Ameriplan Dental Blog

By S Porter

Healthcare in this country has hit a major roadblock, but most people don’t have any idea why or what caused the problem. The cost of a good health plan has gone through the roof in the last several years, and the reason is Medicare and Medicaid. These programs seem like a good idea because they provide healthcare for people who don’t have any way to pay for their own medical expenses. Someone has to pay for them so some of the money is taken through higher taxes on all of us, and the rest is added to your health insurance premiums. The government won’t pay hospitals and doctors their asking price, so the doctors have to charge private insurance programs higher prices.

The cost of healthcare is the real concern that Americans have about their health insurance plans. The more people that can’t pay for treatment; the higher the cost of health insurance becomes for those paying for it. As the cost goes up more people can’t afford it and have to get it for free, this causes the price for the payers to go up even more. Now the government is talking about healthcare reform, but their ideas will only make the problem much worse. A public health plan offered by the government will completely destroy our healthcare system and bankrupt our country at the same time.

The government’s idea to fix the problem is to offer their own health plan that essentially is more Medicare and Medicaid. We have to pay for it with our tax dollars and the private healthcare industry can’t compete with a plan that everyone is already paying for. In the future, private health insurance will rise in price to a level that will force everyone onto the government plan. Once that happens you no longer have a choice, a substandard health plan that you have to take that takes away all of your options and limits the amount of healthcare you can receive. They will argue that it won’t happen that way, but we have seen several other countries go through this process. When everyone goes to the doctor for every little reason because they don’t think they are paying for it, the national healthcare bill goes through the roof.

The bill for all this wonderful healthcare will end up costing us about 3 trillion dollars per year. That’s twice as much as our national budget for everything including defense. We can’t afford this no matter what our tax rates are, so the government will have to start limiting what people can get. The UK now has a government body that examines cases to decide if a person’s needed healthcare is worth the expense. Without the ability to make good money as a doctor, the number of people who want to be doctors goes way down. In Canada, there is a waiting list years long to receive life saving treatments because there just isn’t enough doctors to go around.

Healthcare needs to be fixed with free market solutions like Ameriplan and other discount health plans. Medicare and Medicaid need to be severely cut to drive prices down, so every American can afford to get a health plan. Once the government gets its fingers in the healthcare industry, it will be nearly impossible to get them back out. Our government is on an eternal quest to control our lives, and this would be a big step in the wrong direction. Their public health plan will only lead to the government telling us what healthy living is and forcing us to live by it. As Ronald Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

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By S Porter

The Obama administration is now pushing its cap and trade bill through congress. It sounds harmless enough, but the effects it will have on middle class Americans is staggering. There seems to be a never ending battle to take more and more of your money for all of the projects the current congress has slated, but this one will impact your wallet in a way most people never saw coming. Global warming, global cooling or climate change all mean the same thing; get ready to pay. Global temperatures have gone down for the last three years and most Americans no longer believe the hysteria, but that isn’t going to stop the government from implementing sweeping reforms that put you on the hook.

Cap and trade essentially puts a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide that any company can produce. The problem is that the biggest offenders are power generation facilities that we all get our energy from. They well exceed the limits that congress would like for them to stay under, so they will need to pay a hefty tax for everything they produce beyond the cap. I’m sure this sounds like a great idea to the extreme environmentalists out there, but power companies aren’t just going to pay the tab. In order to remain profitable, they will need to pass that expense on to their customers and we will end up paying for their extra taxes.

We the people don’t have a choice in what company produces the energy that we use in our homes, so this new tax will hit us square in the face. It’s still far too expensive to convert everything we use to renewable energy, so the power bill will go up considerably. The standard rate for electricity and natural gas is expected to double in the next couple of years, and it will come strait from us to the power company, then to the government. Everything we use and buy in the United States is produced using power and shipped around using power, so the cost of everything else will rise along with it. The government knows this is going to happen and they say it’s acceptable because it will FORCE us to use less, but should the government really be telling US what to do?

For years the hype over global warming has had major repercussions in our way of thinking. A recent poll showed that three out of five children now believe the world will no longer exist when they grow up. Scientists have told us that major sea level rise and melting polar ice caps would devastate our shore lines and make the earth unlivable, but then the earth began cooling again and nothing happened. Obviously we don’t know as much about how these things work as we would like to think we do, but the government is going to bankrupt us based on a guess. Over the last several thousand years, there have been times when the world was MUCH hotter and much cooler; but here we all are thinking the end is next week.

The government, the people and companies are all out of money, but we keep getting squeezed for more. Healthcare reform will bankrupt us because the government won’t use free market solutions like Ameriplan. Social security will bankrupt us because the government won’t make tough decisions. Inflation will kill us because the government just keeps borrowing more money, and now cap and trade has come along to put the final nail in our coffin. At some point the people of this country are going to have to stand up and say enough is enough; we tell you what to do and how much to spend, not the other way around!

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By S Porter

Social security in the United States began in 1935 with the social security act signed by President Roosevelt. The idea was a noble one, and the elderly applauded the idea of economic security after their working years were finished. Over the years many changes have been made to social security, but the idea of taking care of the older portion of the population has stayed the same. The funds set aside for retirement have been shifted around and used for different things over the years, but the government has always tried to have reserves in place to continue to take care of retirees regardless of what happens with the economy. Today we are at a crossroads with the program that may lead to its demise if we don’t do something immediately.

There are opposing views to the need for social security that are as old as the program is. One side of the debate claims that the needs of the elderly cannot be ignored, but the other side sees the program as a move toward socialism. Capitalists claim that social security is a program provided by a government that doesn’t believe its people can take care of themselves. That the government takes a portion a person’s wages against their will, only to return it years later because the person is too irresponsible to save the money themselves. If wage earners were to take the same amount of money from their own paychecks and put it in a savings account, or invest it; the return at retirement would be almost twice as much as the government gives them for social security.

Today, the program is bankrupting the country. Years ago the government began using the funds collected for social security for other things and now relies heavily on the working population to pay for the needs of retired Americans. The pay as you go system seemed to work for a long time and freed up funds for the government to do other things, but the lack of future planning has now put the program in serious jeopardy. The baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age; which means there will be more retirees and a smaller work force to support them. New projections show that social security will pay more out than it brings in by 2017.

Medicare is facing similar problems, but it is much further along. The government already pays out more than it brings in and estimations show that the country will not be able to afford it at all by 2020. Ameriplan offers an alternative to government healthcare at an affordable price, but there isn’t an alternative to social security besides people saving for retirement on their own. Environmental initiatives and other entitlement programs threaten to bring bankruptcy ever closer, and the economic downturn is speeding the process up.

The government is considering many solutions to the problem, but no one solution will make everyone happy. Raising the retirement age from 65 to 72, or lowering the amount of benefit checks are both being considered. Either way, we can’t continue on the path we are on for much longer without risking the complete collapse of the social security program. People in younger generations are already being taught that their retirement security is in their own hands and many have begun saving on their own. No one wants to see the elderly lose the support they need to live out their golden years, but we would all be better off if we just accept that we can’t rely on the government forever.

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By S Porter

For the last several years, the photography industry has been in a very steady decline. There are many different factors that have caused this, but the bottom line is the same; thousands of businesses have gone under. The very idea of starting a photography studio that does weddings and senior pictures is a little crazy right now. The market works in cycles and eventually there will be a demand for these services again, but when? Until then, most people who want their wedding photographed by a professional have two choices; have Uncle Fred do it or pay thousands of dollars for someone who fancies themselves an artist.

Six years ago, digital cameras really moved into the mainstream and people began to ask their family members and friends to photograph their weddings. With film leaving and being replaced by memory sticks, most people really thought that they could do it on their own and save some money. After all, can’t you move people where you want them and hit a button? If you don’t like the picture you’ve taken, you can always just delete it and take another without losing a frame like you did with film. The simple fact is, you can hand a chisel and hammer to anyone and teach them how to use them, but that doesn’t make them a sculptor.

Cameras are everywhere now; in our phones, hovering over every street intersection, on the dashboard of every police car and inside every public building. The fact that they are so common now has had a very interesting effect on the photography industry. Years ago when it started, people thought they could take their own photographs because they could afford a good camera like the professionals. Time has passed and like the hammer and chisel, people have begun to realize that they are not photographers; they are just people with cameras. The traditional photographer is now making a comeback because we’ve all seen how bad our own pictures are, and we don’t want our wedding pictures to look like that.

The recent economic downturn has changed all of our lives dramatically in a short period of time. During this part of the economic cycle, people stop valuing money as much and reconnect with the important things in life; family, friends and memories. When the economy is down, weddings and childbirths go up. This has created resurgence in the photography industry as people are looking for a professional who doesn’t charge a months salary. There aren’t very many of these professionals around anymore, but supply and demand dictates that this hole will be filled as more people need it.

If you are looking to get married or just need to have some pictures taken of your family, don’t make the same old mistakes. Hire a professional and preserve your memories the way they were meant to be, by someone who knows what they are doing. “I have seen a huge slow down in business, but it seems to be building up again”, says Harold Porter, a Colorado wedding photographer. Weddings are on the rise and wedding photographers are going up with them, but a complete recovery may be years away. The people who love to take pictures and are good at it today may be photographing your wedding a few years from now!

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By S Porter

Most people don’t think about inflation and don’t have any idea how it affects our lives, but the implications are very real. Inflation is the process by which all the goods and services that we purchase become higher in price. If inflation goes up at a faster rate than wages, more money is leaving your wallet to buy all the things you need than your income can keep up with. There are three reasons why inflation goes up and we usually have only one of them at a time, but right now there is a perfect storm brewing that may seriously hurt us all. Knowing what causes inflation and what to expect can help us prepare for the inevitable.

The first reason for inflation is debt. When the United States needs to borrow money from another country like China, the value of our dollar goes down compared to their currency. We buy many things from China and lots of the things we make and use are built with Chinese parts. If the dollar is worth less in China, then all the things we buy from them go up in price and all of the things we make with Chinese parts go up in price as well. We have been borrowing money from China for many years, but right now we are about to borrow huge amounts of money all at once.

The second reason for inflation is printing more money. It is the most dangerous and it is the next step in paying for our huge government spending spree. Many people think that if the government needs more money they can just print it, but this is a huge mistake and only used as a last resort. The country’s total production has a particular value and it is divided up amongst all the currency that is in circulation. When you print more money, you don’t have more money; you have the same value divided up amongst more currency so it all goes down in value. This makes the cost of everything go up even though your wages aren’t, and when we print more money the cost goes up almost instantly.

The third reason for inflation is the most common and happens on a regular basis when the economy is recovering and going up. When the economy is going down or crashes like it did recently, manufacturers quickly cut production to meet the lower demand. As the economy recovers, people have more money to spend; but there aren’t enough products to meet the demand. This makes the value of those products go up because they are more valuable. If you want to buy a new car, and so does everyone else, the value of the car goes up because they aren’t making enough cars to meet the new needs. We usually keep this kind of inflation in check by raising the interest rate to borrow money; this slows people’s spending down and the rate of inflation slows down as well.

Rather than pushing free market solutions to healthcare like Ameriplan and other discount plans, or providing lower taxes so people can purchase their own health plans; the government has elected to spend more money on healthcare reform. Other entitlement programs and massive bailouts for failed companies have caused the government to spend almost twice as much as it brings in. China will lend us huge sums of money, but it isn’t enough so we will need to print a lot of money as well. At the same time, banks are being encouraged to lend us more money at very low interest rates. All three inflation causes are being exploited at the same time and the perfect storm is coming. Over the next few years the cost of everything you buy from gasoline to groceries will rise in value very quickly but your wages will not… if you aren’t already a victim of unemployment because of an unfriendly business environment due to rising taxes needed to pay for all of this. Plan ahead and don’t get caught unaware of what’s on the horizon! Our children and grandchildren will be feeling the effects of this for years to come.

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By S Porter

When most people think of chiropractic they think strictly of back and spine problems, but the truth is most problems with pain are associated with the alignment of your entire skeletal system. A pain in your foot can be caused by misalignment in the spine, and a pain in your neck can be caused by a problem in your lower back. An injury involving a muscle anywhere in your body will display itself with pain in the entire surrounding region. A bone injury will have similar consequences, but you may feel the pain in a completely different area of the body. Injury can also happen slowly over the course of time, instead of all at once like most people are used to.

Chiropractic has been around for a very long time in one form or another, but the chiropractic profession as we know it hasn’t been around for very long. We have always known that the back and spine is the core of our ability to move and bend, but we are only now learning that pain all over the body can be affected by every other muscle and bone in the body. Chiropractic is not a quick fix though, it can take several sessions and many weeks to fix a problem that’s been brewing for a long time. Hunching over a computer all day for years or driving a truck while spending the majority of your time in the cab will slowly change your body to fit that form. You may not even realize it’s happening until one day you notice that your range of motion has become limited.

Depending on the doctor you see, a different treatment will be recommended. A physician will prescribe drugs, a surgeon will cut you open and a therapist will want you talk about your mother, all for the same problem. If you know that your injury is a muscle or bone problem, then a chiropractor is just what you need. For a problem you can’t identify see your doctor first, and then go to a chiropractor if the problem is related. Your chiropractic professional will want to see you more than once, depending on your problem it may be many visits. You may find that a chiropractor can fix problems you didn’t know you had and will make you feel better than you have in years.

Alternative medicine is treatment that isn’t completely accepted by the medical community and chiropractic falls under that heading. It has become much more main-stream over the last decade, but if you ask ten doctors their opinion of chiropractic you will get ten different answers. Everyone agrees that there are benefits to using a chiropractor, but the extent of the benefit is what is debatable. Because this type of treatment is still in limbo, regular health insurance is reluctant to allow people to use it at their discretion. Ameriplan chiropractic or a payment arrangement with your chiropractor will allow you to get your treatment after health insurance has stopped paying for it.

As time moves on, chiropractic will become more part of everyone’s life and less a part of alternative medicine. If you have never seen a chiropractor before, you may find that seeing one is far less intimidating than going to a doctor or hospital. Chiropractors are friendly individuals that can help fix you up and you will enjoy your appointments with them. A very good friend of mine is a Denver chiropractor and I have always appreciated his views on healthcare. Now that I am familiar with chiropractic care, I can’t see a healthcare system without it!

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By Frank Menkal

How important is our dental care anyways? Well for starters if you smoke or chew tobacco, you have a greater risk for gum disease and oral cancer. Men are affected twice as often as women, and 90 percent of oral cancers occur in those over 45 years of age. Studies have also shown that diabetics are more susceptible to the development of oral infections and periodontal disease than those who do not have diabetes. To prevent problems with bacterial infections in the mouth, your dentist may prescribe antibiotics, medicated mouth rinses, and more frequent cleanings.

What are my options when it comes to dental plans? Well let me tell you, typically when it comes to dental coverage, most would take care of their dental needs through there job or even from an insurance provider, for a small monthly fee of course. But these days, that is far to impractical, with the development of great discount plans now widely available, one could save “Hugely” with this type of plan!

Here are some examples of your typical dental insurance plan vs. your dental discount plan and the kind of money a family could be saving. First of all, when it comes to your dental insurance offered through your employer, the monthly fees are much smaller when your not buying the converge on your own. . This is due to the fact that your employer pays most of the monthly cost passing the savings on to you! What you don’t realize is that in the end, the typical family pays more on a yearly basis.

Let me tell you that most families only go to the dentist when they need to. If your only going to the dentist when your teeth are in trouble, instead of getting your regular check up’s and teeth cleanings twice a year, those monthly fee’s add up to quite a bit when your looking at it on a yearly basis. When members of your family do make it to the dentist, they come to find out that not all procedure are covered and the paper work may get out of hand! In the end the insurance company wins making your family the losers (I’m just telling it how it is folks):

Now when it comes to picking a great discount plan, there are many options out there. Among these plans, I found that after doing some digging, that Ameriplan offers a plan that one would need in order to save more on a yearly basis On top of their discount dental program, you would automatically receive discount vision, discount prescription and discount chiropractic. To give you an idea on how your family would save more money with this type of dental program, all you need to understand are the basics about how it works.

First of all, anyone can sign up for this dental program and the monthly costs are fifteen dollars for and individual and twenty dollars for an entire house hold. Secondly, when you do decided to make an appointment for that mean tooth of yours, you get the discounted rate at the time of the appointment. Meaning, no wasted high monthly insurance cost when your family is not using the plan. I also found that when you do pay for all your treatments, most if not all are discounted up to eighty percent, “Wow”! If you ask me, this plan is worth looking into.

Other Facts that you might have not heard until now! 50% consider the smile the first facial feature they notice, and 80% are not happy with their smile! Maybe if you had the right motivation with the right dental program, your family would not just be another average statistic. Smokers remain three times more likely than non-smokers to lose all their teeth. This figure has not changed from a decade ago. “Yikes” if you smoke, one should consider the future and how not taking care of your teeth could really affect you later in life!

If you are a person that is concerned about not being a part of that 80% of people that are not happy with their smiles, I would highly recommend getting enrolled in a discount dental plan like Ameriplan. For only a small fee a month you can be on your way to a healthier smile without having to pay and arm and a leg for it! Dental care can get expensive but thanks to companies like this we now have an outlet to save money on our smiles!

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By Frank Menkal

How does paying a little over eight hundred dollars a month as a retiree for your healthcare sound? If you have a mind set that is anything like mine, then you are not looking forward to retiring… at least when it comes to your healthcare and what your family will have to pay for it! Far too many people these days suffer when it comes to paying there monthly health insurance bill.

Over the past several years the healthcare world as we know it has drastically changed for the worst. The cost to just live a healthy life has dramatically increased in price. So to make up for the lack of good and cheap health care, several companies have stepped up to take on that responsibility. One of the companies to make its mark is now taking the lead in the discount healthcare industry. Ameriplan started 16 years ago as a small company that offered discount dental to small businesses. Now 16 years later, the company has grown significantly and offers not only discount dental, vision, chiropractic, and prescription coverage, but also a discount health program. Over the last few years the company has revamped its health care network by adding proprietary doctors nationwide.

Due to the innumerable amounts of individuals that are now using Medicare and Medicaid, our healthcare costs have exploded beyond our control. The more the government has their hands in our healthcare the more doctors have to charge patients for their services. These government funded programs are supposed to help those in need and eliminate the high medical costs that come with age and low income. Due to the easy access and availability of these government funded programs, our society has become more dependent on them. In response to this dependency on Medicare and Medicaid, the cost for good health care continues to climb.

We as a nation need to turn from this destructive path by not depending on the government to provide healthcare, but instead to depend on our hard work and determination to provide care for our families. With this kind of mindset we as a country can drive down healthcare costs by eliminating the need for the government to provide healthcare for our families. Thus, saving us all money in the long run and leading us back to affordable health care again.

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By S Porter

All Pro Portrait Studios is announcing the release of copyrighted material to its customers. This will allow all wedding photography customers to reproduce their wedding pictures at will for anyone they want. In the past, customers needed to purchase all pictures from the photographer because the photographer owned the copyright.

Customers will now receive a CD or DVD with all the photography taken at their wedding. These pictures are copyright free and can be emailed to family members or taken to any photo shop for printing.

There are many Colorado wedding photographers in the market, and holding the rights to the pictures they take has always been the norm. Owing the rights to their work protects them from people taking their pictures to another studio and not paying the original photographer for his or her work.

All Pro Portrait Studios now offers several price packages that include a set amount of time at the wedding and reception, along with a particular amount of sized and printed pictures. When the pictures are delivered, a CD or DVD with all of the retouched pictures on it will be included with no additional obligation to the photographer.

“People have always wanted to own the rights to their wedding pictures and it’s always been a point of contention between artist and customer. With digital pictures it only seems right to allow people to share them with family members”, says Harold Porter, a Denver wedding photographer.

All Pro Portrait Studios has been operating in the Denver Colorado area for more than 27 years. Offering competitive prices and the highest quality photos have always been the cause for their success, but digital pictures have changed the entire photography industry and left many studios looking for ways to stay in business.

Wedding packages begin at $599 and go up to $1499, with an engagement session costing only $50. All packages include an album full of pictures and the CD with all of the originals. The wedding will be photographed by a seasoned professional with years of experience in the field.

The future of photography is in digital images that can be shared with family and friends all over the world in seconds. Film cameras and copyrights may disappear in the near future, but there will always be a need for a professional to capture the moment the way it should be remembered.

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By S Porter

Ameriplan is announcing the launch of its new basic wellness program that will replace basic health. Basic wellness is a package of benefits meant to fill in the gaps left by limited health insurance plans offered by employers. Vision, Prescription and other benefits that have been cut by these insurance plans are included in the package.

As health insurance has become increasingly expensive, more and more employers have decided to cut back on the level of benefits they offer their employees. Higher deductibles, limited visits and decreased services are all being used to cut costs. Many people are now left without these benefits and are forced to pay full price out of pocket when they need them.

Supplemental benefits are easy to ignore when you aren’t using them. Vision and prescription are often overlooked until they are needed, but by then it’s too late. Hearing services and Nurse line are also part of the package.

Everyone needs to take care of their eyesight, and prescription medications are inevitable at some point to heal an ailment or help lower cholesterol. Good hearing is just as important and nurse line can help give you advice about when a trip to the doctor is in order. We all need these services occasionally, but without these benefits the cost can become very high.

“I have insurance from my employer, but it’s a very limited health plan that doesn’t include any extras. Getting a discount on these services would be very helpful to keep my cost out of pocket as low as possible”, says Tom Nordquist, a part time employee.

Ameriplan insurance is a 17 year old company that offers discount fee for service programs at a low cost to its members. 2 million members nationwide and over half a million providers are all part of the Ameriplan network. Health, Dental, Vision, Prescription, Chiropractic and other programs are also available.

Basic wellness includes vision, prescription, hearing services and nurse line. The cost of the program is $14.95 per month and includes every person who lives in your household, even if they are not family members. This program has replaced basic health which is now being phased out of Ameriplan permanently.

Soon Ameriplan USA will launch Secure Net, a package of benefits that include many services often overlooked in our lives. Identity theft assistance, Auto club and other benefits are badly needed by all of us, but we rarely consider them until someone has already stolen our credit card or we are broken down on the side of the road.

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