{"id":8568,"date":"2017-03-17T07:59:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T11:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/?p=8568"},"modified":"2017-03-17T08:00:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T12:00:52","slug":"affordable-health-insurance-in-nc-what-we-can-all-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/2017\/03\/affordable-health-insurance-in-nc-what-we-can-all-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable Health Insurance in NC- What We Can All Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The cost of health insurance and healthcare is growing and has been for a long time; but what can be done?\u00a0 First, let\u2019s understand that the health insurance industry is very complicated and unlikely to be accurately summarized in a short article.\u00a0 The topic can be broken down into so many segments, each of which deserves its own time and attention.\u00a0 Few segments are as important as the concept of affordability.\u00a0 Without affordability, health insurance begins to lose its value and is capable of serving less people.<\/p>\n

The concept of affordability is no simple matter.\u00a0 Analyzing Medical Loss Ratios and actuarial values is a task performed by some of the best and brightest the insurance companies have to offer. \u00a0There\u2019s no question these professionals have earned a seat at the table when discussing the cost of health insurance.<\/p>\n

When looking beyond the highly publicized drivers of health insurance costs, there are a few much more simple concepts that can have significant impact on the affordability of health insurance in North Carolina<\/a> and the entire country.\u00a0 These are ways consumers can help in the fight to lower healthcare spending and health insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Eat Healthy and Exercise Regularly<\/strong>: There is no shortage of available information about healthy diets and exercise. Positive Health Wellness<\/a> is a great resource for ideas that can help us live healthier lifestyles and feel better as a result.\u00a0 Large insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina<\/a> have been open about concerns regarding the health status of so many insured members.\u00a0 This has initiated the insurance company to become more active in paving the way for their member to live healthier lifestyles.<\/li>\n
  2. Take advantage of preventive care doctor visits<\/strong>: Most health insurance plans have coverage for services like routine physicals and screenings.\u00a0 Typically, these visits are covered at 100%.\u00a0 Utilizing these covered services may help identify potential illnesses before they become more severe.<\/li>\n
  3. Use the Emergency Room for Emergencies<\/strong>: BCBSNC has found that a very large percentage of emergency room visits are for non-emergency situation that could have been handled in a Primary Care Doctors Office or an Urgent Care facility.\u00a0 Emergency Rooms are often one of the most expensive places to seek care.\u00a0 Emergency Rooms serve an important purpose and are recommended for certain situations.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s important to make sure this is the best place to be seen based on the circumstances.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Understanding that we all have some control of the cost of health insurance can change the conversation.\u00a0 The recommendations listed don\u2019t provide an immediate fix to the on-going problems but they can certainly contribute to a solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The cost of health insurance and healthcare is growing and has been for a long time; but what can be done?\u00a0 First, let\u2019s understand that the health insurance industry is very complicated and unlikely to be accurately summarized in a short article.\u00a0 The topic can be broken down into so many segments, each of which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[120,991,990],"class_list":["post-8568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bcbsnc-insurance","tag-affordable-health-insurance","tag-cost-of-health-insurance","tag-health-insurance-north-carolina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8591,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568\/revisions\/8591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}