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March Is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Every year, about 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and more than 50,000 people die from it. It affects both men and women and the risks increase with age. More than 90% of call cases occur in people 50 years of age and older.

According to the CDC, if everyone who is 50 years old or older were screened regularly, as many as 60% of deaths from this cancer could be avoided.

Learn more about Colorectal Cancer Screening, including free screenings for low-income individuals in 25 states.
Learn more about prevention, risk factors,a nd symptoms

Tomorrow is the Great American Smokeout Day. Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US, yet more than 46 million Americans still smoke.

In addition to the toll that smoking takes on health, there are financial costs to smoking, too. There's the cost of the cigarettes, of course - which adds up to serious money over a year or a few years. Smokers also pay more for life insurance. Plus, many employers are beginning to charge smokers higher rates for health insurance. Some employers have a smokers need not apply policy.

There are other, less obvious costs. Smoking is bad for your computers, it can hurt the resale value of your car, and it can cause serious damage to your home, even making it harder to sell.

If you are still smoking, why not try quitting - at least for one day? The American Cancer Society offers a Guide to Quitting Smoking. There are also several excellent free quitting help lines - call 1-800-QUITNOW.

How common is computer theft? The 8th Annual BSI Computer Theft Survey has an eye opening list about the real threat computer theft possesses. Here are some of the more compelling findings of the survey:

• There were over 5,500,000 computers stolen in the USA in the last three years. Worldwide statistics are proportionally similar.
• According to the FBI, only 3% of unprotected (those that do not use a software tracking and recovery software) stolen computers are ever recovered.
• More than half (58.7%) of the survey respondents have been the victim of computer theft in the last 12 months.
• Laptops comprised more than two thirds (68%) of those devices reported stolen, followed by desktop computers (10%) and PDAs, iPods, iPhones, etc. (22%).
• Ninety-seven percent of survey respondents that experienced computer theft report the thief was never caught.
• Forty-six percent of respondents report the estimated value of proprietary data on their stolen computing device at $25,000 or less; 46.5 % estimated the value at between @25,000 and $1,000,000. ; 6.5% estimated the value at $1,000.000 or more and 1% estimated the value at more than $10,000,000.

Don't let what happened to Francis happen to you, backup your data and make sure you are insured! Most homeowners and rental policies will cover a computer up to a certain amount - but if you have a very expensive computer or peripherals, or if your data is vital to your livelihood, you should talk over additional coverage options with your agent!

Many healthcare reform provisions are scheduled to kick in sometime in 2011 - some went into effect on January 1. Here are a few resources that outline changes scheduled to take effect in 2011 and what the changes mean to you and your family.

• HealthCare.gov: Provisions of the Affordable Care Act, by year
• Kaiser Family Foundation: Health Reform Implementation Timeline
• Wall Street Journal's Health Blog: The Health-Care Law Provisions Taking Effect in 2011
• Idaho Department of Insurance: Affordable Healthcare Act - What it Means for You in 2011

The Kaiser Family Foundation has produced an excellent single-source guide to Health Care Reform and health insurance reform. They've also produced a 9 minute animated video that summarizes and explains Health Reform in simple terms.

Tomorrow is the American Cancer Society's 35th Annual Great American Smokeout, a good day to quit smoking if you haven't already, or to support the smokers that you know in kicking their habit. Quitting smoking is not only a good decision with respect to your physical health, it can also be quite a boon to your financial health. Even beyond the cost of cigarettes themselves, smoking carries other high costs. Most life insurance, health insurance, homeowners insurance and even auto insurance policies carry higher premiums for smokers. It stands to reason: the price of insurance is based on the odds of having to make payment on a claim. Smokers are an overall riskier bet than nonsmokers. For life and heath insurance, the risks are obvious and well-documented: on average, smokers have significantly more health problems and die younger.

Property insurance is also more costly for smokers due to a higher risk of smoking-related accidents. Households with smokers have an increased risk of fires. According to the US Fire Administration, "... an estimated 9,000 smoking-related fires in residential buildings occur annually in the United States, resulting in an estimated average of 450 deaths, 1,025 injuries, and $303 million in property loss ...they are the leading cause of fire deaths, accounting for 17 percent of fire deaths in residential buildings." Smoking is also considered to be one of the major "distracted driving" culprits leading to an increase in auto accidents. And with any property, residual damage from smoke can decrease the property value and make resale more difficult. There may be other costs too: last year, it was revealed that Apple voided computer warranties due to second-hand smoke.

Save your health and save money in the process - that's a win-win all around!

Stop smoking resources
American Cancer Society: Great American Smokeout Guide to Quitting Smoking
American Cancer Society: Great American Smokeout Resources and Tools
American Cancer Society: Helping a smoker quite: do's and don'ts
American Lung Association - Help resources for quitting smoking
Centers for Disease Control: Smoking & tobacco tools and resources
Mayo Clinic 10 ways to help teens stay smoke-free
Teen's Health: How can I quit smoking?

Shopping for health insurance coverage now that health reform has passed? Buyer beware of health insurance scams. That's the message from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which is alerting consumers that scammers and shady operators have been surfacing since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (PPACA). Some insurance regulators on the state level are reporting that they are receiving complaints about scam artists going door-to-door or setting up toll-free phone lines to sell bogus “ObamaCare” insurance policies.

Here are some NAIC red flags to alert you to potential fraud:

• Time-limited offers or policies with limited enrollment periods. Reputable health insurance concerns will not ask you to make a quick decision!
• A claim that the coverage is required by law. There are no coverage requirements until 2014.
• The salesperson doesn’t explain the coverages included in the policy or does not provide a full list of the coverages.
• The salesperson claims the coverage will be "grandfathered" or exempted from changes required by the health care reform law. The only policies that would be "grandfathered" are those which were in already in force before the law was signed.

Your state insurance authority is your most important resource to check insurance company and insurance agency licensing information. If you have any suspicious sales calls - either by phone or in person - trust your instincts and take the time to check things out.

If you suspect fraud or have a complaint, NAIC offers a resource to file a report.

The election is only about a week away. To help you with your last minute decision making, we've compiled various comparison tools summarizing and contrasting the candidates' positions on health insurance and health care reform.

2008 Presidential Candidates Heath Care Proposals is a PDF side-by-side summary and comparison prepared by the Kaiser Family Foundation with the assistance of Health Policy Alternatives, Inc. and is based on information appearing on the candidates' websites as supplemented by information from candidate speeches, the campaign debates and news reports. The sources of information are identified for each candidate's summary (with links to the Internet).

Web MD's Stance at a Glance offers a comparison chart of the candidates and where they stand on key health issues.

Compare the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Health Care Plans - compiled by the The American Academy of Family Physicians

Election 2008: Health Care - compiled by the American Association of Health Care Journalists, based
on what candidates reveal in debates, speeches and statements. The tip sheet is updated with information on where candidates stand on access to health care and other issues, including stem cell research, abortion and more.

More resources
Election 2008 from The New England Journal of Medicine - various articles covering health care and health policy issues at stake in the 2008 U.S. presidential election
Mental Health: The Candidates & Party Platforms
Positions on Disability-related Issues
The Democratic Party Platform
The Republican Party Platform

Some people marry for love, some people marry for money, and some people marry for health insurance benefits. The New York Times reports on a Kaiser Foundation poll which found that seven percent of adults said someone in their household had married in the past year to gain access to health insurance. For many people, health insurance is available through their employers. If your employer does not make insurance available, talk to your independent agent about options before taking a trip down the aisle just to get insurance benefits.