Brokers predict increase in employers dropping group health coverage

As renewal data for 2015 group health plans roll in, benefit advisers say they’re seeing double-digit premium increases and a wave of employers electing to drop group health coverage altogether. That trend, they say, is expected to accelerate in 2015.

Seventy-eight percent of brokers surveyed by the San Francisco, Calif.-based technology solutions company Benefitter say they’ve had clients drop group health coverage this year, with a surprising 17% saying they expect to lose more than one-quarter of their business.

“That’s a faster acceleration than we would have expected,” says Benefitter’s CEO Brian Poger, but understandable since individual rates are rising at a more manageable level.

“The fact that rates are continuing to climb significantly in the small-group market, even faster than health care inflation, we believe will cause this trend to accelerate,” he adds.

Kelly Fristoe, an adviser with Financial Partners in Wichita Falls, Texas, says he has several clients considering dropping health care coverage and sending employees to the exchange.

“I’m working on several Jan. 1 2015 effective rate renewals and three out of the eight on my desk right now are considering dropping health care coverage altogether. One of those is definitely dropping it,” he says.

For some employers, health insurance is no longer affordable. One-third of brokers surveyed by Benefitter observed rate increases above 60%.

Further, “a small group that has 15 lives usually doesn’t have the HR resources to manage the notifications and reporting requirements of the ACA, not to mention ERISA requirements.”

Fristoe adds, “All these employers want to do is go back to their business. They don’t want to be in the insurance business anymore.”

He says some employers would rather not assume the risks involved with offering group health care coverage and are choosing to increase salaries as an effort to help their employees purchase individual coverage. For some employers, their employees can actually find more affordable options on the individual market, particularly if they qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

Fristoe cautions, however, that employers considering dropping coverage and sending their employees to the exchanges need to make certain their employees won’t be disqualified for subsidies through an offer of coverage from a spouse’s employer.

Employer size matters

Brokers told Benefitter that double-digit increases were affecting 77% of small-group employers (10-50 lives) and 75% of mid-size clients (50-250 lives), with 60% of large employers seeing double-digit increases.

Barry Fields, vice president of employee benefits with the Holmdel, New Jersey-based agency Jacobson Goldfarb Scott Insurance, handles mostly midsize to large employers and says none of his clients have dropped group health coverage this year. In fact, he says, many are expanding coverage to employees working 30 hours a week or more, who may not have been covered previously.

For small employers, however, Fristoe says, the numbers dropping group coverage will likely increase, especially in 2016 when grandfathered and grandmothered plans will no longer qualify as acceptable coverage.

Still, he says that while some of his firm’s small-group clients have decided to drop coverage, they still remain clients of the firm.

“When a small-group employer decides to drop health care coverage, there’s a morale issue to deal with amongst the employees,” he says. “We’ve helped our clients through that. The successful brokers are the ones that are going to be able to do that.”

“We’re trying to be strategic in how we approach our renewals,” he says. “They still want us to come in and we’re not ready to lose that business. But we may have to work a little harder.”

Fristoe says for his small employer clients that drop coverage, he walks each employee through the process of enrolling for individual coverage on and off the exchange.

Benefitter also works with brokers who want to move employees to individual coverage, offering a range of Web-based tools that help administer employee notices and guide employees to the individual market and through the insurance-selection process.

In the changing post-ACA insurance environment, Poger says brokers have three choices: They can watch their book of business dwindle as employers drop coverage, be reactive by setting up shop to help enroll individuals; or create and use new approaches to enrolling their clients,

“The existing approach isn’t working anymore,” he adds.

Source: Employee Benefit Adviser- Brokers predict increase in employers dropping group health coverage.

Has your employer dropped healthcare coverage?

If your employer has cut back on provided healthcare benefits, contact Solidarity Health Network today to review your options.

Why can't employers pay for employees to go to the exchanges?

On November 6, the Department of Labor issued FAQ Part 22, which directly addresses some recent efforts by employers to reimburse employees for participation in the exchange through Code Section 105, or through some type of other arrangement. Here are the questions, with shortened answers.

Q1: My employer offers employees cash to reimburse 
the purchase of an individual market policy. 
Does this arrangement comply with the market reforms?

No. If the employer uses an arrangement that provides cash reimbursement for the purchase of an individual market policy, the employer’s payment arrangement is part of a plan, fund, or other arrangement established or maintained for the purpose of providing medical care to employees, without regard to whether the employer treats the money as pre-tax or post-tax to the employee. Under the Departments’ prior published guidance, the cash arrangement fails to comply with the market reforms because the cash payment cannot be integrated with an individual market policy.

Q2: My employer offers employees with high claims risk a choice between enrollment 
in its standard group health plan or cash. 
Does this comply with the market reforms?

No. PHS Act section 2705, as well as the nondiscrimination provisions of ERISA and HIPAA prohibit discrimination based on one or more health factors. Offering, only to employees with a high claims risk, a choice between enrollment in the standard group health plan or cash, constitutes such discrimination. Also, because the choice between taxable cash and a tax-favored qualified benefit (the election of coverage under the group health plan) is required to be a Code section 125 cafeteria plan, imposing an effective additional cost to elect coverage under the group health plan could, depending on the facts and circumstances, also result in discrimination in favor of highly compensated individuals in violation of the Code section 125 cafeteria plan nondiscrimination rules.

Q3: A vendor markets a product to employers claiming that employers can cancel their group policies, set up a Code section 105 reimbursement plan that works with health insurance brokers or agents to help employees select individual insurance policies, and allow eligible employees to access the premium tax credits for Marketplace coverage.
Is this permissible?

No. The departments have been informed that some vendors are marketing such products. However, these arrangements are problematic for several reasons. First, the arrangements are themselves group health plans and, therefore, employees participating in such arrangements are ineligible for premium tax credits for marketplace coverage. The mere fact that the employer does not get involved with an employee’s individual selection or purchase of an individual health insurance policy does not prevent the arrangement from being a group health plan. Second, such arrangements are subject to the market reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including prohibition on annual limits and the requirement to provide certain preventive services without cost sharing. Such employer health care arrangements cannot be integrated with individual market policies to satisfy the market reforms and, therefore, will violate PHS Act sections 2711 and 2713, among other provisions, which can trigger penalties such as excise taxes under section 4980D of the Code.

So if you are thinking the solution to compliance is to simply pay for your employee to participate in the exchange, make sure you understand the answers to these questions. Clearly the department is aware that employers have considered this as a solution and are giving it careful scrutiny.

Source: Employee Benefit Adviser- Keith R. McMurdy- Why can't employers pay for employees to go to the exchanges?

10 Excuses for Not Getting a Flu Shot Busted

Pregnant women, people with egg allergies, and those with a needle phobia can all be safely vaccinated against the flu.

When flu season rolls around, there are always some people who come up with reasons to not get immunized. The list of excuses is long, but not one of them is valid, according to Christopher A. Ohl, MD, a professor of infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Here are the most common excuses not to get a flu shot and why they don't hold any water:

1. I'm healthy. 
I don't need a flu shot.

"Even though you didn't get the flu last year, this may be the year," Dr. Ohl cautions. "No one wants to be sick. It's miserable." If protecting yourself isn't reason enough to get vaccinated, consider others who are at greater risk for flu-related complications, particularly young children, older adults, and those with chronic health issues. "These people are more likely to be hospitalized and have more serious problems," Ohl says, so if you protect yourself against the flu, you're also protecting those around you.

2. The flu shot 
can give you the flu.

The flu vaccine is made in more than one way. One version is made with an inactivated, or dead, flu virus. Because it's dead, the virus cannot give you the flu. The flu vaccine is also available in the form of a nasal spray or mist made with a weakened live flu virus that has been cold-adapted. It can't cause infection at the warm temperatures inside your body. Another type is made with recombinant DNA technology and an insect virus known as baculovirus. Since this vaccine doesn't contain any flu virus, it can't cause the flu. There are many other respiratory viruses going around during flu season that may be mistaken for the flu, Ohl points out. "People get rhinovirus or RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] and think it came from the flu shot," he says.

3. The flu shot is risky 
and doesn't work.

Severe allergic reactions from a flu vaccine are very rare. In fact, the chances of this happening are about 1 in a million, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. On the other hand, every year about 5 to 20 percent of people in the United States are infected with the flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The flu vaccine reduces the likelihood that you'll catch it. In some cases, it can prevent complications and save lives.

4. I got a flu shot 
last year.

Flu viruses are constantly changing so flu vaccines are updated every year to protect against the strains that scientists predict will be most common that particular year. After you get a flu shot, your immunity also declines over time, Ohl adds. Because of these factors, the flu shot you got last year won't protect you from the flu this year. You need to be vaccinated every year. 

5. I have an egg allergy

Although those with an egg allergy should not use the flu mist, most people with this allergy can safely get a flu shot made with the inactivated flu virus, according to the CDC. Those from 18 to 49 years old can also get the flu vaccine that's made using recombinant DNA techniques — that version doesn't use eggs at all.

6. I'm pregnant.

Pregnancy changes put women at greater risk for the flu and flu-related complications, according to the CDC. Pregnant women who get the flu are also at increased risk for preterm delivery. The flu vaccine protects you and your baby for the infant's first 6 months of life. Although pregnant women should not receive the flu mist or spray, the inactivated flu shot is safe, according to the CDC.

7. I don’t have time 
to get a flu shot. 
I'll do it later.

It takes about 2 weeks for the flu vaccine to become fully effective, Ohl points out. Putting it off increases your chance of being infected.

8. I waited too long.

Flu outbreaks can happen as early as October, though activity usually doesn't peak until January. However, some cases are even reported in the spring. Although getting vaccinated early is best, the CDC recommends getting the vaccine in December or January if you haven't already.

9. I don't like shots.

If a needle phobia is the problem, consider the intradermal flu shot, which is injected into the skin, not the muscle. As a result, it requires a much smaller needle than the regular shot. It's appropriate for adults 18 to 64 years old. Or, consider the nasal spray vaccine, approved for most people 2 to 49 years old.

10. There are drugs to treat the flu.

Although there are antiviral medications that can ease symptoms and speed recovery, they aren't the first line of defense, according to the CDC. Getting immunized is the best way to protect yourself against the virus.

Source: everyday Health: 10 Excuses for Not Getting a Flu Shot Busted- Mary Elizabeth Dallas

November is Long-Term Care Insurance Awareness Month

Who needs it?

​Given that the cost of long-term care can quickly deplete your life’s savings, you should seriously consider adding long-term care insurance to your financial plan. Plus, there’s about a 70% chance you’ll need some type of long-term care after age 65.

Should you ever require it, a home health aide visit costs about $20 an hour, while full-time nursing home care in a private room, the most expensive type of care, now has a median cost of almost $88,000 a year. In some regions of the country, like the Northeast, the cost may be well above that amount.1 While financial considerations cannot be understated, long-term care insurance is also about peace of mind and control. Having it ensures you’ll have access to first-rate care when you need it, and that you won’t have to be dependent on others or be a burden to your children. The odds you’ll need long-term care insurance are greater than you might imagine.

Long-term care services are not just for older people: Anyone who’s has been in an accident or suffers from a debilitating illness may also require round the clock care. In fact, 40% of patients receiving long-term care are under age 65. If you can afford to pay for care without significantly impacting your assets, you may not need long-term care insurance. Conversely, if your assets, not including your home, are less than $80,000 if you’re married, or $30,000 if you’re single, you may not be able to afford the premiums. But If you’re somewhere in between, long-term care insurance should be part of the discussion the next time you sit down with an advisor to review your financial plans.

Types of care

Long-term care insurance pays for a wide range of services and procedures that typically aren’t covered by medical insurance. The types of care fall into three categories: skilled, intermediate and custodial.

Skilled

If you have a serious illness or injury that you can recover from, you will probably receive skilled care from nurses or professional therapists. Skilled care is provided daily, usually ordered by a physician, and involves a treatment plan. In short, skilled care helps get you better.

Intermediate Care

This type of care is similar to skilled care, but not provided on a daily basis. For instance, if you injured your leg and need to visit a physical therapist five times a week to help you heal, that would be considered intermediate care.

Custodial Care

Unlike skilled and intermediate care, which is used to improve your health, custodial care isn’t intended to heal you. Instead, custodial care includes assistance with daily activities like bathing, eating, dressing, toileting (getting on and off the toilet and other tasks associated with personal hygiene), continence and transferring (getting in and out of bed and chairs). Catheter or colostomy maintenance is also included. Custodial care can range from in-home care provided two or three days a week, to 24-hour nursing home care.

Cost of Care Map

Go to http://www.lifehappens.org/insurance-overview/long-term-care-insurance/cost-of-care-map/  to view a map showing the median annual cost of nursing home care, and the hourly/annual cost of home health care, for all 50 states.

Select which type of care you’re interested in from the drop-down menu and then roll over any state to see the costs

Getting Coverage

The three primary ways to get long-term care coverage are to buy it on your own with the help of an agent, through your employer, or through an association/membership group. Some benefits also are available from the government, through Medicare and Medicaid.

However, you should be careful about relying on government programs. Medicare covers only short-term skilled nursing home care, and Medicaid will pay for your care only if your assets are very limited.

Some states have Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership Programs that allow you to buy private long-term care insurance and remain eligible for Medicaid benefits if your private insurance runs out. Read on to learn more about the various sources of protection.

Buy It on Your Own

Purchasing it yourself with the help of an agent who specializes in long-term care insurance provides you with a lot of flexibility and options. Your agent can help you shop around for the best policy among multiple insurance companies, and customize a plan to include the combination of features and benefits that works best for your needs and budget.

If you’re in good health, you may qualify for preferred pricing. That’s because the policy will be individually underwritten, meaning the insurance company will base its price on a thorough medical exam and personal health history.

Get It Through Your Employer

A growing number of employers offer group long-term care insurance as a voluntary employee benefit. Typically, an employer will contract with a particular insurance carrier and allow its employees to purchase coverage, often through automatic payroll deductions.

Because employees pay for coverage out of their own pockets, the policies are almost always portable, meaning you can keep them in force if you change jobs. One potential advantage of buying through your employer is that you can sometimes get coverage that would have been more difficult to obtain on the open market. This is especially true of employees who have health problems or a poor family health history.

Why? Because with most group plans, employees are offered the same premium as others in their general age bracket (e.g., 45-54 year olds), regardless of their health status or actual age. So if you’re an older employee or perhaps have some health issues, the one-size-fits-all premium offered through your employer may be lower than what you’d be able to obtain if you tried to get coverage on your own. A downside of buying through work is that you’re limited to the companies and products that your employer makes available to you through your benefits package, and you might be able to find a better price or policy by shopping on your own.

Purchase It Through an Association or Membership Group

Policies offered through alumni groups, trade groups and other organizations are another option that may be available to you. The pros and cons are similar to employer-sponsored coverage. Premiums are often discounted and are based primarily on your age and health. You may, however, be limited in your ability to customize the policy to your specific needs.

Benefits Through the Government

Medicare is the federal government’s program that pays health-care bills for older Americans. When it comes to long-term care, there’s a common misconception that Medicare will pay a good chunk of the cost of long-term care. Not true. Medicare only covers short-term skilled nursing home care that you receive after being hospitalized for at least three days.

For instance, if you get in a car accident, Medicare may cover your care in a rehabilitation facility for a period of up to 100 days. Medicare also pays for some skilled at-home care but only for short-term unstable medical conditions and not for the ongoing assistance that many elderly people need. Medicare will not pay for any custodial care, and 95% of all long-term care is custodial, not skilled. For more information, visit the Medicare website.

Medicaid is the federal government’s program that pays health-care bills for Americans who meet federal poverty guidelines. In addition to covering doctor visits, hospital stays and other standard medical expenses, Medicaid pays for about half of all nursing home costs in the U.S and a smaller, but growing, portion of the nation’s home care costs. But remember, Medicaid will only pay for care if you have very limited assets.

Qualifications vary by state, but generally you may keep only the house in which your spouse or dependent resides, the furniture, a car, a burial plot and funeral funds, and a modest amount of cash. Having Medicaid pay for your care also means you may not have much say in choosing the facility that will provide your care. For more information, visit the Medicaid website.

Partnership Programs and Tax Incentives

To encourage more Americans to take responsibility for their future care needs, the government has developed a variety of incentives to reward those who buy long-term care insurance. Here are some you should know about.

Partnership programs: Long-term care insurance partnership programs are designed to encourage consumers to buy private long-term care insurance, which will help you avoid spending down most of your assets to qualify for Medicaid-sponsored long-term care. Over the long haul, these partnerships between states and private insurance companies save money for both consumers and the government. Programs vary by state, so talk to your agent about how this could apply to you.

Federal tax incentives: If you buy a federally qualified policy (and most policies are), your insurance premiums may be deductible as part of your medical expenses on federal tax returns and benefits are received tax-free.

State tax incentives: A majority of states have a state tax incentive for residents who purchase long-term care insurance.

Make sure to consult with your tax advisor to fully understand which tax benefits may apply to your particular situation.

Find an agent

Contact a representative at Solidarity Health Network today!

Source: Lifehappens.org

Most PPACA enrollees will bail on exchanges

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is returning to the masses Nov. 15 when open enrollment begins ...but most previous participants aren’t super excited about it. In fact, the majority of them are planning to bail on the exchanges.

A new survey from Bankrate finds that 51 percent of those who used HealthCare.gov or PPACA’s state exchanges during the law’s initial enrollment period don’t plan on using them again during the new enrollment season, citing technology and cost concerns. That's compared to 43 percent who say they will return to the exchanges.

“Households that have already used the health exchanges are just as leery about the new enrollment season as the general public and share the concerns about higher insurance rates and glitchy websites,” said Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman.

Former exchange participants cited their top concerns with the new enrollment period:

Much higher prices for health plans — 43 percent;

Too many people remaining uninsured — 26 percent; and

More technical problems with the online exchanges — 21 percent.

Still, exchange enrollees may be auto-enrolled — the administration this summer announced a new auto-enrollment feature to PPACA plans — in the same plan as last year if they don’t opt out.

Also read: Most PPACA enrollees will change plans

Bankrate’s survey results could be indicative of more potential problems for the Obama administration. The lack of confidence in the exchanges and in PPACA health plans, as well as continued consumer confusion, has plagued the law’s success. It may also stifle goals to insure millions of more Americans. Significantly, Kaiser Family Foundation recently found that a whopping nine in 10 of the nation’s uninsured are unaware that open enrollment begins this month.

Open enrollment runs from Nov. 15-Feb. 15.

Slightly more than half of the Bankrate respondents, 52 percent, said they had a good experience on the exchange, while 43 percent said it was bad, including 27 percent who said it was “very bad.”

Despite the negative assessment of the exchanges, the slight majority expressed confidence in the PPACA marketplace, with 53 percent saying they are either very or somewhat confident that the exchanges will operate properly this time around, versus those who are less confident (45 percent).

Bankrate surveyed 588 people over the past month who had used the exchanges.

Source: BenefitsPro- Kathryn Mayer

Obama’s Health Law: Who Was Helped Most

A new data set provides a clearer picture of which people gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

We know that about 10 million more people have insurance coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act. But until now it has been difficult to say much about who was getting that coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details.

Now a large set of data — from Enroll America, the group trying to sign up people for the program, and from the data firm Civis Analytics — is allowing a much clearer picture. The data shows that the law has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades.

The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas. The areas with the largest increases in the health insurance rate, for example, include rural Arkansas and Nevada; southern Texas; large swaths of New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia; and much of inland California and Oregon.

Each of these trends is going in the opposite direction of larger economic patterns. Young people have fared substantially worse in the job market than older people in recent years. Blacks and Hispanics have fared worse than whites and Asians. Rural areas have fallen further behind larger metropolitan areas.

Women are the one modest exception. They have benefited more from Obamacare than men, and they have received larger raises in recent years. But of course women still make considerably less money than men, so an economic benefit for women still pushes against inequality in many ways.

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, but the law’s biggest insurance expansion provisions went into effect in January, when millions more people qualified for state Medicaid programs, and new subsidized insurance plans sold in state marketplaces kicked in.

Over all, about 10 million Americans who had no insurance in 2013 signed up for it this year, according to the Enroll America/Civis model. The groups estimate that the national uninsured rate for adults under 65 fell to 11 percent from 16 percent. (Because of the federal Medicare program, which provides universal coverage to Americans over 65 who meet certain basic requirements, more than 98 percent of that group has health insurance.)

Other estimates, including those from Gallup and the health research group the Commonwealth Fund, show higher uninsured rates but a similar reduction in the number and percentage of Americans without insurance. Enroll’s data analysts said their survey appears to have undercounted the uninsured a bit in both years, because they interviewed a smaller number of Hispanics, men and people with low incomes than the census measured. Those people are less likely to be insured, but were also harder for Enroll to reach because they have smaller digital footprints than other groups.

Below are several charts that help explain who was helped most by the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Blacks and Hispanics entered this year with higher uninsured rates than whites and Asians. That’s still true, but they have also shown substantially larger gains. Matthew Saniie, the director of analytics and data at Enroll, said he attributed the racial trends to two main factors: existing high uninsured rates for those groups, and disproportionate poverty, meaning more people who qualify for Medicaid. In the case of Hispanics, he also said that California’s huge outreach effort, strongly targeted at its Latino population, gave the group another strong enrollment boost.

Critics of the Affordable Care Act have often warned that the program would be unfair to the young because it limits the ability of insurance companies to charge higher rates to older customers, who tend to be sicker. But young adults show the largest reductions in being uninsured of any age group. And that’s not counting the approximately 3 million young adults who received coverage on their parents’ policies before 2014.

People with the lowest incomes tended to benefit the most from the law. That makes sense, given how the Affordable Care Act is designed. In states that expanded Medicaid, low-income people can get insurance without having to pay a premium. And for middle-income people who qualify for tax credits to help them buy insurance, the subsidies are most generous for those lowest on the income scale. Poorer people were always the least likely to have insurance because their jobs rarely offered it and private premiums were often unaffordable.

Women were more likely to have insurance before this year, a reflection of existing state Medicaid policies, which offered coverage to pregnant women and mothers, but not childless adults. But that existing gender gap is widening. Professionals doing insurance outreach said that women were often easier to reach and more concerned about access to health care than men.

Despite many Republican voters’ disdain for the Affordable Care Act, parts of the country that lean the most heavily Republican (according to 2012 presidential election results) showed significantly more insurance gains than places where voters lean strongly Democratic. That partly reflects underlying rates of insurance. In liberal places, like Massachusetts and Hawaii, previous state policies had made insurance coverage much more widespread, leaving less room for improvement. But the correlation also reflects trends in wealth and poverty. Many of the poorest and most rural states in the country tend to favor Republican politicians. Of course, the fact that Republican areas showed disproportionate insurance gains does not mean that only Republicans signed up; there are many Democrats living in even the most strongly Republican regions of the country.

People who lived in rural areas were more likely to gain insurance than those living in big cities.

Over all, the changes tended to be strongest among the groups that were the least likely to be insured. The single most predictive question in the Enroll model for 2014 was whether someone was insured in 2013. That also means that the newly insured are not substantially different from the remaining uninsured in broad demographic terms. There are still a lot of uninsured people remaining, many in the places that had high uninsured rates last year.

Enroll and Civis’s data is the output of a statistical model based on a large survey of adults. That means that the numbers are estimates rather than actual observations. For now, Enroll’s broad numbers line up with the findings of existing surveys. Next year, the census will be able to provide a similarly detailed picture of the uninsured in America, using less complex methods. Though Civis’s background is in political campaign outreach, the groups have little incentive for bias because skewed numbers would complicate efforts to find the uninsured and target outreach resources. For more about the methodology of the project, read our companion story here.

Source:The Upshot- Obama's Health Law: Who Was Helped Most 

Pumpkin Health Benefits You Should Know About Before Throwing Away Your Halloween Pumpkins

Pumpkin health benefits. Everybody's having them this Halloween but how many are actually gobbling them up? Don't be too quick to throw away that rich whole some goodness of pumpkin insides when making your Halloween decorations, that pumpkin could just be the key to a better heart and health.

Here are  5 surprising
health benefits of pumpkins 
that you did not know about:

Boosts vision

Pumpkins contain a healthy dose of Vitamin A. In fact, just a cup of cubed pumpkin contains almost twice the recommended daily dose vitamin A, which is essential for good vision, especially in dim light. The vitamin has also been found to reduce the decline of retinal function in patients of retinitis pigmentosa.

Low blood pressure

The pumpkin seed oil is full of phytoestrogens, which is brilliant for keeping hypertension at bay. Researchers found that feeding rats with a high pumpkin seed diet supplement lowered their systolic and diastolic blood pressure in just 12 weeks.

Protects your package

The pumpkin seeds are rich in beta-carotene and multiple other antioxidants which have cancer protective properties. Especially for men, the health benefits of pumpkins can not be understated.

Pumpkin seeds contain about 2.75 mg of zinc, which is already about 17% of the daily recommended dose of the mineral. Zinc contributes to better sexual health for men. Studies show that when young men do not take or restrict their dietary zinc, their testosterone levels fell significantly in 20 weeks.

Healthy hearts

Pumpkin seeds contain about 1.7 grams of dietary fiber per ounce. All that fiber in pumpkins helps the heart function better. Women who have higher fiber in their diet have a 25 % lower risk of contracting heart disease as compared with women with a lower fiber diet.

Feel Fuller

All that fiber helps keep you fuller and hence you eat less. Have more pumpkins for its amazing health benefits.

Source: Food World News- Pumpkin Health Benefits you Should Know About Before Throwing Away Your Halloween Pumpkins