Biden and Paris

As I am sure many of you are aware of, President Biden has signed the letter to return to the Paris agreement. Now whether you think Biden isn’t your president or that he legitimately won is not in question here, he has the power and backing of the US government to be the man in charge. So what is the Paris agreement and how has Biden already started on his promises?

Let’s start with what the Paris agreement is for the younger readers that may not remember those times. In 2015, the United Nations met in Paris to discuss the current state of the climate and its decline. It was decided that each country would determine, plan and report on the way that they will reduce the carbon emissions. Now they specified that it must not impact on the production of food and that the countries must funnel money in a way that will encourage low greenhouse gas emissions.

This may seem silly that there is no international agreement on what everyone will be doing, like be carbon net zero by 2030 (as an example, too short a time period to do that now but in 2015 that could have been feasible. The closest that came was the 20/20/20 target that would see the reduction of 20% of CO2, increase in renewable energy by 20%, and be 20% more efficient. With the massively growing population and booming fast paced industries that require non renewable materials, it gets harder and harder to hit those targets the longer we wait. Now the USA was a major contributor to making reductions and Obama made sure to set ambitious targets. And as many will know, Trump said screw all of that in favour of the fossil fuel business’.

The idea is that if the world works together on this, each individual only needs to do a little bit to help out. There is 7.675 billion people in the world which is double what it was 50 years ago when we landed on the moon. Since then, the USA has had hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and earthquakes. Now one of these things is not affected by the rise in greenhouse gasses, but does it really matter when the other 3 are all equally devastating to the country and its residents.

So earlier this week, Biden managed to officially re-join the Paris agreement. This means new targets need to be set, and they need to show very visible results for it not to just be a sham. This will have a very real effect on the soft power that the United States holds if they fail to show their commitment. President Biden has already made steps to show his commitment such as the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline permit, a giant new oil pipeline. It could have made a lot of money with the transport of oil but was stopped to show tangible proof that the USA is here and isn’t messing around. Biden has finally announced that 100% of electricity will be clean by 2035, so there is plenty to do in his next few years in charge.

Now some of you will be saying that all these rules will ruin some industries and make a lot of people lose their jobs. In fact the more we invest into the green campaign, the more jobs will be made. Closure of a coal power plant means that someone else now has to produce that energy, and make sure it is working, fix them, make more, ect. Yes it may require some education, but so does any new job. If I went from being an accountant, to being a tax consultant, I would have the basics but still need to find out a lot about the new role.

Nicholas Bell
Nicholas Bell

The man that can’t take a selfie

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This was a bit of a longer piece and I have tried to keep it simple. Ask and questions and keep yourself safe.

-Nic

UK Healthcare and the differences

This article will focus on the National Healthcare service (NHS) in the UK where I live. I think it is greatly underfunded and that some extra money would make it run much better, but I also think that it gets overused for things that it shouldn’t have to deal with like little cuts or bumped legs.

Anyway, the numbers. The UK is ranked as the 18th best country for healthcare by WHO on the 2020 rankings, a measly 19 places above the USA. The UK government invests around £135 billion a year to run the NHS which increases every year, which if you refer to my first article, is a drop in the ocean compared to how much the Americans pay. If it was to be scaled up to the size of the population of the USA it would still come in at about 10% the current total cost for healthcare a year for Americans.

This cost comes to us the people as part of our taxes and the national insurance that we all pay only when we are working. As a student I don’t pay for these until I start working for my money instead of relying on the government student loans. A small portion is also collected by the cost of prescriptions (currently £9 per collection) and dental care but these too don’t need to be payed by everyone. If you are a child or low income or old, then these charges don’t apply to you and you get it for free.

This does however mean that the average wait time to see a GP is 10 days. Most GP’s will have urgent appointments where you just need to drop in if it is serious (mental health crisis, infections getting worse, whatever that is bad but not A&E bad) which may involve sitting for an hour or 2 to be seen and no choice in doctor. But the knowledge that I can see a doctor that day when I am really ill, and I won’t have to pay for anything but the drugs they give me to make me better is such a relief.

When I dislocated my shoulder, I walked in and they had relocated it and put me in a sling in under an hour without an appointment. Yeah I then spent the best part of a day in A&E but I also wasn’t going to die and they gave me something for the pain as soon as I got there so was happy to be patient whilst people that had heart conditions or broken bones sorted before me. The total cost to me was £9 for the anti-inflammatory’s and I had 2 x-rays, a couple of doctors and nurses look over me, some oxygen whilst they relocated my shoulder the second time (it wasn’t perfect the first time), and a small part of my dignity as I couldn’t put a shirt on properly for a few weeks. I was then provided with follow up physiotherapy so that now I don’t have any lingering side effects.

The reason we can do this, is that the government is the major insurance company so they can dictate the price of drugs and procedures. You can have private healthcare, but people only tend to get that if they have long term problems or it is for end of life comfort. Nobody asks who you are insured with and no calls to the government asking if they would pay for something. It’s an all-inclusive package and it comes out of the tax we already pay. If we went fully private, there would be riots about the loss of the NHS and how much we would then have to pay for healthcare.

Nicholas Bell
Nicholas Bell

The man that can’t take a selfie

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Now this is how most of the top ranked countries for healthcare run their systems. It doesn’t let you have much choice, but it doesn’t put you in debt to find out that you have broken a bone and it needs setting or you can’t get the prescription as they cost too much. I’m not sure what I will write next about but I will try and make it interesting or at least simplify what we need to know. Take care, wear a mask, stay safe.

Nic

It’s been a while

So it has been almost 3 months since I posted a piece and I think you all deserve a reason why. I have read all of the comments and I thank you all for the kind words you have shared with me and my friends.

Unfortunately, my degree decided that all my deadlines being within a 2 week period would be a great idea. I think I wrote around 15000 words for them and that doesn’t include the diagrams and other things involved in getting the work written out. Most of that is over but there is still times that much of my learning will all collide.

I also spent 3 weeks in bed. And as the word of the day last year, I got an official COVID 19 positive result. I felt awful, I slept most of the time and just did not want to move or anything. Since then, I have been put into another national lockdown and I have taken some important exams. This wasn’t what I wanted but it is what I have to deal with. If this is what it was like for someone that is on the young and fairly healthy side, I can see why it has ben so devastating to the population.

Just wanted to keep it quick and let you all know that we are still here and are planning on releasing some merch (still working out some kinks, checkout the Instagram for designs as and when they come out) for all those that would like to help support us as we grow.

Nicholas Bell
Nicholas Bell

The man who doesn’t know how to take a proper selfie.

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If we are to get through to the end of this, when the vaccine has been rolled out enough to give protection to the masses. We need to listen to our governments and be altruistic. Take care, wear a mask, stay safe.

Nic

American Healthcare from the Outside

So I am not usually one to blog, so excuse my inexperience, my name is Nicholas, but Nic is fine, just not ‘Saint Nic’. I am the Chief Operations Officer of Exorbital and another one of its founders. I will start this with a little bit about myself. I am an English student studying Biochemistry at my home university. Over the past 6 months, I have been learning about American Healthcare and how it can be improved (in my opinion, don’t take it to heart if you disagree). I do not think any of my ideas can really be put into practice as of yet, then again one man trying to change a whole country he doesn’t even live in (yet) doesn’t make much sense. I have been leading the research on how the healthcare system in America is managed and what Exorbital can do to make it easier to navigate.

I have learnt a lot about the costs that a lot of people, who need help, pay for even simple visits. Around 90% of Americans will visit a doctor in a standard year, but more often than enough, there will be a few more visits for a physical check up, or just needing antibiotics for the flu. This leads to a total industry cost of around 5 trillion dollars a year. If that was a pile of $100 bills, it would be 3155 miles high, which is about the length from Orlando to Seattle. I was recently informed by Google that it would take me about a thousand hours of continuous walking and hundreds of hours of breaks (because I am not fit enough to do it without decent rest stops).

A lot of this cost is down to how each hospital charges for care, which is called the chargemaster, a document of supreme power in a hospital. This usually is not shared with the public, or other hospitals, so to find out initial costs and affordable facilities, it takes lots of research and/or visiting multiples hospitals for them to ask you if you have insurance first and then not tell you the cost. No one wants to visit the hospital, let alone more than once. It shouldn’t be impossible to compare actual prices, not estimates that range from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Without these prices mandated to be shared, they can be raised exorbitantly, without anyone finding out and the patients are the ones having to take it on the chin.

As part of my research, I had to look into how the World Health Organization organizes and rates countries on how good their healthcare systems run. I was surprised to find out that the top 10 countries as ranked by WHO, runs some form of government backed healthcare, and yet United States does not rank in the top 30. Weird seeing that it is the best healthcare in the world supposedly. This doesn’t mean that healthcare isn’t great in the States, but great for who the companies or the consumers. Well wherever you go for healthcare, we are here to arm you with the required knowledge, before going thousands of dollars in debt for a terrible doctor who got his degree online for two hundred quid. Providing you with doctor reviews, or at least checking that your insurance covers the visit there. No more 5 hour phone calls with your insurance, am I right?

Nicholas Bell
Nicholas Bell

The man who doesn’t know how to take a proper selfie.

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Thank you for reading. I may make a few more posts, whenever I find something interesting to talk about and you might need to know (and have a quick read about). Next, I will probably talk about how English Healthcare works and why we are barely in the Top 20, ourselves. Take care, wear a mask, stay safe.

Nic

A Glance at Each Nominee’s Supposed Healthcare Plan

This election cycle has brought with it plenty to debate about; a popular issue this election year has been the candidate’s proposed healthcare plans. And just like everything else, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have completely different views on what healthcare in the United States should look like.

Photo Credits: Charles Deluvio

Naturally, we begin with the incumbent’s plan. We have all heard President Trump criticize Obamacare from his first day in office. At the presidential debate in Tennessee, President Trump spoke about how throughout his term in office he has been tweaking Obamacare. Trump claims he is trying to make it more successful, but the President claims at the end of the day Obamacare needs to be thrown out all together and replaced with a better plan, perhaps we can call it Trump-care. The White House’s website reflects his dismay with posts reading:

“Obamacare is hurting American families, farmers, and small businesses with skyrocketing health insurance costs. Moreover, soaring deductibles and copays have made already unaffordable plans unusable.”

and

“Replacing Obamacare will force insurance companies to compete for their customers with lower costs and higher-quality service.”

In common trump fashion, he has opted not to construct a full healthcare plan like politicians usually do, but instead to write a series of smaller reforms that will collectively make a drastic change in our healthcare system. His approach has been working to an extent as Trump has made a number of reforms that are now in effect and we have seen the effect of some of these reforms in the shape of dropping prices for some specific (and common) items, this includes Insulin which is now being sold at record low prices. On the flip side, many Americans are uncomfortable by the fact that they do not have a large-scale plan to read through. Causing many American’s to feel in the dark, regarding where healthcare will be once Trump is finished with it. Of course these concerns are met with the response that Donald Trump aims to lower the price of healthcare and drive innovation through competition. Skeptics are then pointed toward some data indicating this is already occurring. And to be fair, this competition approach is tried and true in American history. All in all, it seems those voting for Donald Trump will have to stomach some uncertainty as to what his final plan is and find comfort in the breadcrumbs we have now.

Photo Credits: Parker Johnson

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a very different plan for Healthcare. Joe Biden said at the debate in Tennessee that Biden care will be better than Obamacare. This is a stark difference to trump as instead of repealing the existing plan he will add to it. In other words, Biden care extends Obamacare. Another difference between the campaigns is that Biden lists on his website the following goals of his healthcare plan.

  1. Give every American access to affordable health insurance.
  2. Provide the peace of mind of affordable, quality health care and a less complex health care system.
  3. Stand up to abuse of power by prescription drug corporations.
  4. Ensure Health Care is a right for all, not a privilege for just a few.

It is likely those Americans who felt discomfort by the fact that Donald Trump has not released an over-arching plan, will be the same Americans who feel appeased by Joe Biden’s clearly stated goals. Critics of his plan recall some of the cons associated with Obamacare. Examples of these negative associations being, a phenomenon deemed physician burnout, higher premiums, and fines for not having insurance. It is important to remember however that Biden care will not be exactly Obamacare, the former Vice President is adding to the top of the old plan. in summation, it seems that if you liked Obamacare you will like Bidencare.

Keenan Cunningham
Keenan Cunningham

Whether it be solving advanced mathematics or surfing killer waves, I will always be first in line.

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P.S.

It is hard to compare and contrast such vastly different plans, sort of akin to comparing apples to oranges. The best I can do is list each plans attributes and allow one of them to grab my attention and then try to rationalize why? As of now I appreciate that Biden states plainly his goals, but also wonder if the competition Donald Trump wishes to instill in the healthcare system will address those things naturally. As I am not a healthcare professional nor an econometrician it appears I may be suffering this mental-quarrel up until I fill in my ballot.

Difficulties in Healthcare

In my last blog post I promised to, “highlight some of the difficulties I am facing to shine a light onto what we, at Exorbital, are trying to streamline”.

       A few weeks ago, I took a pretty hard fall that sent a shocking pain up my leg. After a strenuous walk back to my car, my ankle was already swollen like a grapefruit. It was clear that I would need some medical attention. I went to the hospital where I received an X-ray. After the doctor reviewed the results, he recommended an MRI. The doctor needed a better look at the damage done. The doctors’ office worked closely with an imaging studio, so I received the MRI that same day. This brings me to my first issue: my insurance company. The insurance company would only provide coverage for the MRI if I did two things. First, I had to notify them that I am receiving the MRI at least 48 hours prior to my appointment. Second, I had to visit a location they are partnered with. This presented me with the following debacle:

‘I am in severe pain and need an MRI to figure out what treatment I will need. I can either go ahead with the MRI today, where I would have to pay four thousand dollars out of pocket but receive the help I need. Or I endure the pain, wait the 48 hours, and hope that my insurance company provides coverage for the location of their choosing.’

Since I do not have four thousand dollars laying around, I chose the second option. This option will mean a 48-hour delay before the MRI scan, meanwhile I was unaware if the new location was even supported by my insurance company. I checked their website hoping for a list of locations that would be covered. Unsurprisingly, their website was confusing by design; they hope for you to make a mistake, so that it costs more money out of your pocket. Like Nationwide, but not on your side. All in all, this process was a tedious four days of back and forth, all because I couldn’t go to my first choice. So, after days of walking around on an undiagnosed ankle, I finally got an MRI and the results. Apparently, I would need to be fitted with a boot that same day and shouldn’t have been walking around on it. Due to this I will also need surgery to repair my ankle. Now, here’s the kicker, I had to pay for the boot, out of pocket, because the doctors’ office couldn’t get verification from my insurance company, that they would pay instead. If they paid, it would take days to verify, so I would have to walk around, further damaging my ankle.

Keenan Cunningham
Keenan Cunningham

Whether it be solving advanced mathematics or surfing killer waves, I will always be first in line.

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With Exorbital, these issues wouldn’t be a problem. It is completely ridiculous that neither my doctor, nor I, knew if my insurance will cover an MRI, or the boot. Healthcare should not be a shot in the dark. Exorbital will provide users with a list of insured locations, as well as initial costs before insurance, so you know what you are paying for and how much it costs, even if not insured. We plan to make the research necessary to save money in the healthcare system, easily understandable, accessible, and free.

Simplicity and Self-Serving Interests

Hey everyone, my name is Tom Adye and I’m trilled to say that I’ve recently joined Clan Exorbital as Chief Experience Officer. My role is to provide the best possible user experience! Now I know that’s ambiguous, so please allow me to elaborate; I will be overseeing the methods we use to reach the public as well as managing the interactions of those who already exist within our client base to ensure the highest quality of service is provided. To accomplish this I have the privilege of supporting all of our current staff on multiple ambitious projects including sculpting our online image into a trusted household name, and securing further grant applications, which would enable us to initiate Exorbital’s journey as well as the logistics behind our brand new website!

Now, that introductions are out of the way. Please let me share why I believe Exorbital has the capacity to change the world, and why, very soon, you will believe so too. People act against their own interests, in many aspects of their lives, but why is this? Simple, because it is impossible to be informed about everything, in every aspect of their lives, and people don’t have the time or means to observe the alternatives. Unfortunately, I am guilty of this as well, it is too easy to conform to a norm, especially when the status quo seems to override rational decisions.

We see things differently. We see the opportunities for change. We see through the needless challenges standing in the way, where none should stand, and we knock them down with monumental effort to accomplish impossible things for the benefit of everyone. It is our goal to strive towards a better future for all and that starts with confronting perhaps one of the greatest injustices in present day America, our healthcare system. Why is it that we still don’t have access to basic and fundamental information for the hospitals which our insurers expect us to check into? And why is it that we still do not know how many add on fees will be on our bills before we receive medical assistance? Healthcare is supposed to be a basic human right. Yet we are being systematically denied, due to previous accidents, where we live and our tax bracket. This is criminal. Please do not mistake my loathing of the insidious red tape for a lack of love for our doctors and the healthcare professionals who put their lives on the line to protect the people. I have the upmost respect for these service heroes, but spite for how mismanaged their facilities are. We will fix this, for our doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and psychiatrists, but more so for the people. I won’t ask you to jump aboard this ship just yet, for I know that going on the journey is often harder than reaching the destination, but as the navigators, we will chart the seas that was explored by the pioneers before us and shape our futures.

Tom Adye
Tom Adye

The man with a good head on his shoulders and an electric boogaloo in his back pocket.

FolloW

Thank you for reading, keep your head up for more from us because there’s lots of exciting announcements on the way and we’d love for you to be with us too.

Kind regards,

Tom.

Welcome to the Community

Welcome to the Exorbital Incorporated’s landing page, and more importantly its first blog post. This introductory post is looking to accomplish only two things:

  • (i) Introduce to you what Exorbital is and a little bit about the people behind it.
  • (ii) Who am I and why am I here?

In common fashion we will begin with our first bullet. Exorbital is the brainchild of T’Shawn Malik Barry and his closest friends. Why do I mention him separately? T’Shawn is the common link between the rest of us. Throughout his life, living in one place or another, he has had friends and roommates who unbeknownst to them at the time, would become founders of a company together. After the death of his father, and a ridiculous battle with a very well-known insurance company, he phoned us all with a simple idea. He proclaimed that the medical industry should be more transparent; we should know which hospitals our insurance companies expected us to visit and the cost before being served a bill. Our first task at Exorbital will be to make this and similar information readily available. However, this is just the beginning, hence why this is just a landing page for the company. When T’Shawn brought us together he said he chose us, out of all his friends, because he believed we all operated in our own unique ways. Maybe he said this to get us interested in the idea of battling corporate conglomerates alongside him, or maybe he truly believed it. In any case, when we all began to talk strategy and start up, we also began to spill over about our own personal goals. Each of which shared a same central idea, to build companies that value the free flow of ideas and seeks to do good. We decided we would ban together and try to tackle each member of the group’s goals one-by-one. We will begin with T’Shawn’s idea. That brings us to today and our first challenge together. The health-care industry.

Continuing, I am Keenan Cunningham, an undergraduate student at Florida International University studying Applied Mathematics and a surfer at the core. I am one of the six founders of Exorbital and most recently a blog writer. Many of the posts on this blog will be written by myself. As I am not an accomplished writer, nor do I have training beyond the regular curriculum I ask you to please forgive my errors. These blog posts will either inform the reader of happenings within Exorbital, or explore some other interest or happening related, at least in some way, to Exorbital. My next post will be about my struggles going through the hospital system with a simple ankle injury. I plan to highlight some of the difficulties I am facing as to shine a light onto what we here are trying to streamline.

Keenan Cunningham
Keenan Cunningham

Whether it be solving advanced mathematics or surfing killer waves, I will always be first in line.

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