Insurance Webography

 

General Insurance Issues

Department of Labor Information on Health Plans

Great sections on COBRA and HIPAA — your laws for continuation of coverage. Know your rights!

Health Care Choices — Information for Patients and Purchasers of Health Services

Health Care Choices provides comprehensive information on health insurance, physicians, hospitals, breast cancer, and other diseases to patients, consumers, employers, and other purchasers of health services in New York, New Jersey, and Texas.

HealthcareCoach.com

Great section on losing your health insurance. They are your friends when you need a coach. 

Health Insurance Infonet from Georgetown and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

This is a great Web site for all of the information you need about health insurance. It is also a very good patient advocacy site. Know your rights in your state!

Medline Resources on Health Insurance

All the latest news and information on any kind of health insurance. This is a comprehensive look at all facts and issues of insured care today.

National Association of Health Underwriters

Do not be misled by the sponsor of this Web site—it is chock-full of really good insurance information and even information for the uninsured. This is highly recommended for intermediate consumer readers. Find alternative coverage in your state!

Patient Advocate Foundation

The Patient Advocate Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that serves as an active liaison between cancer patients and their insurers, employers, and/or creditors to resolve insurance, job discrimination, and/or debt crisis matters related to their diagnoses through case managers, doctors, and attorneys. They also have a co-payment foundation.

State Health Insurance Assistance and Counseling Programs (SHIPs)

Think you need help with your plan? Want to apply for assistance? Need an appeal? These folks are out there to help you now — for free! Here are some of their services:

  • Choosing a managed care plan
  • Deciding between original Medicare (fee for service) and managed care
  • Understanding your new health plan choices
  • How to understand your Medicare bill
  • How/whether to purchase additional health insurance (Medigap policy, long-term care insurance, etc.)
  • Understanding how to appeal payment denials
  • Understanding your Medicare rights/protections and how to submit a complaint about medical care or treatment

 

COBRA

Commercial COBRA

Commercial site for COBRA, meaning they are looking for you to buy health insurance from someone on their site. They also give some good information.

Consumer Laws

You cannot fight the good fight against cancer without knowing your rights. Here are the nuts and bolts about COBRA.

Department of Labor

The Department of Labor on COBRA. Remember, if you’ve lost your insurance, they’re on your side.

Job Search and Insurance

They want you to look for a job, and by the way, they answer lots of questions about being insured.

 

Finding Insurance

Health Insurance Advice

Helps you make sense of the many options that are out there in terms of insurance. Very plain English and well laid out.

Health Insurance in Depth

Provides the basics of looking for insurance, and you can get quotes on the same site. Good place to go when you are shopping around.

Health Insurance Information for Small Employers

Mostly for employers, but still a great resource. After all, you may be self-employed.

Health Insurance Institute of America

These folks are not neutral, but this is very good information and shows you all of your choices.

Web MD

Although brief and very commercial, this is WebMD’s information about finding insurance.

Yahoo

Gives you very basic information about health insurance and the options available out there.

 

High-Risk Insurance Pools

Health Administration Responsibility Project

Gives a good summary of eligibility requirements for high-risk insurance.

HealthInsurance.org

Gives you information on high-risk insurance by state. Easy to understand.

Infectious Disease Society

Designed for AIDS patients, this site tells you how to get insurance when you are sick. All the details are here at your fingertips.

Self-EmployedCountry.org

Simple explanation of high-risk insurance with an overview.

Latest Cancer News
Vaccine Against HPV-16 Effective for Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia

November 6, 2009 — Researchers from the Netherlands have reported that vaccination with synthetic long-peptides against human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 was effective in treating vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN). The details of this study were published in the November 5, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Small HER2-positive Breast Cancers Have a Higher Risk of Recurrence

November 6, 2009 — Researchers from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Milan, Italy, have reported that women with Stage T1a,b, N0M0 HER2-positive breast cancers have a have a high recurrence rate without the administration of adjuvant chemotherapy or Herceptin® (trastuzumab). These data suggest that these women should be treated with Herceptin®-based adjuvant chemotherapy. The details of these two studies appeared in early online publications on November 2, 2009 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Alcohol May Reduce Risk of Thyroid Cancer

November 6, 2009 — Researchers affiliated with the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study have reported that alcohol intake may reduce the risk of thyroid cancer. The details of this study appeared in the November 4, 2009 issue of the British Journal of Cancer.

Select news items provided by Reuters Health