Fed Up with Drug Companies, Hospitals Decide to Start Their Own

Post by mindcrime » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 3:35 AM UTC

chrisbennet wrote: post #69

ekianjo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Country-owned means of production have usually not fared well vs competitive forces in the past. And it could be considered as unfair competition: a state-owned manufacturer could basically have a blank check from the government for any kind of investment and would not have to worry at all about profitability. It sounds very nice as a thought exercise, but economical incentives are very tightly linked with productivi…

Thinking of it as “unfair competition” implies that companies have some sort of entitlement to a market. They don’t. If my town wants to have its own fire department, it’s not “unfair” to privately owned fire departments anymore than working on my own car is “unfair” to professional mechanics.

Post by mirimir » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 3:41 AM UTC

indescions_2018 wrote: post #61

I always assumed it would be CVS that got into the game. There are are probably a dozen or so drugs that account for the majority of consumption. Flu vaccines, blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid, insulin, asthma, progesterone, beta-blockers, gerd, etc. Providing these at minimum cost, as well as community public health services. Could be enormously cost effective. And extend general wellness and productivity many t…

Post by jrnichols » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 3:45 AM UTC

cjalmeida wrote: post #70

programmingpol wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some, if not most, of this is a result of the insurance system. The insurance companies only pay x% of any given item, therefore the hospitals have to jack prices through the roof to collect enough to survive. The problem with our healthcare system is that too much money goes to drug companies, medical device makers, and insurance companies and not enough makes it to the people actually providing the care. Its a bit…

Oh please. Doctors in the US get huge amounts of money, to the point they're the actual 1%. You don't see anything like this in OCDE countries. Doctor associations all across the country create enormous barriers to the opening of new medical schools to avoid competition. Don't get me wrong, medical doctors are generally good hard working people. But we need to acknowledge they're part of the problem.

Post by maxxxxx » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 3:47 AM UTC

telchar wrote: post #56

maxxxxx wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you are saying is correct but you can't excuse their billing practices.

I work for a hospital and I agree with you that the billing practices are shitty, but I couldn't tell you what a procedure will cost you even if ordered to. At best I could give you an average for a procedure but if you're in for a few days you may see dozens of doctors and have hundreds of procedures including an operating room procedure or two and a whole lot of blood tests, imaging, poking and prodding (e.g. asses…

Post by garettmd » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 4:06 AM UTC

mojomark wrote: post #49

majormajor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all nice and cynical sounding like HN loves when it comes to big companies, but even then: is that such a bad thing? You have ten years of a lot of people getting cheaper and better access to drugs, and you have a bunch of hospitals getting much-needed capacity increases with state-of-the-art facilities, and you have a proven business model for someone else to come in and take their turn at the money-making w…

Concur with maj maj maj maj... additionally, the the cynisism ignores the introduction of new competitive forces with a different moral vector in a largley unchecked market, the repurcussions of which are certainly uncertain, for certain.