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Is the proposal in Michigan realistic?

The easiest thing to say in the world right now is that some US states are suffering more than others in the recession. The national media rightly focus on the headline figures showing the total numbers of unemployed, the foreclosure rate, and so on. This can be somewhat deceiving because it hides the fact that some states are actually turning in statistics very different from the national average. In Michigan, for example, the unemployment rate stands at 15.3%. The government estimates that, by the end of 2009, some 310,000 jobs will have disappeared with no sign of any consistent move for businesses to begin rehiring. That’s why Michigan has sponsored a tax rebate for small businesses – the majority having been unprofitable for the last year – and is extending a tax credit to home buyers to help meet their mortgage obligations – Michigan is ranked 8th in the national foreclosure rank. Not surprisingly, Michigan is facing a budget deficit right now and, with the cost of the tax rebate and credits extending into 2010, the deficit can only grow worse.

So if a state has taken on major new commitments at a time when its tax revenues are falling, it is interesting to see it also championing new provisions that might help families struggling to make ends meet at the expense of the profits of the insurance industry. This is carrying the idea of redistribution somewhat further than Barack Obama intended during his presidential campaign. He was only talking about using taxes on rich individuals to reduce the wealth gap. This is more bold. Going back to the beginning, everyone with a vehicle on the road will tell you their insurance premiums have been rising during the recession. The Consumer Price Index may have been falling, but many now see the cost of insurance as one of the biggest headaches when it comes to the family budget. So, this November sees the state election panel accepting a ballot proposal for 2010 to cut car insurance rates by a flat 20% and to protect the consumer against a range of unfair practices. If the backers can collect 300,000 signatures, the proposal will appear on the ballot next year. Should a sufficient number of voter support the proposal, the law would be changed. In theory, it will stimulate competition between the insurance companies licensed to sell policies into Michigan and advance the interests of consumers by encouraging affordable policies for everyone.

Needless to say, the insurance industry is shocked and awed by this proposal, insisting such a change in the law would force them out of business. To many experts, this claim seems somewhat exaggerated. The insurance industry declared hundreds of millions of dollars in profit during 2008 and paid good dividends to their stockholders. Just one company, State Farm, declared profits of $5 billion. So the notion they would all become insolvent overnight is less than convincing. Voters in Michigan will say whether this change is the law is desirable. If the vote is affirmative, the legislature will move to cut industry profits. One indicator to watch will be the car insurance quotes. If these keep on rising leading up to the vote, the people may be encouraged to promote their own interests. But if the industry moderates its pricing policies up to the vote. . . Well, let’s just say the politics will be interesting.

Hints on insuring homes in unfavorable areas

Houses in dark spot areas and insurance rules basics

If your surroundings are not too promising in terms of weather conditions when the wind is practically blowing in your ear all the time and raindrops keep falling down on your rooftop there is a very good chance that you might have to pay extra for your house insurance. England is famous for its rains and floods that have taken over the country lately have ended up costing millions and millions of pounds in claims. This fact, of course, could not be ignored by the insurance companies that have already stated that premiums will be raised not only in England but all around UK as well.

New statistics on house insurance have shown that over 90% of insurers guarantee that the premiums in flood-prone zones will be significantly higher if authorities do not begin the flood-protecting process in the nearest future. According to some other researches if this actually takes place, insurance companies may raise the premiums despite of the area and it will create a fuss on the insurance market. Those who live in flood-free zones are not likely to receive any benefits even if it makes sense to do so.

Insurers nowadays like to blame everything on the authorities. They defend their heart-breaking prices by telling the world that the Government doesn’t want to commit to the flood-protection plan enough to help citizens get rid of the problem that can ruin their home and lives. The Government says that they are taking it step by step in order to offer the citizens a good flood-protection program.

Here are some of the notes you might want to take: Don’t give in to it…

If you don’t know exactly if your zone is considered a “black spot” by house insurers or if you are planning on buying a new house and you can’t choose the right are, you should be able to check the Environment Agency webpage and get your answer. But this information can be confidential so don’t expect to receive all the details this easily. But you can always check it with the house insurers because they should be competent enough to answer any questions related to homes.

Get steady

Weather is something you can’t predict or control. You can save yourself from a risk by getting a flat in a flood-free area but even there you don’t know what might happen. Disaster proofing is a perfect solution for those who are afraid of home damage or any other sort of catastrophe that has nothing to do with a person. If your zone is rainy and windy, install windows that will guarantee you maximum protection. You have to make sure you do enough to prevent any damage.

Get yourself covered twice

It is not easy to find a good solution. Cheap home insurance is not something you can find with a clap of your hands. But the one that seeks will find. If you don’t feel like you are protected enough with your coverage, get yourself another one. One is always better than none and two is always better than one. You can get a cheap home insurance with the company that you already deal with if you have your car insured or health insurance, for example. This could definitely help your premiums. But it is always best to shop around and look for other offers as you never know what you may find. And remember to read quotes – they are important too.

Time to cut down on sleeping pills

The health story that had everyone’s attention at the beginning of the year was the threat of swine flu (quickly renamed H1N1 flu to avoid damaging the market for the sale of pork products). We all watched as the threat level inched up to pandemic. The number of people dying was like watching the latest lottery numbers to see how many lost. Yet, although millions of people have caught this flu, only a few tens of thousand have died. Our attention shifted elsewhere. But there is still interesting news about the pattern of deaths. The people most likely to die are young and, almost without exception, they are obese. Frankly, if you carry excess weight, this flu is a killer, which raises a more general question for you to chew on. No matter what you might choose to believe, the majority of people are overweight because of their lifestyles. They eat too much and exercise too little. So, the US is a country where individual liberty is the most important quality of life. It’s up to every one of us to take personal responsibility for what we do and the consequences of those actions. So what personal responsibility should we take for our own health? Further, if we are against big government, should people who do not take care of their health just be allowed to die if they do not have enough money to pay for health insurance?

The latest statistics show that, as a nation, we spend about 16% of the gross domestic product on health care. This includes the cost of medications and is double the average in countries around the world. But we are not a healthy nation. Counting the number of prescriptions fulfilled through real world pharmacies, we consume more sleeping pills and antidepressants per head of population than any other nation. That’s before we start guessing how many drugs are purchased on the internet. We are seriously overmedicated. The results are easy to see. Many drugs cause insomnia as an unintended side effect. So we all walk around like zombies and beg our doctors for relief. So now comes the difficult decision. Do you reduce the dosages of the drugs you are taking, or add ambien to the mixture to offset the side effects? The rational answer is to do without the first drug altogether. If it is interfering with your sleep and making you feel worse, you should stop taking it. Adding a second drug to balance out the side effects of the first is more expensive and potentially going to make you dependent on one or both drugs.

When there is very clear scientific evidence showing meditation and relaxation techniques as a completely effective treatment for insomnia, there should never be a need to take sleeping pills. People should go through the simple training program and emerge better able to control their sleep patterns. As a result, their general health will improve. But, as with everything, there are problems. The marketers have managed to convince the majority of us that drugs are the best form of treatment. We are taught to dismiss psychology as a waste of time. Worse, private health insurance often will not pay for the training sessions. At a time of recession, this leaves many with no choice. There is only enough to buy ambien and not enough to pay for training in something we do not trust.

Weight loss and mood

In one sense, this topic is just a matter of common sense. If someone feels badly enough about their body shape and decides to lose weight, failure is going to darken the mood. The motivation to shed pounds comes from a basic feeling of dissatisfaction with the way things are. Adding yet another failure to the pile of failures is moving one step closer to depression. But if our dieting and exercise program pay off with an improvement in our looks, we feel good about ourselves. But never forget the complexity of the human mind. Emotions are connected with events and our feelings about them. So the actual number of pounds in body weight is unlikely to be the only thing worrying us. There can be a range of connected issues affecting our mood. It can be problems at work. Our sex life may be disappointing. Our wardrobe may need a transfusion of new and bigger clothes – an unwanted expense when family budgets are under pressure. Look at everything together shows just losing weight may not be enough on its own to lift our mood.

When you look at the research, the clinical studies have a consistent focus. They start by counting the number of pounds lost, sometimes on their own or to calculate Body Mass Index or a percentage of body weight lost. They monitor the pattern of loss over time. If dieters falter, how quickly do they regain the weight? What is the weight lost over 12 months and longer? The studies treat weight as a measurable factor. Similarly, they routinely take blood pressure, monitor the carbohydrate level in the blood, look for signs of diabetes and heart disease… It’s easier to design scientific experiments that deal only with measurable factors. These are objective studies. They are better. Except people are people. They have feelings. So, in addition to all these scientific measurings, it would be good to ask them how they feel about their weight loss experience. Yes, this will be opinion and, for whatever reason, people may be dishonest. But it would give us a better insight into whether holistic treatment is better, i.e. treating people as individuals, making them the center of attention rather than focussing on a diagnosed medical disorder or disease.

Well, a newly published piece of research out of Australia has reached an interesting conclusion. It compared two groups of overweight people over one year. One was given a low-carb, high fat-diet, the other a high-carb, low-fat diet. The usual measurements were taken but, on four dates through the year, they were all given detailed questionnaires to assess whether they were anxious, depressed, angry, and so on. Both groups lost about the same amount of weight – an average of thirty pounds – and, at first, both showed improvement in mood. But the low-carb group’s mood quickly returned to pre-diet levels, whereas the high-carb group remained happier. Ignoring the scientific explanations of why this might be – something reserved for future research – there’s a further factor. None of the participants used any supportive drugs like phentermine. This might have made a difference because, if the reason for the loss of mood was the difficulty is keeping to the diet, phentermine would have help overcome the problem.

Should testing be compulsory?

There’s an interesting campaign building in Tamil Nadu. For those of you whose geography is not strong, Tamil Nadu is one of the states in India and it has a large population. It’s also very socially conservative. This means that “family values” are very strong. Marriage is definitely only for heterosexual couples with divorce strongly disapproved. So far, India matches the Western model but here the similarities end because the usual form of marriage is arranged between the families without the need for the happy couple to meet before the ceremony. Marriage is seen as building links between families of comparable status and wealth. For most, marriage for love is an alien concept.

The problem with this system is that it can trap women in marriages that are, at best, loveless and, at worst, violent and dangerous. There are a number of reasons for this. Because the marriages are often made to consolidate property ownership, the welfare of the couple is irrelevant. Once the marriage has been celebrated and the title to the land transferred, the couple are left to their own devices. The reason why divorce is discouraged is because the courts might disturb the ownership of property. Indeed, wives who threaten divorce can be relentlessly bullied to keep quiet. A further problem is that homosexuality is still concealed. Thus, sons are married off without regard to their sexual preferences. This can leave wives in unconsummated marriages. The same result is achieved by the men who are impotent but dare not go to a doctor to admit the problem and get treatment. The worst possibility is that the men have been routinely engaging in unprotected sex with prostitutes before marriage and have picked up a sexually transmitted disease (STD). When the marriage is consummated, this can leave the wives with serious health problems.

A politically active group of Bollywood women is campaigning for all men to produce evidence of potency and freedom from STDs before being allowed to marry. Although the idea of a certificate of erectile function is never going to be practical – just how would the evidence be collected? – there’s great merit in screening tests to ensure that both parties are free from sexually transmitted disease. Because many couples still prefer unprotected sex, the incidence of STDs has been rising quite sharply over the last ten years. Testing would therefore be a good thing not only in India but around the world. In the West, since there’s no real need for gay men to marry for the sake of appearances, all men who have problems of erectile dysfunction simply rely on levitra. This drug produces the best erections in most men no matter what the physical or psychological problems. This is somewhat ironic since the leading manufacturers of the generic form of levitra are based in India but local distribution is limited by a culture that refuses to discuss sexual matters openly. Unlike the West, it’s also quite difficult to buy levitra online. This unfairly leaves many Indian men struggling to cope with their impotence.