As individual, you buy basic insurance costing roughly $500/month with a $2500 yearly deductible (LAMal/KVG). Applicants must be accepted even with pre-existing conditions. Post-deductible, you pay 10% co-insurance capped at roughly $800/year (no medical bankruptcy). Insurers operate basic plans as non-profit. They make their profit on optional supplemental insurance (private hospital rooms, extra benefits...) The state subsidizes basic premiums for low-income individuals. A doctor's visit is a $150 minimum, similar to the US.

What was most surprising compared to here in the US is employers pay $0 toward premiums. Funding is entirely decoupled from employment. You don't lose coverage or change plans when changing jobs.

On the negative, basic insurance does not have dental, so dental stuff is out-of-pocket and expensive.

In terms of stats, the US spends 18% of GDP on healthcare vs. 12% for Switzerland and the gain is lower stress too. Not perfect but maybe the best of both worlds.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42303581

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40335170

Points: 187

# Comments: 155

[1] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/klout

In general I have seen the work/result correlation hold true. And yet, we all know how luck plays its role. I personally like to think some events are meant to happen or not. Especially when it goes bad - when my startup lost a client in the early days for example it was extremely tough... but we learned so much that the next bigger one went well. Would working more hours have changed anything, I doubt it, so there is more to it than work.

More than this, working many hours is sometimes just a way to reduce anxiety of success or failure, at least for me. What's tricky is understanding which hours not to do, how to make more of the ones I do, and being confident that cutting the hours won't affect the bigger picture output too much. Easier said than done.

If this is so bad (which I am not technically capable of understanding...), what shall we DO about it?

Signing the petition is probably not enough. Get people to have a minute of 'no internet' across the world? Similar to the Anti-SOPA movement? Suggestions welcome.

1) Find a way to MAINTAIN gaming during the video (e.g. live comments adds of people in the room to the images?). That's because right now its fun to vote every 1:30minutes but then kind of boring to watch.. Althrough I stayed 3X more than initially planned ;-) This would allow maintaing people on site too since many people left/stopped voting after 1st video.

2) POINTS need to be prominent & STATUS linked: it's not about the money for me but the challenge & game. Many sites followed this model. When I win, the reward of points would need to incenvize me somehow. Make it big/prominent? What about leveraging STATUS with points too: status changes with results from say commoner to king to rock-star...

3) Consider Consumer Goods ads for site monetization: FMCG would pay to have their ads displayed (what about an ad of 10'' every few where people vote too???). I know that's old model but still there is something in the voting that could be a way for consumer research or brand 'interraction' of sort

Overall will be big, well done and keep it up!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=965028

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=901124

Points: 22

# Comments: 10

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=316878

Points: 2

# Comments: 0