Archive for July, 2011
Florida health insurance health care rebate rules
The latest rollout of the federal health care overhaul offers consumers a rebate if their insurers spend too little on actual medical care and too much on administrative costs. Easy To Insure ME has the answers
But Floridians may miss out on the rebates that will start in 2012.
Pressed by the insurance industry, state regulators will soon ask the federal government for a waiver from the requirements, which begin Jan. 1.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation confirmed Tuesday it will request a reprieve until 2014, when the health care law’s coverage guarantees kick in.
Tags: consumer advocates, consumers union, federal health care, federal health officials, florida health insurance, group insurers, health care law, individual health plans, kevin mccarty, state regulators
An Assessment of Benefits and Potential Health and Environmental Hazards from Compact Fluorescent Lights
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to examine the benefits as well as potential health and environmental risks of compact fluorescent light bulbs. This is achieved by reviewing literature that has existing research and highlighting the areas with important gaps to allow future rounds of either qualitative or quantitative research. This paper presents a summary and reviews of existing studies and augmented with information from new research conducted.
As traditional light bulbs are soon to be phased out and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) become compulsory (Energy Saving Trust, 2009) concerns have been raised over the health and environmental risks CFLs pose. Some health risks that have been highlighted by concern groups, as will be shown in this paper, are headaches, epilepsy and skin conditions. The presence of mercury in CFLs could also be of concern to consumers. There have been claims that the mercury in them makes CFLs so dangerous that everyone must leave the room for at least 15 minutes if one falls to the floor and breaks (Delgado 2008). However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra, 2009) and the Energy Saving Trust (2009) contend that climate change is the biggest threat facing the Earth today and measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions are necessary. Defra (2009) argues that CFLs can play an important role in this regard as they are more efficient and use up less electricity than the traditional bulbs.
The rationale for this research project is that it is intended to explore the extent to which information of the benefits, hazards and policies on CFLs is shared with the general populace by manufacturers, retailers and government environmental and health agencies. It is hoped that after this research, manufacturers of CFLs, retailers, environmental agencies and local authorities would provide more information on CFLs. Studies like this one could help governments to make decisions on energy issues and the climate change problem based on research findings.
Tags: compact fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent light bulbs, compact fluorescent lights, energy saving trust, environmental agencies, existing research, fluorescent light bulbs, greenhouse gas emissions, potential health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions