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Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
21–30 of 138 posts
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#22> Consumers, meanwhile, buoyed by insurance and tax breaks, have little idea how much they are really spending and little incentive to know underlying costs. Almost weekly there's another post showing that consumers literally cannot find out costs usually because the provider cannot supply it. It's time to put a stake in the heart of the recurring blame-the-consumer trope.
I don't read it as "blame the consumer" but "the system is opaque".
The consumer doesn't know and can't find out. Articles have been written for, I don't know, a decade or more decrying the opacity of the "Chargemaster", etc, and how if you call a hospital to ask the charge for a procedure, they probably can't give you a quote.
If you have certain kinds of insurance, you're not even incentivized to care - you tolerate the opacity. But I don't think it's really blaming the consumer so much as blaming a system way off the rails.
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#23Do republican politicians, and others in charge of maintaining this healthcare farce we have, have some sort of training in "convince the downtrodden to vote for things that make their lives harder" or is it just something natural? I say this as a Wisconsin emigrant that watched my home state shoot itself in the face time and time and time again.
You do realize that it was under democratic leadership that healthcare costs shot up so much. Obamacare increased my monthly payment almost 2X.
...implementing a healthcare policy cooked up by conservative think tanks in the 1990s.
The rest of the developed world shows that anything short of national healthcare system is an expensive mistake.
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#24Do republican politicians, and others in charge of maintaining this healthcare farce we have, have some sort of training in "convince the downtrodden to vote for things that make their lives harder" or is it just something natural? I say this as a Wisconsin emigrant that watched my home state shoot itself in the face time and time and time again.
You do realize that it was under democratic leadership that healthcare costs shot up so much. Obamacare increased my monthly payment almost 2X.
In all fairness health care costs were shooting up long before Obamacare. Obamacare just did nothing to change that trend.
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#25> Consumers, meanwhile, buoyed by insurance and tax breaks, have little idea how much they are really spending and little incentive to know underlying costs. Almost weekly there's another post showing that consumers literally cannot find out costs usually because the provider cannot supply it. It's time to put a stake in the heart of the recurring blame-the-consumer trope.
I agree, but I think they are talking about a different aspect of "not knowing". Which is, I get health coverage from my employer, I go to the doctor, I get some sort of bill that seems high but not crazy, I assume that is the cost of visit. But I am not seeing the transactions behind the scene between doctor/insurer/employer that may be several times what I am directly out of pocket, but pay indirectly.
there are other kinds of problems. You are in the hospital, you feel queasy after surgery, nurse asks if you would like medication for that. "how much is it?" If you even think to ask that, usually they will not know, and can't or will not find out for you. So you can't make a rational decision about whether to deal with the discomfort or not.
Similarly, doctors often won't know the cost difference between various medication options, and those costs are always extremely difficult to figure out since there are usually various coupons that last for various amounts of time, which if you are willing to sort through you can game the system a lot. But in the long run it would be better if those games didn't exist. Switching asthma meds as you run through coupon time limits isn't really the healthiest thing anyway.
Or you are hit by a car, an amublance shows up "what will the bill be? Oh I'll call a different service" no, you can't do that while you are bleeding out, nor will you have any way of knowing which hospital will have the best rates to fix you, you don't even know what is wrong yet!
One might conclude that private, free markets don't make sense in this domain at all, perhaps.
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#26Do republican politicians, and others in charge of maintaining this healthcare farce we have, have some sort of training in "convince the downtrodden to vote for things that make their lives harder" or is it just something natural? I say this as a Wisconsin emigrant that watched my home state shoot itself in the face time and time and time again.
You're seriously blaming the ACA on Republicans?
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#27They spend so much, because it's basically Health Business not Care.
I'd go with MoneyCaid. Health run care by big bureaucratic business deeply intertwined with big bureaucratic government. So there's lots of money flowing, but not as much care.
Germany too has large businesses providing health care and mucho government. When I had my tonsils removed a few years ago, a €>1b/y organisation did the knifework, another organisation with an even bigger budget paid, and neither of them set the rates.
So why does this combination work in Germany and fail so spectacularly in the US?
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#28[flagged]
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Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#29Do republican politicians, and others in charge of maintaining this healthcare farce we have, have some sort of training in "convince the downtrodden to vote for things that make their lives harder" or is it just something natural? I say this as a Wisconsin emigrant that watched my home state shoot itself in the face time and time and time again.
Do democratic politicians have some sort of training in maintaining the farce that more things should be handled by government, when governments in Illinois, California, New York, etc.--democratic strongholds where Republicans cannot be pointed to as the scapegoats--are on the verge of bankruptcy? I don't think, deep down, republicans think the current system is better. They just don't trust whatever replaces it won'…
Republicans in New York have had significant power in the Senate for quite some time.
Re: Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care–In 12 Charts
#30They spend so much, because it's basically Health Business not Care.
I'd go with MoneyCaid. Health run care by big bureaucratic business deeply intertwined with big bureaucratic government. So there's lots of money flowing, but not as much care.
As someone who got a peak into some of the intimate details of a large Hospice services provider, I have to agree. The fact that there are, no matter what they call themselves, salesmen who wine and dine hospital and senior home officials so that their employer can be made a part of their hospice pipeline is sickening. What’s worse is when you discover how many “palliative” patients will routinely temporarily leave care for surgeries, then cycle back on, for years.
Not to mention that many of my relatives, and myself, have been egregiously misbilled or convinced to purchase very expensive, extremely unnecessary devices/treatment. I’m sure a lot of people in healthcare are good, but the people calling the shots - including even some doctors - don’t give a shit