Health care law encompasses the laws and regulations governing hospital and health care administration, and an understanding of health care insurance is integral to it. There are significant differences in the types and amount of coverage provided by various private insurance policies, such as HMOs, PPOs, disability insurance, and hospital indemnity insurance, just as there are important differences in the cost to the purchasers of health insurance. There are also public health care insurance programs. Elderly and disabled persons may be eligible for coverage through the federal Medicare program. The joint state-federal Medicaid program helps certain individuals, including disabled persons and low-income elderly persons, pay for long-term care and in-home health care.
Ocean Isle Beach is a town located in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 426 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located at the southern end of North Carolina's Atlantic Ocean coastline, with access to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Ocean Isle Beach has many beach houses and second homes, and is a tourist attraction because of its beauty, atmosphere, and proximity to other major beach towns. On October 28, 2007, the tiny, normally quiet community found itself in worldwide news as an early Sunday morning four-alarm fire at a three-story beach house occupied by 13 college students claimed seven lives, injuring six more. Widespread publicity and the magnitude of the tragedy of the Ocean Isle Beach house fire renewed public interest on issues in many communities which included fire safety, building codes, flamability of materials, and fire suppression methods such as sprinkler systems, as well as the potential benefits of monitored fire alarm systems, which can be added to existing structures at relatively minimal costs.