Politics – the art of possibilities

No pain, no gain

Hello there. During the past 3 months my first foreign language, English, has become more like another native language to me rather than just a some sort of lingo. Day-to-day use, writing and thinking in another language takes you, for sure, to a whole new know-how and opens myriads of new doors. On account of aforesaid, I decided to write my next post in my new everyday language.

Buddy Dyer, the current Mayor of Orlando and his guest Juho Rasa, the future Prime Minister of Finland.

On November 17, I had a great privilege and honor to meet Buddy Dyer, the Mayor of Orlando. We had a great 15-minute conversation about today's hot topics including world peace, leadership, commerce, and persistence. I was listening like a little boy when this Judicial Doctor shared his knowledge of serving as O-Town's chief executive. However, what impressed me the most about this person was neither his doctoral theses nor the thickness of his wallet but, most of all, his humble comportment. This meeting, among Dr. Carson's interview earlier this month, made me truly realize how great leaders must first become good servants.

Besides above-mentioned topics, we also briefly changed a couple of thoughts on the basis of health care and the hot potato – reforming it. This area is personally important to me by reason of my dreams to get to study medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Tampere and perhaps to become a pediatric neurosurgeon. Time will tell and may God lead me where He wants me to go.

Here in the United States, the debate regarding health care reform includes questions of a right to health care, access, fairness, sustainability, quality and amounts spent by government. 

President Barack Obama

In the past five years, there has been a lot of discussion about reforming the health care system and what should be done about it. ObamaCare. This issue came to the fore in 2010 and has confounded politicians ever since. In a nutshell, ObamaCare is a U.S. health care reform law that expands and improves access to care and curbs spending through regulations and taxes. The actual name is an unofficial term for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was signed on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama.

The main goals of ObamaCare are to offer Americans a number of new benefits, rights, and protections in regards to their health care. Many politicians argue the pros and cons of the ObamaCare. To all intents and purposes, those pros and cons mirror the complex nature of the new health care law. On one hand, this new Affordable Care Act contains several benefits, especially for low- and middle-income families and businesses. But on the other hand, it entails some obstacles for high-earners, larger corporations that do not insure their employees, and certain sectors of the health care industry. 

All the same, the United States is not the only factor in this field thinking over the possibilities when it comes to the health care reform. For instance, my home country Finland is now looking for solutions in order to reduce inequalities in well-being and health, and to manage the costs of it. 

Juha Sipilä's Cabinet is the 74th Government of Finland. The cabinet is a coalition government consisting three centre-right parties: the Centre Party which leader Sipilä (in the middle) has been since 2012, the Finns Party which leader and co-founder Timo Soini (on the left) is also the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, and last but not least the National Coalition Party which leader Alexander Stubb (on the right) is the current Minister of Finance.

According to the overhaul of the welfare system, Sipilä's Cabinet Programme continues to prepare the social welfare and health care (SOTE in Finnish) reform in accordance of The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö in Finnish).

The Government Programme of Sipilä's Cabinet states that the social welfare and health care services shall be combined on all levels in order to reach the objective. The aim is to create seamless service chains for the provision of key social welfare and health care services, and to improve the functioning of basic services. The organizers' service capacity shall also be improved. This will have a prominent impact on the sustainability gap of public finances. 

Prime Minister Sipilä

Tangled foreign trade and high unemployment rates, 9.5% in September 2015, equal less income from taxes, but fortunately Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's Cabinet is making some visible efforts to fix its shortcomings. By virtue of Finland's desire to promote monetary responsibility, Sipilä's Cabinet has actively looked for ways to revise the welfare system to meet the needs of austerity.

"The most important thing will be trust between the parties, then agenda issues. I wouldn't primarily look at the ranks in the election result."

- Juha Sipilä, Prime Minister

When all is said and done, I would warmly want to thank each and every one of you who have prayed for the success of my exchange and moreover sent me plenty of encouraging messages which truly have given me strength to go on. God bless.

Sincerely,

Juho