Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

whitecoatinvestor.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 210 posts

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#41

Post by daveguy »

olddustytrail wrote: post #14
gruez wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The government’s gotta run it But there are plenty of countries with functioning healthcare systems that are private? The Swiss, for instance. Moreover depending on what counts as "government’s gotta run it" (paying for it? administering it? actually providing care?) you can argue that the German or even Canadian systems aren't government run, at least to some degree.

So why don't we see Republican Americans advocating to adopt the Swiss system which provides universal coverage at a lower per capita cost?

They were advocating for it before Obama tried to get it done. It was implemented in Massachusetts and termed "Romneycare" as Mitt Romney was the governor. Once Obama tried to implement it, it was government overreach and had to be watered down to get consensus. Personally I think we should have a govt option along side others, but all healthcare should be nonprofit (as in the Swiss model). Profit extraction is antithetical to healthcare.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#42

Post by MontgomeryPy »

olddustytrail wrote: post #14
gruez wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The government’s gotta run it But there are plenty of countries with functioning healthcare systems that are private? The Swiss, for instance. Moreover depending on what counts as "government’s gotta run it" (paying for it? administering it? actually providing care?) you can argue that the German or even Canadian systems aren't government run, at least to some degree.

So why don't we see Republican Americans advocating to adopt the Swiss system which provides universal coverage at a lower per capita cost?

In speaking with my republican father in law on his opposition to universal healthcare, it dawned on me that he views it as a sort of zero sum game. If he has healthcare today, and then universal healthcare offers it to folks that don't have it today, it is a loss for him.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#43

Post by Spooky23 »

gosub100 wrote: post #23
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #4

There are three things a nation needs to accept about universal health care: (1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it

Computers and software used to be extremely expensive about 30 years ago, yet private industry advanced the state of the art and brought the prices down. There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ? The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the reg…

Because your congressman gets lots of donations from doctors and hospitals. Doctors like to drive fancy cars.

In places with Catholics, you usually get the bishops advocating for the local Catholic hospital system.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#44

Post by aerostable_slug »

gosub100 wrote: post #23
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #4

There are three things a nation needs to accept about universal health care: (1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it

Computers and software used to be extremely expensive about 30 years ago, yet private industry advanced the state of the art and brought the prices down. There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ? The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the reg…

We've done that to some extent via the legal enablement of nurse practitioner and physician assistant led care. Of course, largely speaking all they do is supervise the recording of patient metrics and prescribe drugs in label-consistent ways, but that often works out reasonably well for the patient. When the patient needs specialty care then the NP or PA simply punts them into the winds of referrals and insurance justifications.

I'm not sure there's any realistic way to enhance the availability of specialists. You can't 'stub' your way through providing the care of a skilled gastroenterologist by substitution with a NP, though PAs in specialty care are becoming common.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#45

Post by dehrmann »

> they each paid about $14,000 in annual premiums for 10 years, and the daily benefit started at $200 per day.

Insurance companies have to make money, but that's not that good of a deal, and the payout isn't that high ($73k annually) considering you won't be doing much else.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#46

Post by gosub100 »

throwawayqqq11 wrote: post #38
gosub100 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computers and software used to be extremely expensive about 30 years ago, yet private industry advanced the state of the art and brought the prices down. There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ? The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the reg…

Without relgulation, the profit seekers would remain in power and the same applies to more medical staff. The insurance system is a profit seeking institution, that functions as intended. Why dont you talk about that BURNING aspect?

You didn't address a single thing I said

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#47

Post by gosub100 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #43
gosub100 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computers and software used to be extremely expensive about 30 years ago, yet private industry advanced the state of the art and brought the prices down. There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ? The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the reg…

Because your congressman gets lots of donations from doctors and hospitals. Doctors like to drive fancy cars. In places with Catholics, you usually get the bishops advocating for the local Catholic hospital system.

So government (my congressman) IS the problem! Thanks for reinforcing what Reagan said 40 years ago.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#48

Post by gosub100 »

aerostable_slug wrote: post #44
gosub100 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computers and software used to be extremely expensive about 30 years ago, yet private industry advanced the state of the art and brought the prices down. There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ? The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the reg…

We've done that to some extent via the legal enablement of nurse practitioner and physician assistant led care. Of course, largely speaking all they do is supervise the recording of patient metrics and prescribe drugs in label-consistent ways, but that often works out reasonably well for the patient. When the patient needs specialty care then the NP or PA simply punts them into the winds of referrals and insurance ju…

Why not open more medical schools? And eliminate the matching system? If you want to be an ____-ologist, here is the list of requirements. Meet the requirements and you are the ___ologist. Not whether or not a practice group likes you, or your parents knew which colleague to talk to. Don't allow the supply of MDs to be constrained.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#49

Post by wredcoll »

MontgomeryPy wrote: post #42
olddustytrail wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why don't we see Republican Americans advocating to adopt the Swiss system which provides universal coverage at a lower per capita cost?

In speaking with my republican father in law on his opposition to universal healthcare, it dawned on me that he views it as a sort of zero sum game. If he has healthcare today, and then universal healthcare offers it to folks that don't have it today, it is a loss for him.

Something I've run into in similar situations is the "moral necessity of punishment", sort of a reverse just-world fallacy.

"There are people not good enough for health care and helping them would violate this natural order".

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#50

Post by i80and »

tiahura wrote: post #39
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #4

There are three things a nation needs to accept about universal health care: (1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it

This isn’t about health care. Please read the article.

Elder care and memory care are under the umbrella of healthcare.

That they're nonsensically broken out as a separate insurance category is intrinsically linked to the problems the article describes

Post reply on HN