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You know what I'd love Elon Musk to tackle next? The education system in the US. We are producing a generation of illiterates here. Today's economy demands a mo

by ajays 14y ago

You know what I'd love Elon Musk to tackle next? The education system in the US. We are producing a generation of illiterates here. Today's economy demands a more educated workforce (face it, the manufacturing jobs are disappearing), but we're getting the opposite. Yesterday, at the doctor's office, there was a young kid there (college age). He was writing out a receipt for my copay. He had a hard time spelling out "fifteen", and wrote "fifthteen" after several attempts. Yes, English was his first language. And the fact that he's working in the doc's office means he must be at least average.

littlesparkvt 14y ago
I've seen similar from well educated people, truly a shame.
samstave 14y ago
Actually, I disagree. What I think would be more beneficial would be not only healthcare - but the health insurance market. We need to commoditize hospital services while paying a great wage to nursing and physician staff and make for an easy payment protection plan. This was ostensibly the basis for the health ins industry - but when they realized they could easily get evil/greedy they farked everyone. The better model would be ubiquitous clinics with hospital services deployed via low-cost modular modality units. Think "MRI in a shipping crate" "OR in a shipping crate" "Davinci OR in a shipping crate with recovery attached - lower cost nursing staff on-site but the actual surgeon is remote from their home in Boston/SF/Dallas" You build these modality modules like legos. You then take these legos and deploy them to places like walmart, target and malls. You pay a set scale for physicians and offer STOCK and recruit med staff students to be lead by higher paid leaders who are the first generations mentors. You then provide an insurance plan through this service that is a set stepped payment scale based on income that is much more competitive than modern insurance. You have a fixed fee, transparent schedule of services. So, you have a known cost for the modules. You have a set fee schedule, pay schedule and premiums schedule. Make all this COMPLETELY transparent and partner with walmart, target and other entities to place these modular, full service, clinics. The common questions that will come up will be: how do you provide ICU, ER, Acute etc.. care. These services could be provided - but the truth is that this overall model is needed to disrupt the current failure of the US health system. We are building multi-billion-dollar hospitals EVERYEWHERE - but have you seen a reduction in cost of services ANYEWHERE? There is a clear way to disrupt US health, but it takes a multi billion dollar commitment over 10 years. This is the type of problem Elon is perfect to get moving... (Disclaimer: I design hospital systems, consult on healthcare operations for opening these new facilities and do technology consulting for the design of very large hospital networks - although at the very moment I am focusing on enterprise infrastructure consulting.)
opminion 14y ago
Spelling problems are not necessarily due to a failure of the education system, they could also be caused by dysgraphia, dyslexia, or even just plain hangover.
SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago
> You know what I'd love Elon Musk to tackle next? The education system in the US. That was raised in the questions. Mr Musk basically said that Sebastian Thrun and Sal Khan are doing the right thing for education already.

by ajays 14y ago

littlesparkvt 14y ago

I've seen similar from well educated people, truly a shame.

samstave 14y ago

Actually, I disagree. What I think would be more beneficial would be not only healthcare - but the health insurance market. We need to commoditize hospital services while paying a great wage to nursing and physician staff and make for an easy payment protection plan. This was ostensibly the basis for the health ins industry - but when they realized they could easily get evil/greedy they farked everyone. The better model would be ubiquitous clinics with hospital services deployed via low-cost modular modality units. Think "MRI in a shipping crate" "OR in a shipping crate" "Davinci OR in a shipping crate with recovery attached - lower cost nursing staff on-site but the actual surgeon is remote from their home in Boston/SF/Dallas" You build these modality modules like legos. You then take these legos and deploy them to places like walmart, target and malls. You pay a set scale for physicians and offer STOCK and recruit med staff students to be lead by higher paid leaders who are the first generations mentors. You then provide an insurance plan through this service that is a set stepped payment scale based on income that is much more competitive than modern insurance. You have a fixed fee, transparent schedule of services. So, you have a known cost for the modules. You have a set fee schedule, pay schedule and premiums schedule. Make all this COMPLETELY transparent and partner with walmart, target and other entities to place these modular, full service, clinics. The common questions that will come up will be: how do you provide ICU, ER, Acute etc.. care. These services could be provided - but the truth is that this overall model is needed to disrupt the current failure of the US health system. We are building multi-billion-dollar hospitals EVERYEWHERE - but have you seen a reduction in cost of services ANYEWHERE? There is a clear way to disrupt US health, but it takes a multi billion dollar commitment over 10 years. This is the type of problem Elon is perfect to get moving... (Disclaimer: I design hospital systems, consult on healthcare operations for opening these new facilities and do technology consulting for the design of very large hospital networks - although at the very moment I am focusing on enterprise infrastructure consulting.)

opminion 14y ago

Spelling problems are not necessarily due to a failure of the education system, they could also be caused by dysgraphia, dyslexia, or even just plain hangover.

SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago

> You know what I'd love Elon Musk to tackle next? The education system in the US. That was raised in the questions. Mr Musk basically said that Sebastian Thrun and Sal Khan are doing the right thing for education already.