Medical

Debt and Health – Hidden Costs

September 6, 2006 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

I like finding the hidden costs in personal finances. Hidden costs are those costs that are not readily apparent when you are looking at your finances and usually when you leave out the hidden costs, the true cost is nowhere near what you assumed. the problem is that hidden costs are hidden because they are often difficult to detect, but if you don’t take them into account you end up with a skewed view of your true costs and where your finances really are.

A good example of this is the cost of smoking. Most smokers add up how many packs of cigarettes they smoke a day and the cost of the pack to determine how much smoking costs them. In reality, they need to also factor in higher insurance costs, decreased asset worth (car, house, etc), higher medical costs and increased cleaning expenses to name just a few of the costs that smokers rarely add into their cost calculations.

When you see a credit card with $6000 that hasn’t been paid and you’re not sure how you will pay it, you’ll probably assume that you are $6000 in debt. The truth is that it is costing you much more. Not only do most people conveniently ignore the interest that they are going to have to pay until that $6000 is paid off, they probably don’t even consider other hidden costs.

I came across another hidden cost this weekend while talking with a friend. We were talking about his debt problems and working on a plan to address them when he mentioned that his wife was in the hospital from mental exhaustion. The stress of the debt had so overwhelmed her that she became physically sick. While most people don’t have debt that pushes their health to that degree where it can be seen by all, almost all people that have debt have physical ailments to some degree associated with it. These physical ailments have costs (both monetary and physical) that are rarely addressed when talking about the cost of debt.

Anyone who has ever been in debt knows that it increases stress levels and stress can do great harm to the body. Stress related illnesses include headaches, lack of sleep, weight loss or weight gain, worsening heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes to name a few. All these illnesses need to be treated and that treatment costs money.

Furthermore, when you are stressed and your body is not in optimal shape, it affects they way you work and your relationship with others. This can have a direct affect on your pay in the form of promotions and how you are viewed within the company. most people would assume that they were passed over for a promotion because they had not preformed well enough, but that poor performance might be directly related to the stress of the debt.

When people say that debt is just money, they are fooling themselves by failing to see the hidden costs…and there are many.

Visiting The Dentist – Daily Tip

March 30, 2006 By Jeffrey Strain 11 Comments

save money at the dentist Over half of Americans go to the dentist once every six months according to the American Dental Association and many view the “go to the dentist twice a year” mantra as written in stone. This mantra, however, originates from a comic book written over 150 years ago titled The Toothache – a time when dental hygiene and care was not even close to today’s standards. So the question is do you really need to visit a local dental clinic like Macleod trail dental often for check-ups? According to a report at Smart Money, you may not:

“A six-month checkup means everybody has the same risk for disease, and that doesn’t make very much sense,” says Douglas Benn, oral and maxillofacial radiologist and professor emeritus at the University of Florida. “If you look at the typical middle-class population, the majority are not at high risk for lots of decay and gum disease; they probably don’t need to be seen every six months.” A number of studies support Benn’s view, finding no appreciable benefit from biannual visits for all patients.“

If you have full dental insurance that already pays for visits to the dentist every six months, then it makes sense to continue to get your twice a year check-up. If you have regular dental problems, it also makes sense to continue to go at least every six months. If, however, you get glowing marks every time you see the dentist and take wonderful care of your teeth and gums on your own, then it makes sense to at least discuss with your dentist how often you need to come in for a check-up. This is especially true if you have a large dental deductible, co-pay or don’t have any dental insurance at all (only 55% of Americans do have dental insurance).

Be honest with your dentist and explain the situation that you are paying a lot of the money for treatment and check-ups out of your own pocket. If you have a high risk factor for dental disease and need to see the dentist every six months, they will let you know and you should follow their advice. Trying to save money by not getting regular check-ups will mean much more money in dental work down the road. If you are a low risk candidate for dental disease, however, you may be surprised that your dentist says coming in every 9 months or every year for a check-up is acceptable.

Another benefit of discussing this with your dentist is even if you do have to continue the current six month check-up, you may receive a discount over the regular priced treatments. Many dentists are more than happy to offer a discount of 10% or more to patients that pay for their dental care up-front so the dentist doesn’t have to deal with an insurance company. Many also offer lower rates to those paying for care out of their own pocket. It doesn’t hurt to ask and you may find that you don’t need to spend as much as you have been at the dentist.

Five Figure Eggs

March 19, 2006 By Jeffrey Strain 5 Comments

I came across this topic of conversation in the forums: Would You Sell Your Eggs To Pay Off Debt? – It seems if you have the brains and the right looks, your eggs may be worth 5 figures and a minimum of 4 figures if you qualify. The question is would you consider selling them (actually your time in donating them) to make some extra money?

While there is a potential windfall for women, men don’t seem to have it quite as good. The five figures that women can receive barely reach the three figure level for a top notch man (with single figure payments being common) and it’s much more difficult to get accepted (only about 5%).

Cost Of Avian Flu? A Decade Of Growth

October 21, 2005 By Jeffrey Strain Leave a Comment

My philosophy regarding the avian flu virus is not too panic, but to be prepared. Whether it’s a H5N1 virus or some other yet unknown strain, the world is overdue for another pandemic. It’s the same as being prepared for other possible emergencies such as earthquakes. I don’t live in fear of them everyday, but I do know that they can happen (having grown up in the San Francisco Bat Area and been in Kobe when the devastating earthquake hit out here) and thus take basic precautions on the off chance that it does happen while I’m in the area.

Money magazine has a Flu doomsday scenario for the world economy article currently up on its site. Some highlights:

Estimating how many (people) another pandemic could kill is fraught with difficulty. Calculating an overall economic impact is even trickier, given the potential for panic and indirect costs from a hiatus in travel and trade…

“We cannot begin to quantify the potential damage in terms of gross domestic product, but a realistic scenario might be GDP declines in the tens of percent,” said Carnell. “In the case of slower growing economies such as Europe or Japan, a decade’s economic growth could be wiped out.”

Note that the quote says “realistic scenario” meaning that the 10% decline in economic growth wouldn’t be a worst case scenario.

But even these direct cost estimates — which look at income and production lost from loss of life as well as the cost of vaccines and health care in the United States — run at least as high as August’s devastating hurricane Katrina.

A 1999 paper from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimated an economic impact of between $71.3 billion and $166.5 billion from U.S. deaths of up to 207,000 and hospitalization of up to 734,000, “excluding disruptions to commerce and society.”

“In considering what planning there would have to be for the next pandemic, we thought — and still do — that the 1968 scenario is adequate,” Martin Meltzer, co-author of the report and a senior health economist at the CDC, told Reuters.

These numbers are based on the 1968 flu pandemic in which approximately 1 million people died of the “swine flu,” but was the least devastating of the three pandemics that occurred in the last century. The 1958 flu pandemic killed 2 million and the 1918 outbreak killed 50 – 100 million.

The most interesting part of the article was that while loss of life and illness would cause economic decline, it is likely that the way people react will have the largest effect:

“Substantial loss of life would obviously lead to a decline in economic output but we believe fear of infection, leading to drastically altered behavior, would result in the greatest economic damage,” said Rob Carnell, economist at ING bank.

I guess I am more cautious and have been following this more closely because of a conversation I had with my best friend from college who is in the medical field. He says that lab tests have shown that the current H5N1 virus can mutate into one spread by human to human contact in less than 10 generations. That is enough for me to be prepared:

“Recent clinical, epidemiological and laboratory evidence suggests that the impact of a pandemic caused by the current H5N1 strain would be similar to that of the 1918-19 pandemic,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said in a recent paper.

Disruption to trade and travel from efforts to contain the virus would be incalculable, he said, adding global, regional and national economies would come to “an abrupt halt.”

One big fear about the reemergence of a 1918-type flu strain is that it killed millions of people in the most productive age groups — the 20- to 40-year-old bracket — as opposed to just preying on the very old and very young.

The last part is the most troubling. I think there is an assumption that only the young, old and those with weak immune systems die in pandemics which is not true. My advice – don’t obsess on it, but keep an eye on what is happening through the news, just as you would if there was a hurricane out at sea that had the potential to head your way.

The Avian Flu Virus – Getting Financially Prepared

October 10, 2005 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

It seems that the President and Congress are finally getting the hint that the Avian Flu Virus might be something to prepare for ahead of time. Living in Japan where I’m living a lot closer to where they predict the outbreak will first occur, I’ve been thinking about how to prepare to lesson the risks of getting it. While this is for practical reasons (if several million people are going to die, I don’t want to be one of them), it also has a financial aspect to it.

For those of you who haven’t been following this story, there is a new flu virus that is currently being carried by birds in Asia. Since this is a totally new flu virus, we (as in the human race) have no immunity to it. While it isn’t a problem at this point (because it isn’t easily passed between humans at the moment – although 65 people have contracted by being close to birds and have died), many experts are saying it’s just a matter of time before it does mutate and can be passed along easily from human to human. When this happens, a pandemic will occur (as has happened in the past) and it’s likely millions will die. Not a real fun thought.

Even if you don’t die, if you contract the virus, you’re going to be sick in bed for awhile. If that does happen, you’re not going to really be thinking about lost productivity (because at that point, you’ll be feeling really, really lousy and probably won’t care about anything beyond getting well), but since I’m in the preparation stage, I can.

The likelihood is you’ll be out not for a few days, but a few weeks. Depending on your source of income, that could mess up your finances quite a bit. So here are some tips I have for preparing for when it does arrive and preventing from getting it. Yes, the preparation will cost a bit of money, but it will be well worth it and you’ll thank me that you did.

1. Buy a good supply of surgical masks: You can get these at your local drug store or home improvement store. Once the outbreak happens, there will be a run on these at your local stores and they soon won’t be available. Supply and demand will cause their prices to rise quite a bit in second hand markets like ebay. How do I know? That is exactly what happened in Japan when the SARS outbreak occurred.

The masks are not so much for preventing people from coughing directly in your face as keeping your hands away from your nose and mouth. The virus is much more likely to be transmitted as follows than you getting coughed on directly in the face:

— Someone with the virus touches his nose getting the virus on his hand

— He opens a door leaving the virus on the door knob

— You opened the same door after him getting the virus on your hand

— you unconsciously touch your nose contracting the virus

Which brings us to number

2. Get in the habit of washing your hands regularly: As a former teacher with lots of kids running around with runny noses, you learn to wash your hands constantly to make it through the school year without getting sick. If you have kids, get them in the habit of washing their hands several times a day (the more the better). Once the flu comes, if they aren’t in the habit of washing their hands often already, you aren’t going to be able to teach them in that short period of time.

3. Wash thoroughly: From what I’ve read, bacterial soap in itself won’t kill the flu virus, but the main reason to wash you hands isn’t to kill it.

“The soap isn’t meant to kill the bug, its purpose is to make your hands slippery, so the virus slides off under water.”

That means taking the time to wash hands thoroughly so all the virus slips off.

4. When the outbreak occurs, change your habits: You’re not going to be able to lock yourself inside when the outbreak occurs since it will last a full season (several months), but avoiding crowds will be a good habit to get into. Crowds are always an easy place for the flu to spread. If you have kids with play groups or other activities, you’ll want to consider cancelling them for a season.

5. Get the vaccine immunization when available: I doubt the government will have enough medication to go around when the flu outbreak occurs and the limited supplies they have will go to high risk patients (elderly, children, those with compromised immune systems, etc). The fact is, antibiotics don’t work on the flu virus (they work on bacteria), so there is little the doctor can do once you get sick. Since the virus will be totally new, even the drugs that doctors think may help in reality may or may not, so you don’t want to count on these (thus prepare not to get it in the first place). Once the virus is identified, however, they will culture it to make a vaccine. As soon as that vaccine is ready and available, get immunized with it.

As with many things, taking the time to prepare and spending a little money upfront can save you a lot down the road. This is certainly one time it’s worth preparing for an even that is sure to come in our lifetime.

Save Money On Prescription Drugs

October 10, 2005 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

The Federal Drug Administration has an extensive article on how to save money on prescription drugs in their latest issue of FDA Consumer magazine. The article has a number of good points that can save you a significant amount of money and suggests these basic tips:

Tell your doctor whether paying for prescription drugs is a problem.

Ask your doctor about generics, another brand of the drug that may cost less, and nonprescription options.

Find out whether Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage can benefit you and your family members.

Check to see whether you are eligible for drug assistance programs in your state.

Check with the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture your medicines to find out whether you qualify for assistance programs.

Shop around your neighborhood or legitimate online pharmacies for the best prices on prescription drugs.

One point that I found interesting was area of the report that shows that people buying brand name prescription drugs through Canadian pharmacies could actually save more money much of the time by purchasing the equivalent generic drug in the US.

When I last talked to my best friend from college, one of the issues we talked about was whether generic drugs were as effective as their brand name counterparts. Both he and his wife (also a doctor) said that the generics are just as effective and that they themselves take generics.