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The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

aaronstannard.com

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Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#351

Post by tomhow »

Tostino wrote: post #347
greenavocado wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pure facts. I used to live in a city where me and my wife were terrorized by homeless people on the light rail. Now we live far away from public transportation and no longer have to worry about the safety of ourselves or our children and our neighbors are fantastic people. Car dependency and castle doctrine is essential in a low trust society with a legal system that puts violent offenders right back on the stre…

[flagged]

Please avoid personal swipes like this on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#352

Post by franktankbank »

Sparkle-san wrote: post #134
mattcantstop wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite viewpoint, and I lean heavily progressive in most of my views. Healthcare in the United States isn't a market, and that is why it is so terrible. For instance, there is no reasonable ability to compare prices of services. Prices are entirely hidden. Then there is the "with insurance" price vs cash prices. Healthcare doesn't function as a market, to our detriment.

Healthcare doesn't function as a market because the nature of it is largely at odds with the principals of an efficient marketplace and perfect competition. Not to mention the tens of billions of dollars being pocketed by middlemen every year.

"billions"

lol..

Dr Evil in the time you've been in cryostasis...

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#354

Post by eudamoniac »

machomaster wrote: post #342
BeetleB wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In over a decade, the only time I hit that cap was because I let my kid watch too many videos on it. 5 GB is pretty reasonable for the bulk of the country. The only common things that can make it go over are games and streaming - both of which really are luxuries if you simply can't wait till you have Wifi access. So yeah - of course you should pay a lot more if you insist on doing those things.

This is akin to him saying that average American needs X money for the car to participate in society, and you suggest that his numbers don't math because one could: 1. Walk around everywhere (Idaho, Iowa) 2. move to New York (with ok public transportation) Mobile phone and unlimited high-speed internet are requirements for participation in society.

> unlimited high-speed internet are requirements for participation in society

I pay $7/mo (not a typo) for 1GB mobile data via US Mobile, and I have never hit that cap in many years. I just don't stream video or audio unless on WiFi, which is not a hardship. Respectfully, what on earth are you talking about?

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#355

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

barbacoa wrote: post #300
postflopclarity wrote: post #234

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.

Surely the priority should be to help those with mental issues and those without homes? It's bizarre to want to live in a society that prioritises car use so that people don't have to see those discarded by the same society.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#356

Post by rangestransform »

beej71 wrote: post #146
Sparkle-san wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare doesn't function as a market because the nature of it is largely at odds with the principals of an efficient marketplace and perfect competition. Not to mention the tens of billions of dollars being pocketed by middlemen every year.

In some places, free market healthcare is great. Dermatologists, dentists, chiropractors, things like that. And part of the reason it's great is because you get to shop around and people fight for your business. In other areas, like heart attacks and strokes, you do not get to shop around. And you pay whatever they say you will pay. When those are the circumstances, there is simply no free market. And since no one is…

In those places, free market healthcare is great because they don't have healthcare practitioner cartels and can pay their doctors middle-middle-class salaries instead of investment banker salaries

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#357

Post by ceejayoz »

rfrey wrote: post #242
AnnaPali wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christian healthcare sharers do precisely this. By restricting services and the population addressed (your pastor or priest must sign off on your application), everything's extremely affordable. In particular, as we don't drink, do drugs, use contraceptives etc. we don't pay for coverage of them or their side effects. Obesity's also less of an issue. There's also the trick of telling the hospital you'll pay "in cash"…

Christians don't drink or use contraceptives? I think you have to have a pretty extreme "no true Scotsman" attitude to make such a claim. Even the drugs claim is pretty specious.

> Christians don't drink or use contraceptives?

They're talking about a very particular sort of pseudo-insurance plan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_sharing_ministry

They can and do exclude whole swaths of what normal health insurers have to cover. They don't even have a legal requirement to pay out at all.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/health-care-cost-...

> Beyond restricting maternity coverage, many groups’ policies state that they won’t reimburse for prescriptions, routine doctor’s visits, contraceptives or mental health or substance use services. Coverage for medical conditions that predate someone’s membership is often excluded, as well. And health care sharing ministries aren’t required by law to limit out-of-pocket costs or maintain large cash reserves to cover members’ bills the way insurance companies are.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#359

Post by ceejayoz »

tptacek wrote: post #278
Sparkle-san wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare doesn't function as a market because the nature of it is largely at odds with the principals of an efficient marketplace and perfect competition. Not to mention the tens of billions of dollars being pocketed by middlemen every year.

If that's true, explain surgical center pricing, which often beats health chain prices by over 50%.

That has at least one fairly simple explanation: those centers only take lower acuity patients. If you're complex with a history of complications, it'll be "we'll do this one at an actual hospital".

(This is frequently the case for my wife.)

They may also not take Medicaid patients; my state publishes lists of ones that actually do because of this. https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/quality/surge...

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#360

Post by ceejayoz »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #208
AnnaPali wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christian healthcare sharers do precisely this. By restricting services and the population addressed (your pastor or priest must sign off on your application), everything's extremely affordable. In particular, as we don't drink, do drugs, use contraceptives etc. we don't pay for coverage of them or their side effects. Obesity's also less of an issue. There's also the trick of telling the hospital you'll pay "in cash"…

So are you still allowed real wine at communion then? A bottle of beer after working on your car all day? I know some christians who preach "100% dry", others are more relaxed. Some are fine with contraceptives (including many Pentecostals, which is how I was raised), quite a few overweight people, etc. And they're just as christian as you are. It sounds like you're going for the "unlikely to need it" plans, which go…

> So are you still allowed real wine at communion then?

I've run into folks who claim "wine" was a mistranslation of "grape juice", and some denominations don't use wine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist

"The elements of the Eucharist, sacramental bread—either leavened or unleavened—and sacramental wine (among Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox) or non-alcoholic grape juice (among Methodists, Baptists and Plymouth Brethren), are consecrated on an altar or a communion table and consumed thereafter."

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