US Healthcare reform

Toastmasters speech 2 Organize your topic - US healthcare reform

Introduction
The US is undergoing a heated debate on healthcare reform under the leadership of president Obama. What's wrong with the current system? What does the new system promise? What's the effect of healthcare reform for me? - these are the questions every person in America should understand and get answers for.

Body
What's wrong with Status Quo?

• Rise in Medical Spending

The US spends 1.5 time more money per person than any other nation in the world. 16% of the GDP is spent on health care - this is the most for any member state of the United Nations except East Timor and inspite of that this exorbitant spending, US ranks 42nd in Infant mortality ratings, 15% of its population is uninsured and several millions underinsured. These underinsured are part of the US middle class and are often only an illness or accident away from being bankrupt.

• ^{Global competitiveness}

^{US insurance is primarily employment based. Health care charges have increased 3 times faster than Employee sponsored health care plans. Smaller companies often pay much more than the bigger companies to afford employee healthcare and this is hurting new entrepreneurs from being globally competitive.}

• Quality of insurance programs

Several companies deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
Man in Illinois chemotherapy -> gallstones.
Soaring prescription drug prices has left a donot hole in the coverage received by our seniors through Medicare program.

• Wastage and Fraud
  

The lack of quality health care in the United States also stems from our system’s lack of comprehensive quality measure and assurance programs

^{What does this reform promise?}

• ^{For people that already have insurance - more stability and security.}

^{Ends discrimination against people with pre-conditions.}
Protects Medicare for seniors.
Caps out of pocket expenses so that you dont go broke when you fall ill.
Eliminates extra charge for preventive care.

• If you don't have insurance

Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.
Creates a new insurance marketplace – the Exchange – that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices
Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees.

• For All Americans

Reins in the cost of healthcare for our families, businesses and our government without adding a dime to the deficit.

Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.
The President’s plan includes proposals that will improve the way care is delivered to emphasize quality over quantity, including: incentives for hospitals to prevent avoidable readmissions

Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects so that doctors can put the patients in the front instead of practising defensive medicine.

What's in it for me?
In the last few years, I have seen insurance companies decreasing coverage for some of the prescription drugs and ultrasound exams for my wife during her pregnancy. With this change I hope to not worry about my medical benefits deteriorating or my costs increasing every year or two. For my company Amazon, the slower increase in medical expenses will translate to more money used for growing the business and perhaps a bigger paycheck per employee.

<sup>Conclusion
Finally, medical reform is necessary in for future sustainance of the economy and making the US globally competitive. Protecting already insured Americans and providing reasonable options for the uninsured, reining in the costs of health care and eliminating waste and fraud are the three main points that sell this plan for me.It's not going to be easy but the ability to act on it during a time of economic crisis depicts the courage of American people and the resilience of the American leadership to not just clean up the crisis but think about a better future.

Mr. Toastmaster</sup>

Pilots should learn how to put a baby to sleep

When you put a baby to sleep, it has to be really smooth.. Even the slightest noise or jerk will wake her up. It needs a lot of skill and patience to place a baby , whom you have been rocking to sleep in your arms on a crib/bed, after she falls asleep.

Pilots who can do this can easily land planes as smoothly too :)

Strongly condemn the terrorist attacks in India

Blasts in New Delhi, India on Sept 13, 2008 and in other parts of the country are nothing but acts of cowardice by the Indian Mujahideen/SIMI terrorist outfit. These incidents show us how much damage feelings like anguish, jealousy, inferiority and revenge seeking mentality can cause not only to individuals but to the entire society. They also remind us why Gandhiji's principles of non-cooperation, non-violence and passive resistance are the best and the only means to achieve an everlasting solution to any problem. The means of obtaining a solution must justify the ends. When you use violence to fight violence, you are embracing the same things that the people on whom you are seeking revenge have done to you. In computer programming terms, this will lead to an infinite loop of revenge, revenge on revenge and so on..

The context for this article is the email that Indian Mujahideen has sent out to all the news agencies in India. They say that they are seeking revenge against Babri Masjid demolition.. But then why are you targeting the innocent people? If your aim is to really punish the outfit who have demolished Babri Masjid and peaceful resistance is not in your dictionary, then at least wage a war directly on the outfit responsible for the heinous acts that enraged you. What has the average Joe done to you and why disturb the lives of these people?

Smugmug rocks!!! but alas...

The other day.. I had the exact same idea and vision as this website and upon a little search found this website that was present for a while now..

www.smugmug.com

Allows you to upload unlimited photos for free. You can also upload videos at a low cost $59.99/year. You can order photo prints, create albums/DVDs and also tag your photos and blog about them on this site.. If you pay the extra bucks, you can also get everything within your domain name..

Check it out for sure!

Stop wastage says Oprah

I watched yesterday's Oprah show on TV and I really liked it. She showed how much people in America waste and how to stop it.. There was a 1 week 'Live for Less' challenge where people were challenged to waste less food, watch less TV and internet and play less video games.. and the kind of things people realized at the end of the week were amazing - some went biking with their family, some spent quality time reading and talking,etc..

I think I want to stop time wastage at work.. I have short attention spans on issues sometimes especially when the stocks are on a rally or when a cricket match is going on. I think I will have a challenge for myself - to stop wastage at work. Let me have a realistic start - I will not spend more than 2 mins at a time and not more than 3 times during the day at work on each of the following:
1.) external mail
2.) cricinfo.com
3.) stock rates + trading websites
and I will not see any other websites than the above including banks/ccs.

Seems like a decent goal for a week. Let me give it a good try starting from tomorrow.. Will update how it went at the end.

Amazon's competitors

Walmart - Launching Site to Store
Google - Launching Storage Services to developers

Future retail distribution

20 years from now.. I see a change in how we buy things..

Instead of ordering online and waiting for 2+ days to receive things, we will have a much more efficient mechanism that would simply deliver the product to a consumer through some underground tunnel..

Just as we have cable delivering internet, we will have to build a network that will deliver products as packets from any place to any other place.. Obviously spam and security are much big concerns then...

Let's make a movie around this.. what say :p

By the way.. I think this is ridiculous!

Jack of all trades.. master of how many

Good to be a jack of all trades.. but doesn't really help unless you can master a few.. just a thought.. :p

Good Quote

With a bad disposition you cannot expect to be successful. You need to enjoy jokes at your expense, and the ones that you play on others.
- Nari Contractor.

If only Andrew Symonds and Bhajji were told this, things would have been smoother in the recent Ind-Aus cricket series.. and it holds for everyday too..