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

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

#61

Post by Schlagbohrer »

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…

And in the US a new worker can only join the healthcare plan during certain times of year! New workers often have to wait months with a health insurance gap before they can get on the new plan.

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

#63

Post by natsucks »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #54
megaman821 wrote: post #12

This is less about private healthcare and more about how employer-provided healthcare is tax advantaged. Credits and tax breaks should go to the individual so they can choose and keep their insurance through different jobs.

Yes, the title gave me whiplash because I went in expecting an argument for socialized healthcare, then read a couple paragraphs and realized the article was actually presenting an argument against government meddling in the healthcare industry, then read further and realized it was actually using the problems created by government meddling in the healthcare industry to argue for more government meddling.

"the thing I miss most is the NHS. It’s been treated like a political football since I left and is apparently a shell of its former self — not because the idea is bad and can’t work but because conservative politicians, some of whom have received funding from private healthcare companies, have deliberately sabotaged it."

really it could not be because government is bad at managing massive programs and provides no incentive for high performance and efficiency....

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

#64

Post by hirvi74 »

Synthetic7346 wrote: post #20

One thing that's never been clear to me is how either system plans on scaling healthcare. You have X doctors who can see (just a guess) 30X patients. Unless the number of doctors increase, some patients are going to be left out. In the current system it's those without employment. I'm other countries there's a waitlist. How can we make sure there's enough staff to provide adequate healthcare for everyone?

The whole thing is a racket. The amount of doctors is artificially constrained by the AMA. It's also why the US medical school system is so competitive compared to other countries. For example, in England one does not need an undergrad degree then medical school. One just goes straight into medical school at university. It's a 5-6 year long program compared to the US's 8 year program.

Of course, doctors do not earn nearly as much in England as the USA, thus good luck ever getting something like to change in the USA. In America, most people go to medical school for the prestige and the paycheck, and our system utterly reflects both.

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

#65

Post by rootusrootus »

Grombobulous wrote: post #49
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.

> is no such thing as non-private healthcare for the majority of Americans

We're up to about a third now.

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

#66

Post by Ajedi32 »

tdb7893 wrote: post #45
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?

Yes. Employers get huge tax incentives for providing insurance, while individuals don't. This ensures that the only economical way to buy health insurance is through an employer, which means you are not free to change plans without changing employers (or change employers without changing plans).

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

#67

Post by itsmartapuntocm »

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #61
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…

And in the US a new worker can only join the healthcare plan during certain times of year! New workers often have to wait months with a health insurance gap before they can get on the new plan.

That's not true. If you're new there's a special enrollment period right after you start.

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

#68

Post by reticulates »

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.)

The Dutch system and the U.S. system are not comparable. Health insurance in the U.S. is a “free market” that the government dabbles in with a little policy here and there. Health insurance in The Netherlands is controlled by the government, it is heavily regulated.

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

#69

Post by lII1lIlI11ll »

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…

> Though I think the private health insurance system is a dumb waste of overhead and paperwork and misaligned incentives

There are countries where private health insurance works great. The problem in US is how it is regulated.

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

#70

Post by rootusrootus »

Synthetic7346 wrote: post #20

One thing that's never been clear to me is how either system plans on scaling healthcare. You have X doctors who can see (just a guess) 30X patients. Unless the number of doctors increase, some patients are going to be left out. In the current system it's those without employment. I'm other countries there's a waitlist. How can we make sure there's enough staff to provide adequate healthcare for everyone?

> You have X doctors who can see (just a guess) 30X patients

FWIW, it's about 1500X plus or minus.

> How can we make sure there's enough staff to provide adequate healthcare for everyone?

The solution now seems to be headed towards using FNP's and similar in place of fully licensed MDs. Which for things like primary care makes good sense IMO.

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