Posts Tagged ‘expectancy’

The Japanese Health Care System

Japan, a nation with a long life expectancy, a rapidly aging population and a reputation as being expensive, surprising has one of the lowest per capita health care costs among the developed nations. Here is a basic look at the system, how it controls costs and some of its positive and negative points.Residents of Japan are obliged to join one of two types of health insurance systems. One type is a social insurance plan which is normally for corporate employees. The other is national health insurance, which is for the self-employed, students and others not covered under a social insurance plan.When someone goes to a hospital in Japan, insurance will usually cover 70%-80% of the costs upfront with the patient paying the difference. For more expensive treatments, the patient can receive a reimbursement for costs incurred.By law, the insurance plans cannot deny a legitimate claim or refuse anyone regardless of preexisting conditions. Also, medical care is not rationed by age or for any other reason. Most hospitals are privately owned. However, the rates they can charge for most services and drugs are set by Japanese Health Ministry every couple of years.People are free to choose whichever hospital they like. In spite of the fact Japanese people receive more medical care and spend more time in hospitals, Japan spends less on health care, and health insurance costs are much lower.Negative points of the Japanese systemDoctors on average see more patients and thus spend less time with each individual patient than in the US. Hospital conditions are often not as nice as those found in the US. For example, unless paying for a private room, most patients stay in shared rooms with the patients separated by curtains. Most hospitals do not take reservations. Patients simply go to the hospital and wait their turn.Drugs are often over prescribed. One reason for this is that since doctors spend less time with each patient, the sometimes simply prescribe drugs for initial visits instead of more thoroughly diagnosing the problem. The other reason is that hospitals sometimes can make money off the prescriptions.Since going to the hospital is relatively cheap, people abuse the system and seek medical treatment when it is not really needed. Many hospitals are losing money since prices are often set too low. Also, there is underinvestment in some areas and the system is laden in paperwork and regulation.While premiums are still much lower than the US, they are rising and an increasing number of people cannot afford them. However, this is often offset by programs that provide medical care for the children and the elderly. Overall, while the Japanese health care system does a good job at providing nearly universal coverage at an affordable price, it is not without it problems.

Simple and Easy Ways to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Current research shows that approximately 300 million people are obese and 5% of these people are children. Similar to adults, obesity causes several health risks and can decrease your child’s life expectancy. Obese children have a higher probability of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and severe emotional distress and trauma. Childhood obesity prevention is very important and can ultimately save your child’s life.There are several factors that could cause your child to become obese. Many people assume that both adults and children that are overweight or obese are lazy and eat too much. Although these factors can lead to obesity, they are not the only culprits. Obesity can be caused by genetics, illness and even emotional trauma. Some children begin to suffer weight issues after their parents get a divorce or they suffer the loss of a loved one. You should monitor your child’s behavior after any traumatic event to ensure your child is dealing with their emotions properly.Preventing childhood obesity does not have to be difficult. Here is a list of 4 simple and easy ways to prevent your child from becoming obese.1. BreastfeedingBreastfeeding is the best way to prevent not only childhood obesity but also other disorders like asthma. A mother’s milk is full of nutrients and is high in protein which can help establish a well-balanced metabolic rate for your child. If your child has a high metabolic rate, they are less likely to suffer from weight issues. However, if you did not breastfeed your child, you should not blame yourself for your child’s weight issues. Breastfeeding is only one piece to this very large puzzle.2. Caloric intakeGenerally, weight issues stem from eating more calories than your body expends. You should avoid giving your child high-calorie junk foods that contain excessive amounts of fats and sugar. You should substitute these with healthy, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. If your child is slightly overweight, you should also monitor and track all the food that your child eats. This can help you and your doctor determine the proper course of action to prevent any weight issues from getting worse.3. ExerciseYou should get your child in the habit of doing consistent exercise. Obviously, you should speak with your doctor before starting your child on any exercise regimen because their muscles and bones are still developing. You do not want to hinder your child’s overall growth. Keep exercise fun; therefore, make sure it is age appropriate. A child may not want to do an hour on the Stair Master and they really should not. It may be too much for their heart and lungs to handle. If you find age appropriate exercises, your child is more likely to stay consistent and enjoy being an active individual.4. Limit access to the television and computerYou should limit the amount of time your child spends in front of the television or computer. Research has proven that children that spend more time watching television or surfing the internet are more likely to become overweight and obese.Preventing your child from becoming obese is extremely important and very simple. Children are very resilient and will to respond to changes fairly quickly.

Online casinos. Mathematics of Bonuses.

Online casino players know that the latter ones offer various bonuses. -œFree-load- looks attractive, however, are they really useful these bonuses? Are they profitable for gamblers? The answer to this question depends on a lot of conditions. Mathematics will help us answer this question.

Let’s begin with an ordinary bonus on deposit: you transfer $100 and obtain $100 more, which it will be possible to get having staked $3000. It is a typical example of bonus on the first deposit. The sizes of a deposit and bonus can be different, as well as the required stake rates, but one thing remains unchangeable – the amount of the bonus is accessible for withdrawal after the required wager. Till this moment it is impossible to withdraw money, as a rule. If you are going to play in the online casino for a long time and rather insistently, this bonus will help you, it can really be considered free money. If you play slots with 95% pay-outs, a bonus will allow you to make on average extra 2000 $ of stakes ($100/(1-0,95)=$2000), after that the amount of bonus will be over. But there can be complications, for example, if you simply want to have a look at a casino, without playing for a long time, if you prefer roulette or other games, forbidden by casinos’ rules for winning back bonuses. In the majority of casinos you won’t be allowed to withdraw money or will simply return a deposit, if a wager is not made on the games allowed in the casino. If you are keen on roulette or blackjack, and a bonus can be won back only by playing slots, make the required $3000 of stakes, in the course of 95% of pay-outs you will lose on average $3000*(1-0,95)=$150. As you see, you not only lose the bonus but also take out of your pocket $50, in this case it is better to refuse the bonus. Anyway, if blackjack and poker are allowed for winning back the bonus with a casino’s profit only about 0,5%, so it can be expected that after winning back the bonus you will have $100-3000*0,005=$85 of the casino’s money. The -œsticky- or -œphantom- bonuses: More and more popularity in casinos is gained by -œsticky- or -œphantom- bonuses – the equivalent of lucky chips in real casinos. The amount of bonus is impossible to withdraw, it must remain on the account (as if it -œhas stuck- to it), until it is completely lost, or annulled on the first withdrawal of cash means (disappears like a phantom). At first sight it may seem that there is little sense in such a bonus – you won’t get money anyway, but it’s not completely true. If you win, then there is really no point in the bonus, but if you have lost, it may be of use to you. Without a bonus you have lost your $100 and that’s it, bye-bye. But with a bonus, even if it is a -œsticky- one, $100 are still on your account, which can help you worm out of the situation. A possibility to win back the bonus in this case is a bit less than 50% (for that you only need to stake the entire amount on the chances in roulette). In order to maximize profits from “sticky” bonuses one needs to use the strategy -œplay-an-all-or-nothing game-. Really, if you play little stakes, you will slowly and surely lose because of the negative math expectancy in games, and the bonus will only prolong agony, and won’t help you win. Clever gamblers usually try to realize their bonuses quickly – somebody stakes the entire amount on chances, in the hope to double it (just imagine, you stake all $200 on chances, with a probability of 49% you’ll win neat $200, with a probability of 51% you’ll lose your $100 and $100 of the bonus, that is to say, a stake has positive math expectancy for you $200*0,49-$100*0,51=$47), some people use progressive strategies of Martingale type. It is recommended to fix the desired amount of your gain, for example $200, and try to win it, taking risks. If you have contributed a deposit in the amount of $100, obtained -œsticky- $150 and plan to enlarge the sum on your account up to $500 (that is to win $250), then a probability to achieve your aim is (100+150)/500=50%, at this the desired real value of the bonus for you is (100+150)/500*(500-150)-100=$75 (you can substitute it for your own figures, but, please, take into account that the formulas are given for games with zero math expectancy, in real games the results will be lower). The cash back bonus: There is a seldom encountered variant of a bonus, namely return of loosing. There can be singled out two variants – the complete return of the lost deposit, at this the returned money usually is to be won back like with an ordinary bonus, or a partial return (10-25%) of the loosing over the fixed period (a week, a month). In the first case the situation is practically identical to the case with a -œsticky- bonus – if we win, there is no point in the bonus, but it helps in case of losing. Math calculations will be also analogous to the -œsticky- bonus and the strategy of the game is similar – we risk, try to win as much as possible. If we are not lucky and we have lost, we can play with the help of the returned money, already minimizing the risk. Partial return of the losing for an active gambler can be regarded as an insignificant advantage of casinos in games. If you play blackjack with math expectancy – 0,5%, then, having made stakes on $10 000, you will lose on average $50. With 20% of return $10 will be given back to you, that is you losing will amount to $40, which is equivalent to the increase in math expectancy up to 0,4% (ME with return=theoretical ME of the game * (1-% of return). However, from the given bonus can also be derived benefit, for that you need to play less. We make only one but a high stake, for example $100, on the same stakes in roulette. In 49% of cases again we win $100, and 51% – we lose $100, but at the end of the month we get back our 20% that is $20. As a result the effect is $100*0,49-($100-$20)*0,51=$8,2. As you see, the stake then has positive math expectancy, but dispersion is big for we’ll be able to play this way rather seldom – once a week or even once a month. I will allow myself a short remark, slightly digressing from the main subject. On a casino forum one of the gamblers started to claim that tournaments were not fair, arguing it in the following way: “No normal person will ever make a single stake within the last 10 minutes of the tournament, which 3,5-fold surpasses the prize amount ($100), in nomination of a maximal losing, so as to win. What is the point?” And really does it make sense? The situation is very similar to the variant with return of losing. If a stake has won – we are already in the black. If it has lost – we’ll get a tournament prize of $100. So, the math expectancy of the above-mentioned stake amounting to $350 is: $350*0,49-($350-$100)*0,51=$44. Yes, we may lose $250 today, but shall win $350 tomorrow, and over a year playing every day, we’ll accumulate pretty 365*$44=$16 000. Having solved a simple equation, we’ll find out that stakes up to $1900 are profitable for us! Of course, for such a game we need to have thousands of dollars on our account, but we certainly can’t blame casinos for dishonesty or gamblers for being foolish. Let’s come back to our bonuses, to the most -œfree-load- ones- without any deposit. Of late one has been able to notice more and more advertisements promising up to $500 absolutely free of charge, without any deposit. The pattern is the following – you really get $500 on a special account and limited time for play (usually an hour). After an hour you get only the amount of your gain, but still not more than $500. The gain is transferred on a real account where you must win it back, like any bonus, usually having run it 20 times in slots. $500 free -it sounds attractive, but what is the real price of the bonus? Well, the first part – you need to win $500. Using a simplified formula, we can see that probability of winning is 50% (in practice, it is certainly even smaller). The second part – we win the bonus back, you need to stake $10 000 in slots. We don’t know the rates of pay-outs in slots, they are not published by casinos and make up on average about 95% (for various kinds they fluctuate about 90-98%). If we get at an average slot, then till the end of the wager we’ll have $500-10 000*0,05=$0 on our account , not a bad game… If we are lucky to choose a slot with high pay-outs, we can await $500-10 000*0,02=$300. Even though the probability to choose a slot with high pay-outs is 50% (you have listened to the opinions of other gamblers since by random choice this probability will make up hardly more than 10-20%, for there are few generous slots), in this case the value of a generous deposit free bonus amounts to $300*0,5*0,5=$75. Much less than $500, but still not too bad, though we can see that even with the most optimal suppositions the final amount of the bonus has decreased seven-fold. I hope, this excursion into mathematics domain of bonuses will be of use to gamblers – if you want to win, you simply need to think a little and make calculations. © Copyright 2006-2007 www.bonus-map.com Arthur Prudent is the developer of www.bonus-map.com , web site covering gambling news, features reviews on Casinos, Poker rooms, bingos, Sports Betting bonuses promotions and more. Online casinos.Mathematics of Bonuses.

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