Among all the hustle and bustle of the coming holiday season, this is the time of the year a great many companies will have open enrollment for their health care insurance plans. This is when employees can change or are forced to change the their health insurance. With health care costs going up and the amount of coverage going down, there may be some non-employer provided options that is better.

It was not to many years ago when my employer provided a family health care plan which included dental, and optical. The trade off was a deductible of only $10 per office visit, and only $5 per medication. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

Last year I took a quick look at Open Enrollment. A couple weeks back I did a look at Health Insurance Overview. Today, I would like us to look at other Health Insurance Options. We don’t have to be lock into just what our employer has to offer us. Some of these other options maybe give us better coverage at a equal to or better price.

We are starting a new year. For those who have health insurance through work, your allotments have been reset on January 1st. Some of are going to have to change doctors or dentist because of a move or the company you work for has changed insurance carriers.

I don’t know about you, when it comes to choosing a dentist it is more personal than choosing a doctor. A doctor usually stands a foot or more away then only examines me for a few minutes. A dentist is right on top of me the whole time sticking me with that big needle, prying my jaw open to the max, and grinding on my teeth. In my mind I hold that dentist to have a high level of skill and professionalism than the family doctor. Mostly because every time I go to the dentist I am going to feel PAIN. I do not like pain.

Yesterday, I was walking out of the local grocery store, the headline of the local newspaper jumped out at me. It read, “The Great Recession Is Over.” My first thought was that it was a cruel trick.

Then I started asking myself, “Is The Great Recession really over?” Jobs are still tight. Milk and other staples have gone up in the past month. Big box store are worried that this Christmas’ sale will be at record lows.

Friday the stock market dropped almost 250 in both the New York and Dow Jones stock exchanges. This is in spite of good financial news for the week.