Study: Even Small Copayments Deter Preventative Health Care

Even small copay deters mammogram use, study says:

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) - Requiring even a small co-payment dramatically reduces the likelihood that women will get regular mammograms to detect breast cancer, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Screening rates from 2001 through 2004 were nearly 11 percent lower for women who had to contribute a co-pay as low as $12, compared to women whose mammograms were free, researchers from Brown and Harvard universities found.... even though nearly all women know the value of mammograms...

Reuters, January 23, 2008

Money Quotes: Jim Cramer

People always say money can't buy happiness, but I've never found that argument compelling. Money can buy peace of mind; it can take care of you and your loved ones, and to a certain extent money means freedom.

Financial guru Jim Cramer, Stay Mad for Life (2007), p. 17.

Inheritance Humor

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit 20 million dollars."

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.

- Source unknown