Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 369 posts

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#201

Post by nostromo »

flexie wrote: post #182
chimeracoder wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cancer and other life threatening diseases rarely bankrupt Europeans, Canadians, Australians, Kiwis, Japanese etc. Sure, but they're also dramatically less likely to survive the cancer than Americans are at a population level. There have been multiple long-term studies on cancer survival rates that have demonstrated this.

The US is barely in the top among developed nations, and it's not much better than the next 10-15 countries: https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer... And it's notoriously difficult to compare. If cancer is registered as "discovered" early, because a for profit doctor starts treating it early, but the government hired doctor maybe doesn't, the early treated will statistically appear as living lo…

How does your link relate to your comment?

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#202

Post by madengr »

shereadsthenews wrote: post #43

I'd like to know where the patient with the $870 MRI bill was seen. My last MRI was billed at over $7500. Before I started treatment for my brain tumor I got divorced for purely financial reasons and gave all my remaining money to my children. USA is so fucked.

Other than cash, how do you give money over $15k without being nailed by the gift tax? Keeping as much money in retirement savings seems wise as those are exempt from liens.

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#203

Post by sbov »

tmaly wrote: post #181
cletus wrote: post #34

In Australia the Leftist government of Gough Whitlam introduced health-coverage-for-all in 1975 with a scheme called Medibank. In 1984 after a couple of governments, Bob Hawke's Leftist government created the Medicare scheme (Medibank became a government provider of private health insurance), which exists to this day. The most interesting stat I ever heard about Medicare was this: prior to Medicare the number one cau…

We still cannot get a price list of medical procedures in the US thanks to the antitrust exemption provided in McCarran-Ferguson Antitrust Act of 1945. I think repealing this would be a good start. All other industries are required to provide price lists. My friend went to the ER recently for a sprained thumb. They wrapped it in some bandage and he got a bill for $14,000. His insurance is covering 80% but he is still…

Don't go to the ER for a sprained thumb.

Unless its an actual emergency, go to urgent care. I live in a pretty expensive area of California and they still only charge $95 per person they see. And our insurance covers it completely. And rightly so, they would much prefer a $95 bill to a $14,000 one.

With kids we go a couple times per year. They definitely have saved us a lot of money and time.

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#204

Post by refurb »

onion2k wrote: post #195
refurb wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the UK, but... "It's crazy that I live in Canada, but now I'm looking at having to sell my house for coverage of my medication." "Then I found out that this other country — which I thought had a healthcare system that was so superior to the U.S. — doesn't test for the tumour marker that saved my life, and doesn't cover this drug that is responsible for pushing my cancer into remission after traditional chemo…

One person's cancer was missed in Canada. Meanwhile, millions of people in the US who have cancer but can't afford health insurance, and therefore won't get any tests, will have their diagnosis missed. I'd rather live in Canada.

It’s not one person in Canada.

the Court ruled that the Quebec Health Insurance Act and the Hospital Insurance Act prohibiting private medical insurance in the face of long wait times violated the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaoulli_v_Quebec_(AG)

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#205

Post by nostromo »

gregcrv wrote: post #92
JamesBarney wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for universal coverage too. But reducing the profits of pharmaceutical companies well reduce the money they have for r&d dramatically. This will slow down the speed of pharmaceutical development. So I think it needs to be paired with reforms to the FDA to reduce the go to market costs for drugs.

From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescription_costs “A study has placed the amount spent on drug marketing at 2-19 times that on drug research” Maybe this should be reduced first?

This is flawed thinking. But it's very popular flawed thinking, so you're certainly not alone. :)

If marketing has a return on investment (and it does) then marketing spend also increases money available for R&D.

Marketing and R&D are not pieces of a fixed pie. Marketing spend grows the entire pie and provides additional dollars for the company to spend on R&D.

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#206

Post by emddudley »

creaghpatr wrote: post #40
davidscolgan wrote: post #3

This is honestly one of the things that most stresses me out as I get older. I don't use my insurance much now because I'm pretty healthy, but I know my cancer risk will just go up over time. I've considered that if something like this ever did happen, I'd move to Lithuania and do it there paying in cash over trying to do it in the US system. Universal health care can't come fast enough.

When you get old you presumably qualify for Medicare.

A lot can happen before age 65, and cancer doesn't wait!

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#207

Post by kindatrue »

tmaly wrote: post #181
cletus wrote: post #34

In Australia the Leftist government of Gough Whitlam introduced health-coverage-for-all in 1975 with a scheme called Medibank. In 1984 after a couple of governments, Bob Hawke's Leftist government created the Medicare scheme (Medibank became a government provider of private health insurance), which exists to this day. The most interesting stat I ever heard about Medicare was this: prior to Medicare the number one cau…

We still cannot get a price list of medical procedures in the US thanks to the antitrust exemption provided in McCarran-Ferguson Antitrust Act of 1945. I think repealing this would be a good start. All other industries are required to provide price lists. My friend went to the ER recently for a sprained thumb. They wrapped it in some bandage and he got a bill for $14,000. His insurance is covering 80% but he is still…

Interesting trivia - health insurers kind of don't care about these big bills, despite what most people think: https://www.propublica.org/article/why-your-health-insurer-d...

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#208

Post by nradov »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #96
sschueller wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are these costs the fault of the doctors? I would think the largest blame goes to the insurances and drug makers making billions in profit. At least the drug makers are making something but the insurances are just pooling money and taking of the top for doing almost nothing.

The unofficial doctors union restricts funding for residency spots, thereby restricting supply of doctors, and keeping their prices high. You can be a doctor in the UK at 24, and in the US, you're at least 30. Insurance companies' profit margins are capped by law, so only reason they would be making more money is if the providers are charging more money.

There's nothing stopping the government and individual hospitals from boosting funding for residency spots. The AMA isn't doing anything to prevent it.

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#209

Post by thebooktocome »

sbov wrote: post #203
tmaly wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still cannot get a price list of medical procedures in the US thanks to the antitrust exemption provided in McCarran-Ferguson Antitrust Act of 1945. I think repealing this would be a good start. All other industries are required to provide price lists. My friend went to the ER recently for a sprained thumb. They wrapped it in some bandage and he got a bill for $14,000. His insurance is covering 80% but he is still…

Don't go to the ER for a sprained thumb. Unless its an actual emergency, go to urgent care. I live in a pretty expensive area of California and they still only charge $95 per person they see. And our insurance covers it completely. And rightly so, they would much prefer a $95 bill to a $14,000 one. With kids we go a couple times per year. They definitely have saved us a lot of money and time.

Urgent care doesn't exist in some jurisdictions.

Re: Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

#210

Post by 5trokerac3 »

dontreact wrote: post #197
5trokerac3 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how much of that is due to the obesity epidemic in the US and has nothing to do with the healthcare system?

I don’t know for sure what the breakdown is. Right now our overall system does little to discourage the obesity epidemic, but in a universal coverage system there would be massive financial incentive to fight it (either the government or insurance companies being forced to provide coverage for all)

Is there perhaps a better way to use resources to fight the obesity epidemic, and massively impact "health outcomes", than a ~$40 trillion complete overhaul of the medical system and hoping that the epidemic is solved by proxy?
Post reply on HN