Change.org is looking for bloggers

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I'm an avid reader of Change.org; they have an interesting working model and blog on a variety of topics. Most of their bloggers are extremely knowledgeable about their fields of work (I tend to read the Global Health ones). So if you want to blog, get paid, and reach a huge audience, APPLY...

Details below...

Change.org Launches Blog Action Day 2009; Expanding Team of Bloggers Hey Changemakers, We have two exciting announcements to make this week. First, Change.org has been asked to take the reins of Blog Action Day, the annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. A few weeks ago we asked bloggers everywhere to suggest topics for this year's event, and the overwhelming response was in support of focusing on the gravest threat to world today:climate change. Blog Action Day itself is on October 15th, and we launched the new site this week at www.blogactionday.org to start accepting sign-ups. We've already received a flood of interest from bloggers around the world, with more than 1,800 blogs with seven million readers across 98 countries registered. If you have a blog - either personal or professional - click here to find out more information and register your blog now to be part of the largest social change event on the web. The second exciting piece of news we have to share?Change.org is expanding its team of bloggers! That's right, we're looking for writers extraordinaire who want to join our team and cover one or more of our 20 causes - from Health Care to Education to Global Poverty. If you're interested in blogging on an issue you're passionate about for an audience of more than a million activists and nonprofit leaders - and getting paid to boot - let us know. Contracts range from 1-6 posts a week and details are atwww.change.org/bloggers.

The X PRIZE for Healthcare

Turns out that even insurance companies are frustrated with the healthcare system in the US. Wellpoint, one of the largest insurance companies in the US, has sponsored an X PRIZE to improve the current healthcare.

The Healthcare X PRIZE, as it is called, has just opened up calls for review of its initial prize design. If you are interested or vested in the American healthcare system, definitely check it out here. Also, I've had a look at their blog a bit, which I would highly recommend.

Surprisingly, inspite of the multitude of text, the concept is relatively easy to follow. Personally, I don't know that much about the healthcare system, but I do know that it is flawed. Yet, looking at the way the prize is designed, its HARD for me to give any sort of input. I once got into a discussion with Dr Vijay Goel, who is the spearheading the Healthcare X PRIZE, and came out feeling even stupider and more ignorant. I feel like I know even less about the flaws of the healthcare system. So I don't know how much I can contribute to this discussion.

Essentially, if I can direct any educated people towards this cause, I'll be better off in the long run. I, like many Americans, need better healthcare...so get on it folks!!

Friendship, healthcare, and a gym

Find a friend, says the NY Times, and your wellness factor increases!

The American healthcare system sucks. Not because the doctors or quality of healthcare sucks; but because of insurance issues. You can't get decent care in this country without buying into the insurance system. Ironically, frustration, rather than being about the medical system, is about measly insurance companies who couldn't cure a patient even if their life depended on it.

Because I'm an independent consultant, I'm responsible for my own health insurance (most Americans get their insurance through their employers). And because its so expensive and so hard to decide what type of health insurance to get, I've been living without health insurance for several years now. But the tables are turning (as they always do).

I'm getting out-of-shape, and everyone is scaring me about terrible calamities to come. So I went to several gyms yesterday and found out that insured people have lower monthly fees, which really pushed me to start hunting for an insurance policy. I am having SO much difficulty picking something. Every one of my friends then gives me an opinion about which one to pick and they are all different, further confusing me.

In the midst of this, I read three different articles in the same issue of the NY Times, all relating to healthcare: this one about a family struggling to keep their son free of cancer, and this one about friendship being good insurance.

I'm lost and frustrated, have high gym rates, run the risk of taking my wonderful family into financial bankruptcy; but I have friends and hopefully that will keep me alive and well. Maybe I should take my friends to the gym, and we really will be alive and well to an exponential degree! :-)