Archive for the 'Finance' Category

As I was listening to NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast I heard a NBC reporter mention that NBC on average makes ~$100,000/second for each commercial timeslot they sold for the Super Bowl.  Metcalfe’s law in action.

Even though it seems the feds and others had a hard time figuring out (even after the collapse it took them a while, unless they were just embarrassed) what was the recipe for the disaster we all now currently face, mint.com was able to produce a visual of it all for our hungry eyes, or is that mouths?  Take a look – it’s a decent visual explanation – a good follow on to my NPR global pool of money post.

A buddy of mine, Presto, posted a couple NPR links on his website about what what caused (good level of detail) the current economic crisis as well as an objective explanation of the bailout plan that was passed recently.  As an investor (i.e. US tax payer) I am writing my representatives about the Stock Injection Plan – you can hear more about at the links Preston provided.

As I was exploring healthcare on the web today, I saw a service I thought was interesting – a web based expert (Cleveland Clinic, aka CC) second opinion healthcare service.  I applaud CC for heading down this path, as I feel this is where healthcare needs to go, but the $565 price tag is proof that the consumer/buyers need to demand better pricing.  If I had cancer I may pay that, and perhaps that is what CC expects.  But there are somethings which I just need a quick opinion on and would like to get an expert opinion.  Perhaps CC has looked at this part of the market and chooses to leave it to the nurses and doctors at other vendors – e.g. maybe I can get the virtual second opinion at Walgreens online for $40?

Regardless, as the healthcare data and transparency waves continue to rise, we as consumers will be better positioned to educate ourselves about healthcare and make better quality and cost decisions – playing a significant role in the reform of healthcare as we know (or in some cases don’t know) it today.

Here’s the article: MyConsult: Second Medical Opinions From Doctors at The Cleveland Clinic

FYI, this topic related to a book I just finished reading by G. Halvorson (CEO Kaiser Permanente) – Health Care Reform NOW! (recommended reading).  

This morning while reading through some healthcare news I saw a CNN summary of the most recent Diamond  health/wealth  paper.  One thing that stuck out to me while reading the summary was that the best way for this to work is for it to be “mutually beneficial” (between the consumer and healthcare co’s).  There’s a lot of marketing spin from the payers around Wellness (type) Programs and the messages around these and other programs and benefits for consumers come out smelling like roses.  However, consumers should never forget that for the most part healthcare is a for profit industry and it will/should be run as such.  That is, improving health will be placed after improving profit in terms of importance unless improved health means additional revenue for the healthcare companies as well.

This is similar to a computer server company saying they are “Green” focused when in reality they have always been trying to reduce power and heat so they can reduce footprint and AC costs in data centers, thus improving the sales of the product – it is just now that they actually are making it more of a point to the consumer and starting to leverage that intrinsic goodness around their original design goals.  This is a nice segue into why some consider a National Healthcare system better – i.e. clearer motives (debatable for sure).  How do you think the business model works if we move to a single payer and/or more regulated industry post 2008 elections?