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We’re in the depths of flu season – which makes it more important than ever for you and your family to stay as healthy as possible.

Although your first step should be to get immunized for influenza, you should also focus on keeping your immune system strong. Dr. Bruce Underwood, a certified nutrition and preventive care specialist with Healthy Futures, Inc., recommends these “best practices” for maintaining wellness:

• Get enough rest. To keep your immune system as robust as possible, experts recommend six to eight hours a night of sound sleep.
• Exercise regularly, but don’t overdo it. The Surgeon General urges adults to walk at least 10,000 steps, or about four miles a day. However, Underwood notes that both lack of exercise and over-exercising can weaken the immune system – so exercise common sense.
• Make sure you get the right amount of essential nutrients. These include: 1) about 1,000 milligrams a day of vitamin C (from fruits vegetables, and certain cuts of meat) to counteract such toxins as cigarette smoke and air pollution, and the physical and psychological effects of stress; 2) 10 to 40 milligrams a day of zinc (from meats, seafood, dairy products, nuts, legumes, and whole grains) can help maintain a healthy immune system, however, taking more than 100 milligrams a day can lead to fever, fatigue, and other problems; and 3) 440 milligrams a day of fatty acids, especially omega-three acids of the EPA and DPH types (from fish, fish oil, and flax) for overall health, according to the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids.

An ounce of prevention!

New federal regulations under the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) require insurance companies and health care providers to treat mental illness and addiction in the same way as physical ailments. That’s good news for everyone with health insurance.

The ACA prohibits denying coverage or charging higher premiums to due pre-existing conditions, which include mental illness, while expanding coverage for screening and behavioral assessments and eliminating co-payments or out-of-pocket fees.

The rules beef up the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008 by closing loopholes and setting implementation guidelines– an advance that Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius calls “the largest expansion of behavioral health coverage in a generation.” Under the regulations, mental health benefits must match those for medical and surgical treatment, including copayments, deductibles, number of visits to providers, residential treatment, and outpatient services.

The regulations could affect 62 million people, including 23 million substance abuse addicts. Administration officials called the new rules a response to the need to help the mentally ill get help before they commit such violent acts as the massacres in Aurora, DO and Newtown, CT.

Cynthia Moreno Tuohy, Executive Director of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, and American Psychiatric Association President Jeffrey Lieberman praise the rules for providing expanded care.

“Health plans have supported MHPAEA and worked to implement these requirements in a manner that’s affordable, safe and effective,” adds Karen Ignagni, President of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group of health insurance companies. “The new regulations enable patients with mental and behavioral health conditions to keep benefitting from the innovative programs and services that health plans have pioneered.”

To learn more about how these rules will apply to your health insurance, feel free to get in touch with us.

College students are graduating deeper in debt than ever, as tuition and fees keep escalating while family incomes stagnate. The average student debt jumped to nearly $30,000 for the Class of 2012, compared to $26,000 in 2011, according to the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College Access and Success. Average student loans in 2012 were even higher for newly minted physicians ($167,000), veterinarians ($152,000), and attorneys ($125,000).

If you’re a young professional with debts on this scale, you might well find it difficult to pay off these loans during the early years of your career, before you earn enough to build up savings. If you died before paying your loans, who would be responsible for the balance? Although federally financed student debts are forgiven in case of the borrower’s death, the burden of payment for a private loan would fall on your family or the guarantor (co-signer) of the loan – most likely your parents.

Not to worry. A term life insurance policy can cover this risk, so your loved ones won’t take a financial hit when they’re already reeling from grief. The policy will cover you for a fixed period, such as 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. You can either buy coverage for as long as the loans are likely to be paid off, or have a co-signer (for example, your mother) purchase a policy on your life, with herself as the beneficiary.

You can obtain this financial peace of mind for pennies a day. A 20-year, $250,000 term life policy for a healthy 30-year-old costs only about $150 a year, according to LIMRA, a life insurance trade group.

For more information, just give us a call. We’re always here to help.

Just because you have a pre-existing medical condition doesn’t mean you can’t afford life insurance.

A nationwide survey by Genworth Financial concluded that many Americans fail to buy life coverage because they have a chronic illness that they believe will make insurance unaffordable. The study of 24,000 adults found that between 39% and 54% of those aged 18 and 64 with common, self-reported pre-existing conditions don’t have a life policy. (Overall, more than 118 million American adults went without life insurance in 2012, continuing a trend of fewer people buying less coverage).

However, recent advances in medicine and wellness care are making it easier for people to manage chronic conditions. At the same time, the insurance industry is using more sophisticated underwriting practices to provide preferred rates to people with less-than-perfect health, allowing companies to balance the need the need to price policies competitively with their ability to pay claims.

“We need to redefine the word ‘healthy’ in the context of life insurance eligibility,” says Janet Deskins, Genworth Senior Vice President for Product Development. “For adults with conditions such as anxiety, asthma, depression, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea, life insurance can still be an affordable part of their overall financial plan, especially if they’re actively taking steps to manage their condition.”

Eric Tyson, author of Let’s Get Real About Money and Personal Finance for Dummies, points out that not all insurance companies gauge risk the same way; “Some companies have a better understanding of certain medical conditions. You may be able to get much better rate that you expect. The key is managing your condition well.”

Even if you’re not in the best of health, the professionals at our agency would be happy to help you find quality life insurance coverage at an affordable rate.