Herbal Life

Lime Benefits for Lowering Cholesterol

2011-12-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Orange juice has been known to have various properties for health. One is in relation to lower cholesterol or fat levels in the blood.

Here are the tips:

1. Choose a fresh lime and then wash with clean

2. Cut the lemon into quarters, then thinly sliced

3. Enter the last slice in a glass. Lime slices are slices which was complete with its leather

4. Pour hot water until full, then cover tightly

5. Wait about 30 minutes, then drink until they run out

6. Do it regularly, twice a day morning and evening

Based on research, lime skin contains oils that are useful for kesahatan. In addition, orange juice does not cause pain in the stomach.

Sources: kompas.com

The Benefit of Nutmeg for Health

2011-12-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Nutmeg has been known since the first has various properties and uses, from cooking to a natural remedy for many ills. Nutmeg from Indonesia, which is derived mainly from the island of Banda Neira is nutmeg with the best quality in the world.

Here are some of the properties of nutmeg for human life:

As a cooking spice: nutmeg is a natural flavoring and preservatives
For Health:

Dental pain reliever

Substances contained in nutmeg oil helps fight bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities. To reduce pain in the teeth / gums, apply a few drops of nutmeg oil on the sore gums while a massage.

Abdominal pain

Natural compounds contained in nutmeg is efficacious help smooth the digestive tract, it is not surprising since the first of nutmeg has been known to overcome the problem of diarrhea, abdominal bloating and other digestive disorders.

sleeping pills

To overcome the problem of sleep, pour a little nutmeg powder on a glass of warm milk.

Eliminate acne and blemishes

Tubuk nutmeg until smooth then mix with milk whole milk, stirring to form a paste. Apply on the face that problem, let stand a few minutes, then wash face as usual.

Sources: kompas.com

Other Benefits of Aloe Vera

2011-12-04T20:22:00.001-08:00

KOMPAS.com - Aloe vera, also known by the name of aloe vera, commonly found in subtropical and tropical regions such as South Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia. In Indonesia, the efficacy of aloe vera is often used for hair care. But now many skin care products that use aloe vera as one of the basic ingredients. The study, published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology prove, aloe vera is effective in helping the healing of burns and overcome skin irritation. This is because it can be soothing, refreshing, and relieve inflammation of the skin. So, aloe vera fit applied to all skin types, including sensitive skin.

How it works: One skin care product that uses aloe vera as the base material is the after-sun lotion. Aloe vera can reduce the burning sensation caused by sun exposure, repair damaged skin cells, and stimulates growth of new cells. Research from the University of Mariland Medical Center explained, aloe vera to treat skin irritation caused by burns nine days faster, compared to treatment without aloe vera.

"Aloe vera can also replace the role of hydrocortisone cream to give a soothing effect for the skin. In particular, relieve itching and irritation due to side effects from the use of cosmetics," says Baumann. You can try Biokos Age Repair Anti Wrinkle Moisturizing Base.

(Intan Sari Boenarco / Prevention Indonesia)

Turmeric's Cancer Cells Killer

2011-12-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

KOMPAS.com - British scientists are examining the efficacy of turmeric-based extracts contained in the food spicy curry. Initial allegations, the extract has the potential to kill cancer cells.

No kidding, extract it to work on the first 24 hours since consumption. These chemicals-curcumin-has long been known to have the power to restore power and have been tested as a treatment of arthritis and senility.

Although still in the laboratory scale, tests by a team from the Cork Cancer Research Centre show in dissolved curcumin on esophageal cancer cells.

Some cancer experts say, the findings published in the British Journal of Cancer could help doctors find ways of treatment beyond the current treatment model.

A member of the research team, Dr. Sharon McKenna, acknowledged that the researchers have long known the potential of natural ingredients that heal the wrong cells, such as curcumin.

The doctors in England expect the findings to treat more advanced esophageal cancer. Each year about 7,800 people diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the UK.

Cancer types that makes six major fatal cancers, or about 5 percent of deaths in the UK. From the standpoint of resources, Indonesia is one country that has many potential medicinal herbs. (BBC NEWS / GSA)

Natural Medicine from the Kitchen

2011-12-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

KOMPAS.com - Do you often gargling with salt water to relieve sore throat? Or drink a glass of hot milk to help you sleep? Natural remedies may have a medical effect that can treat you from some minor ailments.

According to Dr Rob Hicks, general practitioners and hospital doctors in his book Old Fashioned Remedies From Arsenic To Gin said, many of these home remedies really seem to have a positive effect. "If science can not prove that home remedies can work well, but if it will not harm you, the treatment was worth a shot," said Dr. Hicks.

Here are tips Dr. Hicks on home remedies are wont to do, and is considered the most effective:

1. Breath odor : Eat tomatoes two to three pieces a day to prevent bad breath or
halitosis. Beraoma breath odor is actually caused by foul-smelling sulfur compounds produced by bacteria that thrive in low oxygen environments, such as the back of the tongue. While the tomato contains a compound called ionones, which is considered to neutralize the sulfur compounds.

Yogurt: Eat a small cup of yogurt every day for the active bacteria in yogurt can inhibit odor-causing bacteria.

Carrots: Eat raw carrots if you think your breath smells. Bad breath is often caused by decaying food particles and trapped between teeth. If you chew a carrot it will stimulate saliva production, which helps remove food particles. Fibers from carrots also act like a toothbrush on the teeth and gums.

2. Bruising : Soak the bruises on cold vinegar and let stand from 10 to 20 minutes. Bruising occurs when there are bumps own blood vessels and leakage of blood under the skin that causes swelling, discoloration and pain. Vinegar is to improve the function of blood flow near the surface of the skin and helps to remove the blood clot in the area of bruising.

Onions: Mix grated onion with a little salt and place it on the bruise for 10 minutes. Quercetin-rich onion, pigment in plants that anti-inflammatory effects that can reduce the swelling around your bruises.

3. Body odor : First radish juice with a food processor, then place the juice in a cloth tied like a bundle. After bathing, rub bundles containing turnip juice into armpits and legs and allow it to dry. Radish itself contains anti-bacterial and anti-fungal.

Bicarbonate of soda: Use baking soda to neutralize and eliminate body odor. Bicarbonate of soda to absorb sweat, fluids, and other substances associated with body odor. Can also be used on sweaty feet as well.

4. Constipation : juice of this plant contain chemicals called glycosides antrakinon, which can help reduce constipation by stimulating the bowel.

Cucumber: Eating a quarter of a cucumber a day. Plants and fiber-rich liquid has a mild laxative effect that helps overcome the action of the bowels in a sluggish stomach.

Liquorice: Chew and swallow this mixture of liquorice tea with warm water and drink. This drink is also known as a laxative.

5. Cough and cold : Gargle with thyme tea (made by pouring boiling water, put some tea and leave to cool slightly). Heat derived from thyme tea will help to release the active ingredient thymol which is a strong antiseptic.

6. Dandruff : Massage into the scalp with coconut oil and leave overnight, and then rinse. Repeat as needed. Many cases of dandruff are caused by fungal infections and an aura of coconut oil and caprylic acid, which has anti-viral and anti-fungal.

7. Diarrhea : Grate the unpeeled apple on a plate and leave for 15-20 minutes until it turns brown, then eat. Pectin in apples may reduce inflammation. It also contains malic and tartaric acids that can regulate stomach acidity. Allowing the fruit to brown compounds needed to make more widely available.

Brown Sugar: Drink a solution of 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar mixed with warm water to relieve diarrhea. Molasses in brown sugar seems to have disinfectant properties that help kill the infecting organism so that diarrhea occurs.
8. Eczema : Mix coconut oil with turmeric powder and lay out in the affected area for five minutes. This can be repeated two to three times a day. Turmeric itself contains a chemical called curcumin, which is believed to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.

Tea: Boil 4 tea bags in boiling water for 10 minutes. Let cool, then squeeze and grab the fluid and describe in the affected area using a cloth. Tannin in tea is useful as an agent to reduce inflammation.

9. Joint pain : Drink tea made by pouring boiling water on a handful of basil leaves twice a day. Eugenol oil of this plant will appear to block the effect of the enzyme cyclooxygenase, an enzyme that triggers inflammation and pain.

Quinine: Drink several glasses per day. Quinine is thought to have anti-inflammatory effects and pain relief.

Turmeric: Boil saffron in boiling water, when you can just lay out in the cold sore area covered with plastic and let stand for 20-30 minutes, twice a day. The active ingredient of turmeric, namely cucumin, has anti-inflammatory effects.

10.Sindrom premenstrual syndrome (PMS) : Cut lower abdominal pain by placing cabbage leaves directly from the freezer on the stomach. They will have the same effect as a cold compress.

Shallots: Eating half a clove of garlic every day on the days before menstruation. Hormones fluctuate over time and chromium in onions believed to have a neutralizing effect.

Brown sugar and ginger: Add the fresh ginger and brown sugar until warm water and drink twice a day. Ginger is a natural painkiller. And nutrients in the brown sugar-tranquillise also reduce pain in the nervous system.

11. Stress : Bathroom with a few drops of clove oil. Oil, which has pain killing properties will naturally seep into the skin, increase circulation to relax muscles.

12. Toothache : Grate a small turnip and describe the gums near a sore tooth. Radishes contain a compound called allyl isothiocyanate is used as a synthetic topical anesthesia.

13. Uric Acid : Compress the affected area of uric acid with lavender decoction until it cools. Lavender works off the pain and anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic.

14. Headache : Mash banana peeled and put it in the area of headache to 15 minutes (repeat as often as needed). Headaches are caused by changes in blood vessels. Bananas high magnesium, which can help to relax blood vessels.

Onions: Put the pieces of raw onion in the back of the neck as a cold compress to relieve neck tension that can cause headaches.

Benefits of Basil Leaves

2011-12-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

In Latin, called Ocimum basilicum basil. Basil from English, Ocimum means scented plants. Fragrant aroma of basil essential oil derived from the content.

Basil plants can grow in any place and tolerant of heat and cold weather. Planted basil leaves in cold regions is wider and green, while the basil leaves in hot regions of small, thin, and pale green.

Allied with basil basil (Ocimun sancium), mint (Mentho arvensis), and cumin leaves (Coleus amboinicus). Its closest relatives are the bacilli (Ocimun amboinicus). The smell of basil leaves are very distinctive, strong but soft aroma with a touch of lime.

Tea Cough Relief

In West Java, basil leaves (called surawung) eaten as fresh vegetables and used in a wide array of Sundanese cuisine delicious as ulukutek oncom leunca (sauteed leunca), pais dish (fish Pepes), laksa Bogor, and Karedok. In East Java, regular basil leaves served with rice krawu, krawu, botok, trancam (ointment), pencek tempeh, and fish seasoning pesmol.

In Jakarta, basil commonly used in laksa and rice side dish servings. In Manado cuisine, basil is often added to the slurry, so that is more enjoyable.

Basil is also found in Thailand (called manglok), Mediterranean / Italian (called Genovese), and India (called holy basil or tulsi). In Thailand, basil is used as a spice in cooking. In India and parts of Africa, basil leaves brewed into tea. Basil tea is served at the turn of the season, when local people susceptible to coughs, colds, or fevers.

In Europe, basil essential oil extracted and retrieved. Basil essential oil is widely used as an ingredient in the manufacture of medicines, soap, perfume essences, lotions, ointments, candy lozenges, and aroma therapy oils.

Nutrient content

Basil leaves contain beta-carotene (provitamin A) and vitamin C. Role of beta-carotene supports the function of vision, increase the antibody response (affect immune function), protein synthesis to support the growth process, and as an antioxidant.

Vitamin C, among others, are useful for (1) the formation of collagen for wound healing and maintain skin's elasticity, (2) helps the absorption of calcium and iron, (3) antioxidants, (4) prevents the formation of nitrosamines which are carcinogenic (causing cancer).

Collagen is a protein compound that affects the integrity of cell structure in all connective tissue, such as cartilage, bone matrix, tooth dentin, capillary membrane, skin and tendons (tendons). Basil leaves are rich in macro minerals, namely calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Calcium is important for the formation and growth of bone, nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction helps, and helps activate the enzyme reaction.

Phosphorus plays a role in bone growth, helps the absorption and transport of nutrients, regulate the balance of acids and bases. Magnesium helps relax the heart and blood vessels, thus improving blood flow.

Components Nongizi

Basil leaves also contain components such as flavonoids nongizi and eugenol, arginine, anetol, boron, and essential oils. And eugenol flavonoids act as antioxidants, which can neutralize free radicals, neutralize cholesterol and are anticancer.

These antimicrobial compounds are also capable of preventing the entry of bacteria, viruses, or fungi that harm the body. Very nice basil eugenol consumed by women because it can kill the fungi that cause vaginal discharge.

The content of arginine was able to strengthen the endurance of sperm and prevent infertility. Anetol and boron compounds are also very instrumental in keeping the male and female reproductive health.

Anetol and boron may stimulate hormones estrogen and androgen, and prevent bone loss. Estrogen and androgen hormones play a role in the female reproductive system.

Essential oils easily evaporate and has biological activity as an antimicrobial. Essential oils are divided into two components, namely the component hydrocarbons and oxygenated hydrocarbons or phenol component. Phenol has a very strong antimicrobial properties.

Essential oils can prevent the growth of disease-causing microbes such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enteritidis, and Escherichia coli. Essential oils can also ward off infection from the virus Basillus subtilis, Salmonella paratyphi, and Proteus vulgaris.

Eugenol was able to kill the fungi that cause vaginal discharge. And stigmasterol can stimulate ovulation (egg maturation). Component of its tannins and zinc can reduce the secretion of vaginal fluid, whereas the amino acid tryptophan may delay the menopause. Components such as flavonoids orientin and vicenin on basil leaves can protect the body's cell structure. Meanwhile, the flavonoid components such as cineole, myrcene and eugenol useful as a natural antibiotic and anti-inflammatories.

Various Benefits

In the book A Dictionary of Practical Medical Materials mentioned, the juice of basil leaves efficacious to overcome diarrhea, breast pain, kidney stones, disorders of the vagina, and albuminaria (wastage of albumin in the urine). Researchers from the Center for New Crops and Plant Products, Purdue University, United States, said that basil could potentially help mereclakan headaches, colds, diarrhea, constipation, intestinal worms, kidney disorders, heartburn, flatulence, colds, cramps , and lethargic body.

In Indonesia, basil leaves traditionally used to treat abdominal bloating / colds and fever in children under five. Crushed basil leaves with red onion and coconut oil, then applied to the abdomen, chest, and back. Basil salad consumption is also believed clapat prevent body odor and bad breath, and facilitate breastfeeding.

Basil leaves contain various bioactive components nongizi. 1-8 sineol its components could be expected to help overcome premature ejaculation in men. Components fenkhona apigenin and eugenol could be expected to improve the quality of penile erection. Arginine can strengthen the vitality of the sperm (helps prevent sterility) and lowers blood sugar levels.

Nutrient composition per 10 grams of basil leaves

Substance Nutrition Levels

Energy (kcal) 46

Protein (g) 4.0

Fat (g) 0.5

Carbohydrates (g) 8.9

Calcium (mg) 45

Phosphorus (mg) 75

Iron (mg) 2

Vitamin A (RE) 750

Vitamin B (mg) 0:08

Vitamin C (mg) 50

Water (g) 85

Prof. DR Expert Astawan Made of Food Technology and Nutrition, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB)

The Benefits Curcuma

2011-12-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

In this article we will examine more deeply about the benefits of ginger. Wild Ginger (Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb.) Is one type of medicinal plants native to Indonesia.

About Wild Ginger Did you know?

Wild Ginger can have up to 2 meters high and has flowers in yellow. The benefits of ginger has been used as a beverage of Indonesia's population and traditional medicinal materials.

The benefits of ginger, among others, can be overcome and prevent various diseases such as hepatitis, liver, bile production, inflammation of the bile, stomach ulcers, digestion, until renal disease.
Some Benefits of Wild Ginger.

In addition, based on research, the benefits of ginger are now known to also be able to overcome the anemia disease, lowering cholesterol, blood circulation, resolve blood clots, treat fever, malaria, measles, overcoming stiff, lumbago, rheumatism, treatment of vaginal discharge, hemorrhoids, constipation , cough, asthma, sore throat, until the inflammation of the respiratory tract, treat eczema, acne, inflammation of the bile, and mengingkatkan stamina, etc..
Some Ways to Get The Benefits Of Ginger.

Ginger's benefits above you can get by eating ginger is processed using some of the following:

1. Treating liver disease: Provide 25 grams of ginger and 30 grams of leaf drawstring / mirten. Then mixed with about 600 cc of water, then boiled until the water remaining 300 cc. After that, strain the water and drink in a warm state.

2. To treat inflammatory diseases of the gallbladder: Provide approximately 30 grams of ginger, sliced into small pieces, then put in 500 cc of water and boil until the water remaining 200 cc. strain and drink the water decoction of ginger.

3. Treating pain stiff, arthritis, and rheumatism: Provide 20 grams and 20 grams of ginger red ginger. Enter in 400 cc of water and boiled for a long time until the water remaining 200 cc. Drinking water is boiled while still warm.

4. Treat gallstone disease: Provide approximately 25 grams of ginger, 30 grams meniran, and palm sugar to taste. Enter the third such material into 500 cc of water and boil until the water remaining 200 cc, then strain and drink the water.

5. To overcome illness to inflammation of the respiratory tract cough: Take 25 grams of ginger, then grate and add enough boiled water. Then squeeze and strain the water. Give juice of 1 orange juice and honey to taste and drink.

To obtain the maximum benefits of ginger, you can drink two to three times a day regularly.

Eleven Benefits of Ginger for Health

2011-12-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, family recipes, such as fresh ginger water, can miraculously cure some ailments.

Over the years, each time got the flu, colds and headaches, I'll take fresh ginger (500 g). Fresh ginger is then sliced and boiled in hot water for 20 minutes, then add brown sugar (100 g), then drink 4 to 5 times a day. Many people have used this recipe and recover from the flu and colds.

Warm ginger (fresh ginger boiled water) can treat various ailments such as:

1. Spire

Boil fresh ginger (800 g) and insert it into the bowl that is ready to use. Use boiling water to gargle warm ginger, 2-3 times a day. Six to nine mouthwash will have outstanding results.

2. Periodontists

Gargle your mouth with warm ginger water in the morning and evening. If your throat feels sore or itchy, warm ginger can be added the salt and use 2-3 times a day.

3. Tooth decay

mouthwash with warm ginger morning and evening. Drinking ginger ale as a beverage daily may help prevent and relieve symptoms.

4. Migraine

Soak hands in warm ginger water for 15 minutes. Such measures can help ease the pain.

5. Drunk

Drink hot ginger water. When someone is drunk, ginger water will increase circulation to help remove the ethanol from the body. Can also add honey to improve taste.

6. Pimple

Wash your face with warm ginger water morning and evening. This condition will be able to alleviate or even eliminate acne within 60 days. This method can also be applied to eliminate black spots and dry skin.

7. Dandruff

Rub raw ginger into the hair. Then rinse with warm ginger water. This method can also help prevent hair loss. In a number of stores in China, they have a special way to use warm water to wash your hair ginger. Many people have enjoyed this treatment with good results. Washing hair with ginger water is an ancient recipe ancestral heritage.

8. Waist and Back Pain

Add a little salt and vinegar into a warm ginger water. Soak a towel with water. Then rinse and paste on the sore spot. Repeat several times. This method can relax the muscles and help blood circulation, thereby reducing pain.

9. Feet Odor

Add salt and vinegar into a warm ginger water. Soak feet for 15 minutes. Then dry feet with towel and sprinkle talcum powder. Good luck!

10. High blood pressure

Soak feet in warm ginger water for 15 minutes. This method helps the blood circulation by reflexology to lower blood pressure.

11. Cold

Soak feet to the ankles in hot ginger water. Add salt and vinegar and add hot water continuously. Soak up the feet turn red, this method is also good for relieving headache and cough.

Vertigo...No Way !

2011-11-28T22:03:00.000-08:00

Stricken with vertigo can be a severe problem for anyone. Because in addition to physically interfere with such as loss of balance, vertigo also often psychologically disturbing.
A person affected by vertigo usually often anxious. Although only lightly attacked by vertigo, the patient often had to stop activity and wait until the attack passed.
Examples of this mild vertigo, sudden head movements, like when I wake up. This mild vertigo can occur in a matter of seconds and then disappear.
In order not to interfere with the arrival of vertigo, the patient can be avoided with some particular way. For example, try sleeping with your head a bit high. Then when getting out of bed, do not make startling movements. It's good, getting out of bed slowly and sit down first before standing.
You also have to be careful when moving the neck in a position to look up. So, if you take an item or object from a height, avoid head up position.
In addition to keeping the movement, a healthy lifestyle would be the main requirement'll avoid vertigo. If vertigo is a symptom of serious illness, then avoid the culprit was a key cause of the disease though not affected by vertigo.
Overeating is also alleged to be one of the causes of various diseases. By overeating, then the food there is just buried in the body so it does not exit through the energy.
Also avoid eating too many carbohydrates. This accumulation of energy which can cause high cholesterol or high blood sugar.
In addition to keeping your intake of carbohydrates, healthy lifestyles by reducing food and beverages containing alcohol, caffeine, and also the obligatory greasy food because it can keep your body healthy.
Allergies can also be one of the triggers of vertigo. Allergies can cause accumulation of fluid in the inner ear and symptoms similar to Meniere's syndrome alias damage the inner ear resulting in hearing and balance. So, avoid foods that can stimulate the allergy be one way to avoid the attacks of vertigo.
So you should not eat foods that stimulate excessive allergies such as seafood, if you do not want to vertigo attack

Type of Food Control Anger

2011-11-28T00:14:00.000-08:00

The following are some foods that can relieve anger:

1. banana

Bananas can help increase serotonin levels in the body, it is because bananas are a source triptofan.Pisang as one breakfast food to prevent hunger and weariness before lunch.

2. almonds
Almonds contain amino acids tryptophan, an amino acid has the highest level. When eating almonds, tryptophan enters the brain quickly and increase serotonin levels, so they can keep anger.

3. cheese
Cheese is a rich source of protein, essential amino acid tryptophan and carbohydrates. Thus, cheese helps improve mood and relieve crankiness and irritability.

4. Orange juice
A glass of sweet oranges can also be a shock to anger. The mixture of sugar in the lemon juice to make the limits of patience more loosely than it should, so it is useful to control the temperament and other negative emotions.

Benefits of Bath

2011-11-28T00:10:00.000-08:00

Directly ... shower is to make our bodies feel more refreshed.
However, behind it all turns bath has a greater benefit.
A study revealed, in addition to baths to cleanse the body turns bath also has a role in enhancing the immune system, preventing skin diseases, even to cure a serious medical problem.

Here are some other properties of the bath:

1. People with Diabetes
With a soak for about half an hour in the tub of warm water, diabetics can lower blood sugar level about 13%.

2. Heart Health
With a 10-minute soak in warm water can improve the heart health of both men and women.

3. Eczema
Eczema is a chronic inflammatory skin dry and itchy. For patients with skin diseases like eczema, rashes, hives, can add the baking soda into the tub. Based on research, baking soda can be used as an antiseptic.
The trick: fill the tub with warm water, add about a tablespoon of baking soda and stir until blended. And then it is recommended to soak for 10-20min.

4. Infection
To infection such as thrush, can add to the warm water that is 3-4 of cider vinegar and Soak for 15-20 minutes. It's also good for removing toxins from the body because the vinegar can rebalance the acid.

5. Flu and Headache
To cure the flu and headaches can be done by soaking the foot in warm water. Put warm water in the tub to cover the foot and ankle, add a few drops of oils such as lavender, peppermint or lemon. When finished rinse with cold water. Do it for 10-20 minutes.

6. Insomnia
For patients who have insomnia or sleep problems can soak feet in cold water. Put the foot until the foot feels cold. This treatment is also useful for tired legs, nose bleeding and constipation.

7. Circulation
If you have circulation problems then try to start soaking your feet for 1-2 minutes in warm water, then 30 minutes in cold water. Try to do for 15 minutes then solved with cold water.

How to Bath a Healthy
Bath of warm water around 32-35 degrees Celsius may open pores that can help remove toxins. Where works to help lower blood sugar levels, heal sore muscles and help keep the colon working properly.
The recommended time for 10-20 minutes.

Not only a healthy warm water bath. Cool bath can also relieve stress due to defuse tensions and encouraged with temperatures around 12-18 degrees centigrade. Well this is the opposite of warm water because it will narrow the blood and improve blood sugar levels. Therefore not recommended for diabetics to take a cold shower.

Easy Ways Toward Healthy Living

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

The impact of multi-dimension crisis hit Indonesia was the nation for the nation raises awareness of the importance of health and costs murah.Seiring with today's health world advances have been widely circulated drugs or chemical synthesis and the least that dilikukan Free Treatment by the government that impact on low a decent level of health for small people.With such a condition then many private agencies assist the government in an effort to improve or bring health care to the community through the Medical Free and inexpensive treatment, especially the economically weak either, in village or town.
Particularly regarding drugs and tried to be evenly spread at an affordable price.In addition to the effort to free treatment by utilizing plants that surround us .. To meet this need I wrote a few tips and tricks below:

1.Amandel
Its free treatment can be done through:
a.sediakan 2 noni fruit and squeezed, strained and added a little hot water input into the glass and then mixed with honey, stirring until rata.Kemudian taken 3 times sehari.Caranya rinse used to drink it for a few minutes just to be swallowed.

b.Orange squeezed fruit juice 3 take water and then given a little whiting mixed well, taken at bedtime for 3 consecutive days.

2.Ambien
Treatment:
a.sediakan leaves KEJIBELING 6 grams, meniran 6 grams, 3 grams of ginger, tamarind kawak 1 gram.Semua material boiled with 1 liter of water until only 1 / 2 liter drink 3 times a day do as necessary
b.daun papaya indisposed too old, in the afternoon and then finely ground in brewed with hot water, squeezed and filtered, taken once discharged the morning.

3.Amenia
its free treatment tips:
1 piece of lemon, a handful of spinach leaves thorns, chicken egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of pure honey, how:
egg yolks and honey mixed together and then given a squeeze of lemon juice, spinach juice is taken pounded thorns, all the material collected so stirred rata.Kemudian one drink each day for 5 days next 2 weeks.

4.Alergi
how to free treatment through:
With betel 7 pieces, 1 piece bengkle and eucalyptus oil 1 teaspoon crushed teh.Daun betel and bengkle together until smooth, after the fine mixed with eucalyptus oil and stir until rata.Cara usage is applied to the skin that itch evenly.

5.Asma
Treatment:
Take 5 cloves garlic, honey 1 tablespoon white makan.Bawang sliced into small pieces and boiled with 1 cup of water allow it to stay 1 / 2 gelas.Masukan honey to the boiling water is then discharged in the morning once diaduk.Diminum hari.Sorenya make longer do during the week.
Take a warm bath, getting enough sleep, do not smoke, avoid the cold air.

Privacy Policy

2011-02-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

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Things Are About to Get Ugly—-Republicans Plan to Defund the Health Bill Next Week

2011-02-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

Word is that House Republicans will attach an amendment to the latest federal spending bill that will cut-off funding for the health care bill.

The last Congress never finalized a budget for the current fiscal year—the feds have been operating under a series of continuing resolutions. The most recent one will expire on March 4th. If another resolution is not agreed to, much of the government has to shutdown.

House Republicans, under heavy pressure from their base, have decided to take the Democrats on over the new health care law by cutting all remaining funding for implementation of the law in the current 2010 fiscal year (October to October).

Democrats, under the same heavy pressure from their base to protect the bill, aren’t about to let them do that. While the Republicans can accomplish this in the House—and will next week—they don’t have the votes in the Senate and they don’t have the President’s pen.

Now, I know the Republicans won the last election and they control the House. But what is their end game here?

Shut the government down until the Democrats agree to suspend the health care law? With Democrats under the same intense pressure from their base to protect the new law at all costs, they aren’t going to agree to do that.

With the polls showing the country evenly split on this law, about the only political outcome either side will accomplish is to show their base just how macho they are.

Just where might a compromise occur? HHS can have half the money it needs? That won’t make the Republican base happy.

Where will this end?

As George W Bush used to say, don’t get into a war unless you have an exit strategy.

Will the Congress Change the Health Care Law During the Next Two Years?

2011-02-16T11:35:00.001-08:00

No. But I expect the Patient Protection and Affordability Act to be “relitigated” in 2013, to one degree or another.

I recently posted on the controversy over the individual mandate. I suggested a number of alternatives to the mandate—including my own ideas.

I was asked if I really thought the Congress would change the individual mandate in the short term.

As I have posted before, it will be the Democrats who will be calling for repealing the individual mandate and replacing it with an alternative—particularly the vulnerable Senators up for reelection in 2012.

Ironically, it will be the Republican opponents to the new health law and the individual mandate who will block them. The Republicans are not about to take the Democrats off the political hook the very unpopular individual mandate represents for them. Republicans are also not about to remove the potential ticking Constitutional time bomb the mandate presents—it could take the whole law down.

Until we hear from the Supreme Court and get the results of the 2012 elections we are going to hear a lot of rhetoric from both sides but I don't see any changes to core pieces of the legislation. Yes, the Congress will likely repeal the peripheral revenue raising 1099 provision and there could be some current budget cuts HHS is going to have to work around.

But the early provisions of the bill—things like keeping your kids on your policy until age-26—will continue until we at least here from the Supremes.

But in 2013, I see the potential to revisit the law:

    * If the Supreme Court throws it all out—not likely but not impossible—we will have to start over.
    * If the Supreme Court overturns only the individual mandate—not likely but very possible—the imperative to fix that will open the entire bill up to changes as part of the bigger deal that will be required for both sides to come to agreement. The conservatives would want more in exchange for their votes than to just fix this one piece.
    * Even if the Republicans sweep the elections—the White House and both houses of Congress—I can’t see how they will have 60 Senate seats and compromise will be needed for some critical non-budget changes with or without a Supreme Court ruling.
    * If the Republicans only make modest gains or even lose seats (this election shouldn’t be taken for granted by either side), Democrats will still be facing an unpopular individual mandate and at least have some political incentive to do some fixing—most of those polled believe the law at least needs some improvement. Although, a big Democratic victory would likely mean no incentive for them to open the law up again in 2013 to any fundamental change.

So, yes, I don't see any changes to the individual mandate or any other core element of the new health care law before 2013.

But it looks to me like we are only two years away from some critical Congressional votes on the new health care law. In that context, the debate has begun and it isn't just a theoretical exercise.

In an earlier post, I outlined a number of areas where I thought Democrats and Republicans could eventually come to an agreement:

Alternatives to the Individual Mandate—Some Are A Lot Better Than Others

2011-02-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

With Constitutional challenges to the individual mandate now threatening the very life of the new health care law, Republicans aren’t the only ones that would like to see it jettisoned and replaced with something better.

And it isn’t just the Constitutional challenges that are prompting a second look. The mandate doesn't work politically and it doesn't maintain the integrity of the market because either most middleclass families in the individual market would be exempted from it anyway or have to pay fines that are a small fraction of the cost of the insurance.

That has led to discussion of a number of alternatives:

The Medicare Part D Approach
Increase the premiums for people who sign up after they are first eligible for the rest of their life.

But I doubt this scheme has a lot to do with the success of the senior drug program. The drug benefit is a huge value and it only costs seniors about $25 per month. As a result most have signed up and the risk pool has been a good one—irrespective of the penalty for late enrollees.

The problem with this approach for comprehensive health insurance is that health insurance costs a great deal more—perhaps $1,000 a month for a family. How much of a penalty would you charge for the rest of the person’s life? An extra $100? That likely wouldn’t be enough of a penalty to encourage participation—especially if people can opt in and out of the system whenever they get sick. $500 for the rest of their life? Not practical.

Would you only charge the penalty for a few years? Even charging an extra $500 a month for a few years wouldn’t come close to off-setting the cost of a major claim—people would quickly calculate they could make money waiting and gaming the system.

The old underwriter in me will tell you that you can never charge enough of an anti-selection premium. The more you charge for the risk that you will only get the sickest people, the fewer and the sicker the people who will sign up. It just becomes one big game and a vicious cycle.

And, what would prohibit people from just getting in and out of the system every time they got sick? How would you even keep track of the penalties each time they reentered?

This has the potential to become a heavily gamed system that would only lead consumers to become cynical about the whole process.

Limited Open Enrollments
Allow people to sign-up for guaranteed issue health insurance only once a year—perhaps each January 1st.

The problem here is that a person who doesn’t sign up on January 1 and then gets sick in September has only a three-month wait for coverage. Knowing that the insurance is available each January 1 creates an inequitable, and likely, insufficient system to encourage participation. This system would be open to being gamed instead of being a real incentive to become part of the insurance pool.

Create an open enrollment every two years? That would be criticized as too long a wait to have any kind of insurance—both for pre-existing conditions as well as coverage for new conditions. Create an open enrollment period on the first anniversary of the first time a person is first offered insurance? That would be an administrative nightmare.

Voluntary Health Insurance and the Ability to Sign-up Whenever You Like—But With Responsibility
A Mandatory and Uniform Waiting Period Before Pre-Existing Conditions Are Covered for Late Enrollees.

I have suggested this approach before. My sense is that this is the simplest to understand, easiest to administer, and most effective in terms of creating the broadest possible insurance pool.

Simply, people could sign up for guaranteed issue health insurance when they first became eligible for it at work or in the exchange. Buying health insurance would not be mandatory—no individual mandate.

Besides being able to sign up for insurance when they were first eligible, people could sign up for it any other time they wished—a month later, a year later, whatever—and they would be covered at standard rates.

But if they did not sign up for insurance when they were first eligible, their pre-existing conditions would not be covered for a minimum period—perhaps one or two years. Such a system would also have the advantage of providing coverage for any new health problems and would cover all members of a family--neither of which would be immediately covered under the two alternatives.

Such a system would be easy to understand—you can sign up any time but if you don’t do it right away your pre-existing conditions aren’t going to be covered for a long enough time that you are better off entering the pool right away.

Such a system would be relatively easy to administer—the insurance industry already knows how to administer late enrollments and pre-existing conditions provisions.

Such a system could be completely voluntary—no individual mandate and no Constitutional challenge.

Such a system would be far more popular than the individual mandate because it wouldn’t be mandatory and it would be equitable—sign up whenever you like but you will be responsible for your actions if you later get sick and expect immediate coverage.

Some have argued, are even continuing to argue today, that only the individual mandate can force people to buy coverage--particularly younger people.

But that misses two critical points:

1. The individual mandate is in big Constitutional and political trouble--all of the academic arguments in favor of the mandate may not matter.
2. The way to get people covered is to provide affordable coverage--which the new act does not do for too many.

We really don’t need a mandate if health insurance is affordable for everyone. There are no mandates today that people buy coverage when it is offered at work and we have an excellent and efficient risk pool--and that is true for even the youngest consumers. But that is because the employer so heavily subsidizes the cost of coverage that it is a great deal for consumers.

The problem with the Affordability Act is that the coverage is not affordable for most middleclass families would have to buy it on their own.

So long as that is the case, there is no alternative but to have a strong incentive to buy the coverage. But it does not have to be an individual mandate.

Why the Republicans Lost

2011-02-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

After six years of one-party government, things here in Washington were getting kind of boring.

That’s already started to change.

The November Election
In past years, I have told you that the chances the Democrats could capture the House of Representatives were low because of all the highly political gerrymandering of districts that took place in the wake of the 2000 census. That redistricting made the vast majority of House seats permanently safe for the party that controlled it. Because of all of this, perhaps only 45 seats would really be in play in any election year.

Those odds made the Democratic victory in the House this month all the more impressive.

But perhaps even more surprising is the Democratic sweep of Senate races giving them a one-vote advantage in that body.

The single issue that dominated the elections was Iraq but it goes even deeper than that.

Marlon Brando and the Republicans
There is this old Marlon Brando movie—“Zapata,” that’s the story of the Mexican revolutionary period at the turn of the 20th century. The movie starts out with the corrupt government shooting the peasants. The movie ends with Marlon Brando’s revolutionary character playing a key role its overthrow and with the new guys shooting the peasants.

The Republicans had their own revolution in 1994. They lost this election because they ended up shooting the peasants.

The Republicans forgot that 12 years ago the electorate threw the Democrats out because the swing voters came to the conclusion that after decades of control, the Democrats were out of touch (the Clinton Health Plan) and had been corrupted (the post office scandal, House Ways and Means Chair Dan Rostenkowski in jail, and various other problems) by their power after many years of unilateral control of the government.

In 2006, the Republicans got the boot because they were seen to be out of touch (Iraq) and corrupted (Folly, Abramoff, and “ear marks”) by the power coming from their almost complete control of the government.

In short, power did to the Republicans exactly what it had done to the Democrats by 1994, and the result was the same.

The toughest criticism of the Republicans has been coming from leaders in their own party:
• George Will on why Republicans lost the election in his weekly column on November 12: “Tuesday’s election results were fresh evidence that two events that profoundly shaped American politics during the last two presidencies were episodes of irrational exuberance unrelated to economic behavior.” Later in the piece, “The Democratic episode was the Clintons’ attempt to radically restructure and semi-socialize the 16 percent of the economy that is the health care sector. The Republican episode is Iraq.”
• Dick Armey, the former House majority leader and Gingrich chief lieutenant during the 1994 Republican takeover, in a October 29 op-ed in the Washington Post on why the Republicans were on their way to a loss: “The answer is simple: Republican lawmakers forgot the party’s principles, became enamored with politics over policy. Now the Democrats are reaping the rewards of our neglect—and we have no one to blame but ourselves.” Later in the same article, “Now spending is out of control. Rather than rolling back government, we have a new $1.2 trillion Medicare prescription drug benefit, and non-defense discretionary spending is growing twice as fast as it had in the Clinton administration.”

The Democrats Will Change MedicareAdvantage

2011-02-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

So, Now What?

Most observers don’t think the Democratic takeover will end up meaning a lot. It takes 60 votes do get anything done in the Senate, there is still a Republican presidential veto to contend with, and Democrats would be foolish to rollback the Republican tax cuts or repeal programs like the Part D Medicare drug benefit or the new private Medicare Advantage plans that now have millions of generally happy senior enrollees.

In fact, Goldman Sachs analyst Mat Borsch came out with a positive report on Humana, a company that has been particularly aggressive in the Medicare market. Borsch said that while it is possible Democrats would change the Part D program, “the odds of substantial change to the Medicare Advantage plan program (which is what really matters to Humana) are remote.”

Wrong.

Why Democrats Hate Medicare Advantage
Let’s review some of the history.

The profitability of MedicareAdvantage plans is what really matters not only to Humana but also to most major health players who have aggressively entered that business.

In fact, Humana’s government profit center reported that MedicareAdvantage enrollment grew to 993,000 from 489,000 a year earlier. Almost all of that growth was in the private fee-for-service product subset. Humana also reported a pre tax MedicareAdvantage profit of $207 million in the third quarter—up from $87.9 million in the same quarter of 2005.

Part D was always the thing the industry had to agree to in order to get the fantastic deal they have with MedicareAdvantage.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recently said that private MedicareAdvantage plans get an average of 11% more for their seniors than the traditional Medicare plan gets for its enrollees. The Republican Congress did that intentionally in 2003 in order to attract private plans back into the private Medicare program after many either cut back or left it altogether in the wake of sharp cuts in the 1997 budget.

This “prime the pump” strategy made sense to Republicans who wanted to begin the reform of the traditional Medicare program by encouraging HMOs to bring market forces to bear on the exploding cost of the program.

But most Democrats hate the idea.

It gets down to a fundamental difference between the two parties. Republicans generally believe that a government-run plan and quality/efficiency are mutually exclusive and the value of market forces are at the core to any successful reform.

Democrats generally believe that Medicare has worked well and the market will only want to skim off the best risks and divide Medicare into two programs. They worry that the Republican “defined contribution” private market strategy will stratify Medicare enrollees by what they can afford to pay. Ultimately, they argue, the best quality plans will cost more and be affordable only by the well off. Those who won’t be able to afford premiums set by the market for the best plans will be forced to remain in what will become a second class Medicare plan, or plans that will look more like today’s Medicaid.

Many Democrats, and the House Democratic leaders in particular, believe that the universality of Medicare is absolutely critical. The logic is that you need to have the rich and powerful in the same pot as everyone else if you want to have equality in health care.

What many of these financial analysts on Wall Street don’t understand (Humana is trading at the highest price/earnings multiple in the HMO industry) is that, to the Democrats, this is not just about a fair funding level for private Medicare plans and whether they want to risk messing with them. It is about deep-seated ideological objections.

On top of all of this, just how Humana is making its extraordinary profits only compounds the Democrats’ ire. Almost all of Humana’s MedicareAdvantage growth this year has been in the Medicare fee-for-service product (MFFS). This is the product that does not allow insurers to negotiate lower provider reimbursement rates. To its critics, it is almost entirely an arbitrage play letting insurers take the 11% higher reimbursements, spend some of it on higher benefits for seniors to get them interested in the plans, and take the rest in profit. MFFS is hardly proof that the market can manage Medicare better than the government.

Industry logic that sees MFFS as a means to gradually transition seniors into more sophisticated products where insurers can apply medical management and provider negotiation hasn’t impressed the Democrats.

To a great many Democrats, and in particular their leadership, this is about throwing a wrench into the Republican vision of what Medicare will look like in the coming years—a vision that these Democrats see as a “Republican sell-out” of the longstanding Medicare entitlement promise and an “egregious example of taking care of their corporate friends.” They put Medicare fee-for-service right on top of their list.

To throw that wrench in the works, the Democrats don’t need to focus on a presidential veto threat or even worry about 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. They don’t even have to risk senior ire by outright trying to kill the new private Medicare plans.

They only have to look to Republican Newt Gingrich for their anti-market Medicare strategy. They just need to set it up to “whither on the vine.”

It’s the Budget, Stupid!
They can do that, rather easily as it turns out, in the budget process. A budget is not subject to the 60-vote rule in the Senate. A budget can be vetoed, but would Bush veto a gigantic budget bill over this issue? More likely he would compromise on the size of the cuts—not critical to a longer-term “wither on the vine” strategy.

The Democrats’ victory in the Senate turns out to be very important here. With just one slim vote, the Democrats now control the committees in both houses—and control any House/Senate conference on a budget.

Republicans used control of the conference structure to enable their leadership to dictate just what went on the table and which members got to be part of the conference. The minority party is almost always frozen out. Passing a bill in the House is one thing, passing a bill in the Senate is another, but controlling the conference, who gets to vote, and just what gets considered (even things that had not been passed in either house in the first place) is at a whole different level.

It is true that most of the new Democrats are moderate or even conservative Democrats on many issues. However, the budget is where MedicareAdvantage and Part D payment levels and benefits are decided and that process is one big black hole that will be controlled by the long-time liberal Democratic chairmen who just literally hate these programs. That’s where the likes of powerful Democrats John Dingell, the longtime Democratic Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee the last time around; Henry Waxman, who will have government operations oversight; Charlie Rangel who will lead Ways and Means; Pete Stark, who will head-up the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee; and Ted Kennedy, who will again chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, will control the agenda.

And, don’t forget oversight. These Chairmen will have the ability to nitpick these programs to death with their influence over the regulation of these plans and things like benefit schedules.

The only friendly Democrat the health plan industry has to talk to is the incoming Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus (D-MT). He worked closely with his friend, outgoing Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), to pass the 2003 Medicare bill in the first place and has defended it ever since.

Sure President Bush would veto any bill that did away with Part D, or MedicareAdvantage, or cut their financing.

But there won’t be such a standalone bill.

There will be some giant spending bill that will have lots of gives and takes in it. Maybe, Bush would risk a veto of the whole thing if it cut MedicareAdvantage plans by that 11%. But would he risk a veto of a big budget bill if it cut the HMOs by 5% and upped the benefit schedule in Part D and MedicareAdvantage? Not likely.

Not only do Democrats want to cut the private Medicare funds because they don’t like them, they need to cut them to find money to do other things.

One thing that is certain about Congress—Democrat or Republican—is that when it needs money it always comes looking to take some from the Medicare providers. How many times have we seen Republicans and Democrats cut doctors and hospitals to balance the budget—especially when either was seen as well compensated?

Now, HMOs are Medicare providers too and they are seen as fat with lots of great reimbursement. Just listen to Humana’s CEO talking about his profits tripling in the third quarter, “This quarter’s biggest takeaway is that our Medicare strategy is working.” That sounds great in the investment community but he’s asking for trouble in Washington.

It may get even more problematic for the HMOs in a way I wouldn’t have predicted just a few weeks ago. The current Congress has not completed its 2007 budget for the Medicare program. There is talk that Republicans may not even try to finish it and instead punt it to the new Congress. That means that instead of Democrats getting their first Medicare budget in late 2007, they may get their first whack at the HMO Medicare payments in January!

The HMO Medicare business is seen as highly profitable just as doctors are in a bind. Because of the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate Formula, Medicare physicians are scheduled for a 5% fee cut on January 1, 2006. They are scheduled for a total of 40% in cuts over the next five years. Democrats, like Republicans, want to help the doctors out, and they need a place to get the money.

Beyond that, there is a $3 billion shortfall that has been identified to pay for the Labor/HHS spending bill the 2006 Republican House passed. There is a $5.5 billion gap on all unfinished appropriations bills.

Then there is the cost of fixing the Medicare physician fee cuts. Before the Congress adjourned this month, they took $7 billion from the MedicareAdvantage stabilization fund and used it to offset scheduled Medicare physician fee cuts.

The Democrats made lots of other election promises that cost money and those profitable HMOs present one terrific target.

The good news for the health plan industry is that it’s making loads of money in the MedicareAdvantage business.

The bad news for the health plan industry is that the timing for a Democratic return to power couldn’t be worse for them.

The first budget target was the MedicareAdvantage stabilization fund—originally budgeted to be $10 billion. Since it hasn’t been necessary to stabilize anything so far, that is easy money for the industry to give back.

With $7 billion of that already gone (and it was the Republicans that gave that back!), any more givebacks are going to be real money.

The 2007 Congressional Health Policy Agenda

2011-02-16T11:31:00.001-08:00

The Congressional Agenda—Old Business

The current Congress is leaving a lot of work undone:
• A Health Information Technology (HIT) Bill – The old Congress will not be able to complete work on the House and Senate versions of a HIT bill. Before the election, they had hoped to be able to finish it during the “lame duck” session. It is now clear that won’t happen and the new Congress will start from scratch on the issue next year.

That means the Congress has not implemented a requirement that payers and providers will have to use the new ICD claim-coding system by 2010. It also likely means Democrats will be more worried about privacy protections and less worried about giving hospitals more control over the development and financing of the new systems as the Republican House bill would have done.

The new Congress will start from scratch on a new HIT bill.

• Medicare Physician Fee Cuts – Republicans had hoped to find the money to waive the 5% physician fee scheduled to take place on January 1. Helping the docs out before January 1st is likely another casualty of the election. That is not to say the Democrats don’t want to help the physicians—they do. But the Democrats can’t get to it until early next year and when they do, it will be private Medicare plans that will likely produce the needed cash.

New Business in a New Congress
The old Republican favorites—expansion of health savings accounts, Association Health Plans, and medical malpractice reform—are out and new Democratic agenda items are in.

This is where many of the analysts are right—with a Bush veto and the 60-vote rule in a Senate that has 51 Democrats—it will be very difficult to do more than tread water on new non-budget health care proposals.

Here’s a look at the new agenda:

• Medicare and the Drug Companies – House Democrats say they will pass legislation enabling Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with the drug companies in the first 100 hours of the new Congress. They will. And then the bill will likely languish in a more divided Senate. If it does get past the Senate—which is not likely but not impossible either—Bush will veto it.

• Drug Reimportation – This was a big Democratic issue during the election. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Democrats couple drug reimportation and giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices into one bill all designed to attract a Bush veto for what are popular—if not controversial—proposals.

• A Patients’ Bill of Rights – You read it correctly. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell has this one on his list of things to do next year. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo this one is off the voters’ list of worries. It probably won’t get very far but there might be some HMO bashing hearings—perhaps focused on Part D issues.

• The Uninsured – Now up to 46 million, look for the Democrats to tackle this issue more directly. That effort was helped by a health insurance industry proposal from America’s Health Plans (AHP) that called for the expansion of Medicaid for the lower income (which the Democrats liked) and the creation of tax credits to help others (which the Republicans liked).

However, the AHP proposal has a $300 billion price tag and no strategy for cost containment.

While that specific proposal won’t likely go very far in the near-term, the AHP did itself well by jump-starting a discussion about incremental solutions that combine both a private and public effort.

By being incremental and building on existing programs and ideas that both sides can embrace, the insurance industry proposal may become the seed that started a constructive discussion for the longer term.

• Medicare Reform – The “Part A,” hospital portion, of Medicare is expected go into negative cash flow in just three years as the baby boomers begin to be eligible for the program.

Under Republican leadership, the likes of House Ways and Means Chair Bill Thomas have dominated the discussion with his market-based proposals and the 2003 Medicare bill.

Now, it will be the Democrats who will dominate the Medicare discussion with their agenda setting committee chairmanships. They give every indication of wanting to dive into the program and its various challenges from provider reimbursement to private plan payments.

Part D Profits––Not Yet the Great Results the Industry Hoped For

2011-02-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

Part D—Some Results Starting to Come In
To say the Part D business has been controversial this year would certainly be an understatement. It’s not news that many in the industry have questioned its sustainability as a business—including me.

During 2006, the profitability data hasn’t been credible. In fact, it will likely be another year before we get a good sense for what’s really going on. While the players had to bid their 2007 rates earlier this year, most of what they based them on was pretty soft.

However, the third quarter was supposed to be the quarter that Part D profitability would spike as the sickest seniors would be in the gap and Part D claim levels would therefore decrease for the rest of the year. There is evidence that is happening. But, is it happening enough?

The biggest Part D player is UnitedHealth. In the second quarter, they said, “The Part D business is well on track to provide positive contributions to earnings on a GAAP basis in the third and fourth quarter and meet its full-year operating margin target of 3% to 4%.”

But their outlook was less specific in the third quarter, “On a full year basis, management estimates that Medicare Part D will generate a positive operating margin, however as a result of the benefit design, generated a slightly negative margin during the first three quarters of 2006.” No more specific earnings estimates and no report of big Part D profits in the third quarter.

The second largest Part D insurer, Humana, was less oblique about its Part D results. Given that the third quarter was supposed to be the quarter that the “gap” turned Part D profits around and produced a profit, their results are somewhat startling. Humana reported that, The MER [medical expense ratio] for the company’s PDP [Part D] business was 93.0% for 3Q06, primarily driven by an MER of 133.0% in the company’s Complete [“gap” plan] PDP offering.” The expense factor for Part D plans is likely about 15%. That means that Humana’s Part D combined ratio in the third quarter, the quarter the profits were supposed to show up, was likely 108%!

It is clear that Humana blew it on its “Complete” plan that provides brand name drug coverage in the “gap.” It gets back to the anti-selection argument. Seniors had the ability to pick the plan they could make the most money on, and hundreds of thousands zeroed in on Humana’s rich offering.

Humana’s response has been to double the 2007 senior premium for this plan and stop covering name brand name drugs in the “gap.” They will continue to cover generic drugs in the “gap.” However, with a monthly price of about $80, seniors can find competing generic “gap” plans for about half of that price. Humana clearly intends to blow these much higher utilizing seniors not only out of this losing plan but also out of the company all together. Remember, I told you that the Democrats now have “oversight” powers? This one is going to be the subject of oversight hearing number one.

The great majority of the Part D renewal process appears to be running well. Most plans are increasing their premiums by less than $5 per month and most seniors are happy with their plan and will stay put.

But the Humana “Complete Plan” is going to get the attention. Any Democrat that wants point to some market warts on the way to justifying more regulation and lower payments to private Part D plans is going to point to Humana—a company that tripled its profits by getting into MedicareAdvantage and then used its price strategy to churn the sickest people out of its Part D program.

The longer term Part D concern for the health plan industry has to be that, in the first year, it is turning out to be marginally profitable at best (United) and a real profit loser at worst (Humana). Looking ahead to at least two years of Democratic budgets and oversight, it can only go downhill from here.

Cost Trend..How Low Will it Go?

2011-02-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Health Care Cost Trends

Last month I asked, just how low will medical cost trend go?

Apparently, still lower.

Health care cost trends have been falling for a number of years since peaking in 2002 at around 14%. Recent reports have annual commercial health plan trend as low as 5.5% to 6.5% in a few places.

The good news about lower health care cost trends continued as publicly traded health plans reported their third quarter results. Most health plans reported falling medical cost ratios on a constant basis, favorable claim development from prior periods, and pricing trend continuing to outpace actual pricing trend.

Once again for the third quarter WellPoint reported that the trend they are pricing into their contracts is greater than the actual cost trend they are experiencing: “Commercial premium yield exceeded total cost trend…resulting in an increase in underwriting margin.” Coventry reported the same thing saying, “Commercial premium yields showed a favorable price-to-cost spread in the third quarter.”

This month, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which covers eight million federal workers, retirees, and their families, said it would increase overall premium by an average of only 1.8% in 2007.

The federal program has historically tracked with private sector costs—albeit at slightly lower levels. The FEHBP saw increases of 12.7% in 2002, 11.3% in 2003, 9.5% in 2004, 7.4% in 2005, and 6.4% in 2006. Granted, some of this is reserve adjustments from prior years but this is still surprisingly low.

A leading employee benefits firm, Hewitt Associates, LLC, also said that their survey of employee benefits costs found that employer costs would continue to moderate in 2007. Hewitt projects employer costs will rise 7.7% in 2007—7% for PPO plans, 8% for HMO plans, and 9% for point-of-service indemnity plans.

However, the drop in trend is not uniform around the country. Hewitt reports trend increases as low as 2.5% in Minneapolis, 5.7% in Philadelphia, and 6.5% in New York City. They also report trend rates as high as 13.1% in San Antonio, 12.8% in Hartford, and 10.5% in San Francisco. Last month, the Boston Globe reported Massachusetts would see at least a 10% trend rate for the seventh year in a row.

Third quarter publicly traded health plan results confirm that health plans continue to rack-up record profits on the heels of declining claim cost trends. The health care cost trend profit windfall, coming from cost trends falling faster than pricing trends, continues on.

From the Hewitt survey, it is clear that not all employers (and their employees) are benefiting from the full benefit of these declining trend rates.

While the news about trend rates is improving, that doesn’t mean health care costs are any more affordable for workers. The Kaiser Family Foundation annual survey of health insurance now pegs the average cost of family health insurance at $11,480 per year.

Even with the relatively moderate rise in health care costs for 2007 employer health care costs will have doubled since 2000.

Why is Health Care Cost Trend So Low?

2011-02-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

In my last two posts (below) I pointed out that commercial medical cost trend has been reported to be as low as 5.5% to 6% with most employers reporting 2007 increases in the 7% to 8% range.

While employer trend rates are at this level, health plans are reporting even lower internal trend rates with commercial profits remaining strong and virtually all of the plans reporting rate increases ahead of actual costs (see article below).

Which raises a question: Why is health care cost trend as low as it is?

In past years, higher rates of trend tended to reflect high rates of utilization that made up perhaps two-thirds to three fourths of the trend rate. The remaining trend was made up of pure price trend. So, if trend was 12%, perhaps 4 points of that was pure price trend and 8 points was utilization––in round numbers.

Could it be that the actual trend rates being experienced by the health plans today are made up of perhaps 4 points for price inflation and 2 points for utilization––again in round numbers?

Are we seeing lower trend rates because we are experiencing lower rates of increase in utilization?

After years of high increases in utilization by providers––particularly in the wake of the "provider backlash" (or patients' rights rebellion) in the early part of this decade and a slower rate of new technology and drug introductions––are we seeing a fundamental slowing in health care costs?????

MetLife Latest to Pay for Contingent Commissions

2011-02-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

MetLife is the latest to settle with New York Attorney General Spitzer for its use of contingent commissions. With UnumProvident and Prudential Financial already paying millions in fines and restitution to customers, MetLife will now pay $16.5 million to policyholders and $2.5 million in New York penalties.

What is amazing is how long all of this has gone on. For years after the scandal first broke, the contingent and unreported commission practice has continued. Smaller benefits brokers and benefits consultants continued to insist on these behind the scenes incentives to put more business with a particular company long after one would have thought the threat of embarrassment and common sense would have prevailed.

The ERISA required form 5500 always required full disclosure. Yet the industry ignored it. Insurers paid, brokers and consultants collected, and employers looked the other way.

Things have been particularly bad for my old company––UnumProvident. They not only got caught up in this as the benefits commission payment poster child for sleeze, but paid another set of fines and settlements to state insurance departments for even sleazier claim practices.

The chickens always come home to roost!

Anyone still on the take with these back room commission deals would be wise to pay attention.

Has the Florida Judge Stopped the New Health Care Law in Its Tracks?

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

    The last issue to be resolved is the plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief enjoining implementation of the Act, which can be disposed of very quickly.

    Injunctive relief is an “extraordinary” [Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456U.S. 305, 312, 102 S. Ct. 1798, 72 L. Ed. 2d 91 (1982)], and “drastic” remedy [Aaron v. S.E.C., 446 U.S. 680, 703, 100 S. Ct. 1945, 64 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1980)(Burger, J., concurring)]. It is even more so when the party to be enjoined is the federal government, for there is a long-standing presumption “that officials of the Executive Branch will adhere to the law as declared by the court. As a result, the declaratory judgment is the functional equivalent of an injunction.” See Comm. On Judiciary of U.S. House of Representatives v. Miers, 542 F.3d 909, 911 (D.C. Cir.2008); accord Sanchez-Espinoza v. Reagan, 770 F.2d 202, 208 n.8 (D.C. Cir.1985) (“declaratory judgment is, in a context such as this where federal officers are defendants, the practical equivalent of specific relief such as an injunction . . .since it must be presumed that federal officers will adhere to the law as declared by the court”) (Scalia, J.) (emphasis added).

    There is no reason to conclude that this presumption should not apply here. Thus, the award of declaratory relief is adequate and separate injunctive relief is not necessary.

Presumably, this applies only in the 26 states that brought the suit. And, of course we should expect the Appeals Court with jurisdiction over this judge to rule on his finding--including the possibility of an emergency order keeping the law in effect during the appeals. But what happens to the early benefits of the law in the meantime?

Now We Have Real Uncertaintly--The Entire Health Law Ruled Unconstitutional!

2011-02-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

We all knew the question of the constitutionality over the new health care law was going to be taken up by the Supreme Court.

We knew that because the law inexplicably lacked a severability clause a judge could throw the whole thing out if the individual mandate were to be found unconstitutional and critical to the legislation.

And, we expected this Florida judge would likely rule against the law in some way.

Up to today, we knew that one federal judge had ruled that only the individual mandate was unconstitutional while two other federal judges had upheld the law.

But, I will suggest that the market's uncertainty about implementing the Affordability Act just went up exponentially with a second federal judge ruling against it. And, there is nothing like the whole thing being thrown out in a suit 26 states have brought.

It will likely be 18 months before we get a final Supreme Court ruling--not to mention a number of Appeals Court Rulings in the meantime. Will they uphold the entire law, throw it all out, or just the individual mandate? Four federal judges have put at least those choices on the table.

If you are a provider, do you now spend millions of dollars developing an Accountable Care Organization? Do you build that new building or make a big technology purchase? If you run an insurance company do you make a big strategic bet on exchanges or now marginal markets?

We really don't know any more this afternoon then we knew this morning.

But the uncertainty index just took a huge jump!