Live data from Hacker News

How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

khn.org

151–160 of 370 posts

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#151
post #8

This is regulation everybody should be able to get behind. How are these markets supposed to function efficiently with healthy competition if critical information like this is hidden away?

It's because information asymmetry allows for maximum profits.

I view healthcare as a service, like utilities. There is a reason the PUC exists in so many (all?) US states.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#152
post #8

This is regulation everybody should be able to get behind. How are these markets supposed to function efficiently with healthy competition if critical information like this is hidden away?

I don't think this will lhave much impact on health care cost. The cost is high because it is paid through employer and therefore it is hidden from you. If the law was to force employers disclose lost wages for employees due to health car, that would have bigger impact. The real impact will come if employers turn off the medical insurence coverage entirely and everyone has to cut the checks themselves.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#153

"Doctors hate this simple trick to reduce ." That's the strange spam message I could never understand. Surely doctors would be delighted at any method to improve health? So I always assumed the "trick" to be quackery with dangerous side effects. After all, why else would "doctors hate it"? Eventually I realised these messages are exclusively US American, the only place on the planet where doctors could plausibly rese…

> That's the strange spam message I could never understand. Well the message is likely untrue so maybe it's best not to try to understand it.

> Well the message is likely untrue so maybe it's best not to try to understand it.

I hear you saying - don't give credence to idiots.

But at the same time that's a strange philosophy as I've found some of the most interesting truths come from understanding the lies people tell, and why.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#154
post #87
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libertarians ret-conned Adam Smith's definition of "free market" to mean "complete absence of regulation". And they use this appeal to authority (as well as the naturalistic inevitabilism that originates in evo-psych) as a cudgel to push for the permission of exploitative practices. We are becoming more and more aware as a society of the effects of this campaign, which is heartening, but reactionaries stand at arms t…

Those libertarians who have famously been in charge of the United States since it's founding and got the US into the current health care cost mess?

Nah, not to be political but the parent commenter probably means the retconning folks in the GOP who claim libertarianism as a political ideology but are often anything but.

Left libertarianism is summed up as: live and let live. Very different.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. That, and space force, and cheap energy, and renegotiating trade agreements, and not starting any new wars.

"Cheap energy" is not the boon you think it is. You have to consider other factors - deregulating the food industry and getting rid of the FDA would save millions of taxpayer's money, would lower prices of the supply chain and let consumers pay significantly less for food, yet would have drastic side effects. Cheap energy that requires deregulation, more alarming and precarious climate effects, etc might not be a net…

> "not starting any new wars" can be perceived as bowing to foreign nations

This is an interesting take on peace in the middle east.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#156

"Doctors hate this simple trick to reduce ." That's the strange spam message I could never understand. Surely doctors would be delighted at any method to improve health? So I always assumed the "trick" to be quackery with dangerous side effects. After all, why else would "doctors hate it"? Eventually I realised these messages are exclusively US American, the only place on the planet where doctors could plausibly rese…

Those messages come from the "health supplement" industry, which is basically a segment of the health industry that the FDA is prohibited by law from regulating. And it entirely feeds on consumer cynicism towards the health industry, despite the fact that the major players in "health supplements" are guilty of everything the health industry is accused of being.

What you're saying is a revalation to me. I did not realise the US medical science was split along economic/regulatory lines. Surely this is doing everyone a disservice?

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#157
post #8

This is regulation everybody should be able to get behind. How are these markets supposed to function efficiently with healthy competition if critical information like this is hidden away?

It's because information asymmetry allows for maximum profits.

George Akerlof's work on information assymetry, especially his 'Market for Lemons' is super interesting and I can only recommend reading about it. He won the Nobel price 2001 for it.

https://you.com/search?q=George+Akerlof+information+asymmetr... https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/george-a-akerlof.asp

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. That, and space force, and cheap energy, and renegotiating trade agreements, and not starting any new wars.

"Cheap energy" is not the boon you think it is. You have to consider other factors - deregulating the food industry and getting rid of the FDA would save millions of taxpayer's money, would lower prices of the supply chain and let consumers pay significantly less for food, yet would have drastic side effects. Cheap energy that requires deregulation, more alarming and precarious climate effects, etc might not be a net…

Thank you for saying so. Flooding the market with cheap, low-quality crude would drop the price of gasoline, but it'd be horrid for the environment.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#159
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cheap energy" is not the boon you think it is. You have to consider other factors - deregulating the food industry and getting rid of the FDA would save millions of taxpayer's money, would lower prices of the supply chain and let consumers pay significantly less for food, yet would have drastic side effects. Cheap energy that requires deregulation, more alarming and precarious climate effects, etc might not be a net…

> "not starting any new wars" can be perceived as bowing to foreign nations This is an interesting take on peace in the middle east.

Hey, I agree with you there, but my point is that any aspect of politics can (and will) be reframed by both sides to support their preconceived beliefs.

I've edited my comment to speak in a more neutral political tone.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#160
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cheap energy" is not the boon you think it is. You have to consider other factors - deregulating the food industry and getting rid of the FDA would save millions of taxpayer's money, would lower prices of the supply chain and let consumers pay significantly less for food, yet would have drastic side effects. Cheap energy that requires deregulation, more alarming and precarious climate effects, etc might not be a net…

> "not starting any new wars" can be perceived as bowing to foreign nations This is an interesting take on peace in the middle east.

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN