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Following the news that Anthem Blue Cross of California intends to raise individual health insurance premiums by up to 39%, Democrats have leaned heavily on the giant among health insurance companies to justify such a radical price hike.

Thankfully for Californians, Anthem has agreed to postpone the premium hikes by two months while they prove that the higher prices are necessary.

According to Anthem they and various other health insurance companies are suffering from what the New York Times calls the health care "death spiral."

As more and more unemployed and struggling Californians are forced to drop health care, only the sickest are left making payments. This then costs health insurance companies more money, who respond by raising rates.

At some point, will no one have health insurance but Congress?

Currently health care legislation has been stalled in Congress while Republicans and Democrats duke it out. And, as they tarry over every little detail, more and more people find themselves at the mercy of an individual health insurance market that isn't invested in their well being.

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A couple of weeks ago President Obama challenged House Republicans that in regards to affordable health insurance legislation, if they had better ideas they should fess up.

In a piece on health care legislation at the Wall Street Journal a couple of them did.

Newt Gingrich and John C. Goodman's article on how to provide Americans with affordable health insurance offers a different spin on many of the ideas already addressed by Congress.

For example controlling health-care fraud, making medical breakthroughs accessible to patients, and better informing consumers about their care were all addressed in some way or another in the bill that has been stalled in Congress since January.

The GOP just sees different ways to get to the same goal.

While this kind of hair-splitting could just mean more arguing and less work getting done, it could also mean that some bipartisan work might actually get done.

And if Americans can finally benefit from affordable health insurance, in most cases few will worry about how it finally came to pass.

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The recent news that heart disease will kill 400,000 Americans this year has shocked the nation - and the news only gets worse when you take into account how much it will cost those who suffer from the disease in terms of health insurance coverage.

Of those 400,000 who will lose their lives, heart disease studies show that half of them could be prevented with healthier lifestyle decisions like eating healthier foods and not smoking.

But for all of them, the impact on their health insurance coverage is likely to be high.

Right now heart disease costs $475 billion a year in direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include the cost of physicians, hospitals and treatments. Indirect costs include the loss of productivity associated with illness.

Of course, the true cost in human terms of suffering and lost lives is incalculable.

Individuals who suffer from pre-existing heart disease likely find it near impossible right now to get affordable health insurance coverage - a sad fact when you consider that these are the people who need medical care the most.

And for those who do have coverage, the costs could be financially disastrous. There are millions of under-insured Americans out there who are one illness away from bankruptcy, and heart disease is the most common life-threatening illness to strike in the United States.

Those healthy lifestyle decisions are the best way to go to minimize the impact of heart disease on your body, your life, and your wallet.

But for those who are already suffering, we can only hope that soon it will be illegal to exclude them from health coverage due to a condition that endangers their life.