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The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

aaronstannard.com

311–320 of 431 posts

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#311

A lot of this is an issue of insurance no longer being "insurance" in the classical sense. Insurance covers all sorts of things, my HSA pays for all sorts of things that I never would have even considered, and while that sounds great, it helps to drive up costs. It's somewhat counter-intuitive, but if you dropped all government funding of healthcare tomorrow, healthcare plans would get cheaper. It'd also be total cha…

"There's not a single silver bullet that will fix everything" idk, it seems like eliminating the profit motive from healthcare would resolve all kinds of problems.

Whose profit motive?

Insurance? Hospitals? Doctors? Pharmacists?

Even public system that are fee for service have problems with profit motive - doctor “does more” and they make more.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

car-dependent infrastructure and urban design is hostile to human life.

Car depend infrastructure is amazing to families. A mom can take her children to the grocery store in a car in relative safety without worrying about mentally ill homeless people on the subway.

In more than a decade living in Stockholm never had a mentally ill homeless person bothering anyone in the subway.

Perhaps the subway itself isn't the problem...

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#313
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of money the US Government pays just for that 40% should be enough to cover all 100%. We know this is possible because it happens in other countries, which have shorter waits and more coverage since that talking point keeps being brought up despite collapsing in the face of reality.

The quality of health care in the US is significantly higher than anywhere else in the world. Whether that quality is necessarily (or good) is debatable, but we are getting something for the money. You also are just completely wrong in your main point. We cannot provide the same efficacy of healthcare as we are now for 60% less. We are the richest country in the world, labor costs more here than other places.

US average lifespan are shorter than most of western Europe's.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#314
I wonder what the author means by the repeated assertion that marketplace plans don't cover childbirth? My understanding is that's absolutely false.

In 2015 I had my first child while self-employed, and I paid for the most expensive Aetna plan I could find, about $2k per month if I recall correctly. We had an excellent experience at Mt Sinai, private recovery room for two nights, etc. I don't think we paid hardly anything out of pocket.

Granted, I agree that our health insurance system is a complete mess, but judging by this post and the angry responses of the author here, it sounds to me like they're making it worse on themselves by misunderstanding what's available and needlessly paying for a more expensive option than needed.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#316
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of those “simple diagnostic procedures” are a tenth of the cost if done outside of insurance out of pocket. MRIs are one of them. My routine blood work done via my doctor bills something like $1600 to my insurance every other year or so - but it do it on my own outside of the medical system for about $180 every six months. No one should have to do this for necessary care - but once you get into things not typica…

That's what the parent is saying. This is totally insane and should be just handled for us with a system that is something like what almost every other country has put in place.

Many have mixed systems. You have the public system which is fine if you have acute appendix for example. And then you have private providers, which do tell the prices and you can check which you can pick for less urgent, even a hip replacement.

It really is two separate questions how much basic procedures should cost. But I see no reason why non-urgent even important care shouldn't operate like real market. Open prices where competition is either on those prices or quality of care.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#317

Because children don’t contribute to GDP.

Having a child definitely more than doubled my contributions to the GDP.

Consider two scenarios:

A. You have a child.

B. You don't have a child and decide to never have a child. To make up for the decline in population that year the government issues a working visa to an immigrant. The immigrant relocates to your country and sets up their life there.

Do you think that A or B raises GDP more?

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#318

Because children don’t contribute to GDP.

Breaking news! There are no products or services in existence for anyone under the age of 18! lol

There are but who is producing them? Adults drive consumption and production. Children just drive consumption.

From an economic perspective increased immigration is better than births. Why have non productive people around when you can just import productive people that pay the government income taxes?

If there are no children around then we don't have to worry about the children anymore and can worry about important things like the economy!

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#319
Interestingly enough, adoption can cost just as much as the figures quoted in the article ($40,000 - $55,000).

If you're planning to adopt, broadcast it via your social network as much as possible. If you can avoid going through an adoption agency, you'll only have to pay for the legal work ($7,000 - $10,000).

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#320

Because children don’t contribute to GDP.

> Because children don’t contribute to GDP The simplest model of GDP is productivity per capital times population. And the simplest model in finance is moving cash flows around in time.

So who adds more to GDP:

A. A child of any age.

OR

B. A migrant worker.

My guess is B because that person can produce goods for export while consuming local goods. Children (at least for the first few years of their life or so) do not contribute to production. They only contribute towards consumption. You could argue that they motivate the parents to produce more but increasing skilled migration in the parents industry can do the same.

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