Live data from Hacker News

Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care

text.npr.org

1–10 of 104 posts

Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care

#5
post #2

Healthcare feels like something that should be a regulated monopoly if not provided by the government. Profiting off the misfortune of others seems a bit dirty.

I'd say it's cruel. Paying interest on some medical procedure because you (and likely almost everyone else) cannot afford the eye-watering cost? What else do we need to convince people that this is not sustainable? Maybe a collapse in this medical loan market? One has to assume the major players (hospitals, insurance, etc) have firewalled themselves from this system.

Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care

#7
What is incredibly amazing is how much health care costs in the US. Government expenditures Per Capita are over twice of the nations like Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan. And most of this for medicare, for which only a fraction of the population is eligible.

And yet, this is not enough, and people need private health insurance. Then you look at the prices of common medications, and most of them (mind you, a lot of them made in India or China) are sometimes ten times more expensive than the SAME medications in any other developed country and even more expensive for the same medications in Under Developed countries.

It looks like the invisible hand of markets is not working here. But at the same, the political process is also blind to the real issues.

Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care

#8

What is incredibly amazing is how much health care costs in the US. Government expenditures Per Capita are over twice of the nations like Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan. And most of this for medicare, for which only a fraction of the population is eligible. And yet, this is not enough, and people need private health insurance. Then you look at the prices of common medications, and most of them (mind you, a lot of t…

In no way is this a free market. Not even close. There are so many market distortions that prevent a healthy market place from operating. If you recall, the ACA act was supposed to help solve many of these problems by making it more affordable. It appears to have exacerbated it.

Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care

#9

What is incredibly amazing is how much health care costs in the US. Government expenditures Per Capita are over twice of the nations like Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan. And most of this for medicare, for which only a fraction of the population is eligible. And yet, this is not enough, and people need private health insurance. Then you look at the prices of common medications, and most of them (mind you, a lot of t…

Medicine is the most regulated and subsidized industry in the US. This is theft by regulatory capture[0]. Globalism is magically not applied to medicine, simply stopping being protectionist on prescription drugs would save consumers billions of dollars a year, it's easy, it's obvious and no politician will ever do it.

[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care

#10

What is incredibly amazing is how much health care costs in the US. Government expenditures Per Capita are over twice of the nations like Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan. And most of this for medicare, for which only a fraction of the population is eligible. And yet, this is not enough, and people need private health insurance. Then you look at the prices of common medications, and most of them (mind you, a lot of t…

The invisible hand of the market has been crushed by the boot of government policy/regulation. It's bootleggers and baptists at national scale.
Post reply on HN