Funny Speech Topics: Ways of Making Money

As we come to the end of 2010, I wanted to leave you all with a few gifts to wrap and give to your friends -- some small gems of health reform that may have escaped attention.

There are a variety of charts that show what health reform has and will achieve by the time it is fully implemented. Some of these charts are being used to scare people about the scope of this law. But these charts and timelines also show how complicated it would be to unravel this law, given that so many of the moving parts are linked together.

As I combed through these charts, I picked out the following 10 gifts -- something between the 8 nights of Hanukkah and the 12 days of Christmas:

1. Here are a package of gifts you should already know about --- In September of this year, the law began prohibiting lifetime limits on your coverage; denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions for kids; a way for people with serious illness who have been without insurance for awhile to get into a state insurance program, and new prevention programs. And by the end of the year, seniors will have access to preventive services at no cost and the donut hole for prescription drugs will begin to disappear.

2. Do you know someone who has retired but is receiving retiree health insurance assistance from their employer? Are they worried about how they can afford to keep their health insurance or whether their employer will drop the coverage? In June of this year, the Secretary of HHS created a temporary $5 billion fund to hep employers provide health insurance to retirees 55 to 64. This replaces a prior government program that helped employers keep retirees health insurance active, so it's basically an incentive to companies to keep doing that.

3. What to give your friends who are always worrying about fraud and abuse in government programs? There are new efforts at catching doctors and hospitals who cheat Medicare and Medicaid programs with false claims. There was already a big sting in Florida where Medicare caught doctors making fake claims for fake patients to the tune of over $250 million. Monitoring fraud takes resources, but the return on investment is substantial.

4. We all know someone who worries about the costs of health care and thinks health reform will do nothing about it other than jacking up their premiums. There are actually hundreds of ways that reform is going to chip away at costs because of the law. One of the ways the government is going to ensure that your tax dollars and contributions to Medicare pay for what is really needed, is to pressure providers to become more efficient. We have had a system where doctors get paid more when they do more, no matter whether it cures you! Medicare will now begin to pay bonuses to doctors and hospitals that provide better quality care -- the better the quality, the better the bonus. No improvement in quality? Less money. Sounds sensible doesn't it? Should have been done a long time ago.

There will also be better state oversight of insurance companies that announce big increases in monthly premiums. Some states like Connecticut have given themselves the authority to actually deny these increases; other states will try to use persuasion, public shaming, or non-legal methods to keep premiums in line. Bottom line is that these big premium increases will not go unnoticed or unpublicized. And by 2014, you'll have a lot more choice of plans, because these same insurance companies will be directly competing for your business through the Exchanges. If you believe market forces can help keep costs under control, this type of consumer choice could make a difference.

5. What if you have a friend who lives in a rural area and their hospital is small or they have to travel a long way to get care? Health reform is putting resources into hospitals in those communities, to help them with telemedicine (sending your x rays to a medical center where an expert can read them or consulting with the country's expert on your diagnosis, etc.) and money for training physicians, nurses and other practitioners with enticements for them to practice in a rural area. This change may mean little to those of you who live in a big city, but there's nothing scarier than living in a rural area and getting really ill but not being able to get the care you need.

6. Do you have a family member who has dementia and is in some type of assisted living or nursing home? No matter how much you visit, you can't really guarantee they will get the care they need when you're not around. Caregivers who work in these facilities often work at minimum wage with very little training. Starting in March of next year, there will be money available to train staff in those facilities so they understand better how to care for these folks. The shocking fact is that:

According to recent estimates, as many as 2.4 million to 5.1 million Americans have Alzheimers Disease (AD). Unless the disease can be effectively treated or prevented, the number of people with AD will increase significantly if current population trends continue. That's because the risk of AD increases with age, and the U.S. population is aging. The number of people age 65 and older is expected to grow from 39 million in 2008 to 72 million in 2030, and the number of people with AD doubles for every 5-year interval beyond age 65.

If you've visited one of these places recently, no matter how good they are, there's so much more that needs to be done to make the lives of our elders better as they decline. This training doesn't require much money but it can do so much good.

7. Haven't you wondered why we still have a paper based system in health care, when you can go to an ATM anywhere in the country and get your account balance and money out? The reasons for lack of progress are many, but one of the reasons is that so few of the existing data systems talk to each other adequately. Even before health reform passed, President Bush put resources into upgrading our HIT systems, and health reform has given a big boost to that effort. Medicare, which is known to pay claims very slowly, has an outdated system that will be upgraded due to health reform. And doctors and hospitals will have some guidance from experts on how to implement a system whereby they can send your medical records to another facility instantly, should you get sick while you are traveling -- or where you can go online and look at your medical records, know when you need to get a screening or vaccination, see the results of the blood test you had yesterday. In my home town, we already have that and I love the speed and ease with which I can find this information.

8. Anyone hurting here? If you have a friend with chronic pain, you already know that it is truly hard to get good information about what works and what does not. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor. Even people like Rush LImbaugh who apparently was in a lot of pain recently, got addicted to oxycontin to manage his pain. He may not have known what the alternatives were, because there has not been a huge amount of attention paid to pain management in the past. If you want some real good research on pain and some objective ideas about how to manage it, starting in March of next year, there will be a special coordinating committee to look at pain research and report to Congress on its findings. Hopefully this will lead to options other than oxycontin.

9. Do you know someone who has had trouble finding a physician or who has lost access to the physician they used to have? Health reform releases money this year to train a variety of health professionals, help physicians in training get scholarships and loans, and encourage physicians to practice in rural or underserved areas. There will also be a national workforce committee to look at future needs for physicians and other professionals as we shift focus from emergency care to primary care.

10. Are you one of the people who feel that malpractice reform was neglected and that Democrats don't care about that? Starting in 2011, there will be funding for 5 year grants at the state level to take a close look at what is working and what is not to reduce litigation. We have a lot of interesting malpractice projects going in California, Texas, and other states, but we need to understand why some of these programs seem to reduce lawsuits while others make little impact at all. This has been a major Republican talking point, and this health reform law, which so few Republicans supported, actually puts some money to the problem of figuring out how to do it. It also makes it a state-based initiative, not a big federal mandate, something else Republicans should like. On the other side of the coin, for people who have actually been harmed by bad medical practice, health reform implemented this year a slew of new ways to appeal medical decisions, something the consumer public needs to have.

My point here is that there are many, many changes going on in the health care system at this very moment, and these changes are ultimately going to improve health care delivery. You may not hear much about them; in fact, you probably won't. But gradually we will see fewer medical errors (wrong legs being operated on), better customer service (fewer minutes on hold), more responsiveness from your physician (being able to use email with your doctor), and ultimately, lower costs (once everyone is "in" and paying their fair share).

Those are holiday gifts that won't have to be returned!

TRON Guy on open source, DIY ethos, & plans for a suit sequel

Andrea James at 5:37 PM Saturday, Dec 18, 2010

Andrea James is a writer, producer, filmmaker, and activist for consumer issues (including hair removal & transsexual transition) plus LGBT film & families. She's a long-time Wikipedian and recommends noteworthy films & books.

Jay Maynard, aka TRON Guy, was kind enough to do an interview in honor of this weekend's #1 film, TRON: Legacy. He's seen the film again since his Wired review, and I asked him about his favorite surprises that were a nod to the original (hearing Journey's "Separate Ways" at high volume). He also liked a lot of the repurposed lines, but he didn't want to drop any spoilers. He wanted to see MOAR of the fastest thing on the grid: Sam with Flynn's lightcycle. Outside of his TRON fame, Jay is project manager on the open source Hercules project, so we talked a bit about the film's take on open source and cracking, etc. Jay also has some excellent advice for makers and cosplayers alike after the break.

How many personal appearances have you originally made since your original suit?

A few dozen, mostly right after it was first sprung on an unsuspecting world, muah ha ha ha. I make a few a year now.

What has been the highlight of your experiences since putting up your site and photos?

Appearing regularly on Jimmy Kimmel Live! was definitely the highlight. I had a lot of fun doing that show, and they went out of their way to make me feel like I was special and yet part of the family. If they asked me back, I'd go in a heartbeat.

Any plans to make a new suit based on the sequel?

Very definitely. I've got a pretty good idea of how I'd approach it. The main things I need now are time and money; the rest I can acquire.

Do you play video games, and if so, do you plan to check out the TRON: Evolution game? As you may know, it covers the time period between the original and the sequel.

I'm not a gamer, but I am planning to get TRON: Evolution. I also expect it to mop the floor with me. The big question for me is which version to get, especially since I'm a Mac person who refuses to run Windows and don't own any of the consoles it runs on.

What is your opinion on how hackers and open source are presented in the new film?

I truly believe in open source. I'm rather ambivalent about the portrayal of open source in the film. As Sam Flynn's cause celebre, it provides his motivation for being involved with Encom at all; at the same time, it takes a very Stallmanite view of open source that, I think, does the whole arena a disservice. Not everyone in the world of open source agrees with Richard Stallman's utopia.

As for hackers, the movie shows Sam as a cracker, not a hacker. I refuse to honor those who break into computer systems and steal things with the term "hacker". On the other hand, if Sam's only stealing from himself...

Do you have any tips for making a suit like yours last longer, or any design changes you would make now?

My costume is getting close to 7 years old, and it shows it. If I had it to do over again, I'd definitely stiffen the armor where the electroluminescent wire currently flexes, because I've had to splice it a few times, and that stuff is a royal pain to work with. I'd also have silk-screened the unitard so I could do several at once - right now, all I have is the one, and it's wearing badly in spots (mostly invisible).

What is your advice for someone who wants to make something and has never done it before?

Be sure you understand what you're about to do, and wade in. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you make a mistake, you're learning things. My hands are full of 40-year-old soldering iron burn scars and such, but I wouldn't trade away a single one of them. Beyond that, measure twice and cut once, and remember that you have it easier than older electronics geeks did: it's a lot easier to change bits in flash than diodes on a circuit board. One other thing: Ignore the naysayers. If you're enjoying yourself, that's what really counts.

effective bench craft company scam

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Ways of Making Money

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me