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Comment on Ensure Plus Complete Balanced Nutrition Drink, Ready to Use, Strawberry, 8-Ounce (Pack of 24) by H. Rao

H. Rao — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:20:33 +0000

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Helps me maintain weight, January 29, 2008

H. Rao -

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This review is from: Ensure Plus Complete Balanced Nutrition Drink, Ready to Use, Vanilla Shake, 24 - 8 Fluid Ounce Bottles (Health and Beauty)

I have trouble gaining and maintaining weight (believe me, it's not as fun as it sounds) and Ensure helps me from looking too weak. It packs a huge amount of calories and actually tastes pretty good. An added benefit is that it's completely lactose-free, making it perfect for vegans or those who are lactose-intolerant.

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Comment on Ensure Plus Complete Balanced Nutrition Drink, Ready to Use, Strawberry, 8-Ounce (Pack of 24) by Terry A. Eller "Terry"

Terry A. Eller "Terry" — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:47:59 +0000

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

TRIED & TRUE, September 20, 2005

Terry A. Eller "Terry" (Crossville, TN) -

This review is from: Ensure Plus Complete Balanced Nutrition Drink, Ready to Use, Vanilla Shake, 24 - 8 Fluid Ounce Bottles (Health and Beauty)

Ensure Plus has been my primary source of nutrition for five years now following mouth cancer surgery. I still have a PEG tube, but fortunately am able to drink my nutrition. I have tried every liquid supplement on the market. I still do not tire of my favorite, vanilla. Their chocolate is also the best chocolate on the market. The creaminess and the depth of flavoring cannot be beat. Try freezing in ice cube trays, then blending with a couple of real ice cubes in a blender for a terrific "milkshake." By still having a PEG tube, this is a bonafide prescription which is delivered to my home monthly.
[...]

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Comment on Ensure Plus Complete Balanced Nutrition Drink, Ready to Use, Strawberry, 8-Ounce (Pack of 24) by R. Stokes "Engr/Tech"

R. Stokes "Engr/Tech" — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:50:30 +0000

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful

Outstanding product that simply WORKS!, June 27, 2009

R. Stokes "Engr/Tech" (Portland, Oregon US) -

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This review is from: Ensure Plus Complete Balanced Nutrition Drink, Ready to Use, Vanilla Shake, 24 - 8 Fluid Ounce Bottles (Health and Beauty)

Ever since my Army days beginning in 1960, I have maintained 205 to 225 Lbs of weight on my 6'3" frame. Until my wife of 45+ years, passed!
Within 5 months, was down to 147, and resembled photographs of people freed from nazi death camps after ww-2!
My sister in law, suggested I try Ensure, which led me find the "Plus" for those few people (apparently) that are trying to gain and/or maintain
weight. It works! Within 8 months, was back to 208!
Ensure (and my two k-9's) saved my life during this time in my life.
Belive all the positives from other reviews!
RS

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Comment on Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans by OldRoses

OldRoses — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:35:33 +0000

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Should be required reading for every member of Congress, December 2, 2010

OldRoses (NJ) -

This review is from: Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans (Hardcover)

The title of this book, "Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans" is a bit off-putting. Reading it, I mentally prepared myself for a diatribe written by a disgruntled low-level employee out to get his pound of flesh. We all know that health insurance companies are in the habit of denying coverage and raising premiums, occasionally exorbitantly, but they aren't all that bad, right? Surely not as bad as the Wall Street firms that first took away our retirement savings and then our jobs.

I worked in the financial industry for 25 years. Nothing I saw there was as heinous as what is revealed in this book. Put simply, Wall Street may take away people's money, but health insurance companies take away people's lives.

Author Wendell Potter was an insurance company executive, heading up a PR department. For years, he participated in the shameless pursuit of profits over lives until he finally came face to face with the effects on real people of what he was doing. Visiting a clinic set up on a fair ground offering free health care to those who had no insurance and no means to pay for health care, he saw ordinary hardworking people reduced to being treated in animal stalls.

He has written about his experience in the health insurance industry, as well as his epiphany, in a straightforward manner, making it more powerful than if he had penned an hysterical screed. He takes us, step by step through the changes in the health insurance industry from a privately held companies offering true health insurance to the modern publicly owned companies whose focus is on profits rather than health.

The lengths to which health insurers go and the collusions in which they participate are extraordinary. They routinely deny coverage to people who need it and drop coverage of people who become ill. They hire outside PR firms who form bogus grassroots groups who lobby in favor of health insurers. They provide statistics to back up all of their false claims that any kind of healthcare reform is bad.

Potter devotes an entire chapter to revealing how health insurers torpedoed Healthcare Reform using all of the dirty tricks he had discussed in previous chapters. The reason we have no public option is because it would put the health insurance industry out of business prompting them to wage all-out war against it.

It took the death of a child who was denied a liver transplant to convince Potter to leave his job with CIGNA. He devotes his time now to healthcare reform advocacy and as a health insurance critic. He testified during the healthcare reform debates, but obviously not enough people listened to him.

In my opinion, this book should be required reading for every member of Congress. They need to know how they have been bribed and manipulated by the health insurers to do what's best for the health insurance industry instead of what is best for the people who elected them to office.

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Comment on Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans by Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist"

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:59:29 +0000

113 of 123 people found the following review helpful

Good Summary of Health Care Insurance Issues, November 16, 2010

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) -

This review is from: Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans (Hardcover)

Wendell Potter was formerly in charge of public relations for Humana and then Cigna. Potter's intent in "Deadly Spin" is to expose the deceptive techniques of public relations in the insurance segment of health care. He does this quite well, and also provides readers with insight into the two events (the large turnout, including many with illusionary health insurance, for a free Pennsylvania dental and medical clinic; the death of a young girl after his employer dithered and delayed approving a necessary transplant) that turned him against continuing to defend the industry he had been part of for some 25 years. Potter begins by introducing readers to a sampling of tested phrases that have served the industry quite well, such as 'socialized medicine,' 'government-run' medicine, and 'government takeover' of medicine. Readers also gain exposure to other P.R. favorites, such as identifying with patriotism and the American way of life, testimonials, name-calling, smearing opponents (eg. Michael Moore and his "Sicko"), identification with plain folks, fake grassroot campaigns, junk science and statistical analyses, and euphemisms. A brief tour of the darker side of health insurance practice likewise is given - rescissions (retroactively canceling policies of those with large medical bills, using whatever pretext possible), and purging less than profitable accounts via large rate increases. Missing, however, is any comment on the fact that if the uninsured paid the same rates as insurance companies, much of the need for health insurance would go away, and a large proportion of medical bankruptcies avoided.

Universal health coverage began under Germany's Otto Von Bismarck in 1883, with Social Security following in 1889. The motivation was neither altruism or socialism, but to provide leverage against the labor and socialist movements of the day. Health insurance quickly spread - Austria (1888), Hungary (1891), Norway (1909), England (1911), Russia (1912), and the Netherlands (1913). Unfortunately, the momentum took almost 100 years to get to the U.S.

Some of the most disturbing revelations in "Deadly Spin" are that 'ObamaCare' is not a 'cure-all.' For example, it will not stop employers from only offering high-deductible plans such as the $30,000 for some families in Maine. Nor does it remove the ERISA liability protection for employer-sponsored plans. However, it will sharply reduce medical bankruptcies, the key reason for 62% of personal bankruptcies in 2007. Hopefully, it will also reduce the amounts paid for executive salaries and retreats - WellPoint spent over $27 million on staff retreats in 2007-08, while William McGuire, United Health CEO for 12 years, was paid almost $2 billion for his leadership ($620 million was 'clawed-back' because of fraudulent option back-dating). (Comparison: Dr. Donald Berwick, an extremely well-regarded expert in charge of care for the 103 million receiving Medicare or Medicaid, receives only $176,000/year.) Hopefully, the $52.4 billion spent on stock buybacks instead of medical care by the 7 largest insurers from 2003-08 will also either cease or be drastically diminished.

An important side effect of our market-based health-care system is the very high administrative overhead - about 31%, per some estimates, compared to 3% for Medicare. Duplicity and high lobbying costs are two more - America's health insurance plans donated $86.2 million to the U.S. Chamber's lobbying against 'ObamaCare' in 2009, while promising President Obama on tape that they were in support.

Mr. Potter is unquestionably qualified and sincere in his effort. Unfortunately, limiting the scope to his personal expertise both enormously understates the size of America's health care problem, and unfairly skews the focus towards insurance firms. The U.S. spends 17.3%+ of GDP on health care, despite not covering some 40-50 million. Compare that to competitors Japan (about 7.2%), Taiwan (about 6%), and China (4%). Reducing our expenditures to Taiwan's level would save about $1.7 trillion/year, and also reduce unfunded Medicare and other health care liabilities for retirees by close to $30 trillion. Most of the problem is due to excessive service charges (about 2X those of other nations), and excessive utilization by profit-maximizing physicians. Solutions require not just Potter's recommendations for limiting monopolistic practices by health care insurers (providers are also guilty) and mandating higher MLRs, but also restructuring health care to combine insurance and care provision in the manner of Kaiser Permanente (California), the V.A., the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Bassett Health Care, and Geisinger Health System. Physicians must be predominantly paid by salary, to discourage excess care. It will also require that the U.S. emulate every other developed nation that I'm aware of by mandating strict price-controls for medical services, and limiting the ability of... Read more

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Comment on Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans by WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the...

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:13:32 +0000

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful

Fascinating glimpse at the "men" behind the curtain, November 19, 2010

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) -

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This review is from: Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans (Hardcover)

Health care continues to limp on in the United States. We are ranked 46th out of all the Top 50 nations for health care in the world. Part of the issue is that health care is run like any other business and yet it isn't truly a business--profiting on someone's else's health or denying coverage for a pre-existing condition (or stating that a technique is experimental when, in fact, it isn't so as to deny coverage and keep the patient alive)is a form of gambling but it gambles with people's lives which makes it Wendell Potter worked for what he would probably characterize as the "enemy" now for over twenty years. As a PR executive he would weave lies into a positive "truth" for the company he worked for (Cigna) making it appear that they were always doing the right thing for their patients. Using statistics to lie is one thing (for example dropping people off the unemployment rolls that are reported to make it appear that the nation is covering when it isn't)but Potter would often twist the truth or help craft messages to appeal to middle America to scare the public from reform in health care.

One day Potter had an awakening and realized what he was doing was wrong leaving the industry that had nurtured him and becoming an advocate for proper health care and a government based system to force corporations to play fair. He just couldn't stomach hiding greed behind the veneer of double speak falling into a rabbit hole with language that only George Orwell would recognize. He chronicles his rise in the industry and his disillusionment and how the media is manipulated, patients, government to make decisions that are profiting major corporations at the cost of our health and lives. This is as much the story of his awakening as it is about the PR manipulation of the public around health care issues and trying to demonize the discussion of universal healthcare as part of the debate.

Potter's exceptional book "Deadly Spin" takes us behind-the-scenes into the wheeling and dealing that goes on with multiple PR flacks that try and spin doctor any change that threatens their profit as bad for the average consumer. Potter gives us a history of the PR game to help us understand WHY and HOW this is unethical (especially by the ethics guidelines dicated by the PR association).

The health care industry from health plans to pharmaceuticals have for too long had access to lawmakers (using the money that we pay them) to push forward their own agenda and "buy" politicians in Washington; that's nothing new it just just become more blatant than before. Using misinformation, front groups to suggest that any sort of reform is bad, these organizations have been directing America down a path with overgrown foilage and rough terrain where the patient must always suffer. Potter's book takes the curtain that these companies hide behind and let's us see the thought process, innner workings and how misinformation manipulates the public to make the wrong choices while allowing politicians to make those choices knowing they are wrong without ramifications.

Is "Universal Healthcare" the way to go? I don't know but I do know that the insurance industry is scared of it. Potter points out how people like him would manipulate the media and politicians to paint Universal Healthcare as "communist" or "socialist" in nature to taint any and all intelligent discussion about the positives and negatives scaring people away before dialog had even begun.

Potter suggests that having some sort of system like this in place would be helpful in redefining the way we take care of our health. The recent changes with Obama Care he points out aren't perfect but is a step in the right direction (--his complaint was that corporate America shaped it (this is Potter's opinion mind you I don't know that I agree with him on this point but it is food for thought).

I don't know that I agree with all of Potter's suggestions (for example I think that given our economy Obama Care should have been a lower priority--right in the middle of the worst economic downturn in ages-- and when it did become a priority it was so badly compromised that the changes--small as they were and some positive--are meaningless in the over all big picture)but I have to admire him for waking up from the money inspired opiate-like dream that has entranced everyone else in his former industry. I also feel that Potter would have done better to give us more in depth examples of why the system breaks down consistently but what we do get is pretty embarrassing.

Regardless of where you stand on healthcare-- if you believe or don't believe in universal healthcare--Potter's book is essential reading for understanding the flaws in our system and how corporate profit continues to dictate who gets coverage, who doesn't and why we are ranked so poorly compared to other nations when it comes to health care.

Recommended.

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Comment on Car insurance companies willingness to pay a claim? by Auto I

Auto I — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:30:28 +0000

It is great your company is paying your claim.

The best auto insurance is the one that fits what you are looking for.

I use this site to compare what’s available:

Auto Car Plus Insurance Transfer Site
http://www.acats.net

All the best,

Noel

Comment on Car insurance companies willingness to pay a claim? by mbrcatz17

mbrcatz17 — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:49:39 +0000

It’s going to vary. You can always check with your state insurance department’s website, to view online complaints about a particular insurance company.

Generally, the people who bypass an agent have more complaints than the people who have one, I’d imagine because one of two reasons: 1. they are confused about what coverage they have, or don’t understand their coverage, and it was never explained to them, or 2. there isn’t anyone to take their side when dealing with the insurance company.

I’ve had several clients leave me, go to Geico, have a claim, and ask me to work the claim with Geico for them. (no, sorry, you wanted to be your own agent, you have to work the claim).

Comment on Car insurance companies willingness to pay a claim? by newjerseyguy

newjerseyguy — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:36:50 +0000

Go to your local library and look at Consumer Reports magazine. They do periodic ratings of many things, including auto insurance.

Comment on Car insurance companies willingness to pay a claim? by Insurance

Insurance — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:29:40 +0000

one of the best way is to check is their balance sheet ( or P&L), Those insurers who are financially strong will have less issues or delay when it comes to claims.