The health insurance marketplace is certainly challenging, but count your lucky stars that at least you have choices. To that end, this article is going to explore the pros and cons of group health insurance.Group Health Insurance ProsGroup health premiums are subsidized by the employer. Generally, an employer must contribute at least 50% of the “employee only” premium. As such, if you are the employee, you can likely get a richer health plan for less premium than you would pay in the individual health marketplace. However, the cost to add your dependents to the employer’s plan, may be cost prohibitive. In this case, and assuming that your dependents can qualify, then you may want to put them on an individual health plan.
Group health premiums for large families are the same as for small families; whereas in the individual market, you pay a separate premium for every family member. So, if you have a large family, you may be able to get a better deal by adding them to your employer’s plan. As with any insurance change though, don’t make any changes without consulting with an experienced insurance advisor in your state.
Group health insurance in most states is guaranteed issue – meaning that you can’t be turned down because of pre-existing health conditions. This is a real blessing if you or a family member has a medical condition that prevents you from qualifying for a individual plan. But, this is a double-edged sword. While being guaranteed issue is a huge benefit for those with pre-existing medical conditions, it does come at a price. This one feature alone accounts for most of the disparity between group and individual insurance premiums. Yes, that is right – in most states, individual health premiums are almost always less expensive than group health premiums.
Most group plans cover maternity. So, if you are planning on having more children, you should definitely consider hopping on to a group plan. While you can add a “maternity rider” to individual plans, these riders tend to be expensive, restrictive, and otherwise provide less value than the coverage you can get in a group health plan. That being said, if you are considering having more children, we recommend that you contact a health insurance advisor in your state for advice about what is best for your family. The right answer is different for each unique family.
Economies of scale can benefit employees of large employers. It is true that the larger the group, the larger the risk pool is in which to share the risk which CAN result in lower premiums than are available in the individual health market. However, the guaranteed issue “issue” CAN wreak havoc on this type of plan. For example, a large employer with good benefits tends to retain employees for long periods of time. Eventually, the average age of the group starts to creep up and so do premiums. In addition, people with large medical needs (expensive medical conditions) tend to be attracted to large plans because they are guaranteed issue with good coverage. And so, over time, not only is the group’s average age increasing, but the group is also attracting employees with large expected health costs. This is the dilemma that we see with large health plans like the U.S. auto-makers and even government plans. Eventually, those with lots of medical needs begin to outnumber those with little or no needs and so premiums are driven higher and higher.Group Health Insurance ConsGroup health insurance can be more expensive than individual health insurance. ln fact, if you don’t factor in the employer’s contribution towards premiums, then individual plans are almost always more affordable than group plans. However, as we discussed earlier, not every one can qualify for an individual plan.
What happens if your employment is terminated (by you or your employer)? Yes, you will likely have some benefit continuation rights (through COBRA or state continuation programs), but these benefits can be very expensive and the term limited. So, eventually, you either have to secure another job with benefits, an individual health plan (assuming you are insurable), or possibly join a government health insurance program for the uninsured (if you are not insurable). Let me emphasize, that you should NEVER be without some form of major medical health insurance. Being without this insurance puts you and your family in serious financial jeopardy. In fact, a recent Harvard University study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.¹ To the same point, every 30 seconds in the United States, someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. Don’t let this happen to you.
Group health insurance premiums are rising faster than individual health insurance premiums. Why? Because most group plans are guaranteed issue and since they accept “all comers”, they tend to attract those with high medical costs. On the other hand, most individual health insurance plans are medically underwritten. This means that the insurance company can say “no thanks” to any application that it deems to not be in its interest. Put yourself in their shoes – would sign a contract to provide $30,000 in annual benefits to someone that was only going to pay $3,000 in premiums (for a net loss of $27,000) if you didn’t have to? Hmm…let me me think about that one. The answer is a resounding “NO!”. Because of this underwriting process for individual health insurance, insurance companies can control their risk and more effectively manage their profitability, resulting in more stable prices.As you can see, there is no clear cut answer as to which type of insurance is the best. The answer depends on a number of factors and is different for every unique situation. The best advice I can give you as you consider your health insurance options — get good advice from an experienced health insurance advisor.

If you want to purchase beauty products at your nearby retail stores, you should be ready to spend a lot of time and effort. In most cases, purchasing beauty products take a lot of time as there are a lot of crazy customers, several stores, and a lot of choices. Nowadays, you don’t have to get out of your house and look for the best store to get the best deal. In other words, if you have access to your mobile phone, you can just go ahead and place your order on an online store. In this article, we have 5 tips that can help you purchase beauty products from the comfort of your home. Read on to find out more.

Use Websites and Apps

The beauty of online stores is that most of them have old-fashioned websites. In these large marketplaces, there are have thousands of products to purchase. If you want to use these stores, you need to use the filters in order to narrow down your search. So, we suggest that you look for a good website that makes use of the latest technology.

Mobile apps are a good alternative to traditional websites. They can help you take a look at hundreds of products at a glance. So, you can install these apps to make a good choice.

Read Product Ratings and Reviews

Reading customer reviews and ratings is a great idea if you want to find out customers’ opinions about your favorite product. Make sure that you look for a reliable website instead of just depending on Amazon reviews.

For example, you can check out Trustpilot as this is one of the best websites when it comes to genuine reviews. After all, you cannot make your decision based on fake reviews.

Search for your Desired Product on Pinterest

Some people head to Pinterest in order to take a look at photos of beauty products. As a matter of fact, this is one of the best platforms if you are looking for your desired product at a glance. Apart from this, you can also find photos of people that use your desired products. As a matter of fact, many celebrities post their photos on Pinterest.

Understand the Ingredients

When it comes to skincare products, we suggest that you get to know the ingredients on the label. You may want to read up on each ingredient to find out if it can benefit you. For example, if you have dry skin, we suggest that you don’t go for a cream that contains peroxide. Using this type of solution can cause excessive skin dryness.

Attitude is everything. Mental attitude, no matter what the end goal is, either helps you get there or impedes your progress and one of the most damaging attitudes anyone can adopt is victim-mentality.

What is victim-mentality?

Victim mentality is a negative mindset. It places blame on other people and circumstances for any unhappiness felt within.” It is the proverbial “point the finger out” scenario.

Those engaged in victim-mentality, view life through a narrow lens of pessimistic perceptions, believing whatever occurs in life is the result of outside causes. Inner reflection is never considered. Being a victim means absolving themselves of blame. Nothing is their fault – ever! Those engaged in victim mentality most often enjoy the attention, sympathy and validation they get from playing this “poor me” role.

When trapped in victim-hood, the focus becomes how vulnerable we are, rather than on how powerful we are.

While, no one is born with victim mentality, no one is exempt from playing the victim role either. Sweet elder grandparents, loving, well-intentioned mothers and fathers, teenagers and even those considered “spiritually awakened” can all be found to dwell in this defeatist realm.

In fact, every person alive has played the victim role more than once in their lives.

Victims want to be mentally prepared for the worst and sadly, for those dwelling in victim-hood, this self-sabotaging behavior becomes more powerful when things seem to be going their way as they are sure “disaster is waiting around the next corner.”
So, how does one break free from this self-defeating, “poor me,” pessimistic type programming, most of which was developed and adopted as a child?

It all begins at home with your perceptions/how your view yourself. Do you perceive yourself as a survivor or a victim?

Survivors embrace life and flow with it. They live in the present and take control over their lives. They are fully aware that they alone are responsible for what occurs. They know that taking responsibility for their lives, they are empowered to change their lives.

Victims, on the other hand, wallow in self-pity and argue with and push back at life. They dwell in the past, believing they are helpless to change circumstances – their key to avoiding responsibility. They live defensively and stay frozen in time, without making progress because their perceptions tell them they are powerless.
The cost of victim mentality is high. It negatively affects every area of life – professional and personal. Those who see themselves as a failure, are dwelling in victim-hood because failure only comes to those who give up.

If we really want to shift out of victim mentality, we must first own it. We can’t change what we don’t own. We must shift our attitude and know that “change begins with me.” We must embrace survival and take actions steps… no matter how small or insignificant they may seem now, towards some goal we are looking to attain.

Most importantly, we must continually empower ourselves with “I can” and “I will” statements and put a stop to degrading “I can’t” or “I won’t” statements and beliefs.

And, we must embrace gratitude – the greatest of attitudes. Daily, we need to take time to reflect on all the things that make us happy, on all the things that are going well in our life. Keeping our mind/energy focused on positive situations helps to counteract victim mentality.

In the end, we must honor ourselves with the same degree of respect and love that we try to give others. Only then will our minds and actions shift out of victim-hood to survival mode.

Truth is, we can’t control other’s actions or every circumstance that shows up in our lives, but we can control how we react to them. We don’t have to be victims. It is a choice. Whatever happens or comes our way, we must view it as a challenge and not an excuse.

Looking for a powerful partner to help erase the negative victim tapes that play over and over in your head? Look no further than your local gym. Getting your blood flowing and your “happy, feel-good” hormones kicked in through challenging exercise is one of the best ways to overcome negativity, defeat victim mentality and put yourself on the fast track to feeling healthy physically, mentally and emotionally.