SmileySteve's Blog

I may have gone a little overboard on this as it’s 3am in the morning and a 1 paragraph email turned into several pages.

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Open competition for insurance is part of what the problem in the insurance industry is today! In the mid and late 80s insurance companies were paying out >95% of their income from premiums to claims and by the late 90s, thanks to deregulation, this percentage is down to <85%.

When competition is a factor, companies know not to compete on price, business students are taught this in standard curriculum. By having open competition, companies are now spending that additional 10% of premium income on MARKETING and ADVERTISING – something that government granted monopolies don’t have to do as much.

At one point, insurers were owned by the policyholders – effectively making insurance a not for profit industry. Not for profit does not mean that staff/administration don’t make money, but it does mean that shareholder’s are no longer interested in a bottom line.

Open competition : pretty silly – see comparison of energy deregulation in GA, why is your electricity and cable regulated?

Tort reform: needs to happen, I believe both sides want some. This can not happen with competition, as the current competition has every insurance company suing every other insurance agency or stakeholder to avoid paying out of that insurance that you purchased. (I have a great real world example of this if you want me to tell you the story.)

Pre-existing conditions : I recently met a man who was denied his insurance claim due to pre-existing conditions when he broke his neck biking during a triathlon. I can’t even begin to think how that works.

Media Influence Note: John Grisham’s the Rainmaker came out in 1996. In it, Great Benefit Health Insurance denied a claim (and all claims made by policyholders.) While the client won a settlement that was never paid, there have been no major health insurance regulations made since.

Republican Note: If the GOP really hated “socialized” health care on principle, then they should suggest getting rid of medicare and medicaid. Beyond that, they could go with the local government measure of having state/county insurance (which they do for state employees anyway) to stress federal conservatism and states rights.

>The bill does not involve a massive, centralized budget busting takeover of our healthcare system
This is a Joe Wilson style, “You Lie.” While, the health care bill was written to be budget busting it is written to be in a reducing the budget and costs to Americans. Have you read the news? Americans are #1 in % GDP Spent on Healthcare. (and 17th below numerous “socialized” systems in actual care) This means that the U.S. must be either extremely unhealthy or that there are huge inefficiencies in the system that don’t seem to be prevalent in the other “socialized” systems.

What If? you could attend a conference where the theme was thinking outside of the box about technology, entertainment, design, and solving world problems. What if you get 100 actively involved, interesting people together from a city together?

TEDxPeachtree

First, I want to go ahead and thank all of the organizers, speakers, sponsors, and other attendees at the event. You created an excellent environment for the people of Atlanta to see new ideas.

The Speakers and Their Speeches

Josh Elder on Comics in the Classroom

• Not needing 3d glasses to see 3d files (like Avatar) was neat because the presenter showed a normal looking LCD that had a second layer, adding depth to the picture. The viewing angle could be rough, but it was pretty neat.
• Mike McQuary’s,  What if gasoline were $5 a gallon? was a speech about how our lives change when fossil fuel becomes expensive.
• Josh Elder presented on Bringing Comics to the Classroom to better education.
• The American Healthcare system’s failure to compete in terms of innovation by Dr. Ross Mason
• Hip-hop’s effect on the world in terms on Non Violence by Daddy-O
• The Adams, presenting WaterBrick to deliver food, water, and shelter.
• Painting on Water – getting in touch with your roots- by Amy Lee Segami
• Bring the excitement back into travel by Hollis Gillespie
• An Entreprenuerial Look at being a Musician by star violinist Robert McDuffie

With Speakers Amy Segami and Wendell Adams

My Favorite Discussions

The first discussion that I felt passionate about was McQ’s discussion on $5 gasoline and touting the electric car. I disagreed with his speech on a major level when he suggested that the e-car is the “right tool for the job” to go to the local grocery (which he later sent me his marketing material on that agrees with me. I really wish that his discussion would have headed more toward the eventual demise of suburbia and commuting in general, and a realization that the automobile has only been around for about 100 years.

I got to talk to Josh Elder about different ideas with education and my work and experience with Talented and Gifted programs at Roswell High School and where I see students being able to learn and extend their learnings beyond basic media. I really liked how he shows that comics can help overcome learning disabilities. The problem is, is the comic funny or do educational comics become the how to evacuate and airplane comic.

Ross Mason’s speech on healthcare was particularly politically relevant. Ross suffered a head injury during a triathlon that his insurance company somehow claimed was preexisting (triathlon and paralysis?) He pointed out that the “Eastern” medicine view in China leads to a 50% of people with his condition walking again, but in America, that is less than 1%. By being holistic and more full time (weeks of direct physical therapy instead of a day a week.) I’m glad that he didn’t need insurance as much because he has been in private equity and venture capital.

WaterBrick

Adams Present WaterBrick

Probably because I spoke with the Adams more, but this was a very interesting new venture inspired by Jacques Cousteau’s son as a way to reduce PET on the 8th continent. My only concern would be leeching issues. The stack-ability was a fun tangible part too.

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• Some of the presenters had overly complicated powerpoint presentations that should not survive any high school or college presentation, much less a professional presentation. People need to learn not to put books of text on slides. It’s not getting read. (just like this blog, jab)
• The flexible LED screen was very low DPI.
• Watching online TED videos seems like a relative waste of meeting time compared with live presenters.