Part one of a six part series ana­lyz­ing inter­na­tional health care systems

Editor’s note: This is the first arti­cle in a six part series ana­lyz­ing the health care sys­tems of other nations around the world.

In the com­ing weeks, I have taken on a mon­u­men­tal task for myself. The cur­rent state of affairs in the polit­i­cal arena has almost all eyes on one thing: health­care. I plan on study­ing the sys­tems of var­i­ous other devel­oped coun­tries in hopes of gain­ing a clearer image of what we, as a coun­try, should do.

Admittedly, I came into this issue not know­ing nearly as much as I should. I have heard the talk­ing points from both sides, but have not been per­suaded to any great extent by either, so I decided to dig in deeper.

I recently picked up a copy of T.R. Reid’s new book The Healing of America. I was sick of hear­ing the same argu­ments over and over again from both sides, and I wanted to cut through the junk and get a ratio­nal look at the issue, and I seem to have found just that in Reid’s book.

Reid is a jour­nal­ist who has trav­eled the world to ana­lyze the health care sys­tems of some of the largest nations. He was in each coun­try for var­i­ous rea­sons and peri­ods of time, but made sure to take away an in-depth look and the pros and cons of the way each han­dled this issue.

One of the largest mis­con­cep­tions going around is that there is the option of either our cur­rent sys­tem or Canada’s pub­lic sys­tem that includes long waits and no option of pri­vate doc­tors, but noth­ing in between. As Reid points out, there are actu­ally four major sys­tems that coun­tries use, and we can learn some­thing from each of them.

The four types include the Bismarck model, the Beveridge model, the National Health Insurance (NHI) model, and the Out-of-Pocket model. The Bismarck is that of coun­tries such as Germany, Japan and France. The Beveridge is that of Great Britain, Italy and Spain. Canada uses the NHI model. And the Out-of-Pocket model, which essen­tially means there is no estab­lished health care pay­ment sys­tem, exists in many of the poor­est nations of the world that are too dis­or­ga­nized to pro­vide any kind of care for their citizens.

After out­lin­ing these, Reid goes on to say that America has ele­ments of all of them. We cover some cit­i­zens through gov­ern­ment pro­grams, oth­ers through pro­grams pro­vided by their employ­ers and oth­ers with noth­ing who are then left to pay as they go or get no treat­ment at all.

All of these pos­si­bil­i­ties have their pros and cons, and this debate is far more com­pli­cated than the pun­dits and politi­cians make it sound. The point of Reid’s book and the point of this series of arti­cles are to look at for­eign coun­tries and see what we can learn from them. As President Eisenhower took the German model of the high­way sys­tem and implanted it in America, we can learn some­thing from other devel­oped coun­tries in hopes of improv­ing our system.

Regardless of affil­i­a­tion, I hope we can agree on that; that the goal of this debate is to improve the lives of the most cit­i­zens pos­si­ble. Whether it be pub­lic or pri­vate, effi­ciency and qual­ity of health care is a neces­sity in any coun­try if it is to sus­tain itself and its citizens.

Check back in the com­ing weeks to learn along with me as I ana­lyze the sys­tems of five major coun­tries. I am admit­tedly under informed as of yet, but I hope to come out of this with an informed and orig­i­nal opin­ion on the mat­ter and I hope you will join me on my journey.

Senior Eric Lilleboe is cur­rently ranked No.1 in the Division II Golfstat Cup Standings and No.2 across all divi­sions nationally.

In the first three tour­na­ments of the year, Lilleboe has proven how tal­ented he is on the golf course. In the Bulldog’s first tour­na­ment at Saginaw Valley State, Lilleboe led Ferris to a vic­tory as he shat­tered the pre­vi­ous course record by four strokes as he shot a school-record 14-under par.

“It really wasn’t any­thing amaz­ing, I just saw every putt, and the few mis­takes I made ended up in a very playable spot,” said Lilleboe.

He fol­lowed that with a sec­ond place fin­ish at six-under par at the Great Lakes Region Tournament in South Haven, Mich. Even with that respectable out­ing, he was dis­ap­pointed with the end result, as the Bulldogs fin­ished sec­ond overall.

“We have set such high expec­ta­tions for our­selves as a team, we do get dis­ap­pointed if we place only sec­ond,” said Lilleboe.

In the team’s last tour­na­ment, the Ferris State Matt Pinter Invitational, Lilleboe took top hon­ors yet again with a three– round score of 210. He has yet to fin­ish out­side the top two in any event this season.

There is no secret to the rea­son behind his and the Bulldogs’ early suc­cess: hard work. The team prac­tices four days a week and has 7 a.m. work­outs two days a week.

Lilleboe will have to keep prac­tice and his great play going if he hopes to achieve his dream of turn­ing pro­fes­sional after grad­u­a­tion. He will apply to a qual­i­fy­ing school in which there are approx­i­mately 200 golfers and only 25 will make it to the PGA.

He was only eleven when he started going to the dri­ving range with his dad, who was an avid golfer. Apparently, Lilleboe paid close atten­tion. His love of the game and moti­va­tion to suc­ceed has led to back-to-back Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Athlete of the Week honors.

As of now, Lilleboe is not con­cerned about his per­sonal suc­cess. He wants to see the Ferris State Bulldogs win a national title. This sea­son the Bulldogs have fin­ished first twice and sec­ond once through their first three tournaments.

“There are no lim­its on this team and there is no rea­son we can­not win Nationals,” said Lilleboe.

The iconic and suc­cess­ful HBO series Sex and the City (SATC) changed the way women approach life, love and fashion.

Like most women, I am a huge fan and con­stantly try to choose among my friends which one of us is Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda. It’s fun to go out with your girl­friends and talk about men and sex, and after the show ended, guys knew that we talked like them too.

Although SATC is an awe­some show and rev­o­lu­tion­ized people’s atti­tudes about love and sex, the show is like that girl­friend who gives really, really, really bad advice about relationships.

Every per­son has a friend that gives bad advice about love. Not because they want to, but because they don’t know any bet­ter. This per­son is the friend who tells you that a guy is going to call you even though it’s been three months. This per­son is also the friend that tells you that kiss­ing is not cheat­ing. This friend is also deluded enough to tell you to re-date a com­plete idiot or jerk because he or she is just play­ing hard to get.

I know I sound like a hyp­ocrite but I am still real­is­tic enough to real­ize the major­ity of sex­ual escapades and rela­tion­ships in that show are com­pletely fac­tious. Unfortunately, most women will con­tinue to believe SATC has all the answers to their lack lus­ter love lives, dat­ing ruts, and end­less ideas that women can change men.

For exam­ple, the series hero­ine, Carrie Bradshaw has a tor­rid on/off romance with Mr. Big. There’s noth­ing uncom­mon about this how­ever, here’s where it gets tricky. Carrie and Big’s rela­tion­ship lasted for ten years. During this time, Big gets mar­ried to a young model whom he cheats on with Carrie. Carrie gets in engaged to Adian and breaks up with him twice and then she even­tu­ally runs off to Paris with a Russian artist. Like most cheesy loves sto­ries, Big fol­lows her to Paris and brings her back home to the Big Apple.

In the fea­ture film Carrie and Big plan to move in together and wed. However, Big gets cold feet on their wed­ding day and stands her up at the altar. After months of being apart (for obvi­ous rea­sons) they ran­domly see each other in the apart­ment he bought for them and while dis­re­gard­ing logic fall into each other’s arms and get mar­ried at the cour­t­house. The moral of the story is: if you wait half your life, the man of your dreams will even­tu­ally come around.

Even though I enjoyed every minute of the Carrie and Big saga, this is the most ridicu­lous story I’ve ever heard. In real life, this romance would have been over in six months, two years max. Most peo­ple would agree that no one is worth all that work.

Another exam­ple of really bad advice is Miranda, the red­headed cyn­i­cal Harvard lawyer love story. Miranda has a one night stand with Steve, a bar­tender. Like Carrie and Big, the two have an on/off rela­tion­ship. During their third go round, Miranda gets knocked up with Steve’s baby. The two even­tu­ally get mar­ried and live some­what hap­pily ever after until Steve cheats on her in the movie. After ther­apy they get back together. The moral of this story is: It’s okay to date and marry beneath social sta­tus and never mind adul­tery, when love is involved.

This story is a load of crap. Not only is Miranda dat­ing under her caste, but also she allows her cheat­ing hus­band to return to her with com­plete for­give­ness. I have three syl­la­bles for that: Bo-lo-gna!

The truth is, women can­not change men and wait­ing for a man to change will take an eter­nity. Woman should lis­ten to their instincts more often when it comes to men and not a tele­vi­sion show that seems to have all the answer. Fairy tales do come true, how­ever women need to weigh the pros and cons and deter­mine if their happy end­ing is really worth the fuss. SATC is fic­tion, not a ver­sion of the truth.

Young and con­ser­v­a­tive: two words that you’re unlikely to ever use in con­junc­ture in a sen­tence, let alone use to describe some­one on a col­lege campus.

The mere sound of them together is like an oxy­moron, a con­tra­dic­tion that goes against com­mon sense and seem­ingly vio­lates the very laws of nature.

When you head off to col­lege you’re told many things along the lines of: “have fun,” live life,” “expe­ri­ence new things,” yet no one ever tells you that it’s okay to uphold your beliefs as a young conservative.

And why should they? College cam­puses are prob­a­bly some of the most lib­eral places you’ll find in the United States, except per­haps the White House and Congress right now, and that’s not going to change any­time soon.

Since com­ing to col­lege, almost every pro­fes­sor I’ve had so far has either stated or implied some­thing about what side of the polit­i­cal spec­trum they sup­port. Some claim they try to keep polit­i­cal beliefs out­side of the sub­ject they’re teach­ing. In the end this never works out. Not to men­tion the fact that they’re usu­ally lib­eral, Democratic ideals.

How is it that amongst such a lib­eral envi­ron­ment such as a col­lege cam­pus, one lone group of stu­dents can still hold onto con­ser­v­a­tive, Republican prin­ci­ples with­out com­pletely los­ing their minds?

My first year here at Ferris, I met three other Republicans on cam­pus. In the small amount of time I’ve been on cam­pus this year I’ve dou­bled this num­ber. It’s nice to finally meet peo­ple that have sim­i­lar ideals.

Still, I know only a small num­ber of stu­dents on cam­pus who call them­selves con­ser­v­a­tive or Republican. There may be more than I’m aware of and they sim­ply don’t broad­cast their polit­i­cal ide­ol­ogy, but it’s still an uncom­mon occur­rence to meet a Republican student.

It’s amaz­ing to me that any of us have sur­vived our col­lege expe­ri­ence. We’re sur­rounded by an inescapable vac­uum of lib­er­al­ism, with Democratic sup­port­ers lying in wait, ready to rebuke any even slightly Republican state­ment that slips from our con­ser­v­a­tive lips.

Sometimes it seems strange to uphold con­ser­v­a­tive beliefs at this age, espe­cially when I’ve been told that when you’re young, you’re sup­posed to be more lib­eral. This in my case is true to some extent. There are some issues I sup­port that fall more closely under the “lib­eral” cat­e­gory, but for the most part, I’m still Republican.

However, I look at being a young con­ser­v­a­tive in this sense: I’m just one step ahead of many of my peers. As they get older and more mature, many peo­ple become more con­ser­v­a­tive and begin to sway toward the Republican end of the spec­trum. In my case, I just skipped ahead a few years.

While young con­ser­vatism may be all but non-existent, it doesn’t mat­ter to me that I am one of only a hand­ful of Republicans on col­lege cam­puses around the U.S. Even though I may be nine­teen, I still sup­port and uphold the con­ser­v­a­tive beliefs that I was raised.

Demanding Fulfillment

Ferris women’s soc­cer holds its place at sec­ond to last in GLIAC play

The Bulldogs soc­cer team dropped to 1−7−1 (1−4 in the GLIAC) after two week­end losses.

Friday’s game against Tiffin University hum­bled the Bulldogs who were trounced 6–1 after 90 min­utes. Sunday’s matchup against Findlay looked to be a vic­tory for the Bulldogs as they dom­i­nated pos­ses­sion of the ball and pres­sure in the first half.

Kari Alsager, who typ­i­cally spends her time as a goalie for the Bulldogs, has recently found her­self in a new role as for­ward. That change paid off as Alsager tal­lied the only goal in Sunday’s game off of a header with a cross from Megan McCabe.

“It was a great cross from Megan [McCabe],” said Alsager. “The team is really try­ing to put these last few games behind us and stay focused on the chal­lenges still ahead.”

Ferris soc­cer will spend this com­ing week­end on the road against the Cardinals of Saginaw Valley on Friday Oct. 2 in Saginaw, Mich. and the Timberwolves of Northwood in Midland, Mich.

SVSU is cur­rently unde­feated in the GLIAC 4−0−1 while Northwood stands at num­ber six with a record 1−3−1, just above the Bulldogs.

The Bulldog foot­ball team will look to end its los­ing streak this week­end at the Battle at the Ballpark.

The Battle at the Ballpark will pit two strug­gling teams against each other in Ferris and Michigan Tech. Ferris limps into the matchup hav­ing lost four straight games. The Bulldogs are com­ing off a shutout loss at the hands of Northern Michigan, 34–0.

After start­ing the sea­son with a con­vinc­ing win against Tiffin, the Bulldogs have stum­bled to a 1–4 record and have been on the wrong side of some lop­sided losses, with the 17–10 loss against Grand Valley State being the clos­est the Bulldogs have been to a win in the last four weeks.

Ferris will look to improve its defen­sive per­for­mance going into this week, as the defense has allowed an aver­age of 396 yards per game and has given up 66 first quar­ter points in just five games. The defense has also allowed an aver­age of 30.4 points per game this year.

The spe­cial teams have also been a weak area for the Bulldogs this sea­son, espe­cially in the punt­ing game, where Ferris has had four blocked kicks this season.

The offense ranks 11th out of 12 teams in points per game in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) this sea­son. The rush­ing attack has aver­aged just three yards per carry, while the Bulldogs’ pass­ing game has scored only two touch­downs this season.

Michigan Tech enters the game with its own strug­gles, not hav­ing won a game this sea­son and com­ing off a lop­sided loss at home against Grand Valley State, 55–7. All four of their games have come against the top seven teams in the conference.

A key to this weekend’s game could be the rush­ing game, where both teams have allowed 5.3 yards a carry this sea­son. The team that lim­its the dam­age in the rush­ing attack could con­trol the clock and set the tempo of the game.

Although scor­ing early is always a goal in foot­ball, it could be espe­cially impor­tant in this week’s game, as both teams have allowed at least 50 first quar­ter points this sea­son. Michigan Tech has allowed the sec­ond most points in the GLIAC, while the Bulldogs have scored the sec­ond fewest.

Previous records may play a big part in the out­come of the game. Michigan Tech enters the game with a 31−24−4 lead in the over­all series and has defeated Ferris six straight times. The Bulldogs lost 21–7 last sea­son in Houghton, Mich.

The Torch’s News Editor Dan Hamilton will be ana­lyz­ing four sys­tems of health­care that are used in var­i­ous coun­tries around the world and see­ing what America can learn from them. Follow the arti­cles in the Opinions section.

September 30 – Introduction
October 7 – The Bismarck Model (France, Germany, Japan and oth­ers)
October 14 – The Beveridge Model (Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia)
October 28 – The National Health Insurance Model (Canada)
November 4 – The Out-of-Pocket Model (The lower income coun­tries of the world)
November 11 – Conclusion. What can America learn from these?

$140 mil­lion for schol­ar­ships stricken from state budget

Katie Tibbe has already started the process of find­ing finan­cial aid for next year, as fund­ing for the Michigan Promise schol­ar­ships has been left out of the bud­get to be sent to the governor.

“I’ll have to take out more pri­vate loans to cover it,” said Tibbe, a junior in the Dental Hygiene pro­gram. Tibbe has been rely­ing on updates from Ferris’ finan­cial aid depart­ment to keep her updated on the sta­tus of her Promise schol­ar­ship. The Promise schol­ar­ship amounts to about $1,300 a year for Tibbe.

An esti­mated 96,000 stu­dents, like Tibbe, could be seek­ing alter­na­tive means to help pay for their higher education.

The bud­get, which before the pro­posed cuts from last week was $2.8 bil­lion, has been reduced to $1.8 bil­lion between the state House and Senate with the Promise schol­ar­ships total­ing $140 mil­lion being removed in full.

Federal stim­u­lus dol­lars are expected to fill in the rest of the state’s bud­get shortfall.

Megan Brown, a spokesper­son for Governor Jennifer Granholm, said there would be con­tin­ued work before the bud­get is offi­cially pre­sented to the gov­er­nor some­time this week.

The funds were cred­ited to stu­dent accounts, but not included in any disbursements.

“They were only awarded so stu­dents could see them as part of their finan­cial aid award,” said Director of Financial Aid at Ferris State University, Rob Wirt.

Ferris awarded over $1.8 mil­lion in Promise schol­ar­ships last year to 1,825 stu­dents in the 08–09 aca­d­e­mic year.

The com­pleted bud­get could poten­tially be vetoed by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, at the risk of a gov­ern­ment shut down if a new res­o­lu­tion is not passed before Oct. 1 when the com­pleted bud­get is due. Sources close to the gov­er­nor said there is a lot at stake and the gov­er­nor con­tin­ues to sup­port the Michigan’s Promise schol­ar­ship program.