Audit finds holes in government computer system that stores data on HealthCare.gov customers + MORE Sep 24th

OTTAWA – The period of time between graduating from school to landing a full-time job with benefits can stretch on for months or years for young Canadians, meaning they lack extended health and dental benefits since they’re too old to be covered by their parents’ plans.
And with the growing use of contract employees who don’t receive benefits, that means young Canadians must fend for themselves and buy their own supplemental health and dental insurance.
Provincial health insurance doesn’t cover everything. Whether it’s a prescription for penicillin, a crown that needs to be replaced or an ambulance ride to the hospital, if you don’t have insurance, you’ll end up paying out of pocket.
Loretta Kulchycki, vice-president of group marketing at Great-West Life, suggests consumers start their hunt for health and dental benefits by deciding how much coverage they’re going to need and researching their options online.
“If you are young, you will tend to be healthier, and in that case would probably have lower premiums than somebody who, say, is planning for a retiree product,” she said…

As thousands of new university students move on to campus, their parents are left to worry about all the things they’ve forgotten – like insurance coverage.
What happens, for instance, if something – fire, theft, illness, or an accident – goes wrong after school starts?
As long as your children are full-time students and expected to return home during the summer, their belongings are usually covered by your property insurance policy, assuming they live in residence.
However, there may be a limit on the coverage on property used by students while away at university.
Also read: The Ins and Outs of Insurance>
Existing Home Insurance May Not Be Sufficient
That cap may not be enough to cover valuable items that they might be taking with them like bikes, laptops or tablets, for example. In that case, you’d need to arrange for additional coverage for these items.
Most policies don’t cover anything that they buy for their room that they won’t be taking back home with them – furniture, for example…

Catastrophic benefits offer coverage for prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, home care and nursing services. Benefits commence only after the maximums for a given health insurance plan are reached, and coverage is designed to protect insured Canadians from a catastrophic financial situation due to illness or accident. Read on for more information.

WASHINGTON – The government stored sensitive personal information on millions of health insurance customers in a computer system with basic security flaws, according to an official audit that uncovered slipshod practices.
The Obama administration said it acted quickly to fix all the problems identified by the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office. But the episode raises questions about the government’s ability to protect a vast new database at a time when cyberattacks are becoming bolder.
Known as MIDAS, the $110-million system is the central electronic storehouse for information collected under President Barack Obama’s health care law.
It doesn’t handle medical records, but it does include names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, employment status and financial accounts of customers on HealthCare.gov and state insurance marketplaces.
“It sounds like a gold mine for ID thieves,” said Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group focused on technology…