A shame more Americans are not aware of the facts with the planned reforms.

FACT – Insurance companies in the USA admit to pushing up prices, buying politicians and not paying out claims when they should [1]
FACT – PER PERSON the USA spends more on healthcare than any other nation on the planet [2]
FACT – Obama debated his plans before the election for healthcare [3]
FACT – the chance of a child under five of dying in the USA is greater than industrialised nations with universal health coverage [4]
FACT – Obama was elected by the American people to bring in change [5]
FACT – Obama wants to stop insurance companies from screwing America [6]
FACT – The reforms Obama wants work in the Netherlands and Switzerland [7]

Let me know if my facts are wrong, but please provide proof.

“Bob, welcome to the young turks!”
“Good, how are you?”

hehe, idk why that made me laugh xD

When I sent out to find a new vet, I looked for someone who took my CareCredit card. Once I had a vet, I looked at which insurenace he took and I found VPI (http://www.petinsurance.com/).

I think you should first find a vet your kitten is comfortable visiting and then see which insurance companies know your vet.

There is truth to what you read about, the fact that your grandmother and your cousin have diabetes puts you at higher risk.

Are you going to the bathroom a lot more than you used do to urinate? Are you thirsty and hungry all the time? Those are common early signs of high blood sugar.

I strongly encourage you to go to the doctor. If you just refuse to do that a good diet and exercise will help. Try to eat about 1200 calories per day and exercise 150 minutes a week (30 minutes a day spread out over 5 days). And keep a log of your calories so you can see what you are really eating. Also, only 30 percent of those calories should be from fat.

One more possibility is that you might be depressed, feeling no energy and sleeping all the time worries me. Another reason why I recommend a doctor sooner rather than later, so they can rule that out.

Check out the link below to a confidential depression screening website to see if you are at risk for that too. (Screening tests, such as the one in the link, are not intended to provide a diagnosis for clinical depression. But they may help identify any depressive symptoms and determine whether a further evaluation by a medical or mental health professional is necessary.)

And the second link is a little test to see what risk factors (besides family history) you have for developing type II diabetes.

Good luck to you.

You may have to pay state taxes on the interest earned in the HSA, but it should still be exempt from federal income taxes. In that respect, it can still help you build extra funds for retirement.

Even with a PPO, you are going to need extra money to pay for future medical costs should you become ill or injured. If you select the PPO, you cannot utilize the HSA.

Another consideration is if you do not have a Section 125 (flexible spending plan) offered by your employer, you can use an HSA to set aside funds for co-payments, etc.

Of all the very thoughtful questions you have raised, I think the most decisive issue is a comparison of the coverage offered by the PPO vs. the high-deductible plan. PPOs do not always offer the best coverage, and if even they're relatively good, they will not cover a big part of your expenses. My husband was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago, and his PPO had a $500 deductible with an out-of-pocket maximum of $3,000 per year for in-network providers. Nevertheless, we far exceeded $6,000 each year in medical spending that we had set aside in my husband's flexible spending account. An HSA would have offered another tax-advantaged option for us. Note: We don't currently have the option of an HSA-qualified plan from my husband's employer. We have to go with the PPO.

The terms of a PPO can be very misleading as to actual out-of-pocket costs.

HIPAA – Insurance and Pre-existing conditions
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/FAQs/faq_consumer_hipaa.html

A newly enacted law (GINA) will now even prohibit insurance companies from requesting this information.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-493&show-changes=0&page-command=print

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act