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The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

aaronstannard.com

51–60 of 431 posts

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#51

"The essential theme of Green’s piece is that “participation costs” - the price of admission you pay to simply be in the market, let alone win, have grown out of control. Food and shelter are participation costs for living. Having a $200/mo smartphone is now a participation cost for many things such as getting access to your banking information remotely, medical records, and work/school." No shit. He mentions food, s…

I doubt it's much harder because of phones or internet. A smartphone can be very cheap. WiFi is pretty much everywhere and even in America there are very cheap esim plans.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#52
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, he's lucky enough to have not been in a major car accident that year, so he can attribute it all to the cost of giving birth. What would have been the out-of-pocket cost of a normal birth without health insurance? It's still your choice to go without.

No one is forcing you to give birth in a hospital. Rational people do it at home all the time to this day.

> Rational people do it at home all the time to this day.

I had to read again 3 times. Are you serious?

If there is any complication, you're risking 2 lives.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain how this would help? I'm struggling to understand where you're coming from here, besides perhaps a reflexive libertarian reaction to government.

Massive government subsidies for health care consumption not only eliminate, but disincentivize price discovery. If your biggest consumers of health care (seniors) have access to the best health insurance plan in the world (Medicare), that's going to drive costs up

Your whole argument is that the health care system should be optimized for the most productive members of society (like you, right now).

You are perfectly fine to have that belief, but the majority of people disagree with you, which is one of the primary reasons the system is designed as it is.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#54
post #5

Nearly 2 in 5 Americans are covered by Medicare or Medicaid. TANSTAAFL. The other 3 bear the burden. At some point Atlas shrugs and decides welfare is a better deal.

Weird, I've seen a lot more people bitch about welfare and how easy people on the dole have it, than actually give up their nice jobs and lifestyles to go try living it.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#55
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.

> The quality of health care in the US is significantly higher than anywhere else in the world.

Do you have any evidence of that?

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#57
post #2

The corruption is so entrenched and so out of control, the only way out of this mess is for regular people to just stop using the health care system. Yes, there's no alternative, and yes, it means living a riskier life. It sucks, and it's not what we want to hear, but they can only charge us if we show up and purchase the product, and that's the last lever of power we can wield.

I've discussed just opting out of health insurance altogether and doing CrowdHealth with my wife, thinking along these same lines.

I'm a single contractor and can't really justify it. It saves me about 8k per year and this would be a bronze plan through MediCali if I got it. People would say "well what if you get a cancer or something" and yea that may be true but in that instance not only would I be out that premium but also the deductible and it won't even cover everything so maybe I'm actually better off stacking cash until the inevitable.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#58
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.

Citation definitely needed.

Ive been to doctors in different countries including the USA. Theres nothing special with general practitioners with the USA.

Or if you end up in China, you can get blood panels for like 10RMB, MRI for 30RMB, and damn near automated to boot.

Go to Mexico for dental work. What costs you here $30k costs you $2k, and they take your insurance.

The US citizens are being gouged, because our government has been bought out by corporate interests who bribe, err, campaign donate to both parties. And thats across every economic activity. Medical is just an egregious one, alongside academics.

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#59
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Australia 5 out of 5 people are covered by Medicare, and 5 of them bear the burden. (at some point in their life. assuming they become a tax payer, which seems likely for most.)

What percentage of Australian society is net-positive tax payer? That’s your real number, not this pretend 5 out of 5 as you claim.

[deleted]

Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence

#60

So to summarize: a. you're paying that for health insurance, not for the birth of the child. If you, your wife, your children had any other diseases then those would be covered as well. This is a significant benefit. b. all the systems that subsidize health care for those less well off don't apply because you're wealthy. So you are bearing the full cost of extremely high quality health insurance in a western country.

> high quality health insurance in a western country

This is less true than it used to be.

You obviusly dont insure a family of 5 and I suspect dont actually use the healthcare system.

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