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When good ideas make bad business

tjcx.me

331–340 of 361 posts

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#333
So many mistakes here in both concept and execution. That conversation with the Psychiatrist is bizarre, and must have been embellished for a good story. I think what 'Susan' is actually trying to say is that the incremental benefit of using this 'auto meta-analysed' data over the actual studies is very small. The author tries to cast this as 'Doctors not wanting to improve healthcare', which is just a rationalisation for the product which is not useful. Case in point, the spreadsheet cited at the start of the article largely links to a systematic review that is already published, ie the author is copying data someone else has already aggregated and then re-analysing it in basically the same way with a few more studies. And then trying to charge people to access it. This seems manifestly inferior to the existing system if you ask me. Cochrane would be turning in his grave.

There just isn't a product you can sell here.

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#334
I don't know that I've encountered such a flagrant display of naivete from someone who actually has an education/proficiency in a profession, who is also apparently well-read enough to engage in such a process. It demonstrates a complete lack of respect for other careers that have a tremendous amount of education requirements and proficiencies of their own, not to mention having a basic social awareness of how people behave and respond in the business world and social realm. I get that he was trying to be humorous, but it wasn't informative enough to make me sympathetic to him at all.

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#335
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The longer you live the more monthly premiums you pay, so ideally they do want you to live, but they don't want you to use any healthcare services (or use less services) while you live.

No, the moment you are diagnosed with a chronic or life threatening disease, your premiums no longer cover the medical cost. Otherwise what is the point of insurance. Moreover, many regulations prevent them from raising future premiums. So kicking you off the insurance plan or letting you die is indeed their primary concern

Which is why health care shouldn't be organized through markets.

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely why we need universal healthcare. The incentive structure of private markets don't properly value human life.

"This is precisely why we need universal healthcare. The incentive structure of private markets don't properly value human life." Government-run healthcare isn't a panacea that will 'value human life' any more than the insurance companies. You are still a number in a database somewhere. Most new drugs come out of the US and socialized governments create generics at a fraction of the cost, because they don't have to p…

> I can't think of anything that the government runs better than the private sector.

Then you are not very good at thinking. There is no theoretical, practical or empirical evidence that this should be true. If you _feel_ this should be true, you should really investigate where that feeling comes from.

Basically your post is just ideology without argument or evidence. All evidence shows that free markets in health care are terribly inefficient. If that doesn't align with your ideological priors, well, adjust your reality.

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This is precisely why we need universal healthcare. The incentive structure of private markets don't properly value human life." Government-run healthcare isn't a panacea that will 'value human life' any more than the insurance companies. You are still a number in a database somewhere. Most new drugs come out of the US and socialized governments create generics at a fraction of the cost, because they don't have to p…

The government runs a lot of things better than the private sector. Even in the US, the government loosely or strongly manages Police, National Defense, Garbage Disposal, Water managenemt, Power Management, Internet infrastructure, Education, Telephone, Mail and many more. Any service that every citizen needs to live a healthy life is better and more cost effectively run by the government.

Some of those are run by monopolies such as power, telephone and internet providers.

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#338
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the moment you are diagnosed with a chronic or life threatening disease, your premiums no longer cover the medical cost. Otherwise what is the point of insurance. Moreover, many regulations prevent them from raising future premiums. So kicking you off the insurance plan or letting you die is indeed their primary concern

This is incorrect. How can they kick you off the insurance plan? Also, the ACA has provisions to prevent one insurer from having to shoulder the costliest patients via some form of cost sharing with all the others. https://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Premium-S...

> How can they kick you off the insurance plan?

They can investigate whether you failed to report any preexisting conditions, or otherwise violated terms of your insurance. Things that would seem to you to be a technicality may be to their lawyers a breach of contract. Do you have a lawyer who is up for that fight?

[1] https://www.justice.org/sites/default/files/file-uploads/Ins...

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a business standpoint, saving lives can actually be expensive. The longer someone lives, the more healthcare they consume. Health insurance companies are very aware of this, which is why they so frequently deny coverage for various life-saving cancer treatments. If you die while waiting for treatment, not only do they save the cost of the treatment, but also the entire cost of ongoing screening / care during rem…

This is precisely why we need universal healthcare. The incentive structure of private markets don't properly value human life.

An honest question, what value does the government assign to the human life in your opinion? In my experience the elites from countries with universal healthcare seek treatment for themselves and their families in countries which have private options, while the majority of the population is stuck in long waiting lines and substandard care. In Micheal Moore's Sicko Slovenia was mentioned as role model because its universal healthcare. Well it just happens that if you need a thumb operation you only have to wait 13 years there to get your turn. [1] Wouldn't the rational response be to asses both pluses and minuses of public and private healthcare, recognize that not all health related problems are the same and build a better system from first principles rather than shoot blanket ideological responses?

[1] - https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sl&tl=en&u=https%3...

Re: When good ideas make bad business

#340
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect. How can they kick you off the insurance plan? Also, the ACA has provisions to prevent one insurer from having to shoulder the costliest patients via some form of cost sharing with all the others. https://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Premium-S...

> How can they kick you off the insurance plan? They can investigate whether you failed to report any preexisting conditions, or otherwise violated terms of your insurance. Things that would seem to you to be a technicality may be to their lawyers a breach of contract. Do you have a lawyer who is up for that fight? [1] https://www.justice.org/sites/default/files/file-uploads/Ins...

ACA, since 2010, made it so health insurance companies cannot discriminate for pre existing conditions.

If you notice, when you search for insurance quotes on healthcare.gov, it only asks you for age, location, and smoking status. And gender, but I don’t think gender can be used to price the insurance any differently.

It boggles my mind that people keep bringing up pre existing conditions a decade after they have ceased to be a thing. Also, your link doesn’t work.

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/

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