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Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

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Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#61

Post by gonzo »

wozniacki wrote: post #52
Nursie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure us Brits still get a claim on the empire thing. Pretty sure...

He meant the benevolent kind of empire. Since the US doesn't annex territories for itself and keep them as colonies as part of some Commonwealth Realm. Although the US could have if it tried, with the slightest flex of a myoblast, in the last great war. It still can. Pretty sure that's what he/she meant.

> Since the US doesn't annex territories for itself and keep them as colonies as part of some Commonwealth Realm.

Nope. Neve happens. (Cough >Hawai'i<, cough)

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#62

Post by dantheman »

mixmax wrote: post #49

While this is a great and heartbreaking story that makes me proud to be an active member of HN it's also a symptom of the totally broken US healthcare system. From wikipedia: The United States life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, ranks it 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the Natio…

Damn lies and statistics - it's very difficult to compare countries on Infant Mortality because they have different definitions of alive.

From wikipedia:

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a live birth as any born human being who demonstrates independent signs of life, including breathing, voluntary muscle movement, or heartbeat. Many countries, however, including certain European states and Japan, only count as live births cases where an infant breathes at birth, which makes their reported IMR numbers somewhat lower and raises their rates of perinatal mortality.[24] In Germany and Australia, requirements for live birth are even higher.[25][26]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality

Not to say there aren't problems with the US healthcare system, but we need to stop these comparisons that are just not relevant.

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#63

Post by lifeisstillgood »

mixmax wrote: post #49

While this is a great and heartbreaking story that makes me proud to be an active member of HN it's also a symptom of the totally broken US healthcare system. From wikipedia: The United States life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, ranks it 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the Natio…

Edit: It has been (correctly) pointed out downthread that I have helped hijacking a very personal post for political point scoring - which I think is fair. However we lack a decent history function in HN so I leave it here otherwise the thread will read strangely.

Thank you - as a Brit I read this too. I cycled through emotions - fear and sympathy for the diagnosis, hope as some of our best professionals consider new options, and then.

WTF describes it best.

Americas attitude toward health care is odd from our perspective - not mismatched socks odd but like a Collegue suddenly announcing that aliens are real, they look very talk and thin and one is living in his attic

That kind of odd

(I am glad that the OP has recovered, heartened by every success medicine has against this disease. Just ... It's odd how nearly this was a different story)

May you have a long and happy life.

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#65

Post by mahyarm »

WasimBhai wrote: post #22

I have often wondered given the kind of cost involved in good health care in USA, along with college fees, why don't more Americans move to Europe for health care and education where it is probably free most of the time? P.S.: I am from Pakistan.

Health care is good enough, when your employed and relatively healthy.

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#66

Post by unreal37 »

raganwald wrote: post #21
nwenzel wrote: post #11

Great story of compassion and triumph. So... How do we make it scale? Is it mandatory insurance? Insurance doesn't make everything affordable, but it probably wild have been helpful. Though maybe the co-pay would have been $50k. Universal tax-payer funded insurance? The term "tax payer" is interesting because politicians and pundits forget that we're all tax payers in one form or another. Granted some pay more, some…

Single-payer or government provided healthcare? Pretty sure that no one would identify the government as the picture perfect example of efficiency. Plus, putting elected officials or their appointees in charge of handing out goods and services doesnt seem to be sustainable. It seems odd to me that so many Americans seem pessimistic about their own government. I could understand if the attitude was, "We could make uni…

To echo Raganwald, I too don't understand a blanket unwillingness to even seriously consider the single-payer model. Like you'd be a socialist or a communist for even considering having private doctors and hospitals paid by the government instead of the patient.

From what I understand, drugs are much cheaper in Canada. Almost all medical procedures are cheaper here. I met a couple from Texas who flew up here for something, and they said it was cheaper for them buy plane tickets, stay here in a hotel for two weeks, and all other travel expenses, and get the procedure done here than to do it at home (uninsured). They still saved thousands of dollars after all that. That's craziness.

Maybe there's no perfect system. But the United States spends the most on health care per citizen, and has the lowest percent of government support. [1] You should at least consider what others are successfully doing to get the costs down and increase the quality of care for the uninsured and poor.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_compared#Internatio...

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#67

Post by tptacek »

mixmax wrote: post #49

While this is a great and heartbreaking story that makes me proud to be an active member of HN it's also a symptom of the totally broken US healthcare system. From wikipedia: The United States life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, ranks it 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the Natio…

On cancer outcomes, the US outranks many (most?) of the countries that beat it on life expectancy. And, as pointed out downthread, life expectancy is a dodgy stat; it's heavily weighted by infant mortality, which isn't uniformly measured, and by accidental and violent deaths which, while tragic and perhaps symptomatic of other US problems, don't implicate our health care system.

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#68

Post by jarek »

mahyarm wrote: post #65
WasimBhai wrote: post #22

I have often wondered given the kind of cost involved in good health care in USA, along with college fees, why don't more Americans move to Europe for health care and education where it is probably free most of the time? P.S.: I am from Pakistan.

Health care is good enough, when your employed and relatively healthy.

I.e., "Health care is good enough, when you least need it."

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#69

Post by ewoodrich »

dantheman wrote: post #62
mixmax wrote: post #49

While this is a great and heartbreaking story that makes me proud to be an active member of HN it's also a symptom of the totally broken US healthcare system. From wikipedia: The United States life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, ranks it 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the Natio…

Damn lies and statistics - it's very difficult to compare countries on Infant Mortality because they have different definitions of alive. From wikipedia: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a live birth as any born human being who demonstrates independent signs of life, including breathing, voluntary muscle movement, or heartbeat. Many countries, however, including certain European states and Japan, only coun…

From your article:

"However, in 2009, the US CDC issued a report that stated that the American rates of infant mortality were affected by the United States' high rates of premature babies compared to European countries. It also outlined the differences in reporting requirements between the United States and Europe, noting that France, the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Poland do not report all live births of babies under 500 g and/or 22 weeks of gestation.[34][35][dead link][36] The report concluded, however, that the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the United States’ relatively low international ranking.[36]"

Your argument, will perhaps partially correct, fails to properly explain the disparity in infant mortality (mostly due to unnecessary premature births) between the US and similar industrial countries.

Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks

#70

Post by tptacek »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #63
mixmax wrote: post #49

While this is a great and heartbreaking story that makes me proud to be an active member of HN it's also a symptom of the totally broken US healthcare system. From wikipedia: The United States life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, ranks it 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the Natio…

Edit: It has been (correctly) pointed out downthread that I have helped hijacking a very personal post for political point scoring - which I think is fair. However we lack a decent history function in HN so I leave it here otherwise the thread will read strangely. Thank you - as a Brit I read this too. I cycled through emotions - fear and sympathy for the diagnosis, hope as some of our best professionals consider new…

The UK has notoriously poor cancer outcomes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1560849/UK-cancer-sur...

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