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This cant be said enough... When i had a doctor come to my door asking if i had any masks to donate I had some choice words for that schmuck.
@freemo I think that banning health insurance could get rid of this problem overnight.
Ya know I never considered banning health insurance... and I was about to say that sounds idiotic... but as I try to type it i just keep going "he aint wrong".. if everyone had to pay cash people would be pissed as fuck at the rip off prices and might actually demand some change.
The problem is people dont know how to fix problems. So while they would demand change that demand would be "make it free for everyone!" and then we are right back at having insurance again.
@freemo It'd be the health care companies that'd actually need to make the change. They only charge so much because insurance covers 80% of costs. The vast majority of people can't afford the MSRPs of health care, so they'd either go without care or go to another country for care, greatly decreasing revenues in the health care sector. To turn things around, they would then need to bring down their prices so that they can get those customers back.
@icedquinn @freemo Well not right now, no, but that's because of the business model my proposal seeks to break.
The issue with supply-demand market mentality in healthcare is that the supply in limited and demand is infinite. You can always pay more to live longer, with diminishing returns, and most people will give everything they own to live just one more peaceful day.
You simply cant use supply and demand in that sort of dynamic without reaching extortion level prices quicky, as we have already seen.
@freemo @icedquinn I suppose? I'd guess in many cases it depends on the types of care we're talking about. Taking care of a broken bone or a pregnant lady isn't comparable to end-of-life care, or something like #insulin.
Even so, a rich person will spend a lot of money getting exorbanant care for a broken bone if they are scared of long-term function. People can be quite irrational about their health.
@freemo @icedquinn A rich person will spend $375k on a #McLaren too...that doesn't mean that cars for everyone will cost that same amount
its not about how much they will spend, its about the fact that any person of any amount of money will spend all their disposable income and much of their indisposable income to get it.
A rich person wouldnt spend their last 500K on a car if it meant they were homeless. They would spend that on a treatment if they knew it would bive them a happier and or longer life.
It's the "money is relative" thing. For Bill Gates, $50k is a small amount, like a $20 to the rest of us.
No thats my point... most people dont have it, yet spend it anyway, thats the point.
@freemo @icedquinn How can people spend what they don't have? They're not the #USA government, nor do most people have absurdly high lines of credit on their credit cards.
> How can people spend what they don't have?
Debt. You go in, get treated, get a bill, dont have the money to pay, you just spent money you dont have. Its very common.
@freemo @icedquinn It's that easy to get an absurdly high loan like that, for everyday people?
Its not even a loan, you dont even know what your spending till you walk out most of the time.
Many years ago i had asthema, fairly severe. My insurance had lapsed and I spent a day or two in the hospital. Cost me almost 100K by the time I left, didnt have a penny to my name.
@freemo @icedquinn Ah, I don't disagree with you that $100k can easily be out-of-pocket healthcare costs w/o insurance at the moment, for sure
the regulators suffocate the supply of goods. some small amount of that might be for the best, but when you crack open the literature the USA is on the extremely hostile side of the curve compared to saner places like Switzerland
but that's not what the USA does. the USA puts up massive financial and regulatory walls to just straight up suffocate small labs out of the market.
@freemo @icedquinn I guess my point is that most people don't have $50k or $100k is disposable income