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According to the article “Bad Economy Lifts Enrollment in Student Plans, but Reform Rules are Unclear” by Steve Davis on AISHealth.com, health insurance companies are expecting large enrollments in student plans as the school season starts.  This is despite the new provision of the health reform law that offers dependent coverage up to 26 years of age. Guidance is needed to understand how the new law is going to affect a student health insurance quote .  Student health insurance is currently filed in each state as a limited duration policy and rated on a basis of a group.  Insurers and consumers are still unclear whether or not student plans will continue this type of regulation or if they will be viewed more like individual health insurance plans.  This will affect the way these plans are handled and could end up affecting the student considerably. About a month ago, the American College Health Association in conjunction with 11 other higher education organizations, sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the director of the White House Office of Health Reform, asking for certain clarifications on the new reform law and how it is going to affect student plans.  Clarification and awareness are the first steps to ensuring these students get the best plans suited to their needs and encourage no gaps in coverage.

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An AIDS activist group filed a workplace safety complaint against Larry Flynt on Thursday, accusing the porn king of creating an unsafe environment for his stable of sex stars by not requiring they use condoms. To illustrate its point, the AIDS Health Foundation also delivered 100 DVDS of hardcore Flynt films to the state Division

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Humana One health insurance is known for having a variety of health plan options to choose from.  In today’s environment, with changing health insurance, this is more important than ever.  They also have many discount programs that apply to a range of consumers. One of the more popular type of plans is Copay Plans which offers coverage that has features similar to employer sponsored health insurance plans.  This type of plan has copays for illness and injury in-network doctor visits as well as prescription drug coverage. Another type of plan is the 100% After Deductible Plan which pays for most in-network expenses after the deductible is met.  This group of plans gives the widest choice of options for deductibles.  Other options are Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) and Short Term Medical Plans which have proven very beneficial for the right consumer.  It’s important to understand your needs before you make any health insurance plan choices.  You can obtain Humana Insurance quotes quickly and easily to see what works best for you.

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Florida health insurance is more important than ever as big changes are coming their way.  It’s been shown that individual health insurance is becoming more popular as group health insurance plan costs soar according to Mary Saiz, Director of Individual Sales for Vista Health Plans .  In addition, many employers are eliminating plans altogether to help cut costs and affect their bottom line. With this information it’s no wonder that individual health insurance plans are growing in Florida.  Vista Health Plans of South Florida is one of the few health insurance HMO carriers that offers these types of plans and has the 2nd largest individual HMO membership in Florida. Saiz also points out on the Vista website, that individual health insurance policies throughout Florida are medically underwritten.  This is important to the consumer since it allows the insurer to maintain the best possible rates.  Cost continues to be the most important factor in a health insurance policy, especially during these economically tough times.  More and more Florida residents are shopping around to ensure they are getting the best deal they can on health insurance.

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Scientists watching Gulf of Mexico’s blue crabs for evidence that oil is entering food chain To assess how heavy a blow the BP oil spill has dealt the Gulf of Mexico, researchers are closely watching a staple of the seafood industry and primary indicator of the ecosystem’s health: the blue crab. Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher, scientists began finding specks of oil in crab larvae plucked from waters across the Gulf coast. The government said last week that three-quarters of the spilled oil has been removed or naturally dissipated from the water. But the crab larvae discovery was an ominous sign that crude had already infiltrated the Gulf’s vast food web — and could affect it for years to come. “It would suggest the oil has reached a position where it can start moving up the food chain instead of just hanging in the water,” said Bob Thomas, a biologist at Loyola University in New Orleans. “Something likely will eat those oiled larvae … and then that animal will be eaten by something bigger and so on.” Story continues below… Tiny creatures might take in such low amounts of oil that they could survive, Thomas said. But those at the top of the chain, such as dolphins and tuna, could get fatal “megadoses.” Marine biologists routinely gather shellfish for study. Since the spill began, many of the crab larvae collected have had the distinctive orange oil droplets, said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. “In my 42 years of studying crabs I’ve never seen this,” Perry said. She wouldn’t estimate how much of the crab larvae are contaminated overall, but said about 40 percent of the area they are known to inhabit has been affected by oil from the spill. Tulane University researchers are investigating whether the splotches also contain toxic chemical dispersants that were spread to break up the oil but have reached no conclusions, biologist Caz Taylor said. If large numbers of blue crab larvae are tainted, their population is virtually certain to take a hit over the next year and perhaps longer, scientists say. How large the die-off would be is unclear, Perry said. An estimated 207 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 drilling rig explosion triggered the spill, and thousands of gallons of dispersant chemicals have been dumped. Scientists will be focusing on crabs because they’re a “keystone species” that play a crucial role in the food web as both predator and prey, Perry said. Richard Condrey, a Louisiana State University oceanographer, said the crabs are “a living repository of information on the health of the environment.” Named for the light-blue tint of their claws, the crabs have thick shells and 10 legs, allowing them to swim and scuttle across bottomlands. As adults, they live in the Gulf’s bays and estuaries amid marshes that offer protection and abundant food, including snails, tiny shellfish, plants and even smaller crabs. In turn, they provide sustenance for a variety of wildlife, from redfish to raccoons and whooping cranes. Adults could be harmed by direct contact with oil and from eating polluted food. But scientists are particularly worried about the vulnerable larvae. That’s because females don’t lay their eggs in sheltered places, but in areas where estuaries meet the open sea. Condrey discovered several years ago that some even deposit offspring on shoals miles offshore in the Gulf. The larvae grow as they drift with the currents back toward the estuaries for a month or longer. Many are eaten by predators, and only a handful of the 3 million or so eggs from a single female live to adulthood. But their survival could drop even lower if the larvae run into oil and dispersants. “Crabs are very abundant. I don’t think we’re looking at extinction or anything close to it,” said Taylor, one of the researchers who discovered the orange spots. Still, crabs and other estuary-dependent species such as shrimp and red snapper could feel the effects of remnants of the spill for years, Perry said. “There could be some mortality, but how much is impossible to say at this point,” said Vince Guillory, biologist manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Perry, Taylor and Condrey will be among scientists monitoring crabs for negative effects such as population drop-offs and damage to reproductive capabilities and growth rates. Crabs are big business in the region. In Louisiana alone, some 33 million pounds are harvested annually, generating nearly $300 million in economic activity, Guillory said. But fishermen who can make a six-figure income off crabs in a good year now are now idled — and worried about the future. “If they’d let us go out and fish today, we’d probably catch crabs,” said Glen Despaux, 37, who sets his traps in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. “But what’s going to happen next year, if this water is polluted and it’s killing the eggs and the larvae? I think it’s going to be a long-term problem.” Source: AP News Mochila insert follows… Powered by Mochila

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“Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections,” the Associated Press reports . The AP’s David A. Lieb adds, About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it. The Missouri law conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014. Tuesday’s vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement. Story continues below… “Republicans eyeing more momentum for the mid-term elections interpreted Missouri’s passage of Proposition C as a backlash against the White House and bigger government,” Bill Lambrecht reports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . Republican National Chairman Michael Steele called Missouri’s rejection of the federal mandate to purchase health insurance “a significant blow to the Obama administration.” Steele called the Missouri vote “another reason why Republicans will win back the majority in November” in congressional elections. “By rejecting ObamaCare with nearly three-quarters of the vote in a critical swing state, Missouri sent a clear message to Democrats and the Obama administration that government-run health care is a gross overreach of the federal government that needs to be repealed and replaced,” Steele said in a statement. “Democrats, who did little to combat Proposition C, were largely quiet about the Missouri results as the returns from Tueday’s elections circulated this morning,” Lambrecht adds. A CBS News article adds , Republicans are this morning hailing the vote as evidence of “the steadfast opposition of the American people to out-of-touch Washington Democrats’ plan,” in the words of House Republican leader John Boehner. “The more the American people know about the Democrats’ new law – with its job-killing mandates, tax hikes, and Medicare cuts to set up a new federal entitlement and massive new bureaucracies – the more they oppose it,” he added. “How long will Washington Democrats ignore the will of the American people? What will it take for them to work with Republicans to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense reforms to lower costs?” However, Brian Montopoli notes at the CBS Political Hotsheet blog , “While Republicans are pointing to the ease with which the measure passed as evidence that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to the Democrats’ health care plans – Proposition C got 71 percent of the vote – opposition to the plan is not quite that high (though there is still more opposition than support). In a CBS News poll last month , 36 percent of Americans said they approve of the health care reform law, while 49 percent opposed it.” At pollster.com , nearly every recent national poll indicates that — for whatever reasons — more and more Americans are continuing to change their minds on the health care plan. A year ago, most polls showed the opposite: wide support for health reform. In June of 2009 the New York Times reported , “Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.” When asked which party was more likely to improve health care, only 18 percent of respondents said the Republicans, compared with 57 percent who picked the Democrats. Even one of four Republicans said the Democrats would do better. The Washington Post recently reported , “Opposition to the landmark health care overhaul declined over the past month, to 35 percent from 41 percent, according to the latest results of a tracking poll, reported Thursday.” But that poll appears to be an anomaly. According to the Associated Press polling , the debate is going up and down, but stands in stark contrast to where it was a year ago. The last AP poll showed 49 percent totally approved of Obama’s handling of health care, with 46 totally disapproving. Disapproving led the month before with 51 to 45, and the month before that by 52 to 44, but Obama had approval of 49 in March with 46 opposed. In April of 2009, approval for handling of health care by Obama in the AP poll was 53 percent, with only 28 percent totally disapproving. Of course, some of that disapproval comes from liberals unhappy with the abandonment of the public option. And while they most probably won’t be changing parties, there’s a chance that disappointed Democrats may feel unenthusiastic about voting this November, and perhaps beyond.

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Ever wish there were a video game where the point is to score as little as possible? If so, well, the Obama administration just may have several hundred thousand dollars for you. The University of Central Florida (UCF) is one such beneficiary, with a weird idea for a game and a fresh wad of taxpayer cash to drive its creation. Yes, thanks to the National Institutes of Health, which awarded UCF $434,800 to continue this project, a small number of teen girls will soon get to wear spandex suits and ping-pong balls all over their bodies while pretending they’re telling boys to leave them alone. The project’s stated goal is to reduce pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted disease among the Latina community … Through video games, apparently. “By donning a motion-capture suit, the players get to act out social scenarios that will then play out on the screen, earning points every time they turn down sexual advances,” explains Robin Marty at Reproductive Health Reality Check . Story continues below… The technological premise of controlling the game by body movement sounds remarkably close to features supposedly possible on Microsoft’s upcoming ” Kinect ” device, which does not require a motion-capture suit and will debut later this year for $149.99 at retail. By contrast, the Nintendo Wii has been motion control capable for years. The console retails with a controller and two sports-themed games for just $149.99. MyFox Orlando has more : Along side UCF’s institute for simulation and training, Professor Anne Norris is creating a virtual game which works by using simulation and digital puppetry. It sounds complicated, but it’s simple technology. “What’s radically different about this one one person controls many characters by jumping into the skin, ” said Charles Hughes, UCF Computer Science professor. “A boy similar in age might approach the person playing the game and ask her to make out or there might be some sexual innuendo,” said Norris. A test group of Latina females will be studied periodically during the two-year project, with researchers hoping to measure any potential impact the behavioral simulations have on their lives. Professor Norris told The Orlando Business Journal that if it works, she’ll develop a game for boys. “Essentially, the video game is an elaborate version of the  Tamagotchi , only, rather than a small electronic pet you feed and watch grow bigger, the pet is young girls, and you ‘win’ by telling them not to kiss boys,” Marty continued. “Yet for the same amount of money, Florida could hire ten educators to canvas the state, providing one-on-one counseling with teens struggling with the decision of whether or not to have sex. Those counselors could help protect those already having sex or who later choose to have sex by teaching them about prevention of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, self-esteem and sexual negotiation, rather than just have them ’score’ every time they refuse to kiss a boy.” Federal funding for the program seems like it doesn’t quite fit with the Obama administration’s committment to eliminate funds for abstinence-based sex education, which has been repeatedly shown to be ineffective at reducing STD infection rates and pregnancies. The Bush administration, led primarily by religious organizations that condemn most sexual activities, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on programs that withhold vital information on safe sex practices. While many children affected by abstinence-education did abstain from sex for a time, pregnancy and STD rates stayed the same, but many of the abstinence students became less likely to use contraceptives or seek out reproductive health services. “A  January 2007 study found that almost all Americans initiate sexual intercourse before marriage,” Colombia University Doctor John S Santelli noted in a 2007 letter to top Democrats in Congress. “In fact by age 44, virtually everyone has experienced sexual intercourse but only 3% have remained abstinent until marriage.” As a candidate, Obama pledged to end that spending and instead recommit funds to efforts aimed at reducing teen pregnancy. He  followed through on that promise with the fiscal year 2010 budget, which pulled funding from Bush’s abstinence programs. The State of Florida’s official position on sex education is that only abstinence should be taught in public schools. This video is from MyFox Orlando, broadcast Tuesday, August 3, 2010. Image credit: ” Singles: Flirt Up Your Life “, rated “AO” (Adults Only) by the ESRB.

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