Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

threads.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

851–860 of 954 posts

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#851

Post by StackRanker3000 »

tptacek wrote: post #718
fn-mote wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that European schools are heavily tracked, but I’m not seeing the connection between that and the tuition costs. It seems like these are unrelated issues. Does the wider freedom of choice in US education somehow cause college to cost more? Because more people want to go?? I don’t get it. > Europeans solve these problems just by caring more about human values

In the US, to make tuition free, you'd have to answer the question "who gets to enter university programs". In Europe, the answer isn't "everybody".

I can mainly speak for Sweden, but basically the answer there actually is ”everybody who wants to and meets the minimum requirements (essentially having graduated high school)”

Sweden has higher gross enrolment in tertiary education than the US, and a larger proportion of older students (people who go back later in life to progress their education or change paths)

I’ve heard that in countries like Germany people are often ”locked in” by choices they’ve made at an early age. There’s an element of that in Sweden too (more vocationally-focused high school programs may not give you all the courses that you need to enter all university programs), but that is not too onerous to overcome if you change your mind later (you can do ”foundational studies” to bridge the gap, or just sit exams to prove that you’re qualified)

Edit: but it’s maybe also to your point that universities have limited seats, just like everywhere. Maybe your high school grades or score at the equivalent of the SAT aren’t high enough to study mathematics at the top-rated institution even if you’re qualified, because there are too many people ahead of you. But you will be able to go to uni somewhere to study something

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#852

Post by onli »

nosianu wrote: post #833
bleepblap wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but it helps to not misrepresent the facts while you do it

Misrepresenting??? The costs DID increase. I did not try to make a political statement, what happened here, anyway??? I have no idea what there is to defend - even if you assume they will all get high-paying jobs some ay, for the first few years costs will increase while they either learn the language, are not allowed to work (status pending), or get minimum wage jobs (food delivery and parcel services at least in my…

You are misreading this exchange. You just got a fact wrong, but thus repeated a lie that is planted often by nazis - and it's easy to get mislead. Anyway, you did not get criticized for an imagined stance on immigration, but those answers are to a comment I assume you missed, the one by nxor?

You wrote, incorrectly:

> We also have lots of our own problems and increasing costs because of immigration

As the NZZ article explained, health care / Krankenkassen are the area where it is the clearest that immigration is an economic benefit. Look at statements like the section title "Krankenkassen profitieren", followed by "Ein grosser Profiteur der Zuwanderung sind dagegen wohl die Krankenkassen." and the ending paragraph of said section:

> Laut dieser Analyse gab es in diesen sieben Jahren einen Wanderungssaldo aus dem Ausland in Höhe von 4,7 Millionen Menschen in das System der GKV. Für das Jahr 2019 ergab sich daraus eine Entlastung der GKV über etwa 8 Milliarden Euro (umgerechnet 0,6 Beitragssatzpunkte). Seit 2019 hätten sich die Rahmenbedingungen aber deutlich geändert, heisst es dazu von der TK.

So the numbers we have do not support that part of your statements. And I'm not aware of newer numbers that say the contrary - the recent cost increase sees completely different reasons for example, as in https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/panorama/krankenk..., the "but more so aging population" part of your comment fits there.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#854

Post by Danjoe4 »

ecosystem wrote: post #74

The American Medical Association owns copyright to all the codes and their descriptions. They have an extremely restrictive and expensive licensing options and they strictly forbid training models with the codes. This month, the practice was called out ( https://www.help.senate.gov/rep/newsroom/press/chair-cassidy... ) so the Overton window may be opening. The AMA (a nonprofit!) clears ~$300M/year revenue from the co…

Quick guys someone make an MCP server with the codes. Fuck em!

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#855

Post by mothballed »

kamaal wrote: post #775
diob wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of folks are looking at the higher US comp but aren't correctly pricing in the long-term risk. You can be fine for years, but a single, major medical event can zero out those salary gains and lead directly to bankruptcy. It's a systemic flaw that isn't obvious until it's your turn to deal with it.

I know of Indian immigrants who suffered for decades/years on H1B, endless anxiety and tensions, eventually make it to GC, then a passport. Then all of a sudden fall ill, lose everything and return back to India. People keep forgetting the US society is a giant stack/pyramid ranking system, the structure keeps getting narrow as you move upwards. You get pushed off the sides, in the ever narrowing funnel, and you need…

[flagged]

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#856

Post by seethedeaduu »

Yiin wrote: post #812
seethedeaduu wrote: post #807

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The norwegian healthcare is really bad at specific sectors if they deem you as a 2nd class citizen (for example trans healthcare, where there is a lot of malicious gatekeeping and multi-year long waitlists)

that sounds like 0.0001% of sectors

Where did you pull this number from? And even if so, what is your point? Seeing how a nation treats its minorities helps judge whether they have any humanity left.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#857

Post by sevenseacat »

tonymet wrote: post #48

We suddenly woke up in the Kafka-esque purgatory of critical American healthcare billing. We’re in our 50s and had been perfectly healthy, then suddenly we got diagnosed with what will be over $500k in treatment over the next 12 months— and multiple millions for the foreseeable future. We have insurance, but many of the required procedures are “out of network” and there’s no way to tell (we have “the best” insurance,…

As a non-American, I can't even comprehend this level of shitfuckery. At all.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#858

Post by LightBug1 »

alistairSH wrote: post #125
LightBug1 wrote: post #90

Granted, $33k vs $195k is an excellent saving ... but $0k is what I, or my family, would pay. Which makes the cost seem insane by any measure.

On what basis are you refusing to pay? Services were rendered...

Refusing? ... you misunderstand. I'm from a country where we have a national insurance scheme. And I'm incredibly glad about that.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#859

Post by zajio1am »

kwanbix wrote: post #363
georgeecollins wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reason is that people know it is a problem but ideologically they really disagree about what to do about it. The impasse creates an opportunity for profit driven actors to fight reforms. Also, democracies do dumb things sometimes. See Brexit. But also, sometimes people from other countries-- I am thinking parts of Europe-- underestimate how well paid people in the US often are. They compare the averages,…

As a non-american (from South America) who lived in both USA an Europe: Yes, in USA you get much more money, like you said 2x~5x, but then: University is expensive as fck. Health care is expensive as fck. You have 5 days of paid sick leave per year in most companies. You have 10 days of paid holidays per year in most companies. In contrast, in Europe: University was cheap or free. Healthcare is cheap and universal. I…

> Healthcare is cheap

Is it? I pay 13.5% of my income as healthcare 'tax' for public healthcare. Overall, it is cheaper than US healthcare (as a percentage of GDP), but individually it is still a significant expense.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#860

Post by danlugo92 »

jack_tripper wrote: post #505
danlugo92 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You get a bill in any country when you're not insured not just the US. Non - sequitour. You can travel to Europe (not to a third world country mind you), get your treatment without insurance, pay in full, and fly back and still spend much much less, including cosmetic procedures and dental.

I don't think that contradicts what I said previously but feels more of an off-topic tangent. And of course when you earn US wages you can afford to get private care in Europe out of pocket given how lower wages in Europe are in comparison to US, which is why plenty of locals like low income people and pensioners can't afford private healthcare.

> which is why plenty of locals like low income people and pensioners can't afford private healthcare.

False equivalence fallacy. As those locals have free access to public healthcare which is not only cheap but also actually on par with US healthcare standars if not higher in certain places.

> when you earn US wages you can afford to get private care

You're implying private care is expensive, sure, but what 99.99% of people do in Europe is get private /insurance/, in spain it's only 150% the cost of the public insurance, and by law they cannot offer less coverage than the public insurance, also no surprise charges, enforced by law as well.

Post reply on HN