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In those murky years between the end of school and start of a career, the paths that young 20-somethings choose often determine whether they will be covered by health insurance or not.

Take Lawrence mother Janice Friedman and her two children — a son and a daughter, one on each coast.

Her son graduated from college, went to law school and then straight on to a law firm. He has had health insurance all his life.

The daughter, well, that’s a different story.

The former art student went years in her 20s without health insurance. Pre-existing conditions kept her from being covered between undergraduate and graduate school. And now even after earning her master’s degree in museum studies, her salary isn’t enough to cover health insurance and the rent.

During the times her daughter is without coverage, Friedman holds her breath, hoping nothing goes too wrong. For a mother who has a long history with cancer, it can be nerve-racking. (more…)

When reviewing the news articles on the subprime mortgage crisis, I see Congress responding with some legislative ideas. There is another way this financial challenge can be remedied without taxpayer money trying to fix it.

As a boy I recall watching Captain Kangaroo read the story “How to Make Stone Soup.” It is the story of three French soldiers who enter a small village and go door to door asking for food. They didn’t know the townspeople had seen them coming and had decided to hide their food. Seeing the town without food and therefore in crisis, the soldiers called the townspeople together in the square and told them they would teach them how to make stone soup, thus allowing the whole town to eat. They needed a large pot, water, a fire and three large round stones. Some of the folks volunteered and brought these items to the square. Thus began the making of the stone soup. The soldiers pointed out the soup would taste better if there were some carrots available; someone volunteered the carrots, then some celery, and soon some beef was volunteered. As you can see, the story of stone soup is that it can be made if the community works together.

This is the route to solving the challenge facing the nation and the many, many families who had subprime loans that are ultimately destroying their family life through foreclosure. As the AJC pointed out in a recent editorial, these foreclosures will lower home values in all our neighborhoods. Can you hear the bells tolling? (more…)

ROCHESTER, MN — Each year in the US thirty-thousand people with untreated depression end their own lives.Many of these people are having to go without adequate care because they can’t afford it, and insurance companies won’t provide it.

Soon this all could change.

The wheels are in motion for a solution…and it’s all being powered by the name and the spirit of a late Minnesota Senator.

Chris Hrapsky has the details in this NewsCenter Special Report.

Former US Senator Paul Wellstone says, “I think the pressure builds up. People want the government on their side and in this particular case people feel a lot of insecurity.”

This is the late senator Paul Wellstone 16 years ago. Talking about a problem that still lingers among the mentally ill today.

It’s not cancer, but some call it cancer of the soul, and mental health experts say it’s not covered by insurance nearly enough. Dr. Ronald David is president of the American Medical Association. (more…)

Payday loans are becoming increasingly popular and the industry is attracting alot of attention. Payday loans are cash advance loans that consumers can get, until they are compensated on payday. An example of a payday loan transaction is, a consumer gives their payday loan lender $110 for borrowing $100. After the consumer gets their pay check, they pay the lender back for the principal amount of $100.

The reason payday loans are attracting attention is that they are offered at high interest rates. Why are they offered at high interest rates? Let’s examine the loan process.

1. A typical bricks and mortar bank will never loan you up to $1,500 in 24 hours. The barrage of paperwork that you would have to complete would take more than 24 hours.

2. The requirements for taking a payday loan are minimal. You need a job and a bank account. That’s it. Most banks will require that you produce evidence of assets in order to extend you a personal loan.

3. No credit checks. There are no inquiries against your credit file. This means that the lender is taking a risk. Your credit score could be 450 and you can still get a payday loan. (more…)

More and more Americans are finding themselves sucked into the uncomfortable and potentially precarious situation of having to use credit cards — borrowing on their future — to pay medical and prescription bills today. It’s a scary pattern that can quickly turn to “quicksand” for the unsuspecting, experts say.

“Definitely within the last two years we’ve noticed the situation is getting much worse,” said Pam Dowler, executive director of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Mid-Ohio Valley. “Our counselors are noticing that a lot more health-related charges are showing up on credit cards.”

Dowler believes that there are several reasons this is happening more than ever before, the economy chief among them.Higher fuel and utility costs, grocery bills soaring and overall costs of living on the rise are creating financial stress, she said. Families and individuals simply cannot afford health insurance and pay other bills.

“Another thing that’s happening today is that many health care facilities, especially hospitals, are offering a 25 percent discount if the person pays the balance of their health care bill up front, before insurance pays,” Dowler said. “The easiest thing for many in that situation is to put the balance on a credit card.” (more…)

Prescription drug safety is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but there are no rules on how much customers pay for prescriptions. As it turns out, the prices customers pay depends on the pharmacies they choose.

KXAN Austin News’ Matt Flener conducted price checks by calling local pharmacies and checking prices on the Internet.

Flener checked the costs of three name-brand and two generic drugs in three Austin ZIP codes, finding different prices for the same prescriptions.

At the Apothecary Shop Pharmacy in Northwest Austin, the prices come with personality.

“You’re a number at some pharmacies, and here you’re a person,” said Apothecary Shop customer John Monaghan.

“I am allowed flexibility, because I own the place, whereas they just have to put what’s on the computer,” said Apothecary Shop pharmacist Tom Schnorr.

Schnorr was referring to chain pharmacies, which ended up being some of the most expensive. (more…)

Freddie Mac shares dive after a record quarterly loss, and the chief of H&R Block follows the finance chief out the door.

Shares in Freddie Mac lost almost a quarter of their value today after the mammoth American mortgage giant plunged into a $2 billion (£970 million) quarterly loss and hired Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs to explore “very near term” opportunities to raise cash.

More than $4.4 billion was wiped off Freddie Mac’s market value, as the shares tumbled almost $9 to $28.59.

Freddie Mac, which offers loan guarantees for American homebuyers and is a heavy user of the wholesale credit markets, said that it was “seriously considering” cutting its fourth-quarter dividend in half.

The group’s largest quarterly loss in history, which ballooned from $715 million over the same period last year, underscores the crisis in the American sub-prime mortgage market. (more…)

Fewer small employers offered health insurance this year, despite the widespread availability of new, lower-cost high-deductible insurance plans, a survey released today by benefit firm Mercer shows.

Advocates of the high-deductible plans touted them as one solution to the growing number of uninsured, expecting the plans to appeal to small employers, who would continue to offer health insurance as a result. “That’s not happening,” says Blaine Bos, a Mercer partner and one of the study authors. “In fact, the reverse is happening.”

The study of nearly 3,000 employers found that the percentage of employers with 200 workers or fewer offering any kind of health insurance fell to 61% this year from 63% in 2006.

That drop came even as the cost of high-deductible plans with tax-free savings accounts averaged $5,970 per worker per year. That was $700 less than a comparable plan without a savings account and far lower than the $7,120 for the average HMO, the study says.

The finding bolsters concern that one of the biggest hurdles any state or national health reform effort will face is the question of what is affordable, says Bos. “Defining that number will be a real political and public policy issue as this debate stays on the table.” (more…)