The Thai Health Promotion Foundation has offered 15 new norms to help people survive daily life during the fresh wave of Covid-19.
The norms are based on evidence and lessons learned from the first wave of the crisis, according to the foundation’s Dr Pairoj Saonuam, who doubles as the acting director of the Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Bureau.
The new behaviours focus on simple hygiene practices that also bring a proven boost to all-round health. Research last year found that the Covid-19 new norms combat other diseases, with cases of influenza dropping by 92 per cent from 2019. Researchers also found the new behaviours cut alcohol and tobacco consumption. “If everyone follows the norms more diligently, we are confident the rewards will be worth it,” said Dr Pairoj.
The 15 new normal behaviours:
1. Asking yourself often, have I wash my hands yet?
2. Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds.
3. Drying hands immediately after washing to reduce contamination.
4. Wearing masks properly, covering both nose and mouth.
5. Washing fabric masks each day after use.
6. Keeping record of locations travelled to.
7. Quarantining immediately if you are at risk of infection.
8. Eating only cooked food.
9. Using alcohol cleanser to reduce pathogens.
10. Keeping distance of 1-2 metres from others.
11. Taking daily shower after returning home.
12. Being truthful and transparent, so others can plan to protect themselves.
13. Wearing a mask when talking to people.
14. Avoiding touching face, eyes, nose and mouth.
15. Maintaining good hygiene practice to prevent disease.
นอกจากนี้ทางทีมดีไซน์เนอร์ยังผสมสานคอนเซ็ปต์โมเดิร์นโรแมนติกที่เป็นหัวใจหลักของแบรนด์ ‘ลา บูทีคส์’ (La Boutique) โดยการใช้ซิลลูเอทแบบทรงเอไลน์ทั้งในชุดเดรส และกระโปรงทรงเอ พร้อมนำเทคนิคการขึ้นหุ่น และการตัดต่อลวดลายมาใช้เพื่อสร้างจุดเด่นให้กับเสื้อผ้าในคอลเลกชั่นนี้ พร้อมตอกย้ำความเป็นสาว ‘ลา บูทีคส์’ (La Boutique) ด้วยชุดบอดี้สูทปาดไหล่, เสื้อเชิ้ตเอวลอยเสริมไหล่, ผ้าพันคอ และผ้าผูกผม ที่ถูกแต่งติมด้วยลายพิมพ์ดีไซน์โก้ อย่างลายโซ่ และตัวอักษรสีทอง เมื่อนำมามิกซ์แอนด์แมทซ์กับเสื้อผ้าโทนสีพาสเทลอย่างสีฟ้าแซพไฟร์ (Sapphire), สีเขียวมิ้นท์ (Mint), สีชมพูเลมอนเนด (Lemonade) และสีเหลืองบัตเตอร์มิลค์ (Buttermilk) ที่ถูกตัดสลับกับสีคลาสสิกอย่างสีดำ และสีขาว จึงทำให้เสื้อผ้าในคอลเลกชั่นนี้ดูโดดเด่น และสนุกสนานมากยิ่งขึ้น อีกหนึ่งจุดเด่นของคอลเลกชั่นนี้คือการสร้างสรรค์แอคเซสเซอรี่ในคอนเซ็ปต์เป็นยูนิเซ็กส์ ที่สามารถสวมใส่ได้ทั้งชาย และหญิง ไม่ว่าจะเป็นต่างหูหนีบ, เข็มขัดโซ่สีทองที่ห้อยตัวอักษรดีไซน์โก้เป็นคำว่า L A B O U T I Q U E รวมไปถึงการนำโซ่สีทองมาประดับตกแต่งบนรองเท้าแซนเดิล (Sandal) อีกด้วย
Biden to reopen ACA marketplaces, lower barriers for joining Medicaid
Health & BeautyJan 26. 2021President Joe Biden speaks during a signing ceremony on Friday, Jan 22, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
By The Washington Post · Amy Goldstein
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is scheduled to take executive actions as early as Thursday to reopen federal marketplaces selling Affordable Care Act health plans and to lower recently imposed barriers to joining Medicaid.
The orders will be Biden’s first steps since taking office to help Americans gain health insurance, a prominent campaign goal that has assumed escalating significance as the pandemic has highlighted desire for affordable health care – and deprived millions of Americans coverage as they have lost jobs in the economic fallout.
Under one order, HealthCare.gov, the online insurance marketplace for Americans who cannot get affordable coverage through their jobs, will swiftly reopen for at least a few months, according to several individuals inside and outside the administration familiar with the plans. Ordinarily, signing up for such coverage is tightly restricted outside a six-week period late each year.
Another part of Biden’s scheduled actions, the individuals said, is intended to reverse Trump-era changes to Medicaid that critics say damaged Americans’ access to the safety-net insurance. It is unclear whether Biden’s order will undo a Trump-era rule allowing states to impose work requirements, or simply direct federal health officials to review rules to make sure they expand coverage to the program that insures about 70 million low-income people in the United States.
The actions are part of a series of rapid executive orders the president is issuing in his initial days in office to demonstrate he intends to steer the machinery of government in a direction far different from that of his predecessor.
Biden has been saying for months that helping people get insurance is a crucial federal responsibility. Until the actions planned for this week, he had not focused on this broader objective, shining a spotlight instead on trying to expand vaccinations and other federal responses to the pandemic.
The most ambitious parts of Biden’s campaign health-care platform would require Congress to provide consent and money. Those include creating a government insurance option alongside the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans sold by private insurers, and helping poor residents afford ACA coverage if they live in about a dozen states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs under the decade-old health law.
A White House spokesman declined to discuss the plans. Two Department of Health and Human Services officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity about an event the White House has not announced, said Monday they were anticipating that the event would be held Thursday.
According to a document obtained by The Washington Post, the president also intends to sign an order rescinding a rule compels nonprofits in other countries that receive federal family planning aid to promise not to perform or encourage abortions. Biden advisers last week previewed an end to this rule, which for decades has reappeared when Republicans occupied the White House and vanished under Democratic presidents.
The document also says Biden will disavow a multinational antiabortion declaration that the Trump administration approved three months ago.
The actions to expand insurance through the ACA and Medicaid come as the Supreme Court is considering two cases that could shape the outcome. One case is an effort to overturn rulings by lower federal courts, which have held that state rules, requiring some residents to work or prepare for jobs to qualify for Medicaid, are illegal. The other case involves an attempt to overturn the entire ACA.
According to the individuals inside and outside the administration, the order to reopen the federal insurance marketplaces will be framed in the context of the pandemic, essentially saying that anyone eligible for ACA coverage who has been harmed by the coronavirus will be allowed to sign up.
“This is absolutely in the covid age and the recession caused by covid,” said a health-care policy leader who has been in discussions with the administration. “There is financial displacement we need to address,” said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe plans the White House has not announced.
The reopening of HealthCare.gov will be accompanied by an infusion of federal support to draw attention to the opportunity through advertising and other outreach efforts. This, too, reverses the Trump administration’s stance that supporting such outreach was wasteful. During its first two years, it slashed money for advertising and for community groups known as navigators that helped people enroll.
It is not clear whether restoring outreach will be part of Biden’s order or will be done within federal health-care agencies.
Federal rules already allow people to qualify for a special enrollment period to buy ACA health plans if their circumstances change in important ways, including losing a job. But such exceptions require people to seek permission individually, and many are unaware they can do so. Trump health officials also tightened the rules for qualifying for special enrollment.
Biden is expected to open enrollment without anyone needing to seek permission, said Eliot Fishman, senior director of health policy for Families USA, a consumer health-advocacy group.
In the early days of the pandemic, the health insurance industry and congressional Democrats urged the Trump administration to reopen HealthCare.gov, the online federal ACA enrollment system on which three dozen states rely, to give more people the opportunity to sign up. At the end of March, Trump health officials decided against that.
During the most recent enrollment period, ending the middle of last month, nearly 8.3 million people signed up for health plans in the states using HealthCare.gov. The figure is about the same as the previous year, even though it includes two fewer states, which began operating their own marketplaces.
Leaders of groups helping with enrollment around the country said they were approached for help this last time by many people who had lost jobs or income because of the pandemic.
The order involving Medicaid is designed to alter course on experiments – known as “waivers” – that allow states to get federal permission to run their Medicaid programs in nontraditional ways. The work requirements, blocked so far by federal courts, are one of those experiments. Another was an announcement a year ago by Seema Verma, the Trump administration’s leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that states could apply for a fundamental change to the program, favored by conservatives, that would cap its funding, rather than operating as an entitlement program with federal money rising and falling with the number of people covered.
“You could think about it as announcing a war against the war on Medicaid,” said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dan Mendelson, founder of Avalere Health, a consulting firm, said Biden’s initial steps to broaden insurance match his campaign position that the United States does not need to switch to a system of single-payer insurance favored by more-liberal Democrats.
The orders the president will sign “are going to do it through the existing programs,” Mendelson said.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Joe Mayes
The U.K.’s health minister warned that coronavirus vaccines may be less effective against new variants of the disease, such as those found in South Africa and Brazil, and that stricter border controls are justified.
“We don’t know the degree of that,” Matt Hancock said in an interview on Sky News on Sunday, commenting on the extent of any potential reduced efficacy of the vaccines. “In the meantime, we’ve got to have a precautionary principle that says let’s not bring these new variants back to the U.K.”
Hancock’s warning came as the U.K. reported it had vaccinated more than 5 million people, including three-quarters of those over 80. Hancock said the government is conducting a vaccine trial on the South African variant to study its response to the inoculation, and that he’s concerned about new variants developing elsewhere.
“The new variant I really worry about is the one that’s out there but hasn’t been spotted,” he said, adding that the U.K. is offering its genome-sequencing capability to other countries to help them identify new strains. There are 77 known cases of the South African variant in Britain, and at least 9 cases of the Brazilian variant, Hancock said on the BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show.”
The U.K. has already banned flights from South Africa and neighboring countries, plus all of South America, in a bid to stop the spread of the new variants. Hancock said the government didn’t rule out introducing even stricter international travel measures in the days ahead.
Britain is grappling with the highest death toll in Europe from the disease and battling to recover from its deepest recession in more than 300 years. The latest data published Sunday reported another 610 deaths, taking the U.K.’s total to 97,939. The government is also on alert over signs that a local variant of the virus, which is as much as 70% more transmissible, may be more deadly than the original strain.
The supply of vaccines – not distribution by the National Health Service – is the rate-limiting factor in the U.K.’s vaccination effort, Hancock said. Some 6.35 million people have now received their first dose, the latest figures showed, with Britain well ahead of other European countries.
Hancock couldn’t confirm that schools would be open again by Easter, saying that the government would have to look at the data around the pandemic at the time. While the government also wants to lift social restrictions as soon as possible, Hancock added that it’s too early to give any more details on potential easing.
“There is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down but we are a long, long, long way from being low enough,” Hancock said on Sky. “You can see the pressure on the NHS, you can see it every day.”
Being able to spend time with family and having plenty of free time were among the reasons that made people happy during the Covid-19 crisis, a poll revealed on Sunday.
Suan Dusit Poll surveyed people on 10 things that gave them happiness.
The poll was conducted between January 15 and 22 and involved 1,136 respondents nationwide.
When asked about what makes them happy amid the Covid-19 crisis (multiple choice):
– 86.92 per cent said they have plenty of time to do as they like.
– 75.22 per cent said they can live with their family.
– 56.10 per cent said they don’t have to get up early.
– 29.81 per cent said they could take care of their health.
– 13.46 per cent said they could adjust themselves to be in line with the online world.
– 13.08 per cent said they still have an occupation.
– 10.44 per cent said they could travel without worries of traffic jams.
– 8.18 per cent said Thai medical personnel are performing their duty well.
– 5.03 per cent said they could see Thai people’s cooperation and kindness.
– 1.89 per cent said natural resources would have a chance to recover.
Paisan Kongsatitsathaporn, acting director of Suan Dusit University Public Relations Division, said changing one’s attitude was important because there was always happiness in every crisis.
“If we can overcome the sorrow, we will find happiness at last,” he said.
U.S. largely avoided Christmas coronavirus surge, but experts warn the threat could intensify
Health & BeautyJan 24. 2021Ambulances outside Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, Calif., on Jan. 12. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Philip Cheung.
By The Washington Post · Fenit Nirappil
The United States appears to have avoided the worst-case coronavirus scenarios that officials feared would overwhelm hospitals in the aftermath of Christmas and New Year’s gatherings. But experts caution that the threat from the virus has not diminished and could intensify with the emergence of new variants.
Even as hospitalizations begin to stabilize, they do so from record heights. The country’s hospitals averaged more than 130,000 covid-19 patients a day over seven days this month, far exceeding summer and spring surges. The death toll from cases contracted before and after the holidays will stretch into February. Authorities reported nearly 4,500 deaths Wednesday, a new single-day record.
Cases skyrocketed at the start of 2021, approaching a seven-day daily average of 250,000 around Jan. 10 before declining. But the toll on the health-care system was softer than expected.
Hospitals had braced for enormous spikes in patients that could have forced rationing care, exhausted already limited beds and sparked a nationwide shortage of health-care workers. But officials across the country said those dire predictions – a wave of severe Christmas cases weeks after a rapid increase from Thanksgiving – did not materialize in most places.
“The surge on top of a surge that could have happened didn’t really happen,” said Erin Bromage, a biology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. “We dodged a bullet, and we’ve done better than we could have, but we are still in a pretty terrible spot.”
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said at a White House briefing Thursday that cases appeared to be plateauing, but he warned it could be a temporary slowdown.
Hospital leaders and experts are still on edge. Variants of the coronavirus, including the B.1.1.7 strain that originated in Great Britain and is believed to be 50 to 70% more contagious, could result in further case spikes in cold weather months when people are more likely to be indoors. And the availability of the vaccine, while offering lifesaving protection to millions, could also lead to a false sense of complacency, particularly as it can be difficult to obtain.
“It’s like a pot of boiling water, so the temperature may have been turned down some, but it’s still dangerously hot,” said Carmela Coyle, chief executive of the California Hospital Association. “Plateauing is not a good thing.”
Travelers at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 23. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Ricky Carioti.
Infections soared in the aftermath of Thanksgiving, leading some to fear an even greater surge after back-to-back Christmas and New Year’s celebrations where people would gather with family and friends and then travel back home, potentially spreading the virus with each step. The Transportation Security Administration recorded its highest number of airline travelers since the pandemic began around Christmas, exceeding 1 million daily.
Experts have floated several theories for why the holiday season dealt less damage than expected. Some people may have changed their behavior after seeing the Thanksgiving spike, such as by celebrating outdoors, limiting gatherings to immediate family or quarantining before Christmas. More people who have contracted the virus could be receiving treatment at home while the sickest patients are hospitalized.
Robert Kaplan, a medical professor at Stanford University who was among those raising alarms about a holiday surge, said hospitalizations appear to be dipping in states that already had high caseloads and rising in those that had lower caseloads.
“There may be some places in the country where there are fewer people eligible to get sick because they’ve already been infected,” Kaplan said.
Los Angeles County faces one of the worst crises, with officials taking steps to conserve oxygen needed to treat covid-19 patients struggling to breathe and 11% of intensive care beds still available.
Researchers and county health officials released new projections Wednesday offering some good news: Hospitalizations have leveled off with enough ventilators to treat patients, and declines in admissions are projected, even under conservative estimates.
The bad news: Even with declining caseloads, the stress on hospitals will be so high that bed shortages will continue. Those who have been admitted are coming in with more severe cases of covid-19 and are more likely to die.
About one in eight covid patients in Los Angeles died from September to November – a figure that doubled to one in four after Nov. 3.
Roger Lewis, who leads the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services modeling team, said the figures suggest hospitals are being more selective in whom they admit.
“With that level of hospital demand, clinicians are forced to be very careful to reserve hospital resources for patients who clearly need it to ensure that resource is available to those whose life depends on it,” Lewis said. “Decisions are being made now to send people home with instructions to come back rather than admitting as a precaution.”
Dr. Brad Butcher chats with a nurse regarding the condition of a patient while doing rounds at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh on Jan. 11. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson.
Nicholas Testa, chief medical officer of Dignity Health, which operates four hospitals in Los Angeles County and two in neighboring San Bernardino County, said the hospitals experienced a Christmas surge with admissions peaking 15 days after the holiday. He said the health system managed the increase in part because length of stays have been shorter and county and state officials have offered additional resources. Still, hospitals teetered on the brink of rationing care.
“We got as close to the edge of care as I ever want to be,” Testa said. “When you get to what’s called crisis care is when you have to start making decisions about (who gets) ICU beds and ventilators. We did not get to that point thank God. It came pretty darn close.”
The American Hospital Association says others reported similar experiences.
“No one should be fooled that we are in an easy period right now,” said Nancy Foster, the group’s vice president for quality and patient safety policy. “The cold hard data says we were on the brink in many places, many communities across the country.”
California appears to be in a stronger position statewide as Northern California avoids the brunt of crisis. Mark Ghaly, the state’s top health official, on Tuesday hailed a 8.5% decline in hospitalizations and 2.8% decline in ICU admissions over two weeks as a sign that the post-holiday surge was “not as bad” as projected.
Arizona has been another major coronavirus hotspot, reporting the nation’s highest per capita rates of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths through January. The hospitalization rate now stands at 65 per 100,000 residents, a slight decline from the start of the month.
Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for Banner health, Arizona’s largest health system, said the Jan. 11 peak, even if lower than expected, left hospital workers toiling in crowded conditions under enormous stress. Hospitals forced patients to share their rooms and repurposed labs and other areas, while corporate office staff were redeployed to the front lines.
“Yes it could have been worse and yes it could have been better if there was more mitigation and more enforcement of mitigation,” said Bessel, who has criticized Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for declining to implement new restrictions to slow the virus’ spread. “Let’s just hope the worst is truly behind us, and we can continue to spend the next many, many months recovering from what we just went through.”
Parts of the country that weren’t as hard hit as the southwest heading into Christmas season avoided a new crisis.
“We’re past the surge that could have come from Christmas and New Year’s,” Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said last week after lifting restrictions. “I say that with some trepidation, because you know, there’s always the possibility that we’ll see an upsurge from that. But I think with one incubation period past New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, our numbers look like good news.”
Louisville Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer told residents at a town hall last week that hospitals avoided “extreme stress” in the holiday aftermath. In an interview, he said weekly cases hit 4,100 last week, a slight increase from a previous high, but the newly infected were disproportionately young and less likely to be hospitalized.
“We are seeing case counts spike, but we are not seeing a massive run to the hospitals,” Fischer said.
In Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center system prepared for hospitalizations across all its facilities to approach 3,000 in January, more than twice the 1,200 mid-December peak. Instead, they have been declining to about 600 this week – a potential sign that residents learned lessons after a Thanksgiving spike.
“We prepared for the worst, but we deal with what exactly the realities are today,” said Donald Yealy, senior medical director at the system. “I would not be surprised if there was one final increase left. I don’t expect covid-19 infection and illness to just evaporate.”
Nearly 3,900 deaths were reported Friday, suggesting Wednesday’s peak may not be an anomaly. The seven-day average of deaths in the weeks after Thanksgiving hovered around 2,500.
“We are getting in some way numb to the numbers,” said John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. “The numbers of hospitalizations, cases and death are still incredibly high. Even if we see a pullback, those numbers are still incredibly scary.”
By The Washington Post · Emily Rauhala, Adam Taylor
A key part of President Joe Biden’s new coronavirus strategy is a push to administer 100 million doses in 100 days, or a lofty sounding 1 million immunizations a day.
That goal, part of a comprehensive national plan launched this week, has raised questions about how quickly the United States can, and should aim to, deliver vaccines to its population.
The strategy document calls the 1 million shots per day pace “aggressive,” an effort that will “take every American doing their part.” But critics have pointed out that it does not constitute a major leap from the current rate, which has already neared or even surpassed the target. Many wonder why the country cannot move more swiftly.
It remains possible that the United States could pick up its pace as vaccine supply increases and logistics improve. But in international context 1 million doses a day does not seem slow.
Though differences in population, logistical capacity and data transparency, along with different levels of vaccine vetting and effectiveness between vaccine types, make it hard to compare vaccination campaigns across countries, the United States is near the top of the pack, behind some of the fastest countries to vaccinate, including Israel and Britain, but ahead of most of the rest of the world.
The biggest factor shaping the rate of vaccination is global supply.
Though the development and emergency approval of coronavirus vaccines has unfolded at an unprecedented pace, drug companies are scrambling to make enough doses to meet demand. As some countries receive a high number of doses from among the limited total produced, others must wait their turn.
So far, a small number of relatively rich countries, including the United States, have snapped up the initial supply, relegating low- and middle-income countries to the back of the line – possibly for years. Some projections suggest poor countries will not have enough doses until 2023 or 2024.
Rich countries are set to fare better. The European Commission aims to vaccinate 70 percent of the adult population of the European Union by the summer, though details of that plan are not yet clear.
Anthony Fauci, adviser to Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said this week that the United States could potentially reach “herd immunity” by fall 2021.
Will other large countries move faster than the United States?
Possibly, but it is hard to say.
Questions about manufacturing capacity, the potential approval of additional vaccines and the impact of the new U.K. variant make predictions tough. However, India offers an interesting point of comparison.
On Jan. 16, India launched a plan to vaccinate 300 million people by August.
The roughly 200 day push to deliver 600 million doses is more ambitious than the U.S. plan. However, India’s population is more than three times larger than that of the United States.
China promised to vaccinate some 50 million people against the coronavirus before the Lunar New Year holiday next month – a seemingly rapid pace. But a report in a news outlet controlled by the ruling Communist Party said the country had administered 15 million doses by Jan. 20.
There are also questions about whether Chinese-made vaccines are as effective as the Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca formulations used elsewhere.
Days after Brazilian officials announced that a vaccine made by Chinese company Sinovac was 78% effective protecting against moderate and severe covid-19 cases, for instance, they were forced to clarify that the shot’s efficacy rate among all cases was only 50.4%.
Ultimately, the biggest difference between the U.S. vaccination push and the Chinese effort is need.
Though there are doubts about China’s figures, the country reports just above 4,600 coronavirus deaths to date – comparable to the 4,409 U.S. deaths on Inauguration Day alone.
SAN FRANCISCO – First, we stopped paying for things. Gym memberships, movie tickets, Ubers, restaurant bills, fancy clothes.
But as the pandemic carried on and more of our lives switched from in person to over screens, we started racking up new costs. Streaming services, delivery apps, online fitness classes, virtual learning apps, the Zoom account that lets you talk longer than 40 minutes.
People in some parts of the United States have started using gyms and eating at restaurants again, or are using a combination of online and in-person services. But without physical bills or regular reminders, lingering subscriptions can be easily forgotten.
Those small digital charges add up. And in a struggling economy, finding even small ways to save money can be a huge help.
There are plenty of tools to help figure out where money is being lost, like budgeting apps Mint and subscription tracking apps like Truebill, which connects with your bank accounts and lets you pick how much to pay. Another option, Bobby, is free but requires more work to set up.
Truebill CEO Yahya Mokhtarzada said that the number of users has risen during the pandemic and that users’ spending habits have changed. He says services such as Kindle Unlimited became more popular than Barnes & Noble, more people paid for YouTube Premium than tickets to movies at Cinemark Theatres, and they spent more money on Uber Eats than Uber rides. The shift to automated payments has made it easier for companies to make money and harder for customers to keep track, he said.
“We used to pay everything in cash so you know where your money is going,” Mokhtarzada said. “Now you just have no visibility, and people aren’t exactly anxious to tell you they’re charging you every month.”
You can use apps, or you can take control yourself. As the New Year rolls in, it’s a good time to hop on your phone and make sure you’re not paying for anything you don’t need.
– Schedule a subscription intervention. You probably don’t need all of your new subscriptions, but finding them isn’t always easy, and canceling some can be a chore.
There’s a high probability you are paying monthly fees for things you’ve already forgotten you signed up for, whether it’s a free trial of CBS All Access you got to binge “Star Trek: Picard” or a subscription to the Noggin kids’ app you agreed to in a moment of work-from-home panic. The longer a free trial, like Apple TV Plus’s free year with a new device, the easier it is to forget about.
They can seem small at the time, $5 or $10 here and there for a bit of entertainment, but add up fast. An average subscription to all of the nine big streaming platforms, including Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max, comes to around $900 a year, or $80 a month. Then there are streaming workout apps, games, kids’ apps, newsletters and news publications (which are great).
You can go through your credit card statement to see which companies are charging you, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Most reoccurring payments are automatic deductions charged every month or as a lump sum once a year. However a growing number of services bill through a third party, such as Amazon, Apple and Google, and can be bundled together as one charge, meaning they’re easier to miss on statements.
(The Washington Post is owned by Amazon chief executive and founder Jeff Bezos.)
Go to your settings on each app store and review what you’ve signed up for, including free trials that you forgot are coming to an end.
On an iOS device, go to settings, tap on your profile on top, then tap “subscriptions” to see what you are paying for through Apple. Make sure the option for renewal receipts is turned on so you get emails reminding you that you pay for these services. On an Android device, go to the Play Store, then tap the menu icon (the box with lines in the upper left corner) and look for “subscriptions.” And on the Amazon website, use the “accounts and lists” drop-down menu next to the search bar to click on “memberships and subscription.”
Keep track going forward by checking your statements regularly, keeping a list or spreadsheet of all your subscriptions as you start them, and by setting a calendar reminder to cancel a subscription or free trial when you’re done with it.
– Share, negotiate or take a break from accounts. Keeping or canceling aren’t your only options for saving money on things like subscriptions.
A surprising number of payments are negotiable. The most well known are cable and cellphone service fees, which can usually be lowered with a phone call and a threat to switch to another company. Car insurance and credit card interest rates can also be haggled down. Mokhtarzada says the best time to bargain is after your initial contract is up: “There’s often retention offers that they have available, but they’re not going to reach out and tell you about them.”
But you can also try bargaining down less obvious payments, such as expensive software you use for work. Companies including Adobe have allowed some customers to pay less during the pandemic, when work slowed.
Another way to pay less is to share your subscriptions. In the proper, legal way, of course. Look into any family plans and read the fine print for how that company defines family. Does your mom need to live at the same address to share a streaming account or just actually be your mom? If having more people on a streaming account lowers the cost for everyone, it might be worth switching. Some companies, such as Spotify, allow you to pay 50 percent more to add up to five family members, or just $3 more if you want to have a two-person account. And if you’re absolutely going to keep using it for another year, many subscriptions offer discounted rates if you pay for an entire year upfront. (Set that calendar reminder for 11 months from now!)
If you’re on the fence about giving up an account forever, some companies will let you pause an account instead of canceling it. And services including Netflix make it easy to quit and come back without losing your watch history, or your spot in the middle of bingeing Bridgerton, and having to sign up all over again.
– Comparison-shop on delivery apps. The boom in grocery and restaurant delivery during the pandemic means you have multiple options when it comes to paying someone to bring you a fresh or frozen burrito. The prices across apps can vary, even for the same restaurant or grocery store.
Before shopping for groceries, look at prices on apps such as Instacart or Amazon Fresh to see how they compare, calculating in any delivery fees. Also try the stores’ sites directly and see if they offer pickup or delivery. For restaurants, prices can also vary between apps, so open a few and check your favorite entrees before purchasing. If possible, see if the restaurant is taking orders directly. Even if the prices aren’t lower, the business will probably be able to keep a larger share of your payment when not using an app like Grubhub. Some companies, such as DoorDash, that offer subscriptions are basically prepaying a delivery fee. If you don’t order enough through a single app to make this a deal, skip it.
It’s also time to audit delivery memberships, starting with an Amazon Prime account if you, like more than half of U.S. households, have one. Amazon Prime costs $119 a year and includes benefits such as free two-day shipping and its Prime Video service, but it is no longer the only game in town. Non-Prime members can still get free, slower shipping on orders over $25.
Walmart has added its own similar service, called Walmart Plus, for $98 a year. If you use Prime for groceries from Whole Foods, there are alternatives for other stores, such as an Instacart membership. Many companies offer free, fast shipping for a minimum order, and if it’s just “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” you want, Prime Video can be paid for separately. (If you do hold on to Amazon Prime, don’t forget to Google a product before you buy it and see if it’s available for a lower price, even with shipping.)
– Bring your cloud storage bills down to earth. Somewhere along the line you ran out of free iCloud or Google storage. Or maybe you signed up for multiple services and are paying for more space than you need. This is a two-step money saver that might also help streamline where all your important documents and photos live.
First, figure out how much storage you need. Audit your Amazon, Google, Apple, Dropbox and Microsoft storage (we’re talking personal files, not pro-level storage). They all have easy ways to see a visual breakdown of how much storage you are using and for what types of files. A photo or video collection is usually one of the biggest chunks of cloud storage. You could be surprised to find some unexpected space hogs, such as an automatic backup of all your text messages including photo attachments. Try backing up to a computer instead of the cloud, deleting past backups and clearing out old message attachments.
Prune where you can, then shop around for the best price for however much storage you’re using and reasonable upgrade options as you grow. Until recently, Google Photo’s unlimited storage for slightly compressed photos was the biggest steal, but now it’s only 15 GB for free, then $1.99 a month for 100 GB. Amazon still offers unlimited full-resolution photo storage for Prime members, with the caveat that you need to use its app to browse through them. Dropbox is up to 2 GB for free, then jumps to $9.99 a month for 2 TB. Apple’s iCloud storage offers up to 5 GB for free or 50 GB starting at $0.99 a month.
In theory, you could spread your files across a few services for free, but that might lead to forgetfulness and heartbreak down the road. For some people, the right cloud storage option is whatever’s tied into their phone. If it’s ease of use you’re looking for, Android users can stick with Google Drive and Apple users iCloud.
Health Foundation new norms;use alcohol cleanser to reduce infection sources.
President Joe Biden speaks during a signing ceremony on Friday, Jan 22, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford
Ambulances outside Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, Calif., on Jan. 12. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Philip Cheung.
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