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GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

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Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health stuff, including IVF, should not be crowd funded. These are by definition universal problems that will be addressed most efficiently collectively. The question of what reproduction society should support is entirely distinct from that of getting health care for your reproduction.

You can be perfectly healthy without IVF.

Suicide is a complex phenomena and we should avoid simplistic explanations, but fertility problems are a trigger for some people.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In universal care you dont get access to 'clinical trials and research and things like that, where people need access to leading-edge potential treatments' You are also not eliminated the need to get funds, you are changing who you are asking them from. And let me tell you that government officials are seldom generous.

So you believe the US healthcare system is better than, say, the United Kingdom?

I dont know the UK health intimately to compare confidently. I can tell you what it looks like with Argentina. that has universal care. Normally anyone with a dime goes private. Public is a lower-quality, cheaper service.

That system is great for the poor, most expensive to middle class.

I can also tell you what I think are reasons why US healthcare is so expensive, and they are not fixed by universal care programs.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#73
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universal healthcare. It works well in the majority of civilized world.

In universal care you dont get access to 'clinical trials and research and things like that, where people need access to leading-edge potential treatments' You are also not eliminated the need to get funds, you are changing who you are asking them from. And let me tell you that government officials are seldom generous.

> where people need access to leading-edge potential treatments'

Those leading edge potential treatments tend to be both very expensive and ineffective, and often cause additional harm on top.

That's from the analysis of a leading oncologist in the UK.

https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2097

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#74
post #37

>Or the Tennessee couple who want to get pregnant, but whose insurance doesn’t cover the $20,000 worth of “medications, surgeries, scans, lab monitoring, and appointments [that] will need to be paid for upfront and out-of-pocket” for in vitro fertilization. Would an ideal healthcare system cover in vitro for anyone, full stop? Took a buzz through the NHS requirements[0] and there are definitely restrictions. And in v…

From my perspective, it shouldn't. Yes, its cold and heartless to say so, but wanting children isn't a health issue.

I'm not sure I agree. I don't want kids myself, so it would be easy for me to say it isn't important to a meaningful life, but it is a significant biological drive and, in a way, denying someone the ability to bear children is condemning them to a form of death.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#75
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In universal care you dont get access to 'clinical trials and research and things like that... [citation needed]

The US has substantial incoming medical tourism. If it really were strictly worse to european alternatives (more expensive or lower quality) europeans would not go to the US.

That doesn't mean those tourists are getting effective or even safe treatment. It just means the US hospitals are good at marketing to desperate and wealthy people.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#76
post #59
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On that note, I find it supremely fucked up that people have to turn to crowdfunding to get their unexpected healthcare costs covered by benevolent internet citizens. So who should pay for it? All taxpayers instead? All countries that have tried that are now in the red. The only good solution, I think, it to work to make healthcare a lot cheaper in the long run.

The US is the only major developed country that doesn't have universal healthcare and they are still deep "in the red".

And we spend more per capita in public funds than any country providing public universal healthcare and, IIRC, about middle of the road in public healthcare spending as a share of GDP for countries providing universal healthcare, and then slightly more in private spending on top of the public spending. The US is literally paying, in public funds, for full universal healthcare (or more!), and paying more in private funds on top.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#77

We need to get rid of health insurance companies. They are the reason all of our costs are massively inflated. The same thing is happening in education: universities know that a large percentage of students are getting financial aid, so the true costs are buried in a layer of bureaucracy. Fees and administrative fees continue to go up and the universities will always get their money. The students are then on the hook…

Care to explain your logic? Cat repair isn't so expensive even though everyone with a car has car insurance.

You don't need to take a gigantic loan from the government and pay the repair companies for their work.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#78
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, this blew my mind. Not because the concept is outlandish, but because it wouldn't surprise me at all if it actually existed, and I think it would be immensely popular.

Yes! It was supposed to be over the top satire with a comical tone, but then it just ended up depressing me because it started to feel far too realistic...

FWIW, it's not just you. And it's not new.

"We are living in interesting times; in fact, they're so interesting that it is not currently possible to write near-future SF." -- Charlie Stross, Sep 2008

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/09/avalanch...

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#79

We need to get rid of health insurance companies. They are the reason all of our costs are massively inflated. The same thing is happening in education: universities know that a large percentage of students are getting financial aid, so the true costs are buried in a layer of bureaucracy. Fees and administrative fees continue to go up and the universities will always get their money. The students are then on the hook…

Maybe it's naive, but I always thought that Medicare played a big role in our inflated healthcare costs. Think about it: the number one demographic using the system has most/all their expenses covered by an entity that doesn't care how much things cost. Doctors and hospitals then price accordingly, and everyone else paying out of pocket gets screwed because the system is priced to favor its biggest users, who never see the bill.

Re: GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ in Health System Showing Up in Crowdfunding

#80

We need to get rid of health insurance companies. They are the reason all of our costs are massively inflated. The same thing is happening in education: universities know that a large percentage of students are getting financial aid, so the true costs are buried in a layer of bureaucracy. Fees and administrative fees continue to go up and the universities will always get their money. The students are then on the hook…

Care to explain your logic? Cat repair isn't so expensive even though everyone with a car has car insurance.

Competitive pressure. If your can't be fixed or you don't want to fix it you have alternative forms of transportation or you can purchase another one (either at full price or used). Also, many of us only carry liability.
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