FIRST MUTUAL HEALTH Go Beyond First Mutual Health Monthly Newsletter April : 2015 Contents Title Page How to get a Tax Rebate on shortfalls... eee 2 Getting the best out your health ......c cesses 3 FIRST MUTUAL HEALTH, First Floor, Fist Mutual Park, 100 Borrowdale Road, Borrowdale, Harare, Zimbabwe | P O Box 1083, Harare. Tel: +263 (4) 250420-4, 798517-23, 886018-36 | Fax: +263 (4) 886068, 886069 E-mail: info@fmimedical.cozw | Website: www.{mimedical.cozw News BulletinFIRST MUTUAL HEALTH Go Beyond Here’s How to get a Tax Rebate on Shortfalls As your preferred medical fund, at First Mutual Health we remain committed to providing you the best service at the most competitive rates. While we strive to ensure that you incur nominal or no expenses at all at the time of need, it is a reality that in these days of increasing medical costs, in some situations shortfalls are occurring more frequently for medical aid members. We are happy to advise that is all hope is not lost and fortunately, there is a tax rebate on shortfalls that is provided by the government. This is good news for members as it means that you can recoup some of the money that you spend on a shortfall because ZIMRA provides medical expenses credit. Below is some information on how you can take advantage of the medical expenses credit. O Whenever you make a payment towards your medical bills you can submit your receipts to your salary office or payroll office. Your payroll office will capture those receipts as an expense on medical aid which will reduce the tax you are charged by 50% of the receipt amount or submit directly to ZIMRA. In submitting a tax return, the taxpayer should attach evidence of the expenses claimed in their original forms. O The medical expenses where the credit applies include those paid for the following: O Services rendered by a medical or dental practitioner OQ Drugs and medicines supplied on the prescription of a medical or dental practitioner Accommodation on admission, maintenance, nursing and treatment, including blood transfusions, X-ray and laboratory examinations and medical tests in a hospital, maternity-home, nursing-home, sanatorium, surgery, clinic or similar institution Q Transportation by ambulance, including an air ambulance Q Medical aid contributions to a medical aid society in respect of the taxpayer or his/her spouse or any minor children. We are confident that this advice should go a long way in easing the money paid as a result of shortfalls. WE remain committed to providing you the best service possible! Reference: Zimra Website: FIRST MUTUAL AX, WEALTH =) z = = 3 = i} 2 = = i) 5 a = a Ee EaFIRST MUTUAL Getting the best How to Get Your [nthe last edtion of the monthly newsletter, we shared with yout onhow to stay heathy butinxpensvey.Notonlyare we encouraging YOU to stay heakh but we ae extending the intaonto your spouseas well! ‘Spouses influence each other's exercise habits, for better and worse, more than is often recognized, according to an interesting new study of the workout habits of middle-aged couples. The study found that changes in one spouse's routine tend to be echoed in the othe’, highlighting the extent to which our exercise behaviours shaped not just by our personal intentions butby the people aroundusaswell Instudyingwty people opt to exercise ornot, scents oten and undetstandably focus on individual psychology and situations. But increasingly, exercse scientists are aso looking into broader factors that can have a bearing incuding our social eationships and whether being single, marie, childs or employedisikely toaffectexercsebehaviout ‘The results of past studies on this subject have been alternately predictable and staring Single men and women, for instance, generally exercise far more than do maried people, athough divorce can change that. Men typicaly exercise more after a ‘marriage ends; women in that situation frequently exercise less. Meanwhile, eriplayed men, even those with desk jobs, usually exercise more thanmen whoare unemployed Parenthood though, has the greatest downward pullon planned exercise time. In a numberof studies in recent yeas, scientists have ound hat mothess of even one child exercise considerably lessthan dothe cildess,athough, pethaps not suprising, they often complete mote light activity, hich would indude cooking, cleaning and scrambling after steaking toddlers, than do the childless. Meanie, fathers of a single chid often exercise as muchas they did before becoming a parent, but fathers of more than one child experience alerge and rapid decinein their fornal exerdsetime. FIRST MUTUAL ASS pecrems WEALTH HEALTH Go Beyond out of your health: Spouse to Exercise There has been suprisingly litle examination, however, of how mariage affects exercise in the yeass after a couple's children have gown, and especialy whether and how changes in one spouse'sexercseroutine at thal point afect the lher spouse. Sa, forthe new study, which was presented this month at a scientticmeetingof the American Heat Associatonin Bator, researches fom Johns Hopkins University and other insttuons tuned to data fiom the lagescale Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, which indudes answers to healtrrelated questionnaires from thousands of riddle aged American ahi ‘Most ofthe pattdpants answered the questionres mutipe times, beginningin the late 1980s. The researchers loked for data related to exercise from 3,261 healthy, middle-aged, mertied couples with an average age of about 55, each of whomhad filed out the questionnaires at least twice, with about six yearsbetweenthe'r answers = a) 2 = = i) ey =) i= er AmFIRST MUTUAL HEALTH Go Beyond Cont’d...How to Get Your Spouse to Exercise As a benchmat, the researches focused on whether, according to thet fist questionnaie, each husband or wife had met the standard recommendation for exetise to improve healt, wich arnounts to 30 minutes of moderate exercise a least five times a week (These maried couples consisted of a man and a woman) Then the scentsts determined whether either of the middle-aged spouses had alteredhisor her exerse habit between questionnaires, and whether the couple's exerdse routines had converged or giownmore diferent during those years. What they found was thatthe older couples exerse routines tendedtobecomestitingysimilaratthispointn their ives. If 2 woman met the standard recommendation for exercise dutingher fist questionnaie andher husband lid not, he was 70 percent’ more key to be meeting those recommendations six years later than were men whose spouses did not exercse much so long as the woman was sillexescisngrequaly Simi, ifa husband met the recommendations ding his first questionnaire and his wife did not, she was about 40 percent mare key tobe meeting those recommendations 3 few yeas later then were wornen whose husbands were andremainedsedentary. FIRST MUTUAL AX. i WEALTH cy Less encouraging if one spouse eased off or eschewed exercise ding the years between questinnaies, his or her spouseusvalyfllowedsuit The implication, says Laura Cobb, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins who led the study, is that “spouses can play an outszedrolein exercsebehaviorduingmiddeage. Of couse, the study relies on selfreported, prospective information she says, and so “can't prove” that one spouse's exercise habis direct affectthe othe’ “sequal possible,” she says, “that other shared ‘isle facto,” such as fetiement or a move to a new neighborhood, could be influent (The scentsts contoled for heath problems by not inducing coupes if one spouse had or developed a major disease) But the neat aignment between one middle-aged spouse's workoutsand, after afer years, the otha’s does suggest, Ms. Cobb says, that to inspire your spouse to work out mate you should probably beginby rampingup your own routine Andi you hope to maintain that regimen into the futue, nudge a sedentay spouse to join you. Otherwise it can be sorely temptingto settleonto the couch yous. = a) 2 = = i) ey =) i= a Ee PsGo Beyon