Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change • Hacker News Board

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#41

Post by vel0city » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:07 PM UTC

abeppu wrote: post #25

In the US market, where union participation is also very low, it's weird to me that this is an important reason people stay in their jobs, may influence what kind of jobs you take (full time vs contracting?), but: - job offers generally do not want to get into details on the health insurance offering. it's not a main "competition" point - except when subject to some kind of union negotiated contract, the employer can…

I can only speak to my own experiences with salaried work. I'll also preface that I don't like healthcare being tied to employment.

All the job interviews that went to the point of discussing compensation, healthcare benefits were almost always included when negotiating what actual compensation would be. A difference of them covering several hundred dollars a month in premiums and them matching some % of HSA contributions is several thousand dollars a year in compensation differences. When multiple job offers are pretty close, that can make a difference.

Also, the few times employers have offered healthcare concierge as a benefit it was definitely mentioned in the overall compensation package.

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#42

Post by SlightlyLeftPad » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #34

We could easily do this and it would actually be significantly cheaper. But I can’t imagine it happening nationwide. Maybe cities can create their own public options, say a flat 3% income tax and you get health insurance. So much progress isn’t made in the US due to the welfare queen myth. Heavily intertwined with racism, many imagine “lazy” people getting something they didn’t absolutely earn.

That “lazy people” getting something they didn’t absolutely earn is a core right wing narrative that has been very successfully propagandized for decades. People are still going to need work to pay for everything else. No one is going to stop working once the crushing weight of medical debt is lifted. It’s easy to debunk but I don’t see much effort going into this right now.

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#43

Post by reticulates » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #18

kiicia wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's connected via vicious cycle private healthcare is getting more and more expensive due to private prices available to bulk insurers but not for private person even if this is not completely deliberate, effect is that you are "serf of whomever pays your insurance" or go bankrupt the moment you have any kind of emergency in europe some private healthcare providers are showing their colors from different perspective…

It’s not connected at all in the US since 2011. The only thing employer provided health insurance gets you is the ability to pay for it with pre-tax income (which is a significant saving). Otherwise, you can go to healthcare.gov and buy it without an employer.

> Otherwise, you can go to healthcare.gov and buy it without an employer.

using what money? Most people get their money from their employer.

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#44

Post by Grombobulous » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

Universal single-payer healthcare is one of the most pro-business and traditionally conservative with a lower case C thing you can imagine.

It’s pretty much a no-brainer cost reduction for everyone.

This doesn’t even mean you need to get rid of private insurance companies (see: Germany).

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#45

Post by tdb7893 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #5

Good article in general but such a misleading headline and framing. The problem, as described in the article's body, is employer-provided health insurance, not private healthcare.

You can get healthcare outside of employers and it's incredibly expensive. The cost of private healthcare (either employer sponsored or not) is what is responsible for what the article is talking about, it's certainly not just employer provided plans. Are you saying that if employers didn't provide health insurance that it would help the situation somehow?

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#46

Post by Taikonerd » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #34

We could easily do this and it would actually be significantly cheaper. But I can’t imagine it happening nationwide. Maybe cities can create their own public options, say a flat 3% income tax and you get health insurance. So much progress isn’t made in the US due to the welfare queen myth. Heavily intertwined with racism, many imagine “lazy” people getting something they didn’t absolutely earn.

> But I can’t imagine it happening nationwide. Maybe cities can create their own public options, say a flat 3% income tax and you get health insurance.

It's interesting: 3 states (Vermont, Colorado, and Massachusetts) did recently try to make state-level single-payer systems. https://www.thirdway.org/report/single-payer-health-care-a-t...

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#47

Post by Aurornis » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

abeppu wrote: post #25

In the US market, where union participation is also very low, it's weird to me that this is an important reason people stay in their jobs, may influence what kind of jobs you take (full time vs contracting?), but: - job offers generally do not want to get into details on the health insurance offering. it's not a main "competition" point - except when subject to some kind of union negotiated contract, the employer can…

> job offers generally do not want to get into details on the health insurance offering. it's not a main "competition" point

Health insurance has been a primary topic in every job offer I’ve had, my entire career.

If a company won’t discuss the insurance situation or provide details about the employee contribution, that’s a warning sign. This is a routine topic for negotiations and any company hiding this data is not a company you want to be working with.

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#48

Post by taejo » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

Taikonerd wrote: post #13

irdc wrote: post #6

Why is this news? As a European this seems totally obvious.

I'm not sure which country you're from, but many EU countries do have private health insurance. The Netherlands, for example, has a system of subsidized private insurance, and a mandate that everyone buy a policy. (If Americans are thinking, "huh, that sounds like Obamacare / the ACA marketplace!" then you're right.)

Painting in such broad strokes, the German system also sounds like the ACA, but it's really not: the high level description really erases key differences.

In Germany there is nothing like bronze/silver/gold plans. All statutory health insurance covers what is required to be covered by regulations, with just a few bonus services, at the regulated tariff plus just a few percentage points of variation. So the 90% of people in Germany who have statutory health insurance [1] have essentially the same coverage. The tariff is a percentage of income (up to a cap), not a flat fee.

[1] not everyone is required to have statutory health insurance, for example employees above an income threshold and self-employed people

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#49

Post by Grombobulous » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

dzonga wrote: post #17

I think the article is looking at the wrong abstraction. private healthcare - e.g if there's a lot of private clinics - people paid cash, then yeah healthcare costs would go down & most of the care was preventive not treatment. competition naturally will force prices down & since individuals payers won't be able to afford massive amounts, the market will adjust it's prices vs having one large payer (gvt) i.e public h…

I see a bunch of comments with this same theme but to me it’s splitting hairs.

The term “private healthcare” is mostly referring to the fact that there is no such thing as non-private healthcare for the majority of Americans.

Re: Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change

#50

Post by forgetfreeman » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #16

Yeah, so long as you can mooch off US healthcare innovation like COVID vaccines and weight loss drugs. There is a difference between going to doctor and getting effective treatment, as anyone who dealt with cancer in Soviet Union can testify.

I'm guessing you aren't aware how much of that innovation comes from academic research instead of direct private investment by pharma companies, or that there is a thriving pharmaceutical industry in places like Europe. Ironically your chosen examples are based on innovations pioneered by a German biotech (BioNTech) and a Danish pharmaceutical company (Novo Nordisk). What relevance the Soviet Union might have 34 years after it's collapse is something of a mystery.