And yet everyone is complaining about FTX and crypto on HN and how such a scam that is. But this all OK huh?
Two things can be bad.
Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
31–40 of 104 posts
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#32And yet everyone is complaining about FTX and crypto on HN and how such a scam that is. But this all OK huh?
Two things can be bad.
That's true -- but in this case there is an irrational bias. The people on HN who criticize crypto obviously don't invest in it and have no skin in the game. They just want to feel superior. But it doesn't affect them at all.
But this really could -- and yet they are silent...
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#33They do indicate that upwards of 70% of the population are on prescription meds. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/nearly-7-in-10... You don't go there for health Wealth breeds health :)
The USA is #54-41 in the world for life expectancy [1] depending on whose data you use.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#34What 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…
An interesting story I heard on the radio: A father got a call from his daughter that she went to the emergency room, because she had a vitamin C pill stuck in her throat and she was scared. In NY, they are required to give an estimate of costs, and estimated $1600 for the exam and the can of ginger ale they gave her to drink so she could swallow it. Fast forward a few weeks, and they got the bill. They ended up char…
State regulators are VERY empowered to make everyone's life a living hell.
They may not be able to beat back the general case, but if you get them involved the hospital and the insurance company will almost instantly fold.
And it's worth doing, because regulator offices work off of accumulated data - so the more complaints they get, the more they have to go on.
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#35If you are bragging about your margins while the alternative for your customers is death or a major chronic health issue, it no longer matters if it is malice or incompetence. It is structurally and functionally evil.
How about people opting to choose non healthcare careers due to better pay to quality of life at work ratios?
If you look for stories of those leaving, predominantly nursing, the issues that cause them to leave are primarily the result of privatization of hospitals, striving for larger profit margins by taking advantage of the nursing staff.
We're sabotaging critical infrastructure in order to insert more middle men to pay.
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#36What 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 addition to people mentioning the information asymmetry, healthcare demand is also inelastic and not substitutable. I have MS. If I sub out my treatment, I increase my odds of losing the ability to ever walk again. Likewise, if I have a relapse and end up in the hospital, I need steroids immediately.
Healthcare demand seems to be boosted by the profit motive. The healthcare industry has an incentive to increase healthcare usage - by oversubscribing unneeded drugs and procedures and through constant daytime adverts about "talk to your GP about thing which has a list of side effects longer than the commercial break"
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#37What 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…
An interesting story I heard on the radio: A father got a call from his daughter that she went to the emergency room, because she had a vitamin C pill stuck in her throat and she was scared. In NY, they are required to give an estimate of costs, and estimated $1600 for the exam and the can of ginger ale they gave her to drink so she could swallow it. Fast forward a few weeks, and they got the bill. They ended up char…
[deleted]
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#38If you have obscene hospital bills, just don't pay them. Worst case scenario, you will get sued and have a lien put on your house.This still doesn't obligate you to pay. You can just let inflation eat away at the bill for years on end. People need to hit these profiteering practices right in the wallet. I'll take bad credit over actual bankruptcy any day.
Lol I got some medical bills when police dragged me to the hospital against my will (not psych related, insane warrantless attempt to search me "internally" for drugs, never consented to anything, was not intoxicated and doctors documented I was completely asymptomatic and non-altered mental status)
>People need to hit these profiteering practices right in the wallet.
Here in Arizona there is a hospital system that appears to be using false smuggling accusations as a racket in connection with CBP officers. "Patients" are forcibly taken in, rack up huge medical bills, and then when nothing is found they're dumped back on the street with the debt.
Keep getting the bills. Can't wait for them to actually sue so I can discovery them for any shred of evidence what they did was legal.
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
An interesting story I heard on the radio: A father got a call from his daughter that she went to the emergency room, because she had a vitamin C pill stuck in her throat and she was scared. In NY, they are required to give an estimate of costs, and estimated $1600 for the exam and the can of ginger ale they gave her to drink so she could swallow it. Fast forward a few weeks, and they got the bill. They ended up char…
State regulators are VERY empowered to make everyone's life a living hell. They may not be able to beat back the general case, but if you get them involved the hospital and the insurance company will almost instantly fold. And it's worth doing, because regulator offices work off of accumulated data - so the more complaints they get, the more they have to go on.
I had to do this once.
Re: Banks and hospitals are cashing in when patients can't pay for health care
#40What 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…
An interesting story I heard on the radio: A father got a call from his daughter that she went to the emergency room, because she had a vitamin C pill stuck in her throat and she was scared. In NY, they are required to give an estimate of costs, and estimated $1600 for the exam and the can of ginger ale they gave her to drink so she could swallow it. Fast forward a few weeks, and they got the bill. They ended up char…
> if these had been available OTC or if doctors could operate out of pharmacies and prescribe something on the spot, it would have been so, so much cheaper.
Just a tip for future cases, a lot of those pharmacies have small clinic in them staffed by a nurse practitioner. They can prescribe most things in most states. If it happens again, you can probably take her and her discharge paperwork and have the nurse write out prescriptions for whatever it is. Should be way cheaper unless the meds are something exotic that only a hospital pharmacy would carry.
It's pretty close to having a doctor in the pharmacy for anything you'd feel okay not going to the hospital for.
This is the chart of what they can prescribe per state (you'll have to look up what schedule the particular meds she needs are): https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media...