People blame insurance, but insurance is just a willing punching dummy. Insurance just charges a percentage over the base costs. This is why every president who has tried insurance reform has failed. The guilty are the hospitals and the American Medical Association, which limits seats of new doctors in the USA. It is the strongest trade union on the planet, making millions for it's members and using the excuse of "safety" to try to pull the wool over your eyes.
Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
781–790 of 954 posts
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#782Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does Medicare for all mean I can't keep private health insurance? There are countries that have systems like this in place.
There are countries that have single-payer systems and widespread supplemental insurance. But if you universalized Medicare, you'd immediately do at least two big things to the market: (1) You'd eliminate the system of advantages and supports that cause employers to offer private insurance, which is where most people get their insurance from. (2) You'd create a huge adverse selection problem --- the more effective/us…
I don't understand the obsession some people have with keeping your existing plan. Lots of people can't keep there plan under the current system. Insurance companies update their plans regularly. Sometimes they remove plans or exit markets entirely. An existing plan will get small changes over time. If Theseus has an insurance plan for 10 years and the insurance company makes changes every year can we still call it the original plan of Theseus?
If M4A plus supplemental insurance gives me about the same coverage I have now for a reduced total cost that sounds like a win to me. Even if it ends up costing me the same amount the net improvement from everyone having access to basic health care would still be a win.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#783Earlier quoted context omitted.
Net migration US/Ireland is positive to Ireland. UK numbers yes, though maybe gloomy weather plays a role? Just kidding. That said, Brits are slightly more likely to move to Spain than US despite it being a tiny country in comparison and not necessarily easier to move to after Brexit. Spain, not sure. It’s tricky to compare since non immigrant Spanish speaking population in US is probably significantly lower than Spa…
America has around 42 million fluent Spanish speakers (based on # that speak Spanish at home). Spain’s entire population is 48 million. I have never met an American that migrated to Spain.
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Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#784Some will say this is the great innovation that can cone from free market capitalism. Completely forgetting that the problem it solves was created by that very same system.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#785Earlier quoted context omitted.
Public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) exists and a huge number of people in medical professions actually take advantage of it. I know of multiple medical students and residents with over $500k in debt that are in the process of having all of their loans forgiven after 10 years in training and a total cost of approximately $75–150k for their entire education. Sure, that's still a decent amount of money, but it's very…
How successful are those people being? IIUC, there was a bit of a scandal where the companies the DoE where paying to manage those 10 year forgiveness plans where giving incorrect advice and so a lot of people aren't going to qualify. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bece...
Lots of hospitals are nonprofits, and doctors can make lots of money working at hospitals. There is no income cap for PSLF IIRC, as long as you're working for a qualifying entity (including nonprofits).
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#786I fought insurance over this past summer after they declined covering a life saving surgery for my 6-year-old child at the last minute. We were in despair that my child's life was at risk each day we waited because of insurance incompetence. ChatGPT literally guided me through the whole external appeal process, who to contact outside of normal channels to ask for help / apply pressure, researched questions I had, hel…
A few of the sentences don't make sense to me. Who is "they" and "their" in the last two paragraphs?
Seems like GP is trying to refer to the child without reference to sex.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#787Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why AI is an equalizing force. Eventually, we'll just have a free (or at least much cheaper) psychiatrist in our pocket. Sure, AI advice is workse than the advice of a competent professional, but it's very often better no advice, and that's what you get if you can't afford the professional.
I shudder to think when insurance companies use AI to counteract customers using AI to navigate through their system. They'll eventually catch up, and people who don't use any kind of AI will be disadvantaged. That is, until someone sells them a turnkey AI service to do insurance claims... and decides to play both teams so resolutions come back at pre-AI levels, and the free market(TM) is happy because a new equilibr…
I am not sure it's that simple. Thing is many costs are due to information assymetry: you not knowing something that they do.
For example them counting on you to big hire a lawyer for collecting medical debt or mortgage debt your spouse or parent owes. As a general rule you aren't responsible for it. There are exceptions. e.g. Filial laws(children responsible for parent's debts) exist in many states, but are difficult to invoke. Community property laws https://www.irs.gov/publications/p555#en_US_202502_publink10... in 9 states that can link your income to your partner, when the state you were domiciled in with your partner in a home/condo you bought together.
So in general, adverserial use of AI cannot bring claims "back to pre-AI" levels. Much more likely is the fact is reduced debt collection activity and illegal billing will reduce to a new baseline.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#788I fought insurance over this past summer after they declined covering a life saving surgery for my 6-year-old child at the last minute. We were in despair that my child's life was at risk each day we waited because of insurance incompetence. ChatGPT literally guided me through the whole external appeal process, who to contact outside of normal channels to ask for help / apply pressure, researched questions I had, hel…
I'm glad you were able to use these tools to help your family though such tough times!
> The hopeful part of me is that many others can use similar techniques to win.
And the realistic part in me says that these tools will be used to deny appeals without a human ever looking into them and making sure you will never get to talk to a human or get approval for anything ever again.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#789Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are countries that have single-payer systems and widespread supplemental insurance. But if you universalized Medicare, you'd immediately do at least two big things to the market: (1) You'd eliminate the system of advantages and supports that cause employers to offer private insurance, which is where most people get their insurance from. (2) You'd create a huge adverse selection problem --- the more effective/us…
I don't understand the obsession some people have with keeping your existing plan. Lots of people can't keep there plan under the current system. Insurance companies update their plans regularly. Sometimes they remove plans or exit markets entirely. An existing plan will get small changes over time. If Theseus has an insurance plan for 10 years and the insurance company makes changes every year can we still call it t…
Every policy is easy to enact if you just define away anybody who'd object to it. But, more importantly: it's unlikely that M4A by itself (let alone with the supplemental plan you'd likely end up with) would reduce your total cost!
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#790Such a case when one must pay a good portion of a home price for a man dying in a hospital, is why I won't ever try to move to the US, and will retell story to everyone considering.
These wild cases aren't worth considering as far as "do I move to the US or not". They are exceedingly rare and while they can happen so can the wing falling off your plane on the trip here. The bigger concern, IMO, is insurance is tied to employment. The time you get your massive bill is when you get very sick after being fired/laid off and your COBRA is up. The next biggest concern is the ACA which is the greatest…
Agree. Also, it looks a lot like the USSR system, where general healthcare was underfinanced and had poor education quality (although, mostly worked against infectious diseases), hence some ministries and even enterprises (were part of ministries) had their own clinics and so-called sanatoriums (recreation and healthcare facilities for vacations). ...and also built their own residential apartment buildings (they'd order the construction enterprises, but had the housing themselves). So it mattered a lot where you worked and where you retired from.