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Once again, we’re pleased to bring you some thoughts from Mr. Joseph P. Martino of Millburn, New Jersey. This time around, Mr. Martino presents a plan for medical reform that won’t bankrupt our country’s economy. As this is one of the hottest topics being discussed and debated around the nation right now, we’re glad to bring you some thoughts from our resident poet, writer, motivator, and inventor. Enjoy!
New world model for medical reform that will not bankrupt a nations economy. how to reform medicare/medicaid programs,prevent hospital insolvency and balance the federal deficit over the long term.
Medicare and the Health care industry world wide is broken.i am mainly addressing the problems. America is experiencing but facets of this plan could be adapted by most other countries. There is also a shortage of doctors, besides the fact that medical students are loaded with medical school debt. There is a long term solution: medical students lacking in adequate financial funds should have the cost of their medical school education paid for by the federal government.. the graduating doctors would not be burdened with school loan debt under this medical reform plan.
This would not be a giveaway or money loser for the federal government. the federal governments would recover all of their initial investment plus, over the long term. Let me explain: By accepting government funding for his/her medical school education, the student doctor would agree to provide free medical office treatment/care to a percentage of poor patient deemed so by the federal government. The doctor’s obligations,time of service and percentage of free patient treatment would be determined by existing federal agencies. the participating doctors as as stipulated for the free government medical school education would not be able to bill the governments medicare/medicaid programs. thus assuring the government of the return of their free medical school investment plus. the poor patients would not have to receive free hospital emergency treatment under this program. hospitals would not be burdened by providing free treatment to the poor preventing hospital insolvency.
The return of the federal government’s initial investment would be through Medicare/Medicaid savings. for what i understand in the United States of America that For every 1% Medicare saves over a one year over the course of 15 years would factor to a total savings of $1 trillion dollars for the federal government. It is easy to understand what the federal government would save as the pool of participating doctors grows. This practice could later be expanded to include the more expensive tests and other medical specialties and providers, such as x-ray, lab and other technical tests procedures and other specialties thus providing additional savings to the federal government. the trillions of dollars saved by the federal government over the long term would balance the federal deficit.
So what do you think about Mr. Martino’s plan? Feel free to use the comments section below to let us know your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you!
Over the last few years, I’ve written several posts about the dwindling functionality and, ultimately, usefulness of certain social media platforms. For example, some three years ago I noted that I closed down my MySpace and LinkedIn accounts. And here we are – three years later – and I have no intention of opening up either of those accounts again. Sure, a lot of people tell me to reopen my LinkedIn account so I can shore up certain professional contacts in a worst case scenario (i.e. if I need to find employment quickly), but I have no interest in maintaining a presence on that platform at this time.
Which brings me to one of the two social media platforms where I do maintain accounts: Facebook.
 Facebook seems to have become "Happy Birthday-book" I’m sure that most of the folks reading this entry have a Facebook account – it seems like most people on the planet have a Facebook account these days. And, if you’re like me, then you’ve noticed something weird about Facebook in the last few years. No, it’s not the fact that Facebook seems to constantly change their layout without the consent (or considered happiness) of their users. And no, it’s not the fact that spam-loving companies have found a way to breach even Facebook’s strong security measures. Instead, if you’re like me you’ve noticed that Facebook has been reduced to a single phrase for most people…
“Happy Birthday, buddy!”
I can’t tell you how many of my Facebook friends only interact with me on my birthday. And, admittedly, there are scores of my Facebook friends who I only interact with on their birthdays. Over the last year, I’ve made a conscious effort to not send happy birthday greetings to people who I wouldn’t go out of my way to call or text with the same message. Sometimes, I find that there are social strictures that require me to send someone a happy birthday note. Other times, there are folks who I would go out of my way to say happy birthday to if I saw them during the day, but I refrain from doing so online because it seems somewhat weird.
But more than any other observation about the oodles of birthday messages that are flung around Facebook, the most pressing observation is just how weird the whole exercise is for everyone. I mean let’s be honest – how many different ways can you say, “Happy Birthday, [INSERT NAME HERE]! Enjoy!” or something similar each year to the same person before it gets redundant, repetitive, and just bizarre? With some of my Facebook friends I’ll go in and check what I wrote on their wall the prior year and most of the time the message that I’m crafting for the new happy birthday message is eerily similar.
The whole thing is just bizarre to me. However, the weirdness factor aside I have no plans to get rid of my Facebook page. The truth is that Facebook is too ingrained in our society today and we are all too reliant on that particular social media platform. So, while I may be a little exasperated with the happy birthday messages that I see on there every single day, I think it’s just part of the platform that we’re going to have to accept.
By the way, my birthday is next Tuesday, January 31st… and I’ve grown to expect many birthday greetings on my Facebook wall!
Any day now I should be achieving two separate student loan milestones. As you might imagine from the opening of this entry – yes, I’ve reduced my student loan debt once again. This time around my total outstanding debt has dropped another $2 thousand to go from $34 thousand down to $32 thousand. Again, considering that I began my repayment during the summer of 2006, I think that this much of a drop is pretty damn impressive – but I would think that about my own accomplishment, right? 
 Big news coming soon! The real stories here, though, are the two big repayment milestones that I’m closing in on: repaying a total of $90 thousand in principal and breaking through the $30 thousand threshold. Both of these milestones are incredibly close to being a reality. For example, after my next thousand dollar payment I’ll have repaid $90 thousand in total principal and over $30 thousand in interest. Shortly thereafter (or possibly at the same time), I’ll break through the $30 thousand threshold and my student loan debt will be sitting in the $20 thousands for the first time since the end of my Sophomore year in college (that would be way back at the end of the Spring 2001 semester).
Pretty amazing.
Much like my last few student loan entries – there’s no major words of wisdom for me to impart right now. Like I wrote a few months ago – I’ve reached this point because I put the brain that the good Lord gave me to work in figuring out a solution to my student loan debt versus crying about how much debt I accumulated while in school.
Like Morgan Freeman says in the Shawshank Redemption – either you get busy living or you get busy dying. In this case, I could have gotten busy bitching about my debt or gotten busy working my ass off so I could repay it. After a few years of making the minimum payments, at the beginning of 2010 I chose to get busy working my tail off so I could repay the debt. And I’m clearly in a better financial place because of that decision.
If you’ve got a ton of student loan debt, then you need to make the decision that works best for you and don’t wait. Hopefully, my experience proves that getting busy repaying your student loan debt is the best choice.
In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. Since I started repaying my student loans in July 2006, I’ve repaid a total of $89 thousand in principal to various lenders including the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank. I currently owe $32 thousand in principal to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program – a loan which started repayment in July 2006 with a balance of $59 thousand. To date, I’ve repaid well over $30 thousand in interest to these lenders. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.
Funny things happen when you get older. You start to ache in places that shouldn’t ache. You start to get pains in places that shouldn’t be in pain. You begin to forget little odds and ends here and there. I’m sure that most of you can relate (if you can remember)! Well, one of the things that I’ve found to be different about me today versus me as a child, teenager, or even young adult is that today I enjoy going to church.
That’s right. I enjoy going to church.
 This is my new church - it's a really great house of worship. I’m sure that there are scores of CCD/Sunday school students, kids, and teenagers who would read that comment and say, “Blech! Church is SOOO boring!” I know. I said the same thing just a few years back. But it’s true – I enjoy attending mass each week.
Before some of you think that I’ve turned into a holy roller or a crazy religious person let me be very clear that that hasn’t happened at all. From time to time I’m unable to go to the weekly mass service and I don’t get hysterical when that happens. Sometimes you just can’t make it to church and as long as your reason for not being able to attend isn’t frivolous, then God understands. However, as I get older I’ve found that I’ve grown into a routine. We all have our routines. You wake up to a certain rhythm, you get ready for bed with a certain rhythm, you arrange your office to a certain rhythm, etc. Over the last few years I’ve found that after I added regular spiritual worship to my weekly routine via weekly mass and (more recently) the occasional penance service, that I really do enjoy attending these services. They’re short, to the point, and a good chance to get out and be part of something bigger than yourself.
And if there is anything that is bigger and more worthy of our attention than ourselves then it obviously has to be the Church.
 The church that my Grandmother attended when she was young. One thing that I’ve been missing in my worship is a dedicated church and parish to call my own. To fix that problem, I spent the better part of each Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning over the last few months trying out different churches. Below you can find some thoughts on what I was looking for in my search for a new church.
Here are a few of the important items that I looked for when I was searching for a new church to attend:
- Interior Church. Let’s face it – we are all greatly influenced by our surroundings in all that we do. When it comes to worship I think you need to be in a place where you feel a good mixture of comfort, reverence, austerity, and ritual.
- Proximity to Current Area. Even though I haven’t moved to a new apartment in three and a half years, I still move around a lot more than other people in my age group. Not having a set place to call home really bungles up some things in life including finding local communities in which to participate. Finding a parish that was near to my current location was important to me because I’ll probably wind up staying in this general area for the next few years.
- Volunteer Opportunities. Many folks who read this blog wonder why I spend so much of my free time volunteering. Well, I enjoy the whole volunteering process including helping people. Understand where I’m coming from, though – I have a few large-scale, national volunteer obligations coming to an end in the next year and I think the next time I dedicate a great portion of my “time, talent, and treasure” to a cause I would like for it to be closer to home. So, the availability of volunteer opportunities is important to me.
- The Process of the Mass. This item may seem a little bit weird to those of you who have not been to multiple Catholic churches, but one of the things that I’m looking for is a little bit of commonality in my masses. Sometimes I got to a mass and I can’t follow the basic parts of the service because the particular church that I’m attending has their own music, process, and/or added verses. For example, I can’t tell you how many different times I’ve heard the “Gloria” sung with different words, added words, different melodies, different tones, etc. It gets confusing and, frankly, a bit annoying. Makes me wonder about the fuller impact of the Third Roman Missal, but that’s a blog entry for another time.
- The Songs. The parish that I wound up registering at has an excellent selection of music for each service. They don’t choose obscure songs in the hymnal, but instead choose songs that the people will probably know. For example, during the Christmas season at my church we’ve sang Ode to Joy, Hail Holy Queen, Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, etc. There’s no reason to sing some ancient, old song that no one “gets” these days. The church that I registered at understands that fact and gives the parishioners the opportunity to sing songs during mass that are known in most households.
The first picture in this entry is a picture of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Farmingdale. It is a great place to worship. The second picture above is from Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Long Branch. This is the church that my Grandmother attended as a child with my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother. Of all the churches that I attended, I would prefer to attend Our Lady Star of the Sea simply because of the family connection. However, this church is a bit far from where I live – about 25 minutes away – so I only plan to attend services at that building every once in a while.
There you have the summation of my great church search during the latter part of 2011. I’m very pleased with the church that I wound up registering at which is only about ten minutes from my house. The interior of the church is beautiful and they keep it very clean and tidy. There seem to be ample volunteer opportunities if at some point in the future I decide that I want to volunteer for the church locally. There is a very consistent, very by-the-book process for the mass. The songs are all well-known and not obscure, random songs that don’t connect with the congregants. It appears to be a great parish to grow in faith and I’m looking forward to continuing to attend services there in 2012.
Given that the newest season of The Biggest Loser started last night and there are so many fatties out there (myself included, by the way) who watch this show like it is the best show on television, I thought I’d offer some comments regarding the last season of the show. Season 12 of The Biggest Loser started in September 2011 and ended a few months later in December 2011. It was the first season of the show that I watched and was totally underwhelmed with – on all fronts. Here are some of my quick thoughts on the last season of The Biggest Loser on NBC:
- Anna Kournikova. Talk about a huge letdown to all the red-blooded men out there. Here is one of the most beautiful female athletes in the world and she didn’t know the first thing about training other people. As one of the many red-blooded men out there who was so put off by Kournikova’s inability to train her contestants that I began to resent her beautiful self being on the show, I’m glad that the folks at NBC learned their lesson and didn’t invite her back for the new season.
- Dolvett Quince just doesn’t “get it.” It’s hard to explain, but when you watch Bob Harper or Jillian Michaels train their contestants you are actually watching them make a connection with these people. Dolvett didn’t seem to “get” that last season. And it showed, too. You see, the problem with most of the people on the ranch isn’t that they eat too much or don’t workout nearly enough. The problem is that they are hiding from something or running away from something deep down inside that they don’t want to confront. There’s an inner fear there that they don’t want to face – an inner fear that they can’t succeed or they won’t succeed or whatever. Dolvett didn’t “get” that aspect of the show. He just thought his job was to be a typical trainer, but to do that job better than Bob. I can’t believe they brought him back for the new season.
- John Rhodes hurt The Biggest Loser brand. Most people go on The Biggest Loser because they hope for better things for themselves and their families. Other people go on the show because they want to prove something to themselves or to someone else. Yet there are a small percentage of people who get on the show and want to play the game first and then worry about their health second. John may have won last season and wound up as the biggest loser at the finale, but he was a complete jerk during his time on the ranch. He threw Sunny under the bus and when the only person with any integrity called him on it (Antone Davis), John turned into a big, stupid child and grew bitter towards Antone. This is an asshole who stood on the scale during the penultimate episode of the season and barked at Antone – a former NFL player – that he was going to beat him. The man has no class and few redeeming qualities as a player of this game and he hurt The Biggest Loser brand. In fact, he hurt the brand almost as much as…
- Bonnie Griffin. Don’t get me wrong – I think that John Rhodes did significant damage to The Biggest Loser brand and whoever cast him on the show should really be held to task. However, there is no question about the fact that Bonnie Griffin is the worst contestant in the history of the show. Period. No questions asked. This is a woman who celebrated losing four pounds after the first week and three pounds after the second week. She was a disgrace. Her presence on the show was a slap in the face to all of the applicants who didn’t make it on the show. There are people out there who need to be on the show for their health and yet Bonnie was given a spot on the show because she’s an old lady. Nothing turned my stomach more last season than watching Bonnie stay on the ranch week after week when she clearly was out of her league and didn’t belong there. The only thing that came nearly as close to turning my stomach as watching Bonnie’s weekly “struggle” was…
- Johnny Forger. Thank God this guy was eliminated early on. If there is a classic definition of someone who is a “creeper,” then this is the guy. I don’t know what the casting director was going for with Season 12 of The Biggest Loser, but if this guy walked into my casting room the very first thing I would do is hide the women and children. He’s just creepy. And yes – I understand that The Biggest Loser doesn’t have casting calls but, instead, has applicants submit their tapes. I would have taken Johnny’s tape and sent it right to the local authorities. He just creeps the hell out of me and he should never have been on the show.
- Antone Davis. One of the biggest issues that I had with the last season of the show was that they didn’t focus on Antone nearly enough until later in the season. He was the only contestant that had any integrity and was able to confront his fears and his inner demons and defeat them. He was on the ranch for the right reasons and he made the show worth watching in the last few weeks. But prior to the last few weeks – no one really knew his story because the show was so poorly put together. Just a bad job overall by the team at NBC.
- No rallying points. Other than Antone’s story, there were really no rallying points for the fans to get behind. In Season 11 you had the mothers who selflessly sacrificed their time on the ranch to make sure that their kids stayed there. I’ve never seen a stronger, more devoted group of people than those mothers – they defined what a parent should be on that show and they were the models of integrity. And what made their sacrifices more touching was that they sacrificed themselves for other people’s kids! Lord knows that John – the selfish, ignorant winner from last season – would have thrown all of those kids under the bus and tried to get them off the ranch. Who wants to watch that?
The reason why I decided to post this entry the day after the first episode of the new season of The Biggest Loser is because while I watched the show last night, I actually turned it off midway through the episode. NBC is bringing this franchise dangerously close to jumping the shark (i.e. becoming totally irrelevant). It’s a damn shame, too.
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