Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 730 posts

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#621

Post by ashark »

dogruck wrote: post #617
ashark wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been incredibly bad for at least ~3 decades. A sick person with insurance without a dedicated advocate (relative or friend) watching out for them non-stop will likely end up having several care screw-ups occur to them, and with a bill ludicrously rather than just insanely large and probably a few things in collections (even if they can pay them) if said advocate doesn't spend a couple hundred hours fighting insu…

Good points. Which leads to the question, when everybody has "free" healthcare, who gets the top docs, and who gets the bottom and average docs?

Not sure. How's it work in the entire rest of the OECD?

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#622

Post by dragonwriter »

dogruck wrote: post #465
mbroncano wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got it right, it's difficult to imagine for a European what it's like to deal with having no medical care if unemployed. In addition, the fact that's part of every discussion gives a hint of how much of an issue this is.

Strange how the US healthcare setup is largely unchanged over many years, yet the general perception is that it's suddenly total chaos. I'm not saying the status quo is best, but we didn't suddenly plunge into a crisis.

> Strange how the US healthcare setup is largely unchanged over many years, yet the general perception is that it's suddenly total chaos.

It's been horrible for a long time (and there's been outrage for a long-time: while it got derailed and we got nothing out of it but HIPAA, the bad state of healthcare and plans to reform it were central to the Clinton campaign in 1992—and while Clinton tried for a complicated scheme involving insurance companies, polling showed majority support for single-payer even then; the ACA is often pointed out to be a copy of Romneycare in Massachusetts, but what is less commonly pointed out is that both are copies of something proposed by the insurance industry and embraced by the Republican Party as a desirable national reform direction shortly after Clinton's reform effort failed, because even then it was widely perceived that something had to be done.)

> I'm not saying the status quo is best, but we didn't suddenly plunge into a crisis.

No, we've been in a crisis for more than a generation.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#623

Post by Macha »

petecox wrote: post #321
vacri wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is different to soft drinks in other countries... how? Change the drink to whiskey, another popular one, and you can be sure that there's a difference between what the American rich and poor drink. > no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good And coke is not the same everywhere either. My guess is that the pre…

Yes, Coke does taste different depending on the country. (And I've tried it on 5 different continents.)

Whenever I go to the US, I always switch to diet coke. Not because of cutting down on that area to compensate for holiday food intake, but because aspartame coke tastes nicer than HFCS coke.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#624

Post by dragonwriter »

kobeya wrote: post #620
dragonwriter wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually not true in any of the states that didn't sign on to the ACA Medicaid expansion, which, yes, was designed so that between exchange subsidies and Medicaid eligibility there would be affordable subsidized or government provided coverage across the whole spectrum where people didn't have employer coverage or the ability to afford unsubsidized coverage.

It's also not true of extremely high cost of living areas such as NYC or the bay area where you're living beyond your means long before you qualify for government programs based on poverty levels that are calculated averaged across the nation. The system has warts. There are good reasons to criticize it. But saying we leave the poor dying in the streets because, well, fuck 'em they're poor, is both untrue and insulti…

> But saying we leave the poor dying in the streets because, well, fuck 'em they're poor, is both untrue and insulting.

Well, except that it's exactly true that that’s why the “warts” that you acknowledge which do, in fact, deny swaths of the poor access to care are tolerated.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#625

Post by zokier »

madeofpalk wrote: post #211
pilsetnieks wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by those new Nokias that aren't smartphones you mean the new 3310s (because Nokia also makes Android phones now,) you should be weary - the camera isn't exactly ok, not by modern standards, and most importantly, they only work on GSM (2G) networks that are being phased out in a lot of places.

> they only work on GSM (2G) networks Haha you're kidding me? They shut down the 2G networks in Australia this year!

I can only assume that it was to save on licensing costs, especially now as Nokia has been broken into pieces. Nokia already had ultra low-cost 3G platform five years ago (e.g. Nokia 208/301/515), so the tech definitely exists.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#626

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

madeofpalk wrote: post #211
pilsetnieks wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by those new Nokias that aren't smartphones you mean the new 3310s (because Nokia also makes Android phones now,) you should be weary - the camera isn't exactly ok, not by modern standards, and most importantly, they only work on GSM (2G) networks that are being phased out in a lot of places.

> they only work on GSM (2G) networks Haha you're kidding me? They shut down the 2G networks in Australia this year!

Actually, early reports look like they will be updated to (3G) when the phone comes to the U.S. market.

https://www.cnet.com/news/nokia-3310-3g-us-launch-fcc-filing...

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#627

Post by pkaye »

kobeya wrote: post #607
wil421 wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, if I believe what everyone comments on HN I would think hospitals are turning sick or injured people away.

My mama taught me to not talk about things I don't know anything about. I wish more people listened to their mamas. To the curious Europeans out there, if you lose your job you can stay on your job's health plan for 18 months while you look for new work. If you're unemployed that long then you'd qualify for Medicaid after that, the government insurance program for the poor. If for whatever reason you really didn't ha…

Make sure mama also told you these two things... Cobra insurance after losing your job requires you to pay the full premium which can be upwards of 10k per year. Also Medicaid has a very low asset threshold that you can still qualify unless you are pregnant, have young kids, disabled or elderly. ACA subsidy is the best shot for most in this situation but who knows how long till it is dismantled.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#628

Post by ihattendorf »

kobeya wrote: post #603
ghaff wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only for 120 days but, e.g. this is from one of Chase's cards: What's covered: "Eligible personal property that has been damaged, stolen, or involuntary and accidental parting with property within 120 days from the date of purchase" This is in addition to a year of additional warranty protection and various other purchase protections.

That text wouldn't cover accidental damage due to your own fault.

It certainly does. Most of Chase's cards cover up to $500 per occurrence. The Sapphire Reserve, and I believe Ink Preferred, cover up to $10k per occurrence. There are plenty of accounts of people taking advantage of these benefits online.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#629

Post by wodenokoto »

ksec wrote: post #248

If we take a look from a Global Perspective, US has the cheapest iPhone ( All prices excluding sales Tax ), and everywhere else had it more expensive. i.e The $1K Prices may be making a big waves in US, but elsewhere in the world they have been paying that much for an iPhone already. And in terms of iPhones / Population / Apple Store, the US has it most. While in Japan 60% of the Smartphone are iPhone ( i.e Higher th…

For a while they were cheaper in Japan with sales tax than in the US without tax.

The sticky price structure of Apple was severely undercut by the price of the yen. They fixed it now, though.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#630

Post by pound »

blubb-fish wrote: post #300
Retric wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people spend more time on their phone than their PC. So, 1,000$ is not an unreasonable price if it's noticeably better. It's like spending 200+$ on a pair of shoes, they don't need to be that much better fit to be worth it. I mean 1,000$ seems bad, but that can translate to under 30 cents an hour if you're spending 4 hours a day on your phone.

so you spend also excessive amount of money on water because you drink it several times a day? there is objectively no reason to spend more than 200 Euro on a smartphone - except for attempting to inflate one's ego.

for apps/general phone use 200 Euro phone is fine, but it will have quite a mediocre camera. For many camera on the phone is really important (let's say it's the only camera you have on you most of the time you spend with your little kids), and so you have to avoid cheapo phones that perfectly satisfactory for any other needs (texting/emails/maps/web etc (and phone calls if someone still doing it))
Post reply on HN