51–60 of 327 posts
>How do the Amish keep costs so low? R&D (plus a few other sources) identify some key strategies. >...the Amish are honorable customers. This separates them from insurance companies, who are constantly trying to scam providers however they can. Much of the increase in health care costs is “administrative expenses”, and much of these administrative expenses is hiring an army of lawyers, clerks, and billing professiona…
I thought the most interesting part was the commentary on non-Amish care in the past > I asked my literal grandmother, a 95 year old former nurse, how health care worked in her day. She said it just wasn’t a problem. Hospitals were supported by wealthy philanthropists and religious organizations. Poor people got treated for free. Middle class people paid as much as they could afford, which was often the whole bill, b…
How do you come away with an inequality issue from a setup where everyone got treated at a fair price and the rich subsidized others?
I'm surely hopelessly naive and ill-informed for even asking, but is there a reason a hospital or clinic couldn't operate 100% without dealing with insurance? Do such places exist in the US? We always hear how the hospital sends a bill for $40,000, then the insurance company argues that down to $2000, but woe unto you if you DON'T have insurance because you'll have a hard time getting that same deal yourself. Couldn'…
“ The Amish have had a life expectancy in the low 70s since colonial times, when the rest of us were dying at 40 or 50. Since then, Amish life expectancy has stayed the same, and English life expectancy has improved to the high 70s.”
>How do the Amish keep costs so low? R&D (plus a few other sources) identify some key strategies. >...the Amish are honorable customers. This separates them from insurance companies, who are constantly trying to scam providers however they can. Much of the increase in health care costs is “administrative expenses”, and much of these administrative expenses is hiring an army of lawyers, clerks, and billing professiona…
This is my problem with Evangelical Atheism. The people who go hard against religion (well, two of the large three for political reasons) refuse to accept that there are good things that come with the structure and that some people really take to that.
>How do the Amish keep costs so low? R&D (plus a few other sources) identify some key strategies. >...the Amish are honorable customers. This separates them from insurance companies, who are constantly trying to scam providers however they can. Much of the increase in health care costs is “administrative expenses”, and much of these administrative expenses is hiring an army of lawyers, clerks, and billing professiona…
> ...the Amish are honorable customers. This separates them from insurance companies, who are constantly trying to scam providers however they can. Much of the increase in health care costs is “administrative expenses”, and much of these administrative expenses is hiring an army of lawyers, clerks, and billing professionals to thwart insurance companies’ attempts to cheat their way out of paying. If you are an honora…
> Amish people are more willing to stop interventions earlier and resist invasive therapies than the general population because, while they long for healing, they also have a profound respect for God’s will. This means taking modest steps toward healing sick bodies, giving preference to natural remedies, setting common-sense limits, and believing that in the end their bodies are in God’s hands.
>The Amish health care system has an easier job than ours does. It has to take care of people who are generally healthy and less interested in extreme end-of-life care.
When you take car insurance, it does not pay for oil changes, tire repair etc, since these are considered regular maintenance. If you don't do this, then your car will fall apart faster and again, you are on your own...
Not a straight analogy, but if we make people pay on their own for regular visits, mandate tha they must visit a doctor (their choice) etc which they pay out of pocket -- then only unexpected events are actually covered by insurance -- and the cost is lower.
The employer spends less, and hopefully, a substantial portion gets back to the employee's paycheck.
>How do the Amish keep costs so low? R&D (plus a few other sources) identify some key strategies. >...the Amish are honorable customers. This separates them from insurance companies, who are constantly trying to scam providers however they can. Much of the increase in health care costs is “administrative expenses”, and much of these administrative expenses is hiring an army of lawyers, clerks, and billing professiona…
No, what we should do is build our systems so that human nature is taken into consideration. There will always be good and bad people. Medical pricing should be simple, upfront and direct. It should not require lots of clerks and "billing professionals" It shouldn't required armies of expensive lawyers to settle disputes. Whether the bill was not paid by the customer, or the doctor failed to deliver what the customer…
Yeah...just no. The Amish are not a group you should be modeling yourself after. I grew up surrounded by the Amish and the clean living salt of the earth myth is simply that—a myth.
Did you have to pick up their beer cans from their circling their wagons on your field during their rumspringa? I sure did.
>How do the Amish keep costs so low? R&D (plus a few other sources) identify some key strategies. >...the Amish are honorable customers. This separates them from insurance companies, who are constantly trying to scam providers however they can. Much of the increase in health care costs is “administrative expenses”, and much of these administrative expenses is hiring an army of lawyers, clerks, and billing professiona…
> I'm not a religious person, but the thing that the anti-religion movements have failed spectacularly at is providing a universal, teachable framework for basic morality. But there is no universal, teachable framework for basic morality. Even the seemingly most basic rule: don't hurt anyone, has so many exceptions. There is no 'small' set of rules you can use to describe morality. Reality is messy, human interaction…