(PRWEB) August 27, 2008 -- New Zealanders are getting duped. Public waiting lists are getting longer and health insurance premiums are on the rise. Where does this leave the consumer? Kiwis can\'t afford to ignore their health needs any longer as the government cuts back even more on public health care. Your life may be at stake and now is the time to think about your health before you get landed with a large medical bill or worse yet a condition that could affect your future livelihood.


Affordable Health Insurance
So how does the average New Zealand protect their future health needs while avoiding escalating health premiums? According to Affordable Health managing director, Peter Maynard, consumers want rock bottom health premiums with adequate cover and an easier claims service - all from the comfort of their armchair.

\"Clients come to us for quick and fair health and life insurance cover. To make the process easy and hassle free, we wanted to provide quotes online for ease of use as well as offering the very best deal for consumers.\"

Affordable Health & Life Ltd has been involved in health, life and medical insurance in New Zealand for approximately 10 years and during this time we have seen what makes a good health and life insurance policy and more importantly what makes an inferior product.

Your health insurance in New Zealand needs to cover all recommended treatments whether surgical or non surgical. It should have a no limit cover to listed procedures or set payouts per procedure and the terms and conditions of your policy should be guaranteed for the life of your policy.

\"A good health insurance policy will offer you the best cover available at an unbeatable price. It is important to be aware of what your policy covers and at Affordable Health and Life we can guarantee you great cover at a great price and no surprises at claim time.\"

We are aware that claims can be a very stressful time for clients. A good policy will cover you for all unexpected expenses and your claim should be processed in a fast and effective manner to minimize stress and expense for the client.

Affordable Health Insurance makes every effort to ensure that clients are handled in this timely manner. Unfortunately with health insurance there is a high probability that you may need to claim one day and it is nice to know that your broker will be there to help you every step of the way. Our motto is \"it is better to have health insurance and never use it than to not have health insurance and need it!\"

The aim of Affordable Health and Life\'s new website, therefore, is to provide consumers with the best price while not compromising on quality of insurance cover. We have therefore made every effort to keep premium prices down so you, the consumer, may benefit.

Please take a look around our new website today on www.affordablehealth.co.nz. You may be surprised with its ease of use and the quote supplied may be well within your budget.

Barack Obama is tonight expected to challenge voters to find the courage needed to restore America\'s promise by ending the Republicans\' grip on the White House and elect him president.

In extracts released ahead of his speech, Senator Obama is expected to tell a crowd of 75,000 and a TV audience of many millions: \"We are better than these last eight years … we are a better country than this.\"

He will stride out to accept the Democratic nomination knowing that he finally has the stage to himself.
A week which began in a crowded convention centre with Democrats tripping over the clutter and carnage from the battle for the nomination, has proceeded through a cathartic show of unity to tonight’s culmination in the open air of the mile high Invesco Field stadium.

Mr Obama\'s address tonight falls on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King\'s \"I have a dream\", adding further historical charge to his bid to become America\'s first black president.

But he is intent to offer reassurance to an electorate that has shown growing signs of hesitation about not only his exotic multi-racial roots but also his lack of experience.

He is expected to tell once more his own story of a child born from \"the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren\'t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to\".

\"It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.\"

\"It is why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.\"

This is one such moment, Mr Obama is expected to say, \"because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight\".

Although paying tribute to the military service of his Republican rival, John McCain, he will seek to portray him as offering a continutation of President Bush\'s policies, by saying: \"The record\'s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than ninety percent of the time? I don\'t know about you, but I\'m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

The US economy has outpaced expectations as surging exports fuelled a second-quarter growth spurt at a 3.3 per cent pace, according to data Thursday that analysts say makes recession less likely.

The Commerce Department revised upward last month\'s estimate of a 1.9 per cent annualised pace of growth in gross domestic product (GDP).

The figure was much better than the average Wall Street estimate of 2.7 per cent and showed a strong acceleration from the 0.9 per cent rate of the first three months of the year.

The latest figures, helped somewhat by a massive economic stimulus package, suggest the world\'s biggest economy had more momentum than previously thought by analysts, many of whom anticipated recession.

\"For a recession the economy is certainly growing very quickly,\" said Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets.

\"A lot of that growth is driven off exports and pessimists might say that can\'t continue during slowing growth overseas, but I would say this happened precisely during the period of slowing growth overseas ... this is still an economy that faces slow times but not a recession.\"

Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates, said he sees conflicting signals in recent economic data.

\"A lot of the monthly indicators are suggesting recession but things like new orders and GDP suggest the economy is improving.\"

Some analysts said the economy still has a recession feel despite the robust figure, and that special factors may be distorting the GDP rate.

\"If the US economy were growing at its potential pace, the unemployment rate would not have risen a full percentage point over the past year,\" said Citigroup economist Steven Wieting, who argues that data on new jobless claims are \"still recessionary.\"

The revised report showed trade alone accounted for 3.10 percentage points in the overall growth rate. It showed exports surged 13.2 per cent, instead of an earlier estimate of 9.2 per cent, while exports fell 7.6 per cent, instead of 6.6 per cent.

Consumer spending, the largest component of economic activity, was up a modest 1.7 per cent, just 0.2 points more than previously estimated, despite a massive 168-billion-dollar government stimulus package that sent out tax rebates to tens of millions of people.

The main drag on growth remained the housing sector, with investment in residential property slumping 15.7 per cent, not as bad as the 25.1 per cent slide in the first quarter.

Business spending grew 2.2 per cent and government expenditures by 6.8 per cent.

A key inflation index linked to GDP rose 4.2 per cent while core prices excluding food and energy were up 2.1 per cent.

Still, many analysts expect the current growth pace to continue to slow, consumer spending is sluggish and a rebound in the dollar may curb growth in exports.

\"With economies abroad slowing and the one-time impact of tax rebates dissipating, we expect annualised economic growth to recede to near 1.0 per cent in the third quarter and to maintain this pace into early-2009 before gradually improving,\" said Peter Kretzmer, an economist at Bank of America.

Aaron Smith at Economy.com also said the strong figure is misleading.

\"The better-than-expected outcome overall does not change our view that the economy is weakening, with the beneficial effects of rebate checks and foreign demand fading fast,\" Smith said.

The US Federal Reserve has held its base interest rate at a low 2.0 per cent as part of an effort to fire up a lagging economy hurt by tight credit and weak housing. But in the past few months the central bank has indicated the next move will likely be an increase to keep inflationary pressures in check.

The central bank has forecast 2008 growth in a range of 1.0 to 1.6 per cent, up from an April projection of 0.3 to 1.2 per cent.