Sick Around the World by Frontline Essay Example

Sick Around the World by Frontline Essay The documentary film Sick Around The World deals with the topic of healthcare systems across the world. In the film, five capitalist democratic countries are chosen for analysis. The rest of this essay will briefly describe these, scrutinize their pros and cons and identify the best among the lot. The essay finally attempts to find ‘the best’ system’s suitability to the United States economy and the possible consequences in the event of being applied. In terms of ‘cost to patient’, the United Kingdom’s healthcare system is the undisputed leader in the world. The government acts in twin roles of 1.healthcare provider and 2.patient insurer. The government gathers funds for healthcare costs beforehand through an ingenuous method of taxation. Of course, as could be expected with a â€Å"socialized medicine† model, there are the usual bureaucratic hassles. But apart from that, the UK healthcare system boasts an enviable record of health management and impressive patient outcomes. The National Health Service (NHS) is the central government agency that takes care of all aspects of catering to citizens’ health. The film then goes on to show the workings of the healthcare system of Japan. Here, the system is slightly different, in that, it is a â€Å"social insurance† system, wherein the costs are distributed between the employers, non-profit community organizations and citizens. While insurance com panies and hospitals in Japan are predominantly in the private sector, they are very well regulated. In this system, monthly premiums cost only $280 for an entire family. We will write a custom essay sample on Sick Around the World by Frontline specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Sick Around the World by Frontline specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Sick Around the World by Frontline specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The German model is quite similar to the Japanese one, the only difference being that citizens are free to choose from an array of private non-profit â€Å"sickness funds†. Those who cannot afford to pay their premiums get covered by taxpayer money. It is a sound system, where premiums are pegged to family incomes and the co-pay is often marginal. The only drawback of this single-payer-system is that it provides fewer choices for medical practitioners, whose monthly income is below par when compared to most European nations. The Swiss system comes closest to the American system in that the premiums are highly priced (about $750 per month per family). The system has generated better patient outcomes than in the United States. The other nation discussed in the film is Taiwan, which spends only 6.3 percent of its total GDP on public health. If one system among the five discussed above were to be picked, it would have to be the UK’s system. Firstly, a sizeable share (8.3%) of GDP is spent on the healthcare system without directly exposing the citizen to any of the costs. By a sophisticated taxation policy, the government bears the costs of running healthcare facilities, paying doctors and support staff and also procedural, medicinal expenses. The most impressive aspect of this model is its focus on preventative care, which would prove to be the perfect antidote for the ailing American healthcare system which holds the worst record for patient outcomes in the industrial world. Excepting for such features as Medicare and Mediclaim, the healthcare industry in the United States is privately run. Hence, a sudden transfer to the â€Å"socialized medicine† model is not only practically not feasible but also not prudent. An ideal solution would be the expansion of provisions within Social Security to cover basic he althcare needs. Such a move would also reduce administrative costs. While the American healthcare industry, including the hospitals, practitioners and insurers would take home paycheques for lesser amounts, the nation’s citizens belonging to all strata of society will be much healthier. Triggle,Nick. Soaring costs prompt rethink of long-term care planning, Nursing Management 19.10 (Mar 2013) 6-7. The article talks about how the public health budget in the UK has steadily grown over the years. It has now superceded military spending and consumers 8.2% of national GDP. But the bad news is that this trend is expected to continue in the future and could grow to 20% of GDP by 2061. Considering an ageing population and shortage of funding and resources the country is faced with a large crisis in the near future. In the article, some constructive suggestions were put forward by experienced healthcare professionals and policy makers. One important idea is to integrate social care and health care so that cost efficiencies are achieved. This is especially true for palliative, chronic or mental health issues. Another important idea is focussing on preventative health measures so that instances of hospitalization are reduced. .

Development of a country Essays

Development of a country Essays Development of a country Essay Development of a country Essay The key to economic development varies, to some certain extent, by country and region. Each country has achieved its own current level of economic development and its own assets and resources, strengths and liabilities. With these things In mind, each country and region must decide how to allocate resources and take the next steps In economic development. It is only then, that a country can move forward with Its development. There are, however, certain crucial factors necessary to basic economic development and which are always Important in moving ahead. These can e classified into four basic elements education, Infrastructure, resources and capital. The first element being education would be one of the key aspects to economic development. The more educated a potential workforce of a country Is, the more attractive It Is to potential employers. A more educated workforce can also expect higher pay levels, which helps to stimulate the countrys overall economic activity. Besides the direct economic benefits of high literacy levels, there are Indirect benefits such as an improvement In public health, and a better understanding mongo the public and its leaders of how to effectively and efficiently utilize resources. Infrastructure, economic and social I. E. , are both important factors for a countrys basic economic development. Physical economic infrastructure includes factories, roads, bridges, ports and other basics that allow people to move goods to markets where they can be then sold. Economic infrastructure also includes things like banks and other lending institutions that help to raise capital and facilitate financial transactions. Social infrastructure is also important but it is also often overlooked. It includes basic elements of a civil society such as stable local and national governments, and institutions that help to organize society and advance its interests. 00 The third element would be resources of any given country. Resources are a basic essential for economic development. Hypothetically, a country cannot be formed, nor would it find economic development to be easy, from scratch, unless large amounts of capital were available, along with valuable resources. In many cases, resources mean natural resources such as water, farmland, oil or valuable minerals. Resources, though, do not have to mean natural products that are harvested and sold. An educated workforce and good infrastructure are both resources. As a term, an educated population would refer to human capital, or human resources. Also, the land itself can be a resource in the case of tourist destinations, if there is capital to build resorts, amusement parks, golf courses and other tourist draws. CO Capital, for these purposes, means cash. In order to take the basic steps to develop resources, I. E. Advancing education or building Infrastructure, there must be some amount of money to fund It. Of course, the effective use of that capital Is also Important. In the early stages, knowing where and how to effectively use the capital will help determine whether or not It contributes to long-term economic development. The essential Idea, though, Is that some amount of capital must be available for economic development to occur. And this capital must be sustained, In the sense it must be strengthened and supported over the years. In order for economic development to exist as a continuous process. Development of a country By alliterations and its own assets and resources, strengths and liabilities. With these things in mind, steps in economic development. It is only then, that a country can move forward with its development. There are, however, certain crucial factors necessary to basic economic development and which are always important in moving ahead. These can e classified into four basic elements education, infrastructure, resources and economic development. The more educated a potential workforce of a country is, the more attractive it is to potential employers. A more educated workforce can also activity. Besides the direct economic benefits of high literacy levels, there are indirect benefits such as an improvement in public health, and a better understanding countrys basic economic development. Physical economic infrastructure includes other tourist draws. 00 Capital, for these purposes, means cash. In order to take the basic steps to develop resources, I. E. Advancing education or building infrastructure, there must be some amount of money to fund it. Of course, the effective use of that capital is also important. In the early stages, knowing where and how to effectively use the capital will help determine whether or not it contributes to long-term economic development.

Addressing A Letter to Two People

Addressing A Letter to Two People Addressing A Letter to Two People Addressing A Letter to Two People By Maeve Maddox One post often leads to another. The recent article â€Å"Conventional Letter Salutations in English† garnered several questions about how to address a letter to a married couple who have different titles and/or different surnames. Traditional letter-writing etiquette is based on traditional professional and marital patterns derived from the following assumptions: 1. A married couple is made up of a man and a woman. 2. The man’s name, with the appropriate honorific, goes first. 3. A married woman takes her husband’s surname. 4. A married woman’s given name is not part of the address or salutation. Based on these assumptions, traditional etiquette dictates the following forms: Address Mr. and Mrs. Charles Simpson Dr. and Mrs. Charles Simpson Rev. and Mrs. Charles Simpson Salutation Dear Mr. and Mrs. Simpson Dear Dr. and Mrs. Simpson Dear Rev. and Mrs. Simpson Nowadays, however, when some people question even the conventional use of Dear to begin a business letter, how to address a letter can be a hotly contested topic. Many married women still prefer the â€Å"Mr. and Mrs.† form, but others feel marginalized by it. As a result, recent guides to letter-writing give the following as acceptable options: Mr. Charles and Mrs. Jane Simpson Mr. Charles and Ms. Jane Simpson Note: In traditional etiquette, the form â€Å"Mrs. Jane Simpson† signifies that the woman so addressed is divorced. In modern usage, when a form other than â€Å"Mr. and Mrs. [surname]† is used, the woman’s name goes first: Mrs. Jane Simpson and Mr. Charles Simpson Jane and Charles Simpson Dear Jane and Charles An editor at The Chicago Manual of Style considers any of the following as proper forms for a business salutation to a married couple: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Stern Dear Irene and Mike Stern Dear Mike and Irene Stern When members of the couple have different titles, some commentators think that the traditional male-female order should be maintained. For example, if the wife has a doctorate and the husband hasn’t, the form would be â€Å"Dear Mr. and Dr. Simpson.† Other authorities, like The Gregg Reference Manual, state that the higher-ranking title should go first: â€Å"Dear Dr. and Mr. Simpson.† If both members of the couple are entitled to be addressed as â€Å"Dr.,† then they may be addressed as â€Å"Dear Drs. Simpson.† Another result of changing norms is the necessity to decide how to address a couple that does not share a surname. Robert Hickey, author of Honor Respect, The Official Guide to Names, Titles, and Forms of Address, offers a solution that covers every kind of couple: heterosexual, homosexual, married, and unmarried-but-living-together. When each member of a couple uses a different surname, list each name fully, putting them in alphabetical order by family name: Dr. Geoffrey Baxter and Dr. Alice Goodwin For partners in a same-sex couple, list them in alphabetical order by family name: Ms. Angela Esposito and Ms. Shara Patel Mr. Liam O’Hare and Mr. Darin Washington Some same-sex couples opt to share a surname. In that case, arrange the names in alphabetical order by given name: Ms. Angela Patel and Ms. Shara Patel. Bottom line: If you know the couple, you should know how they prefer to be addressed. If you are addressing a letter to people you do not know well, choose a respectful form of address that suits the occasion. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Business Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Compared "to" or Compared "with"?50 Synonyms for â€Å"Idea†Continue and "Continue on"

Building Information Modeling (BIM) For Sustainable Design Dissertation

Building Information Modeling (BIM) For Sustainable Design - Dissertation Example Introduction 29 5.2. Kiowa County School, Greensburg, Kansas 29 6. Results and Discussion 33 7. References 37 Building Information Modeling for Sustainable Design 1. Chapter One: Introduction 1.1. Impact of Building Construction on Environment Building construction is one of the oldest human activities on the earth. The proverb â€Å"necessity is the mother of invention† probably evoked in human talent for creating a controlled environment in order to moderate the effects of climate. Human beings constructed shelters to adapt themselves to a wide variety of climates (Encyclopedia of Britannica, n.d.). This is how emerged a new activity, which is called building construction. Centuries of development have established three principal characteristics of building construction; design, material, and comfort. The history of evolution of building construction has marked number of trends that are associated with these characteristics. Among them are search for increasing durability of building materials, quest for providing greater height and span to the construction, implementation of innovative approaches to increase the degrees of control over the interior environment of the building as well as the use of more robust machineries in construction (Encyclopedia of Britannica, n.d.). The present state of building construction is the result of many evolutionary processes like agrarian, industrial, and digital. In the process of evolution, the design process of building construction became more and more complicated. At the same time, this process also created a broad range of building products that are categorized according to the building types and markets. Today’s building construction process involves professionals like building product manufacturers, craftsmen, contractors, coordinators, specialized consultants, and quality control personnel. This complex integrated process represents the largest industry in the world. According to United States Environm ental Protection Agency (EPA), in the USA this industry in 2002 consisted of 223,114 establishments representing more than $531 billion in annual revenues. It is no doubt that this complex process provides countless benefit to the society, however; at the same it uses a vast amount of resources. Worldwide construction activities consume three billion tons of raw materials each year; it is 60% of total global use (Dixon, 2010; Ahmed, 2010). Loss of agricultural land to the building is 80% (Dixon, 2010). Total land area in the USA is 2.3 billion acres; urban land area from 1945 to 2002 quadrupled against twofold population growth over the same period (United States Energy Protection Agency, 2009). During the time of 1997 to 2002, rural land use for residential purposes increased by 29% (United States Energy Protection Agency, 2009); no other industry uses more material worldwide than the construction industry (Ahmed, 2010). Per Australian Bureau of statistics building and construction industries use 55% of timber, 27% of plastic products and 12% of iron and steel (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003). Building construction industry on one side consumes enormous natural resources, and on the other side it gives to nature heat and pollution, construction waste, solid waste, sewage and surface drainage. According to EPA (United States Energy Protection Agency, 2009), buildings in the United States produces 38.9% of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions; 20.8% from the residential sector and 18.1% from the commercial sector. According to

National and International Perspectives on Health (Mental Health Essay

National and International Perspectives on Health (Mental Health Nursing) - Essay Example The symptoms are sometimes responsible for major psychological and social problems especial at work and in relationships. If the disorder is left unattended, it may lead to serious mental conditions that may result into the death of victims. In the U.K for instance, the country has properly established intervention mechanisms that ensure children and other people suffering from this disorder are diagnosed and treated effectively. On the other hand, Sri Lanka has had to battle with this order for a very long time.This has been brought about by the country’s inferior structures and response to these problems and others related to it. Many children that have suffered this condition in Sri Lanka have ended up with serious mental problems compared to the United Kingdom and other countries where there are clearly defined systems and structures to address the problem. This paper examines the prevalence of PTSD and the impacts it has had to children in Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. It compares how intervention mechanisms have been adopted in the two countries, including the future of mental health nursing as far as PTSD is concerned in the United Kingdom Sri Lanka has been on the path of recovery after having endured a 30 year period of armed conflict that has affected not only the economy of the country, but also has caused serious Post Traumatic Stress Disorders in children and other people in its population (Abeyasinghe 2012, 376). It is estimated that over 100, 000 of the country’s army were involved in various types of direct and indirect combat. The experiences during that time were hostile and pathetic; they included screams from all over, handling decomposing bodies of people among others. The trauma from the war is said to have led to serious psychological problems among the children and adults at large. The Sri Lankan government has responded to the increasing

David Gauthiers Answer to Why Be Moral :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

David Gauthier's Answer to Why Be Moral ABSTRACT: In this paper I argue that David Gauthier’s answer to the Why be moral? question fails. My argument concedes the possibility of constrained maximization in all the senses Gauthier intends and does not rely on the claim that it is better to masquerade as a constrained maximizer than to be one. Instead, I argue that once a constrained maximizer in the guise of "economic man" is transformed through an affective commitment to morality into a constrained maximizer in the guise of the "liberal individual," then a purely rational justification for morality must become invisible to the latter. If I can show this, then I can show that rational justification can have no motivational power for the "liberal individual" and that Gauthier fails to answer the problem of moral motivation. I begin by making what I take to be a crucial distinction. This distinction separates two levels at which a contract theory may operate. At the first level the contractarian theory is directed at the question of moral motivation. That is, it takes the idea of agreement to be the source of motivation to be or become moral. The agreement thus serves to bring into the moral domain agents who, prior to the agreement, were not moral agents. At the second level the contractarian theory is directed at the question of the content and justification of our most general normative principles and values. That is, it takes the idea of agreement to be the source of both content and justification. For convenience I will describe a theory which is contractarian at both levels as complete, and a theory which is contractarian at only one level as partial. The problem of moral motivation, when understood as a problem of enticing non-moral agents into the moral domain, is a specific problem only for a contractarian theory which is complete or which is partial at level one. A contractarianism which is partial at level two has no special obligations, qua contractarian theory, to answer the Why be moral? question. In other words, such a theory does not offer, and does not aim at offering, a contractarian answer to the Why be moral? question since it is not concerned with moral-non-moral distinction. The early Rawls (1971) and Gauthier (1975,1986) both offer complete theories, while the later Rawls (1980) and Thomas Scanlon (1982) offer theories which are partial at level two (I will drop the ‘at level two': this can be assumed unless I indicate otherwise).

Modern Gadgets

In the software industry, â€Å"Gadget† refers to computer programs that provide services without needing an independent application to be launched for each one, but instead run in an environment that manages multiple gadgets. There are several implementations based on existing software development techniques, like JavaScript, form input, and various image formats. The origins of the word â€Å"gadget† trace back to the 19th century.According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is anecdotal evidence for the use of â€Å"gadget† as a placeholder name for a technical item whose precise name one can't remember since the 1850s; with Robert Brown's 1886 book Spunyarn and Spindrift, A sailor boy’s log of a voyage out and home in a China tea-clipper containing the earliest known usage in print. The etymology of the word is disputed.A widely circulated story holds that the word gadget was â€Å"invented† when Gaget, Gauthier & Cie, the company behind th e repousse construction of the Statue of Liberty (1886), made a  small-scale version of the monument and named it after their firm; however this contradicts the evidence that the word was already used before in nautical circles, and the fact that it did not become popular, at least in the USA, until after World War I. Other sources cite a derivation from the French gachette which has been applied to various pieces of a firing mechanism, or the Frenchgagee, a small tool or accessory. There are a lot Using gadget like computer, hand phones, tablet, play station, laptop etc can change us socially