Harvey McEwan asked:




The spa industry is worth an estimated 1.5 billion pounds in the UK alone, and statistics now show one-third of their customers are now men, discovering the feel-good factor of a relaxing treatment for themselves. As we all endure constant bad news regarding the economy, and the stresses and strains of everyday life, it seems men are seeking to enjoy some pampering – and how better to do this than at one of the many spa hotels in the UK.

With Fathers Day approaching, rather than giving your dad the traditional gift of tools, tie or socks, surprise him with a stay at a luxurious spa hotel and make his day.

It remains to be said, however, that the vast majority of men are still uncomfortable with an overly girly environment – they don’t want to be surrounded by fuss and frills and given a pink bathrobe to wear! Spa hotels and spas are now increasingly offering a gender neutral environment, and special treatments are being designed with men in mind. Deep-tissue massage and other massages which suggest the resolution of a sports injury whilst being relaxing and enjoyable are popular with men as are ******* packaged towards the male customer, such as the hangover busting ******.

Spa hotels have been extremely popular with hen parties for many years, and now the stag party is discovering the benefits of a weekend break filled with relaxation in the run up to the big day – at a luxury spa hotel this can be combined with an amazing meal and more than a few glasses of champagne, along with that spa glow. Golf weekend breaks can also be combined with a trip to the spa at one of the luxury hotels that offer both a fantastic golf course and top-class spa.

What’s more, it seems the weary male business traveller – who may have checked into a spa hotel with no intention of visiting the spa for a treatment – is also wandering down for a massage or ******. Men are increasingly aware of the importance of unwinding and shaking off the day’s stresses in order to combat their effect on health and well-being. Spas and spa hotels are now focusing on mind, body and spirit, not just nurturing the outer appearance but the inner-self also – and when people are paying significant sums to go to a spa hotel, they expect a wide-ranging, holistic approach.

As more and more men visit spa hotels their loved ones can only benefit from a more relaxed, groomed and glowing partner. However ladies, don’t be anxious about missing out – why not pamper yourself too and book into a spa hotel together for a well-deserved break.

Bob D Jones asked:


Robert C. Gallagher has been famously quoted as saying: “Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine”, this has never been truer than in today’s hectic life. In the stressful economic circumstances we are currently facing, everybody has to keep a better count of their pennies than in the past. Unfortunately, research has shown that the first thing the average human being cuts back on is their insurance premiums.

This is however a very short-sighted approach to the reality we all face. In a matter of seconds our lives can change drastically. Accidents, fatal illnesses, heart attacks, violent attacks on our person, loss of important documents or items whilst traveling; these are all events that takes place every day, and could happen to any one of us.

Luckily there are insurance providers that understand these eventualities. Many employers offer their employees free health care cover as part of their compensation package. Most of the manufacturing and engineering companies in America offer their workers health insurance as part of their compensation, whilst companies offering services are less inclined to offer their employees health insurance. Unfortunately, in the current economic climate there have been more jobs lost in the manufacturing environment than almost any other, and thus more people have also lost their access to health insurance.

Everything is however not doom and gloom. There are certain Health Insurance packages that are very well priced, that offer basic health cover with a few special services added as well. A great resource to use when deciding on your health insurance option is The America’s Health Insurance Plans website (ahip.org), which offers great comparisons of medicare plans, including their prices and services offered.

Every year thousands of people run across certain problems (ex. Accidents, theft) during their travels, which can amount to thousands of dollars worth of damages. Travel Insurance is a relatively cheap option that should always be taken into consideration when traveling (especially outside of your own country), and should offer you the peace of mind needed to truly enjoy your travels and leave your worries at home.

Madison Lockwood asked:




The variety of financial tools and services available today has multiplied dramatically from a generation ago. On both the personal front and in the business sector there has been a dramatic increase in the number of products available, the methods by which they are delivered and the services they require.

The internet is a perfect system for laying out preliminary information in the financial services industry, where product options can get complicated fairly quickly. Businesses of all sizes that are engaged in some portion of this industry are finding that a website makes good business sense.

An enormous amount of financially related business is still done at the local level. Mortgages, auto and home loans and insurance policies are still usually secured from a local agent. The small businessman engaged in providing such products need only think about the amount of time he or she spends on the phone explaining the basics of their services to realize how much time a website could save them.

When a customer calls about auto insurance, think about the ability to refer the caller to your website to learn about the required minimum coverage, about the relationship of the vehicle’s value, about the relationship of personal injury coverage to health insurance.

Think about having a website that explains the four or five home mortgage options that are available, about how they are affected by down payment, credit history and loan amount. Consider the enormous number of variables available in health insurance for both individuals and families, and envision a chart on your own website that explains how those policies work.

That’s only a start on the types of benefits a website can provide to a small businessman or regional company in the financial services business. Your website can provide explanations, charts, even video clips explaining:
Retirement planning Medicare insurance options Home loans, including specialties such as tenants-in kind Real estate history and trends in your area Auto insurance, including the effects of driving records and assigned risk Investments – mutual funds or annuities? Stocks or CDs? Estate planning Health insurance – a new policy, or COBRA?
These are a few examples plucked from a vast array of financial services that are out there today. Your website can become your reference library, your consulting tool, and your business partner when it comes to educating your clients. Websites provide multidimensional explanations of material in a far more effective fashion than brochures. No matter how glossy, stacks of paper that use terms only half understood are intimidating to people.

Your website can have an entire dictionary section, so that potential customers can learn terminology at their leisure, rather than ask embarrassing questions. And of course, the fewer questions they have when they pay a call on you, the less time is consumed in moving towards a potential sale.

Use the graphics capability of a website to maximize the attractive nature of your particular company. Take advantage of a personalized business website to explain why your services are better, unique, priced more reasonably, performed more thoroughly. With any complex financial product, you’ll need to explain how your selection of products can meet an entire range of consumer needs. Your website can do that for you.

Financial products can be presented online just as attractively as real estate is today. For every financial product, there is a personal benefit that can be reinforced with images. For products with multiple options and complex purchasing decisions, a website provides a consumer with an invaluable tool that is available 24/7. Your potential customer won’t be sitting across from you, concerned that there’s been a question missed or an issue not fully understood. A website is like an office staff to a financial services professional: there’s no better business for harnessing the efficiency of the new technology.

Peter Yellowlees asked:




Much is currently being written about how President Obama should re-shape the American Healthcare system. Most commentators agree that the current arrangement for healthcare in this country is too expensive, highly inefficient and provides unequal levels of care, including minimal care for the 47 million uninsured Americans.

As a physician with a longstanding interest in how health services are organized, and who has lived and worked in the USA, Australia and Britain, as well as consulted to many other countries, I have strongly held views on the types of directions America should take. And at one level they are remarkably simple, and can be summarized in three suggestions.

1. A public-private partnership philosophy has to be central to the whole re-engineering of the health system. America is founded on capitalist principals, where the profit motive is central, and any new approach to healthcare must combine this with the need to develop core public services that may be less likely to ever achieve a profit. There must be the potential for cross investment in all directions – and with funding for care provided on the basis of annual or episodic whole of person care provided, rather than on individual piece rates as at present. Numerous studies have shown that if health systems can be given the incentive to provide quality care efficiently over defined time periods, and Kaiser Permanente is an excellent example, that they can do this. The primary importance of this approach is that it will force more resources into prevention of illness – to wellness promotion – rather than into the treatment of illness that has already commenced. Of course in such an environment anyone, no matter what their insurance, should be able to receive emergency care in any hospital at any time – public or private. The whole system must be developed with interoperable health information technology systems, including patient accessible electronic medical records and the provision of a unique health identifier for everyone. This approach will greatly improve the delivery of healthcare, and the security and privacy of health information.

2. The public component of the healthcare system would include universal basic health insurance (including catastrophic care insurance) and many emergency and isolated health services, as well as much more public health focus on prevention and health promotion. Public programs should also pick up much of pre/post natal and early child care (by far the most important care in the whole health system) to ensure all mothers and babies are properly looked after, and probably care of some special populations who cannot afford private health insurance such as the unemployed, some seniors and certain impoverished or geographically isolated groups.

3. The private component would be funded with the aid of tax incentives to encourage most people (or companies) to take out private insurance with aim that at least 80-90% of the population should have private insurance. It is crucial to reach this level of insurance to be confident that patients have “skin in the game” and are financially responsible for at least a good proportion of their healthcare costs, and do not see healthcare as something that is provided by the government for free. The private sector should offer a full range of services from birth to death – with the ability to charge extra for certain “non-essential” services such as cosmetic surgery and other niche areas – but with regulation to prevent people being excluded on grounds of pre-existing conditions. A voucher system for certain groups, such as the chronically disabled, funded by government payments would allow all to access the private healthcare system depending on need. The insurance process for this private component needs a complete overhaul to reduce administrative overheads and simplify the payment process – my view of the simplest way of doing this would be to limit the number of private insurance companies and make sure that they are financially viable and large enough to offer reasonable regulated levels of healthcare services to their members.

These 3 steps to providing better care, and fairer access to care, for all Americans are taken from what I consider to be the best parts of the American, British and Australian health systems. No country has a perfect health system, and all are dependent on the core cultural philosophies held by the individual nation. America is the Land of the Free and can afford to choose the best of what other countries have attempted as it debates how to improve its healthcare system, and ultimately the strength and fortitude of its people.

Marilyn Katz asked:




Many Americans are not covered under a group medical plan, and they may need a private plan. Here are some groups of people who may need to buy their own coverage.
Self employed people usually need to purchase a family medical policy. Some groups of self employed people may be able to join a professional or business association for negotiated rates. Employees of small businesses may not work at a company that provides group health. When a very small business only has a handful of employees, the cost of group health plans can be too expensive to justify for the business. owner. Of course, the small business owner would also need to cover his or her family too. Contract employees probably do not have group benefits either. Even if a contract or temporary employee works for a placement firm, their access to health insurance may be limited. Unemployed people may be entitled to a COBRA extension which allows them to continue their group coverage for several months. However, these extension are not universal. Some companies do not have to offer them. The price tag for a COBRA extension of group medical benefits also comes at a high price. While employed, the ex-employee probably only paid a portion of the premium. Terminated employees usually have to pay the entire premium, and it is not unusually to see that that this bill comes to more than $1,000 a month. Students may be covered under a parent’s health insurance if they are still single and young enough. However, even if that student would be qualified for their parent’s health insurance, they may go to a school that is outside of the range of the plan network, and so services will be more expensive. Some insurers sell student health insurance policies, which are usually inexpensive, to cover this group of younger, college students.

Unemployment Health Insurance

Since unemployment is on many people’s minds these days, I have seen a lot of new stories about possible aid for newly terminated employees so they can extend their COBRA group health benefits. So that may reduce the actual out of pocket cost of keeping group health, even after a layoff. This addresses the problem for the newly unemployed, but not for the large group of people who have been struggling with health insurance for years.

Who Can Find Affordable Health Insurance?

Fairly young and / or healthy people should be able to qualify for fairly affordable major medical premiums from private companies. It is important to compare the costs and benefits of several different types of plans. Consumers should think about their own health needs and risks, and purchase a plan that will cover them, but not purchase so much coverage that the policy cannot be afforded.

For instance, if a young woman thinks she may get pregnant, be very careful when considering private plans because normal pregnancy coverage is rare on the individual market. And if a terminated employee has a health condition, they should also be careful. Again, private companies do not have to accept every applicant, and people should make certain that they can get accepted before they cancel a COBRA extension.

Alternatives To Private Medical Plans

Of course, county, state and federal health programs do exist to cover people who cannot access other options. There are usually some income restrictions, or an applicant must show proof they have been declined by an insurer.

Gary Pierce asked:




You should be able to compare health insurance plans without talking to a salesperson. Why is that so difficult?

The insurance companies want it to be difficult for you, easy for them… they have no interest in you becoming an informed consumer.

1) The insurance companies want you to talk to their particular representative and no one else.  

2) The insurance companies have no interest in informing you of the most affordable plan if they don’t sell it.  

3) The insurance companies are solely interested in selling you their particular product.  

There is nothing evil in the above…but they are facts. In the US, for every six dollars spent…one dollar is spent on health care. This is the largest single business group in the country.

Because it is so huge the insurance companies can afford to:

A) Hire and equip a massive sales staff

B) Be able to spend millions on advertising …which duck is better known today than Donald?  

C) Spend millions on lobbying to give them… not you… every possible advantage.      

They do not want you to be exposed to other companies plans if they can help it.

For example I am 64 and will soon be eligible for Medicare. Living in Arizona, the law states that I must go through an agent to get a quote for supplemental Medicare insurance. I can not get this information online without giving my phone number…something I am loathe to do. 

They lobby hard to drive consumers looking for the best, most affordable plan to their sales force. Why do you need a salesperson to identify the plan best suited to your family? The answer is you don’t. You are quite capable of making the best decision for your family.

If you feel you are capable of comparing health insurance plans yourself there is good news. My family has used this free service for 8 years. We have saved thousands. We can get quotes in 30 seconds. We can tell if our doctor will accept a particular policy. I wish the same service was available for Medicare supplement plans.

Of course you can do this yourself. Enjoy.

Devanshi Kothari asked:




If you are an Indian student going abroad for your studies, you definitely know the importance of health insurance. Student Medical Insurance is mandatory for all the universities worldwide, especially when you are an international student.

But the question is, whether you should buy it from your home country, or from the university itself? All universities offer a medical plan for their students. However, they also waive it if the international student could get any other insurance policy meeting its requirements.

Should you buy your student insurance from India itself?

Actually, it does make sense when you buy insurance from India for a simple fact that it falls cheaper. Buying insurance in Indian rupees costs you approximately 1/3rd of buying in U.S. dollars. You can choose an insurance policy that is university complaint and thus get the same benefits at a much lower price.

Students from developing countries, like India, have to face the consequences of the unfavorable exchange rate. As a result, sustaining themselves abroad in more developed countries, such as US, UK, Australia etc, falls more expensive on their pockets. It is a well known fact that medical services are quite expensive in most countries abroad.

Moreover, most universities offer just the medical cover. But as you are staying in a completely different country all alone, it is wise to get covered for other non-medical risks also. These may include personal liability, luggage damage, passport loss, bail bond, Study interruption, Repatriation of remains, Sponsor protection etc.

Here are a certain things you need to keep in mind while buying your Student Health Insurance from India -

Consider the cost factor but prioritize coverage over costs.

We know that buying form India falls cheaper. But do evaluate the domestic options available. However, do not let cost take priority over coverage. Be smart when evaluating various options. Do not go in for an insurance company only because it has the lowest premium! Also consider the coverages offered to you. You might as well choose a company with a higher premium but with better covers.

Ensure it is University Compliant.

Your University would give you a waiver only if the insurance policy is compliant with the university’s requirements. So be sure that all your insurance needs are compiled with.

Protect yourself against non-medical risks also.

As mentioned before, most universities may require only medical coverage. But you should get covered for other non-medical risks also, as even if they are not mandatory, they are extremely important.

Always check out the third party tie-ups.

You do not ant to be stuck in a claim. To ensure a smooth claim in future, always check the Third Party Administrator tie up of the company you are buying insurance from. Check the hospital network of the area/ country you are going for studies.

Buy online

Always prefer buying your insurance online. It is not only convenient but is faster and safer. While buying it online, you are not dependent on anybody else and can check all the facts for yourself. Thus chances of frauds are less. Also, when you buy online, the digitally signed policy generated is a legal document and can be accessible online anytime, anywhere in the world.

Russ Pooley asked:




You’ve only been out of the office for an hour and you’ve got 32 unopened emails and eight phone messages. You’re daughters school play is tonight but it clashes with the industry event your boss says you absolutely must attend and you still haven’t done the grocery shopping for your in-laws visit. Stressed out is an understatement. There is only one thing for it. Book yourself into a spa.

A health spa offers the ultimate in relaxation and luxury and with so many providers offering holidays at spa hotels all over the world you really are spoilt for choice.

The best thing about a spa holiday is that even just a couple of days are enough to chill you out.

A spa weekend is the ideal weekend break when life is getting on top of you.
Picture it – you leave the woes of the world behind on Friday, set off to our chosen spa whether it be an hours drive away or a two-hour flight. Enjoy a delicious lunch before changing into your bathrobe and spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool or soaking in the hot tub.

Then it’s champagne cocktails and a gourmet dinner (yes girls most spas serve alcoholic drinks and tasty food nowadays, no more rabbit food for us!)
After a relaxing nights sleep it’s time for a full body massage and a ****** and a stroll in the hotels grounds. A delicious dinner and evening cocktails round off a perfect day.

So next time your phone is ringing off the hook and your boss has landed you with a report to write that would give War and Peace a run for its money, take a time out and treat yourself to a weekend of indulgence.

Victoria Cochrane asked:




Living in the modern world can cause many anxieties, an accumulation of which can lead to a significant amount of stress. For example, imagine sitting in traffic when you are running late for an appointment or choosing to join the shortest queue in the supermarket only to discover that you have also picked the slowest check-out assistant!

There are many other day-to-day activities that also produce the same feelings of frustration and anxiety; and at the end of a stressful week packed with such examples, most people look forward to a well-earned period of ‘de-stressing’. How people choose to ‘de-stress’ varies incredibly from individual to individual. For some, banishing the frustrations, stresses and strains of the preceding week may involve extreme physical activity, such as kick-boxing, for example. Others may prefer to do nothing but slump into a chair and watch TV while their body recovers from the week’s excesses.

Of course, there are a variety of ways to relieve stress that fall in between the two extremes already mentioned. Music features quite heavily on a lot of people’s methods for ‘de-stressing’, either playing or listening, as does indulging in more gentle sports and pastimes. Watching sport as a spectator – especially team sports such as football or rugby – also allows for the letting off of steam; although for some people that may incur even more stress watching their team lose!

As an alternative to getting away from it all – as well as an excuse to be totally self-indulgent – spa weekends often prove a popular choice for de-stressing. Indeed, once you arrive at the spa resort, the outside world is banished and all that matters is slowly and surely being pampered. Until recently spas were almost exclusively the domain of women, however, now more men than ever are waking up to the rejuvenating benefits of spa treatments; and also booking in for a ‘me-time’ weekend at the spa.

In the same way that men have embraced buying cosmetics and indulging in care treatments at home, they are also realising that spa weekends can prove another effective way to de-stress. In fact, studies have revealed that almost a third of all spa customers are male; many accompanying their wife or girlfriend on a break away from it all.

But regardless of gender, those with children have also discovered that a weekend at the spa invariably involves a weekend away from the kids; a fantastic double win when it comes to getting as far away from stress as possible! And whether it is a break from the workplace or simply some time away from the home that is required, it is good to know that there are options available for de-stressing.

Brian Stevens asked:




Whether you’re taking a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or just another business trip away from your family, if you’re traveling to a foreign country you need to buy international travel health insurance.

Here’s how you can find a cheap policy that will still provide the coverage you need.

But I Already Have Health Insurance!

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, half of all U.S. citizens who travel to another country have some sort of health problem during their trip.

Think you’ll be covered if you need medical assistance? Well, you may have a great health insurance policy at home, but few insurance companies provide coverage when you travel to another country. Of course, you can always check with your own insurance company before deciding to buy an extra policy.

What Does This Type of Policy Cover?

This type of policy will help cover your medical expenses in case of an accident or medical emergency. In addition, policies can also offer the following coverages:

* Trip cancellation and interruption

* Medical evacuation

* Lost or stolen luggage

Some policies also offer 24/7 travel assistance services should you have any problems during your trip.

Choosing a Policy

Travel health insurance policies are relatively inexpensive, usually just a few dollars a day for the duration of your trip. You need to make sure that the policy you choose covers the length of time you will be away: some policies require trips be at least 15 days while other policies cover trips as short as one day.