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YC: Requests for Startups

ycombinator.com

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Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#111

Post by KittenInABox »

codegeek wrote: post #104

"ELIMINATING MIDDLEMEN IN HEALTHCARE" I honestly am game for this even though I have zero experience in healthcare but as a consumer, where do I start how bad it is. I would do anything to change our shitty healthcare system where there are so many middlemen b/w me and my doctor. Recent event: Went to ER because my toddler son spilled hot coffee on him (thankfully he is ok and wasn't as terrible as it could have been…

This is almost certainly not a healthcare issue, but a political/lobbying issue. Solutions will happen in the political/lobbying space. We will need to fix shit like:

* very fast, arbitrary disapprovals of healthcare-- requiring 6 weeks of physical therapy before ordering a test of what is almost certainly a torn ligament or other thing is stupid and directly harms patient outcomes;

* enforcement of mental healthcare equality-- hospitals should have equal beds, equal availability, equal pay for workers, and insurance companies should also be paying equally for mental and body health;

* forcing the hands of drug price fixers-- that's right, it's not just insurance, or pharmaceuticals, it's a shitty middleman between them all that rolls up and sets prices on both sides, things like e.g. medicare negotiating drug prices directly will disrupt these fuckos

* DOCTOR OWNED HOSPITALS MUST COME BACK-- no more vulture finance that literally made this illegal

* hospital geographic monopolies must be eliminated-- that's right, hospitals can ban competition! No more of this!

* SAFE STAFFING RATIOS

* releasing the budget on residency-- that's right, the government sets how much money they are willing to put towards new doctors!

* jail time for negligent insurance decisions-- we know that insurance companies will slow-walk bureaucracy lifesaving healthcare to desperately ill, disabled people in the hopes they will die before the approval goes through

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#112

Post by codegeek »

KittenInABox wrote: post #111
codegeek wrote: post #104

"ELIMINATING MIDDLEMEN IN HEALTHCARE" I honestly am game for this even though I have zero experience in healthcare but as a consumer, where do I start how bad it is. I would do anything to change our shitty healthcare system where there are so many middlemen b/w me and my doctor. Recent event: Went to ER because my toddler son spilled hot coffee on him (thankfully he is ok and wasn't as terrible as it could have been…

This is almost certainly not a healthcare issue, but a political/lobbying issue. Solutions will happen in the political/lobbying space. We will need to fix shit like: * very fast, arbitrary disapprovals of healthcare-- requiring 6 weeks of physical therapy before ordering a test of what is almost certainly a torn ligament or other thing is stupid and directly harms patient outcomes; * enforcement of mental healthcare…

I agree that it is more of a political issue at this point because the middlemen are way too powerful and would fight tooth and nail to keep raking in the moolah.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#113

Post by 23B1 »

mamidon wrote: post #106
renewiltord wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the point isn't to stop the social and political division. The point is stop the geopolitical precariousness. > My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone…

I would suggest that our geopolitical precariousness comes from our social divisions. I doubt Russia, China, or anyone else will ever be able to invade. But if the losers of globalism keep getting purposefully shortchanged I can more easily foresee them deciding to change the system by force. I don't think that's a terribly likely outcome, but much more likely than Red Dawn.

Our social divisions means they don't have to invade in order to unseat the U.S. as a global superpower.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#114

Post by beambot »

itsdavesanders wrote: post #87

I find it strange that they would write "The hollowing out of US manufacturing has led to social and political division and left us in a precarious place geopolitically." And then suggest the answer to that is robotics and ML, which does nothing but exacerbate the social and political divisions - unless government and enterprise make the hard choices to provide a real safety net. And then, if we do that, it doesn't m…

Manufacturing today (even overseas) is very different than what it was in the great off-shoring. The status quo has changed & won't be coming back -- automation is now the norm. But still, the multiplier effect for manufacturing is massive: For every $1 of economic output, it generates somewhere between $2-$3 of GDP -- and that is heavily centered in the community housing the factory. It's much better for a distributed society than many other sectors that tend to exfiltrate GDP.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#115

Post by breather »

itsdavesanders wrote: post #87

I find it strange that they would write "The hollowing out of US manufacturing has led to social and political division and left us in a precarious place geopolitically." And then suggest the answer to that is robotics and ML, which does nothing but exacerbate the social and political divisions - unless government and enterprise make the hard choices to provide a real safety net. And then, if we do that, it doesn't m…

I'm going to guess that whatever is able to heal social and political (ie economic) divide won't come from capital lol—maybe the next depression might put the work in.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#116

Post by webel0 »

(Tangentially related to, “A WAY TO END CANCER”)

After seeing how my doctor iteratively ordered up different sets of tests for me over the course of a few months, I got to thinking about improving decision trees for blood testing (and maybe others).

However, when I spoke to a (first year) med student about this he suggested that doctors actually don’t want something like this. I don't think I followed the thought process completely but it was something along the lines of, “we’ll always find something.”

Would be interested if someone could elaborate on this line of thinking.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#117

Post by KittenInABox »

codegeek wrote: post #112
KittenInABox wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is almost certainly not a healthcare issue, but a political/lobbying issue. Solutions will happen in the political/lobbying space. We will need to fix shit like: * very fast, arbitrary disapprovals of healthcare-- requiring 6 weeks of physical therapy before ordering a test of what is almost certainly a torn ligament or other thing is stupid and directly harms patient outcomes; * enforcement of mental healthcare…

I agree that it is more of a political issue at this point because the middlemen are way too powerful and would fight tooth and nail to keep raking in the moolah.

Yes, I think some kind of technology that explicitly targets/disrupts the way lobbying works would be huge. I just don't think this is healthcare-specific unfortunately.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#118

Post by beambot »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #98

"Eliminating middlemen from healthcare" is probably the most ambitious one.

Indeed. Many efforts that start with the goal of eliminating middlemen inevitably devolve into more middlemen. It's like the xkcd trope about standards: "Situation: There are 14 competing standards. Rediculous! We need to extablish one universal standard! Situation: There are now 15 competing standards."

https://xkcd.com/927/

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#119

Post by nonethewiser »

itsdavesanders wrote: post #87

I find it strange that they would write "The hollowing out of US manufacturing has led to social and political division and left us in a precarious place geopolitically." And then suggest the answer to that is robotics and ML, which does nothing but exacerbate the social and political divisions - unless government and enterprise make the hard choices to provide a real safety net. And then, if we do that, it doesn't m…

> And then suggest the answer to that is robotics and ML, which does nothing but exacerbate the social and political divisions

Maybe it does those things. But clearly it doesnt do “nothing but” those things. It brings manufacturing back which is the entire point. I really think you’re ignoring the whole point to go off on a highly partisan political tangent.

Re: YC: Requests for Startups

#120

Post by bradgessler »

emseetech wrote: post #101
itsdavesanders wrote: post #87

I find it strange that they would write "The hollowing out of US manufacturing has led to social and political division and left us in a precarious place geopolitically." And then suggest the answer to that is robotics and ML, which does nothing but exacerbate the social and political divisions - unless government and enterprise make the hard choices to provide a real safety net. And then, if we do that, it doesn't m…

There are two factors to consider though. On the one hand, you're correct that it does nothing for the American worker to bring manufacturing back if it means huge buildings with skeleton crews and machines that effectively run themselves. I don't particularly have a solution for this. Americans have gotten used to the price of goods being artificially low because of inexpensive labor in impoverished countries. Unles…

> On the one hand, you're correct that it does nothing for the American worker to bring manufacturing back if it means huge buildings with skeleton crews and machines that effectively run themselves.

This seems analogous to the transition from bespoke manufacturing of goods to mass production.

I think what we need is leadership that can get people excited, in good faith, about a future where small groups of people can produce goods for orders of magnitude less capital, effort, etc. with robotics, ML, and other tech.

Today a popular dystopian narrative of tech is that it’s being deployed by the elite to enrich themselves and build moats around their fiefdoms. Feudalism doesn’t get pluralities excited. How can that mainstream narrative be changed in a manner that makes people clearly understand how they can be a beneficiary instead of an exploit?

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