Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more • Hacker News Board

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#181

Post by JamesBarney » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 6:59 AM UTC

sanp wrote: post #167

JamesBarney wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should we be upset that people can't afford to provide cures we don't want to pay for? When I work, I get paid. I expect pharmaceutical companies feel the same way. And if you look at how the world dealt with the hep c cure, it was pretty much trying as hard as possible to pay as little for a cure because the cost was front loaded.

People hiring you have a choice (usual not life threatening). People who need medical attention do not.

And how many doctors and nurses would there be to help you if they didn't get paid?

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#182

Post by puppable » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:02 AM UTC

aantix wrote: post #161

gregsq wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother lives in country australia and had pancreatitis it seemed. Hospital, cat and mri’s, spent a week in hospital, sent home, returned after pain returned. More tests, it was decided she should be sent to a larger regional hospital for biopsy. Flew by Lear jet, drove by road home I guess about three hundred miles. Advise was a Whipple procedure. I wasn’t inclined to agree for reasons I won’t go into. I declined…

“Total cost zero”. The cost is never zero. Doctors, nurses, don’t work for free. Infrastructure isn’t maintained without money. It comes from somewhere.

Thanks for pointing this out. I had thought the Lear jet was just made out of magic, until I saw your comment.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#183

Post by JamesBarney » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:03 AM UTC

nandhinianand wrote: post #136

JamesBarney wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should we be upset that people can't afford to provide cures we don't want to pay for? When I work, I get paid. I expect pharmaceutical companies feel the same way. And if you look at how the world dealt with the hep c cure, it was pretty much trying as hard as possible to pay as little for a cure because the cost was front loaded.

Ah... the problem here is not that the pharma companies aren't getting paid.. The problem is there's a bunch of banks and government subsidies and a lot of middle-people creating cost on top of enabling the funds flow. I am not sure what's the solution, but there really are a lot of administrative middle-people involved..

The solution is when pharmaceutical company discovers a cure we dump truck loads of money on their lawn.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#184

Post by primitivesuave » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:07 AM UTC

bane wrote: post #125

The U.S. healthcare system cannot be fixed. Period. Full-stop. The only solution is to nuke it from orbit, pave it over, and start again. It's very easy to point the finger at the conservative party as the one who's screwed it all up, but the other parties are not really putting forward models for successful healthcare systems. If one were to sit down and try to create the most absurd approach to healthcare that guar…

I agree with your initial sentiment completely. I joined my current cofounders (from medical/business backgrounds) for a health tech startup, sold on the dream of saving lives with technology. If my CEO didn't play the game by the absurd rules that are in place, I wouldn't have enough financial incentive to swallow my idealism and stick around.

My point being, there are plenty of smart people in this system building cool features and chalking it up as progress, but we don't have any power to institute any kind of fundamental change. No healthcare leader will ever acknowledge the flaws in the system, because the people who get promoted up the bureaucracy are the ones who know how to play the game. The people at the top are the champions of collecting the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of care.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#185

Post by MystK » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:07 AM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #179

aantix wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Total cost zero”. The cost is never zero. Doctors, nurses, don’t work for free. Infrastructure isn’t maintained without money. It comes from somewhere.

Nobody is under the impression that there aren't costs to care, so your response feels like you're addressing a strawman argument and isn't really insightful.

Not sure why you think that. There are definitely people who think universal healthcare will cost nothing.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#186

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:14 AM UTC

MystK wrote: post #185

heavyset_go wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is under the impression that there aren't costs to care, so your response feels like you're addressing a strawman argument and isn't really insightful.

Not sure why you think that. There are definitely people who think universal healthcare will cost nothing.

[deleted]

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#187

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:19 AM UTC

MystK wrote: post #185

heavyset_go wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is under the impression that there aren't costs to care, so your response feels like you're addressing a strawman argument and isn't really insightful.

Not sure why you think that. There are definitely people who think universal healthcare will cost nothing.

[deleted]

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#188

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:20 AM UTC

uoaei wrote: post #169

aantix wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Total cost zero”. The cost is never zero. Doctors, nurses, don’t work for free. Infrastructure isn’t maintained without money. It comes from somewhere.

Paying for healthcare via taxes would look very, very similar to how it is now. Because that's how insurance works: you are paying into a pool now to get access to help later. I can't tell if you're being sarcastically libertarian or deliberately antagonistic.

[deleted]

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#189

Post by dotancohen » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:24 AM UTC

1996 wrote: post #155

ArtDev wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Thailand, the hospital lobby has printed brochures with all the prices. It reads like a menu. I can't wait to return there and be a medical tourist again! The facilities and level of care was superior to my local dive of a hospital that is chronically understaffed. The hospital president make $980k while currently the nurses are on strike.

The US healthcare quality is bad, regardless of how much you pay, period. For knee problems, like you I went to SE Asia as a medical tourist. I was provided with a taxi waiting for me at the airport, a translator who stayed with me at all times, a dedicated hospital administrative assistant for more complex issues like obtaining a copy of my exams, having them send to the doctor of my choice, obtaining the CV of the…

Who was your medical tourism agency? My Gmail username is the same as my HN username if you prefer to answer there. Thank you cryptoman!

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, reveals giant swings for hips, knees and more

#190

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 7:27 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #84

Kaiser is the only non-broken part of the U.S healthcare system. They have never sent me a bill for a surprise out of network anything. Out of network doctors don't work there. All doctors are on salary. You get one bill from one company. No wonder they have been growing like crazy in California.

[deleted]