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.
Briggs is an unincorporated community in eastern Burnet County, Texas, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 183 northeast of the city of Burnet, the county seat of Burnet County. Its elevation is 1,102 feet (336 m), and it is located at 30°53′23″N 97°55′30″W / 30.88972°N 97.925°W / 30.88972; -97.925 (30.8896255, -97.9250199). Although Briggs is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 78608; the ZCTA for ZIP Code 78608 had a population of 279 at the 2000 census. Founded as Springs, the community was soon renamed Gum Springs. The first settler in the area, a Missourian named W. T. Gann, arrived in the area in 1855, but the community was established along the Berry Creek in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A post office was established under the name of Taylor's Gin (named for leading settler Stephen Taylor) on 27 March 1888; it did not assume its current name until 21 June 1898, when local doctor William Hazelwood was able to have the community renamed for his mother-in-law. The community prospered in the early 1900s; although major fires and the early effects of the Great Depression seriously impacted the community, it reached its height in 1936, from which it has since declined.