Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A Soup to Nuts Carnival - First Course



Health Plans Plus is delighted to be hosting the First Course of the Second "A Soup to Nuts Carnival." I know that you will enjoy reading these well written and informative blog posts on a variety of topics as much as I did.

The idea of a carnival is basically to bring a number of blogs together in one place so they can all benefit from a promotional effort. There is no better way to connect with other blogospherians than to do blog carnivals.


SOUP TO NUTS is the only progressive dinner carnival in the blogosphere. One carnival, presented in five parts.



We're proud to have collected a large number of great posts from a wide variety of blogospherians. Blogs from around the globe are represented, the new and the well established. We ask that you visit all five courses of the dinner; some blogs have posts in more than one course, others appear only once.



You can benefit from visiting the carnival by checking out the blogs represented and writing comments. That will lead to you getting new visitors, to increasing your traffic, to receiving more comments and to having invitations to exchange links.

Once you've finished enjoying the First Course here, the dinner continues at the following locations...





If you missed any of the previous courses, check them out here...





The Soup to Nuts First Course


Diet, Health, Nutrition


Lane presents Vegan Cream of Asparagus Soup posted at Vegan Bits.

Suzanne presents pumpkin soup posted at :: adventures in daily living ::.

AlexBo presents Tips for Healthy Eating posted at World Dental Health.

Helene Zemel presents Discount Dental and Health Plans - A Free Gift for You posted at Health Plans Plus, saying, "If you are uninsured or underinsured, AmeriPlan's discount dental and health plans can help you save money on your healthcare. Now you can receive a free gift when you sign up for one of our benefit plans."

James D. Brausch presents Is Your Keyboard Making You Fat? posted at Weight Loss Dude.

James Brausch presents Costa Rican Food posted at Costa Rica HQ.

Jose DeJesus MD presents Discouraging Frivolous Malpractice Lawsuits posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

Nunoftheabove presents There is no bigotry in numbers: the truth about AIDS research « Nunoftheabove posted at Nunoftheabove. Examination of the research dollars spent on aids versus other diseases that claim more fatalities per year.


Education

TheReadingZone presents Environmental Issues in the Classroom posted at The Reading Zone. Ideas for Earth Day in the classroom.

Christine presents The French School System and Sex Education posted at Me, My Kid and Life.

Sophie presents The French School System posted at Life Junkie.


Personal Growth

Alex Blackwell presents How Much is Too Much? posted at The Next 45 Years.

Alex Landis presents Dealing With The Negative People In Your Life posted at AlexLandis.com. Alex discusses how to deal with the negative people in your life by understanding where their pessimism comes from and by providing tips to handle that negativity.

Lin Burress presents Are You An Enabler? Identifying Early Warning Signs of Enabling Behaviors posted at Telling It Like It Is.

Elizabeth presents Small steps that ignite the flame of passion! posted at The best is yet to come! A blog where dreams give way 2 passion & success leads 2 destiny!. This blog discusses the steps that you need to have success when going after your dreams with passion!

Abutei presents What's In Your Head posted at How to Abutei.

Gregg Fraley presents Personal Innovation posted at Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook.
Rich Vosler presents Don't let your struggles defeat you posted at Rich Vosler Sales Training.

Business & Finance

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Stop Thinking. Begin Testing! posted at Rebecca Dean.

Blue presents Credit Cards That Offer Gas Rewards and Cash Back posted at Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog.

Thomas D. Brownsword presents Work: A Mixed Blessing posted at Business Action Steps.

Rena Williams presents The Vehicle To A Successful Retirement posted at Your Success Corner.

Brice Hogan presents The Way to Financial Independence Financialzip.com posted at Financialzip.com. Create a sound plan to create financial independence.

Rena Williams presents Applied Knowledge posted at Balanced Success.


Faith


Tarakananda presents What Did Jesus Really Say in the Sermon on the Mount? posted at The Atma Jyoti Blog. In this, the first of a special eight part series, "A New Look at the Beatitudes", we will be using "The New Testament: An Expanded Translation", by Kenneth Wuest since it presents the more philosophical side of Jesus words. To do this, it is extremely literal, sometimes so much so that the English is awkward, but it extracts the full meaning of the Greek wording. The esoteric understanding, of course, will be up to us.

Jeffrey Stingerstein presents The False Position of Agnosticism posted at Disillusioned Words.

Fiction

fire_fly presents Memoirs from the Flophouse posted at Life of Jeremy. Funny stories from working at a Waikiki hotel!

babs mountjoy presents Shootout at the Mango Corral, Part I posted at Awalkabout's Weblog. The first of two parts of a very scary true story about living in South Florida.


Jason Isbell presents I Am... [Poem] Tired Garden posted at Tired Garden.


This concludes the First Course of the Soup to Nuts Carnival. Thanks for stopping by Health Plans Plus.


Sunday, April 20, 2008

Stop Smoking in 5 Days with Smoker's Last Chance Home Work Shop



What is the Smoker's Last Chance Home Workshop?

The Smoker’s Last Chance Workshop is a 5-day computer and audio program which uses a combination of education, behavior modification, and self-hypnosis to help you stop smoking. On completion of the program, you will no longer be a smoker. Each day you will smoke less than the day before. On the 5th day, you will not smoke at all. With the help of the Smoker's Last Chance Home Workshop CD-ROM and the hypnosis CD’s, scores of people have already done it.


So important are the health benefits of smoking cessation, that AmeriPlan® is offering a 40% discount for all AmeriPlan Health® members who join the Smokers Last Chance Workshop. AmeriPlan™ members pay just $83.40 for the full program—a 40% discount off the regular price of $139.

Just sign up for any of the following AmeriPlan Health programs:


Basic Health - $29.95 per month for an entire household. Includes savings on physician visits, ancillary services, hospital advocacy and a 24/7 nurseline to answer any medical questions that you may have. This plan also provides savings on diabetic supplies, hearing aids, mental health services, lab services, imaging studies, physical therapy and health screening.


Total Health - $39.95 per household per month. This combines all of the services in the Dental Plus and Basic Health programs. The plan includes Dental, Vision, Prescription, Chiropractic, Physician visits, Labratory tests, Imaging Studies, Ancillary Services, Hospital Advocacy, 24/7 nurseline, and additional services.


Total Health Plus- $59.95 a month per household. This is the complete package. This includes everything in the Total Health package plus the AmeriPlan Auto Club, AmeriPlan Identity Theft Assistance, and AmeriPlan Legal.

Reasons to stop smoking

According to the CDC Smoking and Tobacco Use Fact Sheet, “Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body; causing many diseases and reducing the health of smokers in general. The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 438,000 deaths, or nearly 1 of every 5 deaths, each year in the United States.”


Everyone knows that tobacco use is one of the chief causes of lung cancer, but smoking has also been linked to other forms of cancer as well. According to the CDC, smoking has been implicated as a cause of cancer of the bladder, oral cavity, throat and larynx (voice box), esophagus, cervix, kidney, lung, pancreas, and stomach, as well as a possible cause acute myeloid leukemia.
Smokers are 2 – 4 times likely to develop heart and artery disease than nonsmokers, and the risk of stroke is doubled in the smoker. It is known that smoking has a direct effect on the blood vessels and is a major cause of peripheral vascular disease.


It is well known that smoking is a direct cause of emphysema and chronic obstructive lung disease. According to the CDC, 90% of all deaths attributed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are caused by cigarette smoking.


Pregnant women who smoke run the risk of low birth weight babies, preterm delivery, and stillbirth. Postmenopausal women who are smokers have an increased chance of developing osteoporosis and associated hip fracture.


Smoking also causes cosmetic problems such as nicotine stains on the teeth, bad breath, and odor on clothing. Consider the social issues of smoking such as complaints from non-smoker family, friends or co-workers.


There are so many reasons to quit smoking today. However, smoking can be one of the most difficult habits to break. That is why the educational, behavior modification, and self hypnosis approach of the Smoker's Last Chance Home Workshop is so effective.





Monday, April 7, 2008

Discount Dental and Health Plans - A Free Gift for You




Dear Health Plans Plus Readers

As a reader of this blog, you know that I have commented many times on the health crisis in the United States. There are well over 47 million Americans without any health insurance, and 8 out of 10 Americans do not have a dental plan.

There are many reasons for this situation. These include:





  • The cost of dental and medical insurance has skyrocketed in recent years to the point where the average American can no longer afford it.


  • The cost of healthcare has risen steeply. An extended hospital stay without insurance can put you in debt for well over $100,000. Prescriptions for newer drugs can cost patients hundreds of dollars forcing many people to cut their pills in half or make that choice between buying groceries or being able to afford their medications.


  • More and more companies are either eliminating their health benefit programs or asking their employees to contribute a much larger and sometimes unaffordable share of the cost of these important benefits.


  • If you work for yourself or your company does not have health insurance, a plan of your own will be very costly and probably unaffordable.


  • If you have a pre-existing condition, you will probably not qualify for health insurance even if you can afford it because the insurance companies are only out to make a profit and not to help people afford healthcare.


As a reader of this blog, you know that I have recommended discount health plans as one solution that individuals and families can take to provide their loved ones with valuable health benefits. I have been an Independent Business Owner for AmeriPlan for 2 years, and based on my experience, I feel confident in recommending the AmeriPlan Discount Programs.

AmeriPlan has been in business for 16 years and is a member in good standing of the Consumer Health Alliance, the National Association of Dental Plans, National Association of Health Underwriters, the Direct Selling Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Companies like CVS, Walgreens, LensCrafters, J C Penney, Sears, and Rite-Aid, provide our optical and prescription benefits. We also have extensive networks of doctors, dentists, chiropractors, as well as other health providers. The qualifications of these providers are checked out thoroughly by AmeriPlan and are likely to be familiar names in the community. Our entire dental network was built on patient referrals.


A Free Gift for You for Trying Our Benefits

How would you like to try out our benefit plans and receive a free gift for signing up to any one of our benefit programs? You have a choice of 2 free gifts. Here are the details:

A FLY AWAY VACATION FOR 2!

You and a guest will enjoy 3 days and 2 nights hotel accommodations PLUS 2 round trip airline tickets to your choice of one of these destinations:

* Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Reno, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun
OR
Shop and Get Cash Back at your favorite store!
A FREE Membership to a Comprehensive Online Shopping Mall with more than 700 retail merchants.

* You can choose from your favorites like Petco, Office Max, Macy's, Nordstrom, Target, Walmart, Lowes, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples and hundreds more. Shop till your heart's content, find the product that you want at the best price available and when you decide to make the purchase you will get the best online pricing AND you will earn a cash back rebate check. These cash back rebates will be sent to you when you have accumulated $25.00, or more in rebates.

Discount health plans can provide individuals and families with a low cost and effective alternative to expensive medical and dental insurance coverage. At AmeriPlan, we have 4 great affordable plans to choose from. Prices range from $19.95 to $59.95 per month and cover an entire household. These plans include:


  1. Dental Plus – Save up to 80% on all dental services. Includes discounts on prescriptions, vision care, and chiropractic treatment. Savings are available on cosmetic dentistry, dental implants, orthodontia, and lasik eye surgery. This plan can literally cut your dental bill in half.

  2. Basic Health – Discounts on doctor visits, lab tests, hospital advocacy, hearing aids, diabetic supplies, a 24 hour Nurseline, and much more.

  3. Total Health – Includes everything in both the Dental Plus and Basic Health programs including hospital advocacy.

  4. Total Health Plus – This is our complete package. It includes everything in both the Dental Plus and Basic Health programs plus the AmeriPlan Auto Club, the AmeriPlan Identity Theft Assistance program, and AmeriPlan Legal Services.


Should you become hospitalized, AmeriPlan’s hospital advocacy plan will send a professional advocate who will negotiate your bill with the hospital and work out a payment plan for the balance based on your ability to pay. This allows the patient to avoid bankruptcy proceedings which is the last thing that you need when recovering from a serious illness. We have testimonials on dramatic reductions in hospital bills. In addition, we have a prescription advocacy program which allows income eligible patients, who cannot afford their medications, to receive their prescriptions for free.

For more information on our discount benefits call 1-888-357-1768 or visit:
www.healthplansplus.net.