Health Care....Ha

So in my liberal studies class we were required to watch a video called “Sick Around the World”. The video discusses the different successes and failures of healthcare in five other capitalist democracies and maybe figure out how to help us here in America. The five countries included Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Not sure if I’m going in order but I will start with Japan. The Japanese go to the doctor’s office three times more than Americans, use more drugs, and have no waiting times. Yet they still they spend half per person on health care than we do here in the States. In Japan, the government regulates the prices healthcare facilities are allowed to charge and unfortunately about 50% of doctor’s offices are in major debt. The people love their way of things and couldn’t imagine receiving a doctors bill.

In Taiwan, they took the time to research other countries to see what system would work best for them. They settled on one that uses “smart cards”, which is looks like a debit card and includes all of your past health information and then pays your bills automatically. Since everything’s left up to the market, Taiwan’s finding their borrowing money from banks to pay to providers.  

Germany offers universal health care. The healthy basically pay for the poor people over there. Doctors and other medical physicians earn less than American physicians, about half or if you’re lucky two-thirds, because they have regulated prices as well.

The Swiss are all about universal health care. In the United Kingdom, everyone pays through taxes. No one is ever presented with a bill as long as they’re with the National Health Service. Hospitals compete because people are allowed to go where ever they want to take their service and doctors get paid more based on their performance.

This video was way better than I expected it to be, check it out at:

Sick Around the World

My Talk.

Most people say I’m country. Others ask me where I’m from because I don’t sound like I’m from “down here”. Truth is I’m from right here, Charlotte North Carolina (well close to it anyways). I grew up in the small town known as Harrisburg right outside of Charlotte, about ten or fifteen minutes from UNCC. When I think of Harrisburg I think of true country folks or most of Concord for that matter. My mom was also born and raised in Harrisburg along with majority of the rest of my mom’s side of the family so we all got a little bit of that southern dialect. My dad is from another small town called a Monroe and I couldn’t tell you how far that is from here but it can’t be more than an hour, and to my disadvantage or advantage they’re pretty country there too.  Actually I think they may have a thicker southern accent down there than my family in Harrisburg, but that’s just my opinion. I noticed in one of the videos a woman pointed out that you will automatically know where a person is from when they say the words “street” or “straight” because of the way they pronounce it. I laughed when I heard this because they way they say it is the EXACT way I pronounce it as well as everyone else I can think of in my family. I can be having a conversation with someone and as soon as I say the word “street” the way I’ve always pronounce it, they’ll stop the whole conversation and laugh at that. That gets old real fast though. When someone points that out I try to correct myself the next time but it’s extremely hard. I guess the two videos I can relate to the most would have to be of course be “Dialect in southern cities” and the other “African-American English”. I understand the dialect in southern cities because I grew up and still live in a southern city. The terms the man and children were describing in “African-American English” I definitely knew because I think I use some of those on a daily basis. I believe that some people look down on southerners because they think we’re uneducated, they think we just sit down here drinking whiskey and moonshine sitting on some porch jibber jabbing eating fried chicken and farming all day. But that’s not true, well in most parts anyways; we’re just as educated as the rest of the nation. Those people just haven’t been to the south or been too deep in the south.

Literacy.......

Literacy…… This subject could go on forever. Literacy could be defined as being able to read, being able to write in one language but its soooo much more than that. Well that’s what I learned this week in English.  Literacy is hard to define in just one word or one sentence.  Just because someone cannot read doesn’t mean their illiterate.

We read memoirs about literacy issues two people encountered in their lives.  How to tame a wild tongue was interesting because the narrator explained the struggles she endured trying to please everyone but yet still couldn’t manage to satisfy anyone. No one should have to give up their heritage or language or anything for that matter to please another person. Those are the things that makes us who we are as people and without that we’re not who we truly are. The second memoir was about a man who was never really challenged in school and pretty much seen as below literate until one day he was finally challenged and one of his teachers saw his potential that he wasn’t “below average” and was an excellent writer. There are all types of literacy. Many levels of it. Everyone does not need to be mini Einsteins walking around and understanding how the universe works. If everyone was completely literate we wouldn’t have people to do the hard labored jobs that the “extremely literate” or college graduates don’t want to do.

Everyone has their own level of literacy and that’s a good thing. Not everyone needs to take a
standardized test to see what level of literacy on their own. Don’t get me wrong I think everyone needs to be able to read and understand something but not everyone needs to understand Shakespeare or be able to read like they’re trying to get into Harvard. Without basic reading and comprehending skills it’s going to be hard for people to really get anywhere in life. Literacy just has its own indefinable definition. If that makes sense.

100 years or and even older…..

Today in between my chemistry and liberal studies class, I went to the library and read an article on why women in certain countries have better overall health than women in other countries, like United States for example. The article was called “Secrets of the world’s healthiest women”. According to longevity researchers, the answer to living longer in America would be to act as if you were living somewhere else. An explorer Dan Buettner wrote a book called “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest”. The book show that women who live in countries like Italy, Japan, Greece, California, and Costa Rica have traditionally stayed healthy and lived an active life to 100 years of age or older.
French women tend to stay slim because of their portion control. They tend to have small amounts of fresh food. They also have to walk places majority of the time because of sky rocketing gas prices and older buildings in France don’t have elevators so therefore they have to climb the stairs.
Scandinavians secret is to eat from the farm. Scandinavian women eat locally grown and fresh foods. The meats they eat are omega-3 fatty fish (which help prevent serious illnesses like heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, depression and much more) and lean elk and game birds.
Japanese in Okinawa practice eating until their 80% full also known as hara hachi bu. They use meditation to reduce stress. They also have lower cancer rates due to their diets of rice, soy and omega 3 fatty fish as well.
The article came with some health tips like, having a more plant-like diet, less sweet foods; take it easy to shred stress, eating 20% less than we do, and obviously exercising more. The main purpose of my blog today was all about being healthy!!

100 years and even older.....

Today in between my chemistry and liberal studies class, I went to the library and read an article on why women in certain countries have better overall health than women in other countries, like United States for example.  The article was called “Secrets of the world’s healthiest women”. According to longevity researchers, the answer to living longer in America would be to act as if you were living somewhere else. An explorer Dan Buettner wrote a book called “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest”. The book show that women who live in countries like Italy, Japan, Greece, California, and Costa Rica have traditionally stayed healthy and lived an active life to 100 years of age or older.

French women tend to stay slim because of their portion control. They tend to have small amounts of fresh food. They also have to walk places majority of the time because of sky rocketing gas prices and older buildings in France don’t have elevators so therefore they have to climb the stairs.

Scandinavians secret is to eat from the farm. Scandinavian women eat locally grown and fresh foods. The meats they eat are omega-3 fatty fish (which help prevent serious illnesses like heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, depression and much more) and lean elk and game birds.

Japanese in Okinawa practice eating until their 80% full also known as hara hachi bu. They use meditation to reduce stress. They also have lower cancer rates due to their diets of rice, soy and omega 3 fatty fish as well. 

The article came with some health tips like, having a more plant-like diet, less sweet foods; take it easy to shred stress, eating 20% less than we do, and obviously exercising more. The main purpose of my blog today was all about being healthy!!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/health/secrets-worlds-healthiest-women/index.html?hpt=he_t4 

New to This.....

First week over! I’ve finally got to experience my first week of college and it was kind of what I expected to be. Nothing like high school. When I arrived on the first day I was already late. I left my house early just knowing that I was going to get there on time or maybe even early, but once I got off the University City Blvd Ramp all I saw was cars. Traffic was horrible. Seemed like everyone was trying to get to UNCC on January 9^th at 8am. When I eventually got to the school there was one more obstacle that didn’t seem to cross my mind until the last minute. Parking. I never realized how many people attend UNCC until I saw the parking lot and parking decks. It almost seems like everyone’s fighting to get into the same space. There was barely anywhere to park but in the nick-of-time I eventually got to squeeze my two door Honda Accord into one of the parking spots on the third level.

Once I got to class and meet my professor I realized that I might actually like this thing called college. As I went to my next class and on to the next each day, I’ve grown to like my professors because all of them seem like pleasant people. They all seem understanding and show that they are here to help us pass and grow with many resources.

Other than my first day, everything seems to be going smooth. I’ve got all my classes down packed by learning how to get to each one, well on time that is. I now know to remember to bring an umbrella when I see a chance of rain on the forecast in the morning time. But all-in-all I’m truly excited about being in college and getting to experience this, meet new people and watch them grow into their careers and eventually start into my own after all of this. I can already tell that college is a place where if you don’t know what responsibility is, you’ll definitely learn it.