|
SAN FRANCISCO There are a large number of well known companies today that are offering opportunities for individuals to help them to maintain control of their personal health-care information. They are also making it possible for people to make better use of this information.
For example, it was last fall that the giant software company Microsoft released a platform directed toward consumers, with regard to personal health records, which they called, HealthVault. The leading Internet search engine, Google is about to follow soon with the introduction of its version which it calls Google Health. These PHRs or personal health records are now being offered by close to 200 companies.
This is insurance that is usually overpriced and incorrectly sold. This is how it works: Have you ever taken out a mortgage, personal loan, credit or store card? If you have, it's probable that the salesman, brochure or website “strongly recommended” that you also buy payment protection insurance (PPI), right? In fact, it's likely that you have a PPI policy and don't even realize it, as it is the UK's third-biggest general insurance product for personal customers, after motor and household cover.
But like all products that are given the hard sell, with PPI you have to be very wary of what you're buying, otherwise you're going to get robbed. You may even have seen in the press that these plans are under investigation, and it’s about time.
It is well-known that health insurance costs are spiraling. Every year the premiums go up and the slightest incident or new discovery or new virus that hits the earth’s atmosphere is enough to send health insurance costs up again. We haven’t seen the full effects of the bird-flu yet, but it will arrive in due course and send health insurance costs soaring.