Financial tips for college grads: Watch the credit cards, get health insurance

This article explains one more thing that graduating seniors need to learn before graduating. They will now have to buy their own health insurance if they do not have benefits with a new job. There are affordable plans for healthy young individuals. But they will likely need to get their own apart from their parents' plans that they have used for their childhoods. This article is from the Boston Globe and not an insurance agent so I'll link it here.

Financial tips for college grads: Watch the credit cards, get health insurance

May 20, 2008 12:03 PM

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Diplomas in hand, college graduates are heading off into the “real world," where a daunting economy and sluggish job market await. Smith College economics professor Randall K. Bartlett, who teaches in the college's Women and Financial Independence program, said recent graduates need to make a concerted effort to manage their finances well as they enter post-college life.

Bad decisions now could haunt the graduates for years to come.

"Money comes in hard and goes out easy," Bartlett said. "How you plan your finances now can have huge ramifications on how your life will play out."

To help grads along their way, Bartlett recently provided a few thoughts on the economic climate and some tips on getting a financial life:

Continue reading the article here.

Google Offers Virtual Filing Cabinet for Health Records

This is a new Google feature that will revolutionize medical records in America. Many people are concerned about privacy, but they do not understand the waste of time and money involved in getting and transferring doctors records between physicians and facilities. This feature will allow the records to be available online so that timely diagnoses can be made based on the medical history of the patient. The medical industry is on the cutting edge with life saving procedures and drugs, but if you go into an office you will undoubtedly see a receptionist with rows and rows of paper files behind him or her. This Google technology will streamline the effort to keep and transfer records the way that the Clintons did for the Veterans Administration. The cost savings will be transferred to the cost of health care. The medical industry should have done this on their own. But just as the phone companies did not extend their phone directory to the internet, Google did the job for them. This is an excellent achievement and a great use of technology. I applaud this move by Google in the strongest of terms. Enjoy the article.

By Walaika Haskins
TechNewsWorld
05/20/08 12:04 PM PT

Google Health, launched in beta on Monday, is a personal health records aggregator that can provide users with online access to their own medical information culled from several sources. Partners include Walgreens, CVS and Medco. Google says targeted ads will not be involved in the system, but privacy concerns remain.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Latest News about Google launched the beta version of its Google Health personal health records aggregator Monday. The service, according to Google, will put users in control of their own medical records, giving them 24-hour-a-day access to their health records from a variety of sources.

With the introduction of Google Health, the search giant joins other Internet companies including Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Free Trial. Security Software As A Service From Webroot. Latest News about Microsoft HealthVault, Revolution Health and WebMD in the business of storing personal health records (PHR). Revolution Health is a startup Over 800,000 High Quality Domains Available For Your Business. Click Here. from Steve Case, AOL's cofounder.

Proponents such as Case contend that making these types of services available to consumers is the key to revolutionizing the healthcare Latest News about healthcare system in the U.S.

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Personal injury lawyers still send health care costs soaring

This article goes over the argument that medical malpractice lawsuits are causing the costs of health care to increase. The doctors have to get insurance that is more expensive because there is no cap on how much the doctors can sue for. I agree that there needs to be some sort of compensation for a doctor that makes a mistake. But I do not believe that the person needs to be compensated with outrageous sums of money. This issue must be addressed if the cost of health care will decrease.

Personal injury lawyers still send health care costs soaring

By David A. Ridenour
Published: May 19 2008, 10:41 PM

Americans love hospital-based televison shows, ranging from such oldies as “Marcus Welby, M.D.” to today’s “Grey’s Anatomy” — where courageous doctors rush to help victims of car crashes, chemical spills, natural disasters and even terrorism.

In real life, our well-being often resides outside of emergency rooms — dependent on a plaintiff lawyer’s avarice. Some lawsuits, of course, are well-intentioned, but others — guided mostly by greed — play a major role in our nation’s ever-escalating health care costs.

We depend on having a viable safety net for our evolving medical needs. Lawsuits that unnecessarily increase the liability risk of health care providers tend to increase costs and add to the current high cost of health care.

Continue reading the article here.