141–150 of 294 posts
FWIW, here's a financial statement of a pediatric hospital. Unsurprisingly, most of the revenue goes to wages (page 4). https://hscrc.maryland.gov/Documents/Hospitals/ReportsFinanc...
I think what many people here are missing is that these private insurance patients are subsidizing the indigent, Medicare, and Medicaid patients
I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.
> I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. Because I have zero faith that it will end up costing me less, and have a similar level of quality. I’m in tech. Combined HHI is something in the $200s. I pay about $300 per month for the entire family, $5K out of pocket max. So in a worst case scenario, let’s say healthcare costs me $9K per year. That’s what, 4% of my HHI? Will a universa…
From my experience, a decent insurance for the family is somewhere in $20k-ish range per year, which is closer to 10% of your income.
This lines up with 10% UK National Health Services charges HM's subjects.
It will not have a similar level of quality though, forget it. The lines will get longer and the definition of "medically necessary" will become way more frugal.
And for your income level it probably won't cost you less. Neither for mine. Nor for that of many HN users. But it will solve SO MANY annoying problems for so many people at once that I still think it's justified.
First, losing job does will not mean you're losing your medical coverage. You probably have not lost a job for a prolonged period of time. Neither did I. But the fact that it might potentially happen gives me uneasy feeling. If (when?) I lose my job, medical insurance will be the single biggest charge on my account, probably more than all other stuff combined.
Second, all these infamous cases when someone with insurance was admitted into the hospital, but then it suddenly turned out some junior aide to the senior anesthesiologist is out of network, therefore the insurance won't pay him. This doesn't happen often enough for most people to start pestering their congressmen, but it nevertheless happens.
Third, it will make the gap between salaried employees and contractors smaller. There are a lot of talks about whether such-and-such is actually not a contractor, but a salaried employee. And usually it all drills down to the benefits the person receives. One of the ways of solving this problem is making the benefits the same for contractors and for the employees. While it will not close the gap completely, it will make it more palatable.
Fourth, those willing to get a higher level of service will be able to buy private insurance. In countries with national healthcare private medical insurance is cheap - may be 10% of what we're paying now.
I can keep going. The trick is that none of these cases on its own is big enough to affect the majority of population, but combined I'm sure each of us will eventually be hit by one of them.
I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.
And who the hell has an 8k deductible?
This choice isn't 8k deductible or "free" healthcare. That's a farce.
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availability, coverage, cost
Um, not cost.
This happened to my parents in the 90s and we went through multiple lifetime maximums and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of 10 years.
Obamacare is great for making health insurance actually act like insurance.
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In most cases its the same doctors working in private hospitals and for the NHS.
And in some cases it involves NHS facilities too. There are definitely some questionable aspects of our public/private healthcare. But again, this isn't always how it works, and the ethics involved are also complicated.
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There are many problems with our Canadian system, it's certainly not perfect. And single payer is not the only way to approach this problem. But I'm overall happy with its compromises in our system. Like any economic resource, it's rationed. But it's rationed, generally, on the basis of need. And that "from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs" philosophy may be the ideological curse on…
>In a way it's a form of feudalism, tying people physically to their employment. uhh, what? Is employment in general "a form of feudalism" because people depend on it to fund their basic needs?
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Because in the US, if you're reasonably healthy, employed, live in a city with good hospitals and have private insurance, it "feels" better. It's easier to get better care. I'm Canadian, now living in the US, and I'll be honest: for the first couple of years, where I had some medium sized health issues, the US system felt so much better. The hospital I was treated at was leagues better than anything I saw in Canada.…
What if you want to start a business and have no significant other? Do American entrepreneurs bet that they won't fall sick before they strike gold?
A quarter million US dollars. Of course the hospital never expects to receive this amount of money. Either they will negotiate it down for uninsured patients, or they will accept a lesser amount from the insurance company. Insurance companies like this over representation of costs because: 1. If you have a percentage copay (edit: "coinsurance"), say 10%, they will tell you to pay $25k because it's 10%, but they might…
The obligatory comment about how crazy this is on many levels. 1. You are being charged prices that you are not expected to pay, but need to negotiate on 2. When you go to a doctor to have a procedure or have an emergency then you don't know what you are paying. In normal countries there is A price list, which is THE price list for all hospitals that are part of the national health care system. If they want to have a…
" Sorry! We can't give you a quote. We don't know if you will use the on-flight entertainment on the flight, or if you will end up clogging the toilet midflight, or if you will eat 4 bags of pretzels. There's also the chance we will have to make an unscheduled stop due to weather. That is why we can only bill you once we arrive at your destination"
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And the US elected Trump, why do you think the same thing wouldn't happen in the US within a decade?
I'm not going to argue hypotheticals,, but even a decimated NHS is far better than the US system.
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A quick google led be to this example of a child receiving 5 months care after being born 18 weeks premature in an NHS hospital: https://www.lancsteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/latest-news/happy-...
See also: Stephen Hawking. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/14/i-would-not-... > As the Obama administration sought to reform the US healthcare system in 2009, the US Investor’s Business Daily argued that Stephen Hawking “wouldn’t have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless”. > It was duly…