Check out this savings special!!

My friend has to have a chest x-ray taken, every 6 months.

These x-rays have been out of pocket for him now for the last 18 years. He had a childhood disease and this is part of his maintenance for the rest of his life. Because it is a "pre-condition", his health insurance will not cover it.

He has been spending roughly $700.00 every year for the past 18 years.

Medical Price Point referred him to one of our affiliates and now he pays $75.00 for the same x-ray as before.

His savings will be over $550.00 a year for the rest of his life.

Do the math, is a membership at Medical Price Point worth it to him?
ABSOLUTELY!

From Kate Bolduan
CNN

(CNN) -- They're generally healthy and have a long life ahead of them. The health insurance industry even calls them 'the young invincible s.'

Sara Collins deals with health care issues in her position at the nonpartisan group Commonwealth Fund.

So, what's the problem? Young adults, ages 19 to 29, are the largest age group of uninsured people across the country.

For Maryland resident Bree Honey, all she can do for her chronic back pain right now is to exercise at the gym where she works and take Tylenol PM instead of other medicine she needs.

"I'm definitely working out right, to try and keep my strength up and to help my immune system right now. ... It's the best thing I can do for myself," Honey said.

Why? She has to put all her money toward expensive drugs for her depression -- without health insurance.

"I am buying my own prescription drugs by myself. ... And I have to pay for that out of pocket every single month. So it's very difficult on me," she said.

At 20, she's too old to be covered by her parents' policy since she's no longer in school. She makes too much to qualify for public health care, but she can't afford private insurance -- and doesn't yet qualify for coverage at her new job.

"I'm just a struggling student right out of college, trying to make my way. And I can't--I don't have the money right now for insurance," Honey said. "If there's some way that the government could get me, or get everyone, just a minimal coverage ... I would even pay for it out of my taxes if I had to."

Many other 20-somethings early in their careers don't have jobs that offer health benefits.

"Only about one-half of all young adults who are working are offered coverage through an employer, compared to about 75 percent of adults who are offered coverage through an employer, over age 30," said Sara Collins with the nonpartisan health care group, Commonwealth Fund.

And it's a common problem. According to the latest date from the Census Bureau, in 2007, there were an estimated 13.2 million uninsured young adults. It's the fastest growing group of the 46 million uninsured Americans today.

Other uninsured rates, according to the data:

• Children under 19: 11 percent

• Ages 30-35: 23 percent

• Ages 36-49: 17 percent

• Ages 50-64: 13 percent.

Reducing the number of uninsured young adults is a top priority for President Obama.

"Health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative," Obama said at a health summit at the White House last week. Watch more on the White House health summit »

But what can young people do? Collins says first check with your state: About 25 percent have increased the age of dependency.

"New Jersey extended the age of eligibility to age 30, most states are clustered around increasing that age to about 24 ... So this is a big help to young adults who had coverage under their parents health insurance plan and lose that coverage," Collins said. Watch more on Obama's prescription for change »

As for Bree Honey, she'll just keep working out and hoping for the best. But it's never far from her mind.

"I'm strapped. I feel like I'm almost like a prisoner in my apartment right now. I can't get sick. I have to worry about if I'm going to get hurt," she said.

CNN's Ed Hornick contributed to this report.

All About

Medical transparency

"Instead of allowing government" to set medical prices, "which is essentially the case for the great majority of medical procedures, the role of the government should be to make transparent the pricing of these procedures," Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Stanford University School of Medicine professor, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Atlas says, "Patients ... would greatly benefit if the government required that prices be posted for common medical procedures before care is administered." He adds, "When prices are openly stated and widely known, competition will ensue and prices will come down." Atlas continues that patients need to know prices "upfront," either through brochures or consent forms, postings in offices and hospitals, or on the Internet. While price sometimes depends on individual situations, Atlas says that "posted prices could be based on retrospective analysis of the provider's previous three or six months' average of charges." He says, "The idea of informed consumers knowing prices and controlling their health care dollar is an extremely powerful one." He continues, "Ultimately, no commodity, no service industry, sells to consumers without openly disclosing prices. Doctors and hospitals might be forced to rethink their prices if they knew those price would become part of the public domain." Atlas concludes, "There should be no mystery to patients about what their own health care will cost" (Atlas, Wall Street Journal, 2/17).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Swollen glands

Today our son Cade had to go to immediate care. We researched the facility in Medical Price Points data base. St Al's has a quick care in Caldwell (55.00) we took him there. The nurse practitioner said he had an absence on his tonsil, we needed to get him to an emergency room. Because there was nothing he could do they didn't charge us.

Again we turned to the MPP data base and found an ENT specialist(ear nose and throat).
They happened to have an opening in 1/2 hour. (Cost was 226.00)

The ENT determined that there was no abscess and prescribes Augmentin. ($120.00)
The Dr. also determined he had a bad case of tonsillitis and his adenoids were very swollen.
He then also prescribed Prednisolone (steroid $5.00 @ Wal-mart)

I researched the drug and found out that Amoxicillin would work seeings that there was no abscess. Amoxicillin is also on the $5.00 list at Wal-Mart.

The following day The doctor needed to see Cade to check his progress (FREE).
My wife alerted him to the fact that Augmentin was so expensive and we found out that Amoxicillin would probably work. He agreed and changed the prescription.

Cade feels much better and we saved a great deal of money.
here is the run down

Quick care:$125.00
Emergency room visit: $425.00
ENT @ hospital: $357.00
Augmentin: $120.00
Prednisolone:$5.00
Total without research: $1032.00

Savings:
Quick Care: FREE
no emergency room
ENT @ private practice: $226.00
Amoxicillin: $5.00
Prednisolone: $5.00
Total cost with research: $236.00

Total savings with the help of Medical Price Point: $796.00
not bad for 10 minutes on Medical Price Point