little boy who enjoys being a 4-year-old. Playing the drums and arcade games are just some of the things he loves.

But Joshua is more than your everyday child. He's one in a million, literally: Joshua has a rare bone disease that affects one in a million kids.

"He's just strong, very strong," Joshua's mother, Michelle Edmondson, said. "He knows if we go to the hospital he's going to get shots and he says, 'Well, it makes me sad that I'm going to get shots, but I know I'm going to get better.' He's strong."

Joshua must get treatment from a specialist not covered by his insurance.

All of the proceeds of Saturday's benefit will go to Joshua and his family for his care and expenses.

A little boy who dreams of school

2008-06-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

by Thu Giang

HA NOI — The five-year-old boy lost all trace of his previously shy look as he reached out to the performance on stage, a show of dazzling coloured lights at the Friendship Cultural Palace in Ha Noi.

A performance like this may be nothing new for city children, but for Nguyen Van Nam, an HIV-infected child from northern Thai Binh Province, it was like a fantastic dream.

It was the first time Nam, not his real name, had ever visited the capital city. He was here to enjoy International Children’s Day.It was the largest-ever celebration for HIV/AIDS children in Viet Nam.

Organised by the Ministry of Health, it was attended by about 500 infected children between the ages of five and 15 from 35 of the nation’s 64 cities and provinces.

Nam was born HIV-positive in 2003. One year later, his parents died of AIDS complications and he was left in the care of his grandparents, who are farmers.

Nam was too shy to talk about himself. His grandfather, who prefers to remain anonymous, simply wanted to say: "Thank you."

According to the Viet Nam Administrators for HIV/AIDS Control, there are more than 3,500 children under the age of 16 years living with HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam. Of these, about 1,100 lack health insurance.

Deputy director of the ministry’s Treatment Department, Le Thi Huong, said about 80 per cent of the cost of their insurance would be paid by the Viet Nam Insurance Corporation, while the rest would be sought from other sources, such as the Viet Nam Fund for Poor Children – or funds for children infected with HIV/AIDS.

Simple things like eating and playing are very meaningful for children such as Nam, but something is missing. Nam’s grandfather, who took him to the Children’s Day, said the boy was stigmatised for carrying the virus.

Kept out

He said that discrimination from teachers and parents had blocked his grandson’s way to school.

Nam’s health has recently improved, thanks to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. However, no kindergarten in his area will enrol him.

"I know that the country’s law allows children infected with HIV/AIDS to study with normal children, so why is my grandson not welcome at school?

My wife and I are old. We worry about Nam’s future," said the grandfather. Nam is one of many children infected with HIV/AIDS who have been rejected by schools because of their health status.

A deputy principal of a Ha Noi-based pre-secondary school, who wants to remain anonymous, said she was willing to receive children infected with HIV/AIDS to her school as was required by Government’s regulation.

However, she said infected children would not receive special or separate treatment in class.

"If the children received special care, it would affect their integration. Besides, other children’s parents would boycott the kindergarten," she said.

Head of the Hai Duong Provincial Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, Doan Minh, who took three affected children to the special event, said direct talk between consultants and parents was very important because it would decide whether the infected children could study in school.

"Once I was asked by parents if I would bring my daughter into a classroom where there were children with HIV,"Minh said.

"Fear of a disease is very natural. I think if people understood it and knew about prevention, their worries would be dispelled."

Minh said his centre’s staff regularly visited localities to solve problems for children living with HIV/AIDS. It was frequently necessary to invoke the Government’s regulation that allows infected children to study together with normal children – and then organise direct talk with parents about HIV/AIDS.

"To prevent stigma and discrimination from the community, especially at school, it’s necessary to improve the knowledge of the local authorities, parents and especially the teachers, who have direct communication with parents," said Minh.

Nam’s road to education remains long, but his grandparents live in the hope that, one day, he will be able to go to school and be treated as a normal child. — VNS

Middle class falling behind as wages come up short

2008-06-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

By Tim Logan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

For Stephanie and Bruce DeChambeau, Emily's preschool has been a huge break.

It meant they could both work, and their boisterous blond 4-year-old could spend her days for free at a city magnet school she loves.

But preschool's almost over for the year, and they just learned Tuesday that Emily can't go to summer school there, too.

"Now we're like, 'Oh, crap,'" Stephanie said. "What do we do?"

So with no family in the area and the kindness of friends "exhausted," the DeChambeaus face a difficult choice: Work fewer hours, or pay for day care.

They can't afford either, which makes this crisis of child care just the latest example of how one family is confronting the squeeze that faces many middle-class families in St. Louis. A squeeze, many say, that is making the current economic hard times even harder.

If you lined up every family in St. Louis from richest to poorest, the DeChambeaus would stand right about in the middle. Last year they earned $53,000, a bit more than the area's median household income, which in 2006, the most recent year available, was $49,765.

So the middle is $50,000. That's a nice round number, and it sounds as if it should be enough to live on. It's about what the average high school teacher here makes, or a skilled construction worker. A solid middle-class wage.

But that solid middle-class wage just doesn't go as far as it used to.

After decades of steady growth relative to inflation, the median household income here has flattened out in recent years. In fact, it's down a bit: What $45,309 bought you in 2001, $49,765 doesn't quite buy you now. And that number is from 2006, when gas and food and many other essentials cost less than they do today.

To Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that advocates for higher middle-class wages, that data speaks to a growing problem: Prices are rising faster than wages, so most working people are not getting ahead.

"This is the economy that people live in, not the one you hear reported from brokerage houses or the cheerleaders in the (White House)," he said. "The fact is, wage growth has been lousy, and people know that."

SCARY PROSPECTS

For the DeChambeaus, there's actually a little more money than there used to be. Stephanie has earned raises and promotions in her job in development at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. And Bruce, who finished a master's degree at Covenant Seminary in Creve Coeur, then stayed home to raise Emily, began a part-time job after she began preschool in the fall.

They have enough to live on, but they feel as if they're falling behind.

"It's scary," Stephanie said. "I'm 37, my husband's 43. And we have no prospects for retirement, or even the idea of buying a house."

And they're thrifty. Right now they rent a little house off Gravois Avenue in south St. Louis. They drive paid-off used cars — a 1996 Nissan Altima and a 2001 Toyota Camry. They buy Emily's clothes off eBay and lots of Stephanie's from the Scholar Shop. They did without a cell phone until recently, when they joined a family plan with Stephanie's sister for $10 a month. Cable TV? Forget it.

"It's just movies for us," mostly from the library, Stephanie said. "That's not to say I don't miss 'The Daily Show.'"

Then there's food, and gas, and all the requirements of a growing 4-year-old, three credit card balances to pay down and $250 a month for health insurance. They get by, but there's not a lot of give.

"When I think about $50,000, I keep thinking, 'How can this be so hard?'" Stephanie says. "It doesn't make sense, because that is a lot of money. But, then, it's $4 a gallon for gas, $4 a gallon for milk."

The DeChambeaus aren't the only ones who feel anxious.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 56 percent of Americans say they've either fallen back or made no progress financially in the last five years. The results, Pew said, were "the most downbeat" it's seen in a half-century of polling.

That sentiment may only deepen if the economy stays in the doldrums, said Jack Strauss, an economist at St. Louis University.

Most workers didn't gain much during the growth in recent years, but now they're feeling the pain of the slowdown, and coping with higher prices.

"That's one of the reasons the average person thinks we're in a recession," he said.

And it contributes to the economy's troubles, Strauss said, because families have less to spend on nonessentials, the kind of spending that drives growth. It's what has some economists calling this a "consumer-led" downturn, unlike past recessions centered on slowdowns in investment or business spending.

"Unless we get the vast majority of people seeing their wages grow, we're not going to see the kind of growth we want," Mishel said.

MANY WORRIES

Perhaps it's just memory, but both DeChambeaus say things seemed easier when they were growing up.

Both come from small towns — she in Michigan, he in Washington — and families with one main breadwinner. Stephanie earns more now than her father did when he retired, and he raised three children on that salary. The son of a librarian, Bruce dreamed of earning $60,000.

"Now that'd be like $120,000," he said.

They could earn more — maybe not $120,000, but more — had Bruce found a job when he finished seminary. But he couldn't find anything in adult Christian ministry that paid much more than the cost of day care and, he admits, he wanted to stay home and raise his daughter, which he calls "the ultimate challenge" for an educator.

"I'm so glad we did it, but I lost two years on my job search," he said. "It was a very real trade-off, and that has its consequences."

Now he's working part time at the mall. And educating Emily looms larger. They wonder what they'll do in a couple of years, when she's school-age. They love their city neighborhood but are unsure about the schools. They can't afford the private route, and the suburbs seem out of reach.

As for college, Stephanie jokes that she's glad to hear that elite universities such as Harvard are cutting tuition for families that earn less than $50,000.

"Maybe we'll have a chance," she says.

Worries about higher education are something Lara Granich hears all the time. She's the director of Missouri Jobs With Justice, a coalition of labor and social groups that pushes for workers rights. Along with health care costs, it's probably the biggest concern her members have.

"Even the ones who aren't college-educated themselves, they all want a college education for their children," she said. "But that seems increasingly out of reach."

And those who do go to college are being choosier about what they do, some say, and are less likely to stick with traditionally middle-class jobs in public service.

It's a big problem for schools and state government, says Richard von Glahn, organizing director of the Communication Workers of America Local 6355, which represents about 1,400 people at two state agencies and the Parkway School District.

"A lot of young people come to work, then leave after two or three years, because they can't look at it as a career," he said. "It's not something they can raise a family on."

Those who do stay put often take a second job to make ends meet.

"More so now than ever," von Glahn said.

Still, the DeChambeaus know things could be much tougher. On that line from richest to poorest, there are many people on the poorer side of them.

They do make $53,000 a year. They have options and a little room to trim their budgets; many families don't. They both say they feel a little guilty worrying about money problems when others have it worse. But they also think about what their parents gave them, and feel a little guilty they're not doing better. And they're still trying to figure out what to do with Emily this summer.

The DeChambeaus often discuss whether they're "making it," Bruce says. Generally, the verdict is no.

"What we were able to do a few years ago, we just can't do now," Bruce said. "It's not where we wanted to be."

Crusade took seed with son's birth

2008-05-21T02:50:00.000-07:00

Her son is named Thomas after the apostle for whom seeing was believing.

For Quebec television diva Julie Snyder, five years of fertility treatments finally led to the birth of Thomas, now 3.

"You believe ... only when you have the baby in your arms. We were so happy but we didn't believe it," said Snyder, who will be speaking tonight at the McGill Reproductive Centre about her own experience with infertility.

Despite professional successes - she's currently hosting a top ranked show, Le Banquier, the Quebec version of the game show Deal or No Deal - Snyder said her best achievement by far was having a child.

"Nothing can compare with that - nothing," said Snyder, who is expecting a second child in October with her partner, Pierre-Karl Péladeau, thanks to fertility treatments she received at McGill University Health Centre after failed attempts at other clinics.

Snyder said she is so grateful that she would happily wash the floor of the reproductive clinic that helped her become a mother.

Snyder made no secret of the fact that she had to undergo fertility treatment to achieve both pregnancies.

"When I got pregnant, I swore to God that I would help other women," said Snyder, whose vow translated into a documentary on the subject that included an interview with pop singer Céline Dion. Dion also turned to fertility techniques that resulted in the birth of her son, René-Charles.

But Dion and Snyder have the means to pay for the therapy, which could be as high as $30,000 per attempt.

Most Canadian couples who need help with fertility are out of luck financially.

The majority of treatments are not covered by provincial health insurance agencies, including the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec, although about 25 per cent of the medical cost is reimbursed as a tax credit.

In contrast, abortions and surgeries that prevent conception - vasectomies and tubal litigation - are covered 100 per cent, Snyder said.

"But if you want to have a child, good luck. You better have money," Snyder pointed out.

"It's a paradox in a province so concerned with its declining birth rate."

It seems totally unfair that some people have remortgage their houses to pay for fertility therapy, said Snyder, who also is involved in fundraising for women who cannot afford the treatment.

Quebec should follow the examples of France, Belgium, Australia and Denmark, where artificial reproductive techno-logies including in vitro fertilization are heavily subsidized, she said.

Canadian couples go for hyper-ovulation drugs and opt to implant several embryos at once because they can't afford more than one attempt.

The result is often multiple births, lifelong health risks and costs.

The government would save money if it was paying for reproductive technologies, Snyder said.

Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard did not return calls yesterday.

About one in eight couples will face fertility problems.

Many couples don't seek fertility treatment until they've spent years trying for a child, said Roger Pearson, reproductive endocrinologist and past president of Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.

Child Seat Safety

2008-05-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

As a parent, your child's safety is always on your mind.

Saturday, some parents got peace of mind at the State Farm Insurance Child Safety Day.

State Farm agents from Michiana, as well as volunteers from Clay Fire Department and St. Joseph County Police spent time teaching parents the proper way to install child seat's so that their kids are safe.

State Farm Insurance Agent Tim Grauel says, "It's amazing. Last year, across the nation, out of 500 people, about 80 percent were installed improperly. We're looking to make sure seats are new, they fit the size of the kids, they're fastened tightly enough inside the seats and fastened tightly inside the car."

Grauel says the two most common mistakes parents make are not graduating their car seats as their children grow and not fastening infants tightly enough in their seats.

While their parents were learning, the little ones enjoyed themselves getting their faces painted and leaving with balloons.

Two women, 4 ingredients and a best-seller

2008-05-09T04:10:00.000-07:00

What started with a simple idea and a conversation over red wine has led to over half a million sales of a cookbook. The authors of 4 Ingredients have found the recipe for small business success.
The story began when entrepreneur and motivational speaker, Rachael Bermingham gave her first book Read My Lips, about marketing and motivation for women, to her friend Kim McCosker.
"Kim was raving about it," says Bermingham. "I said, everybody's got a goodbook in them, and after a few red wines that same day she said, I've got a good idea for a book. She told me that it was a recipe book with [each recipe using] only four ingredients. I said, that's brilliant I would buy that, and my friend next to me said, I would buy that too."
Bermingham, a motivational speaker, kept asking McCosker, a financial planner, about the book's progress until she finally decided to give it a go, on the agreement that Bermingham would co-author it.
"Her idea and my motivation kicked us both into gear. We said we'll give ourselves 12 months. We had the book on her door step at 10 months. We wrote it during our children's sleep times," Bermingham says.
"None of the publishers wanted to know us. `Are you famous, are you a chef?'. `No'. They wouldn't even talk to us, we couldn't get past the secretary in most cases."
So the Sunshine Coast pair decided to appoint their own editor and printer and self-publish, with $20,000 seed funding from McCosker.
4 Ingredients was published in March last year and has since sold 575,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand, with agreements underway from other international distributors. After considering a variety of television proposals, they recently signed a deal with the Lifestyle Channel to present their own cooking show, which will air from September.
Bermingham says there were four key ingredients to the book's success that can be applied to any business: "Idea. Plan. Action. Marketing".
"I've marketed many other companies before and it's still those same four ingredients. You do it a little bit differently to suit the company you are marketing, but it's just the language that changes, not the process," she says.

"There are a lot of people out there with fantastic ideas but they just don't do anything. You need to first of all do something with it, take some action, then marketing is definitely the oxygen.
"I wrote up a press release and sent it out to all the media and press and print entities in Australia. Kim and I both followed up with phone calls and we got on the phones to the book stores too. We keep doing it, we still do it every single week. Just this week alone Lifestyle was filming in my house and I called my local paper to let them know."
Bermingham has no formal training but decades of experience in marketing. She has run many small business, including a travel agency, a speakers' booking agency and a consultancy practice called "Marketing to Success" where she provided advice to women over the phone on how to market their business with a zero budget.
"Whether you are the director of a child care centre or an insurance broker, every single person needs to market their business in some way. I always say if you market properly you don't ever need to sell, your marketing should do that for you."
A positive approach to marketing is important, Bermingham says.
"I think everybody has a problem with selling because they are fearful of rejection, that is a normal human quality. Whatever I'm doing, I come at it from, `How am I benefiting other people'."
Bermingham says excellent customer service and a clearly defined target market are also important for success.
"A lot of people in business don't know who their market is. You need to know what language to use. If my market is women, I'm not going to speak in a male language, because they'll miss the point."
The original target market for 4 Ingredients was busy mothers between the ages of 25 and 55.
"But our market has grown now and we have changed our marketing to capture more of the market because our biggest online buyers now are actually men," says Bermingham.
"Single men may be wanting to wow their partners, and there are a lot of widowed men out there too. You can evolve [your target market] but you need to start somewhere."
Bermingham and McCosker are in the final stage of production of their second cookbook.
They will be self-publishing their second book, despite offers from publishers around the country.

Brumby's baby boom budget

2008-05-07T04:50:00.000-07:00

NEARLY $1.5 billion of tax cuts for home owners and businesses, and a "bush bonus" of $3000 to encourage young families to move from Melbourne's bulging outer suburbs to regional Victoria are the key features of yesterday's state budget.
Dubbing it a "baby boom budget", Treasurer John Lenders also announced $180 million of extra spending on maternity and child health services to cope with Victoria's highest birth rate since the early 1970s.
Mr Lenders gave business a welcome surprise: cuts to land tax aimed at helping the struggling manufacturing sector, a reduction in payroll tax to encourage employment and, for the fifth year in a row, a cut in WorkCover insurance premiums.
Victoria's stamp duty rates on home purchases — among the highest in the country — will be cut, with all thresholds lifted by 10%.
This follows a staggering one-year jump in stamp duty tax revenue of $913 million, or more than 30%, as a result of the boom in the property market. The cuts will reduce the stamp duty take by only $138 million next financial year.
The stamp duty relief is aimed at first home buyers. Mr Lenders said the saving for a family buying a median-priced first home for $317,000 would be nearly $2500.
The Opposition dismissed the tax cuts as illusory, saying the Government had "gouged" five times more in additional revenue from taxpayers since last year's budget than it was giving back in tax relief. Other features include:
■A $1 billion social justice package to help families with disabled children and "at-risk" communities such as Aborigines and new migrants from the Horn of Africa.
■Almost $800 million to increase capacity on the public transport network, including extra tracks at the Laverton, Westall and Craigieburn railway stations, and upgrades of Prahran and Windsor stations.
■Nearly $600 million to rebuild, renovate or extend 128 government schools, including new schools in Craigieburn, Caroline Springs and Wyndham.
■More than $350 million extra for capital works on hospitals, including Sunshine, Box Hill, Dandenong, Bendigo and Warrnambool.
Mr Lenders said the budget was aimed at helping the state cope with a population boom — Melbourne is growing by about 1200 people a week — and ensuring adequate provision of transport, education, water and health care.
"A growing population brings new joys — but it also brings new challenges," he said. "It places our infrastructure and services under much greater pressure. It makes it harder to maintain our liveability. And it puts a bigger strain on our natural resources."

To help fund future investment, the Government will increase the state's debt more than four-fold to almost $10 billion over the next four years.
While business applauded the budget, the Australian Medical Association said it did not do nearly enough to meet growing demand for public hospitals. Public transport and environment lobbies said it failed to tackle congestion and climate change.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu dismissed it as visionless, and ridiculed claims that it would enable Victoria to cope with the baby boom.
"Our babies will be paying the bills for the mismanagement of this Government," Mr Baillieu said. "There is a substantial increase in taxation in this state, and our babies will be paying the bills long into the future.
"When the people of Victoria wake up tomorrow, they will still struggle to get on a train or a tram, they will still struggle to get into a hospital bed, they will still struggle to get the fundamental services they deserve.
"This is maximum taxation, minimum delivery of services and no substantial infrastructure projects despite a bigger revenue take."
Mr Lenders conceded that economic growth was slowing, down from 3.25% this financial year to a forecast 3% for each of the next four years.
He said the budget surplus was expected to be $828 million next financial year and average $907 million over the subsequent three years.
This would give Victoria a buffer against "harder global times" caused by rising interest rates and inflation in Australia, an economic downturn in the United States and turmoil on the world's sharemarkets.
"It's clear that this budget comes at a challenging time: for Victoria, Australia and the world," Mr Lenders said.
"But it's equally clear that the Victorian economy has the resilience and diversity to meet these challenges and weather the risks ahead."
The Opposition attacked the Government's plan to fund future infrastructure projects in part by pushing the state further into debt.
Opposition treasury spokesman Kim Wells said Victoria was "on the path back to the bad old days of the Cain-Kirner Labor government's debt spiral".
"This will become a frightening legacy for the next generation," he said.
But Mr Lenders said net debt would stand at 2.9% of gross state product by 2012 — lower than the level Labor inherited from the former Kennett government in 1999.
"Worldwide, many governments carry a level of debt to drive their economies and invest for the future," he said. "They would be negligent if they did not."
International credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said last night that Victoria could easily afford the projected increases in net debt while retaining the state's triple-A rating.

Family struggles to help child recover

2008-05-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

By: Jennifer Moxley

CHARLOTTE -- Cabarrus County parents are turning to an alternative therapy, hoping it brings back the little boy they nearly lost to an accidental drowning. He now has severe brain injuries after being found face-down in a pond, having been without oxygen for at least 45 minutes.
Aidan Wright’s parents want to continue the 2-year-old’s therapy at home, but they are struggling to pay for it. Part of the therapy is putting Aidan in a hyperbaric chamber. “What we’re doing is we’re taking oxygen -- concentrated, compressed, under pressure -- and we’re giving it to his brain,” said Rebecca McCall with Alternative Health Solutions.
The hope is that by giving him oxygen in the chamber, parts of Aidan’s brain will come back.
“He's fighting, he's still in there and we hope and pray that we can get him out of there,” said Russell Wright. He lost his job five days before the accident, so the family is on Medicaid. As the oxygen treatment is considered an alternative therapy, insurance doesn’t cover it.

The Wrights say the treatment is needed regardless.
“Lack of oxygen to your brain, treat it with oxygen instead of pumping more medical chemicals into your body,” stated mother Erin. McCall is donating her time and services, but the Wrights want to buy a chamber of their own so their son can get more treatment. No matter the stress or financial burden, they say they won’t give up.
“If you had something like this happen to [a loved one], wouldn't you do the same thing,” asked Russell. “I mean wouldn't you go to the ends of the Earth to make sure he was alright?”The hyperbaric chamber costs about $25,000 and so far the family estimates they’ve raised $9,000. A golf tournament to raise money is scheduled for June 14 at Rocky River Golf Club.

Wives angry at man who faked death

2008-05-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

The two former wives of a man who faked his own death, sparking a $1 million insurance payout, want nothing to do with him as he caused "so much pain".
The man, who cannot be named because of strict suppression orders, yesterday in the Christchurch District Court admitted three charges of dishonestly using documents and two of false pretences.
The man disappeared in 2002 from Port Waikato, south of Auckland, and was presumed dead.
Instead, the father of three children from two marriages had staged his disappearance, assumed another identity and moved to Christchurch.
The man took out an insurance policy worth more than $1m in 2000 that was paid to his second wife after she went to the Auckland High Court to have him declared legally dead.
Sergeant Mark Berryman said the man's two wives were supporting each other because his actions had caused them and their children so much pain.
The women -- one of whom has a teenage daughter and the other who has two primary school-aged sons --"wanted to move on with their lives and wanted nothing more to do with him (their former husband)", Berryman said.
The women's identities, along with any details that could identify the man, how he committed his crimes and large sections of evidence heard by the court yesterday were suppressed at the request of defence counsel Barry Hart.
High Court documents obtained by The Press show the man was being investigated by Inland Revenue and Work and Income for fraud at the time of his disappearance.
The High Court documents, filed by the man's second wife to have him declared legally dead, also revealed he went bankrupt while he owned a business in the central North Island.
The tax agency's fraud investigations relate to allegations he had received tens of thousands of dollars on which he did not pay tax. The High Court documents also contain reference to the man receiving government benefits worth almost $50,000 while working full-time running a business.
In court yesterday, Berryman said the man's car was found abandoned at Port Waikato in 2002.
Police initially believed it was an attempt to fake suicide, but along with the family eventually concluded he had taken his own life.
In 2004, the High Court in Auckland made an order allowing his insurance policy to be paid out in full to his second wife, some of which was put in trust for his three children.
Meanwhile, the man obtained documents under a false name and started work in Christchurch.
Last year he applied for a new passport under his real name, which led to his identification and arrest in January.
His wife was ruled out of the investigation as an innocent party and was not prosecuted, Berryman said.
His second wife said at yesterday's hearing that she had been married to the man for nine years when their relationship broke up in 2002, for reasons which were suppressed. She had two children with the man and was aware he had been married and had another child.
The second wife said she was not aware he had a $1m insurance policy until well after he had taken the policy out.
He also had another policy for $125,000 relating to a mortgage.
After the separation and some initial difficulties, he began to see the children again.
But the custody arrangements started breaking down, the man arriving late to pick the children up, or not at all, his former wife said.
In the following months he disappeared.
The man's former business partner in Christchurch said he had no desire to see the man ever again.
At yesterday's court appearance, police did not oppose bail for the man, who was remanded for sentence to July 11.

Virus claims life of one more child

2008-05-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

By Shan Juan (China Daily)Updated: 2008-05-03 09:12
FUYANG, Anhui: The potentially fatal intestinal virus known as EV-71 had infected 3,321 children in the city as of Friday, and the death toll had risen to 22, a spokesman for the provincial government said.

The latest death was reported on Friday, Wang Yan told a press conference on the epidemic.
He added that 978 are in hospital, of whom 48 are critically ill.
"Babies with such habits as sucking fingers are prone to the disease," Ran Xiangui, deputy director of Fuyang No 2 Hospital, said.
"Most of the infected children are from rural areas," he said. "The public health environment is generally not as good as in cities."
The hospital where Ran works is under great pressure treating the patients, he said. "Every day, about 20 are discharged after recovery, while 40 to 50 are admitted. We are short staffed."
Experts from other provinces and the Ministry of Health (MOH) have been sent to the designated hospitals to help with the treatment.

Official figures show that there are 580,000 children under 5 in Fuyang.
Xie Jiawang, a 14-month-old boy, was diagnosed with the viral infection and has been in Ran's hospital since April 24.
His mother, Yang Juan, said: "We've spent nearly 8,000 yuan ($1,144) because the boy has no health insurance. It's really a huge amount for us farmers."
Taxi driver Wang Bin told China Daily that he had driven five couples with their babies to the railway station on Friday.
"They were fleeing the city to protect their babies from the virus," he said.
"The government should have alerted the people earlier about the disease."