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Some companies are considering self-insuring their workers to avoid onerous provisions of the Affordable Care Act (such as higher premium prices). MedPageToday has some details:

Self-insured firms finance most worker health costs and buy “stop-loss” reinsurance to cover especially high claims. Self-insurance has typically been the realm of large employers. But Kaiser Health News has reported brisk interest by small companies exploring self coverage.Stop-loss coverage that kicks in as low as $10,000 or $20,000 per worker makes self-insurance an option for firms with as few as 20 or 30 on staff, brokers say. Yet advocates of the law worry that more small firms with young, healthy employees will self-insure next year, exploiting what some see as an ACA loophole and leaving small-group insurance pools with sicker members and higher costs.

Read the rest.

…you just have to walk more, according to an article at MedPageToday. And that takes more time.

I bring this to your attention because of the potassium link. Most of us have heard that reducing salt (sodium) intake is supposed to be good for us, although even that’s debatable. Fewer have heard that higher potassium may be good for us. Those diet characteristics—low sodium and high potassium—are naturally incorporated into the Paleolithic diet (aka Stone Age, caveman, hunter-gatherer or paleo diet).

Read MedPageToday for details. The association between sodium restriction and lower rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality is a confusing mess. My gut feeling is that strict sodium avoidance is important for only 20% of the population, at most. From MedPageToday: 

However, the assertion that reduced salt intake will have beneficial effects on disease outcomes contradicts the results of a 2011 meta-analysis, which failed to show significant relationships between reduced salt intake and mortality or cardiovascular outcomes.

A high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid was also detrimental. On the other hand, high monounsaturated fat consumption was protective of the brain.

Read for details.

h/t Bix at Fanatic Cook