There's Still Time to Enroll in Health Insurance at Healthcare.gov

Open enrollment is still ongoing at the Health Insurance Marketplace! Open enrollment continues through March 31, and if you still need to sign up, there are still plenty of opportunities to get some help at various St. Louis Public Library locations. See our Upcoming Events page for details.

If you’re still a bit confused about whether you even need to enroll, check out this one-page guide to the Marketplace from Healthcare.gov. A couple of key facts to keep in mind:

• If you enroll by the 15^th of a month, your insurance will go into effect on the first of the following month. For example, to have your insurance start on March 1, you need to be enrolled by February 15. If you wait until the very last second and enroll on March 31, your insurance won’t go into effect until May 1 (since you missed the March 15 deadline for April).
• You have to have health insurance in 2014 or you will have to pay a fee. The fee is $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, or 1% of your income, whichever is higher.
• If you have insurance through your job, you don’t have to apply for health insurance through the Marketplace, but you can certainly shop around to see if you can get a better plan that way. 
•  You can get help on the phone. The Health Insurance Marketplace hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800-318-2596.

So what if you’ve already enrolled and have health insurance through the Marketplace? First of all, congratulations! Second of all, check out this handy guide to using your Marketplace coverage.

Don’t forget to check out our events page for information on enrollment opportunities with Certified Application Counselors! The calendar is constantly being updated, so make sure you check back often.

Thinking About Quitting Smoking? You're Not Alone, and We Have Resources to Help

In a report released January 16, the Centers for Disease Control noted that the rate of smoking has now reached a historic low — just 18 percent of the population smoked cigarettes in 2012, dropping below 20 percent level, where smoking rates had hovered for several years. In the report, the CDC credits the decline to increased cigarette taxes and to aggressive nationwide anti-smoking campaigns. The report comes 50 years after the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking in 1964, when cartoon characters still appeared in TV ads for cigarettes and 42 percent of the population smoked.

Though great strides have been made over the last 50 years, the CDC report notes that more than 42 million Americans still smoke cigarettes. If you’re one of those people and you’re looking to quit, there are several resources available to help you. Online, there’s the American Lung Association, which has a whole section of its website dedicated to smoking cessation. So does the American Heart Association. The National Cancer Institute has a page dedicated to where you can go to get help when you decide to quit (or to help someone you know quit smoking). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also has a website devoted to helping people stop smoking.

St. Louis Public Library also has some great books, CDs, and DVDs related to quitting smoking. Here are just a handful of those available in our catalog:

• The Smoke-free Smoke Break: Stop Smoking Now with Mindfulness and Acceptance by Pavel G. Somov and Marla J. Somova
• The Easiest Way to Stop Smoking: Finding the Way That Works Best for You by Heath Dingwell
• Kicking Butts: Quit Smoking and Take  Charge of Your Health by the American Cancer Society
• Simple Principles to Quit Smoking by Alex A. Lluch
• While You Quit: A Smoker's Guide to Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke by Theodore Fenske
• Stop Smoking: Beautiful Music and Subliminal Affirmations to Support Your Success (CD) by Steven Halpern

Got a Cold? Here Are a Few Ways to Feel Better Soon

According to the National Library of Medicine, Americans get over one billion (yes, you read that right, with a “b”) colds every year. And although colds and cold weather are not necessarily synonymous, right now is the height of cold season, so it seems appropriate to take a closer look at the common cold and see what we can do to stem the spread of the highly infectious disease, and to help those who are suffering from a cold feel better soon.

For some general information about colds, check out this page from the National Library of Medicine, as well as this one from the American Lung Association. Keep in mind that even if you are sneezing, coughing, stuffed up, or suffering from a runny nose, it may not actually be a cold — the common cold can look an awful lot like an allergy, or even the flu. Check out these handy tables from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to help figure out what you might be dealing with. 

As they say, there is no cure for the common cold. But that doesn’t mean you can’t treat it. Here’s a list of ways you can help alleviate suffering from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. If you’re looking at trying some home remedies, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has a couple of pages in which they assess different treatments, here and here. 

Or perhaps you’re thinking that a good ol’ antibiotic might be able to wipe it out for you. Not necessarily, as colds generally are caused by viruses, which aren’t responsive to antibiotic treatment. Check out this article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help determine if antibiotics will help whatever bug you’re fighting.

After all this, perhaps you’re one of the lucky ones that hasn’t caught a cold yet. If so, congratulations! And here’s a list of ways to avoid getting and spreading the disease. 

Best of luck this cold season, and here’s to staying healthy!

Is Losing Weight One of Your New Year's Resolutions? Here are Some Tips to Help You Stick With It This Year.

Happy New Year! It seems that everyone makes New Year’s resolutions, and, possibly because of the cookie-laden holiday season, a lot of those revolve around losing weight. However, a lot of resolutions go by the wayside just a few short weeks into the year. If you’ve made a weight-loss resolution and are serious about sticking to it in 2014, the secret may lie in choosing the right diet for you. St. Louis Public Library has literally hundreds of resources on weight loss and dieting, so chances are, we’ve got the diet you’re looking for. Use the search term “weight loss” in the online catalog, or mosey on over to the non-fiction shelves and peruse the shelves yourself. Dieting books can be found under the Dewey decimal number 613.25.

There are also plenty of useful online resources for those hoping to shed some holiday pounds. Check out the Healthy Weight section of the website for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for tips on maintaining a healthy weight, tips for weight loss and eating out, and articles on diet trends written by food and nutrition experts. There’s also plenty of healthy weight management information at ChooseMyPlate.gov and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The Mayo Clinic also has several resources, including tips on choosing the right diet for you and a guide to determine if you’re really prepared to start a new diet. 


Hear about a really easy, too-good-to-be-true diet product that you want to try out? Before you dive in, check out this list of things to watch out for in diet ads from the Federal Trade Commission. The American Academy of Family Physicians also has some great general information about fad diets. 

Finally, you can help your kids get in shape and prevent childhood obesity with tips from St. Louis Children’s Hospital. 

Here's to a happy, healthy 2014!