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The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

conradbastable.com

131–140 of 269 posts

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#131
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it would set you back around $3000 That's an average. The problem is the huge variance. Also just because you have heath insurance doesn't necessarily mean your insurance will pick up the tab.

There are health plans that don't cover a childbirth?

[deleted]

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#132
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it would set you back around $3000 That's an average. The problem is the huge variance. Also just because you have heath insurance doesn't necessarily mean your insurance will pick up the tab.

There are health plans that don't cover a childbirth?

Because of the affordable care act, no (thankfully, as pregnancy was a pre-existing condition) but your insurance may not cover a doctor or hospital which could (even accidentally) add up to thousands of dollars. Ask who people are when they walk into your room, and whether their treatment is covered depending on your insurance.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#133
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs around the same in Europe if you don't have insurance. I'm pretty sure it's the same in the USA - this is the rate that would be charged to your insurance company. Rates are way lower for uninsured people if you ask them and tell them that you're not insured (I got a bill lowered 10 times when I broke my hand); and of course most people have some kind of insurance. To the people downvoting: please read prope…

I think it would have helped if you specified Czech rather than "Europe", because it's a big place and it looks like many of the smaller countries have this kind of non-public system. The rules appear to be complicated: https://www.kancelarzp.cz/en/links-info-en/health-insurance-... It sounds like there's a hole for people to fall in: if you're a Czech national, but not resident nor employed in Czech Republic, but in…

There are rules that are EU-wide - because they're set by an EU regulation. If you're a resident in any EU country, you get the blue card. That makes you entitled to whatever (this is depending on the country and not set by the regulation) in your country of residence and basic care of life threatening issues in the rest of EU, Czech Republic included; however if you injure yourself doing e.g. sports in other EU country, that's not covered! That's why travel insurance still exists, otherwise it'd be pointless.

My comment was talking about uninsured people, so mostly non-EU residents and people that didn't pay and weren't entitled for coverage by their government - the way it works is that your governments pays the insurance for you if you can't, but will not if you can; there is an exception - Germany, where everyone is covered through taxes.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#134
post #2

> Google tells me that the most common reason for hospitalization in the US is childbirth. Thankfully, here in San Francisco, that would only set me back $15,000 Surely this is not true? Does having kids just bankrupt ordinary people in the US or what? I'm not asking about exceptional cases, like what is the normal way of dealing with having to pay $15,000 just to have a baby climb out of your body, when I'm assuming…

It's patchwork. They can't turn you away in an emergency, and Medicaid covers expenses for the poor. An uninsured family member recently had their unexpectedly complicated delivery written off entirely under the hospital's charity guidelines.

But I recall reading a vivid passage about ten years ago, talking about the difference between rich and poor maternity wards: the wailing.

Anesthesia is an elective expense in childbirth, not always covered by Medicaid.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#135

Modern societies are supposed to be organised for the benefit of all in society (broadly speaking; obviously there are cases when different people have desires that cannot be reconciled). This is why the government usually sponsors education, for example. All of society benefits from an educated population and hence all of society contributes to the cost of that education. This seems to have been lost in the US (and,…

I think personally that the main problems in the developed world were globalisation + large scale automation, it completely destroyed the power the average worker had, and power directly means money. Inflation is only low because better technology and bigger markets are now available which automatically makes everything cheaper to make, but even that isn't enough to compensate the loss of power of the middle class.

I tend to agree with that. Globalization has acted in very interesting ways. I wonder how it will affect the standard of living on a global scale. My guess is that it will have a normalizing effect.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health insurance will cover much of it, but more importantly Northern California is overpriced for medical procedures. Boston is $5,000 less and has equally good hospitals. And St. Louis is down at $6,000 and has really good hospitals as well. I had a friend who got an appendectomy at Stanford that was paid for by Google (she was on business travel, works in the London office) and the price was obscene, far above wha…

It’s not overpriced if there is no monopoly. No one is stopping other providers from moving to Northern California and stealing business by offering lower prices. If people want to live in a place with great weather, outdoors, food, and career opportunities, then they have to compete for it because lots of other people do too, and hence they have to compete to purchase things like homes and service from healthcare pr…

You are quite wrong about that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_need

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#137
I really liked this article as it was thought provoking and motivational, with interesting data to back it up!

That said, I don't understand why 750K-1.5M for housing was considered in the one-time expenditure equation. Your home is an asset as well as a monthly liability, and you don't need to have it paid off in order to build wealth, either in prices or in savings while you pay off your mortgage.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#138
post #56

Here’s a controversial perspective. Maybe most people’s expectations are too lofty, and their abilities much lower than the think they are. In 2000, less than 25% of the working popultion had a bachelors degree. Today, every young person I talk to expects to finish a Phd, JD, and MBA. And, now everyone wants to live in the trendiest (highest-cost areas). There are plenty of places in the US where a house can be purca…

> Unless you came from wealth, or you’re definitely in the top 1% of your peers, maybe set your expectations a bit lower. Why should any of us set our expectations lower? Because you say so? Why is the best piece of the cake reserved to some 1% folks largely with inherited wealth? Why should 1 billion Chinese set their expectations lower? Because they happen to not be born in Silicon Valley and their father doesn't r…

I’m just providing an alternative perspective. It’s certainly not a mandate. If you know that you’re exceptional, then by all means go be exceptional. But, the vast majority of people aren’t exceptional. And, the truly exceptional are probably out there working their ass off right now, not reading HN.

High expectations = high chances for disappointment. I was exceptional in high school. One day a teacher bluntly told my “gifted” class, “You guys aren’t special. You may feel special right now. But, there are millions of people better than you. Be ready for disappointment.” That advice hurt, and I hated that teacher. But, the truth is that even after being lucky and working hard for 20+ years, the best I got was to be an exceptional person’s captain. And, only through helping that person was I able to retire early. YMMV.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#139
post #2

> Google tells me that the most common reason for hospitalization in the US is childbirth. Thankfully, here in San Francisco, that would only set me back $15,000 Surely this is not true? Does having kids just bankrupt ordinary people in the US or what? I'm not asking about exceptional cases, like what is the normal way of dealing with having to pay $15,000 just to have a baby climb out of your body, when I'm assuming…

My wife and I had a child in Canada with about as extreme a complication as you can get (transferred to Level 3 ICU for the sake of mother and baby). We calculated that it would have cost at least $200k in the US in direct costs, let alone things we couldn't quite get a price for (medication, the hourly rate of the over 20 medical professionals in the room during delivery, etc.). Would have ruined us for sure if out of pocket.

Re: The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not overpriced if there is no monopoly. No one is stopping other providers from moving to Northern California and stealing business by offering lower prices. If people want to live in a place with great weather, outdoors, food, and career opportunities, then they have to compete for it because lots of other people do too, and hence they have to compete to purchase things like homes and service from healthcare pr…

You are quite wrong about that. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_need

Wow! Did not know about that. So many barriers to free market...
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