Health insurance is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You need determine the type of insurance coverage. What does the plan cover? Do you require specialized care or follow-up? Is this covered? Do you require rehabilitation therapy such as occupational therapy, physical therapy or other? The Plan Covers Your Prescriptions. Some plans do not cover certain medications. They may cover a medication that it designed to accomplish the same goal but is not exactly the same. Determine What Insurance Your Existing Health Care Professionals Accept. This may or may not be important to you. However, some insurance plans only allow you to see certain health care providers and visit certain clinics. Depending on the options, it may be more convenient to pay slightly more per month to be able to continue seeing your existing health care providers.

Obtain Multiple Quotes In Writing. Once you have determined what type of coverage you need, search for the best price and terms. Get the quotes in writing. This keeps you organized, keeps the insurance representative that provided the quote accountable and allows you to easily compare the different quotes. Research insurance companies and see how they rate amongst their counterparts. Do they have a high customer satisfaction rating? Do you know others that are already covered by this insurance provider? Read The Fine Print. Are there any hidden costs? For example, is there a hidden fee if you were to switch insurance providers? Have A Trusted Friend and/or Family Member Review The Options With You. It is beneficial to have another person review the details of the insurance plan. They may have some insight into the terms of the policy.

Senior safety is a big concern, especially in the home. Slip and fall accidents are one of the biggest problems in the home for senior citizens. However, there are a few relatively simple things you can do for senior safety to make the home less dangerous. Here they are:

1. Make sure the home is well lit. The brighter the lights the better. Walk thru the house at night and make sure there is adequate lighting when it is dark. In the middle of the night is when it can be especially treacherous for seniors walking about the house.

2. Inspect the house to make sure objects are picked up off the floor. Clutter on the floor can be a real problem. It is common for pets to leave toys lying all about on the floor. That can be very dangerous for the elderly as well.

3. Be sure there are no loose rugs on the floors. Throw rugs can present hazards to anyone who has mobility challenges. They need to be removed.

4. Install grab bars in bathrooms in all areas your senior may need to hold on to. Showers and tubs especially need to have grab bars.

5. Speaking of the bathroom, it is not a bad idea to get rid of bars of soap and substitute these for hand dispensers of soap. Bars of soap can be slippery and difficult to deal with and hard to pick up if dropped, leading to falls.

6. Consider bringing tools into the home that are designed for the elderly, like big button telephones, computer keyboards with large letters, clocks that announce the time audibly.

7. Installing a carbon monoxide alarm can be helpful. Every home should have a smoke detector, but make sure it works and that the batteries are current in case of a power failure.

8. If they live alone a medical emergency pendant can be extremely helpful. These are personal alarm systems that are worn around the neck. If they encounter a problem or fall, they just push a button on the pendant and automatically a call goes out for help.