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When I was 24 I got in a skiing accident. I broke my femur into 4 pieces. Ski patrol took me down the hill. They threw me in an ambulance. They gave me some

by sbov 10y ago

When I was 24 I got in a skiing accident. I broke my femur into 4 pieces. Ski patrol took me down the hill. They threw me in an ambulance. They gave me some pain drugs which blurred my memory. The ambulance took me to the nearest hospital. When I arrived there, they gave me several options to remedy my shattered leg. I chose one - the next day I could not remember the other options nor why I chose the option I did. So I'm just curious. Where in that equation would open straightforward pricing have helped? Would I have refused an ambulance ride? Would I have done the research to call my own? Would I have requested to be taken to another hospital - the next closest one, by my guess, being an hour away? Should I call ahead and make sure their prices are reasonable? I don't understand how the free market can work with medical care. People oftentimes are not in a position to make decisions based upon price. The free market answer to "not dying" is "I'll pay everything I have".

colechristensen 10y ago
People sometimes aren't able to making decisions, but dire emergencies don't make up all of hospital care. Even then, a counter anecdote, I live in a city with maybe 4 hospitals within minutes at any given time and another dozen within a half hour or so. In the most dire situations I would have a choice and with anything less than critical I have a wide variety of options to choose from. If I need medications there are dozens of pharmacies to choose from. Yeah if you break your leg in the back woods, you're not going to have a choice for the initial care. But you will have a choice for any follow-up care. Also other people who aren't you using that same hospital will have choices between it and it's further away competition. You're right the "I'm dying and far away from urban areas" is a pretty location-based captive market, but it's far from the whole market. When I was a young teenager I broke my arm at a school event and ended up sitting in a hospital bed for hours waiting for them to find my parents to give consent for treatment. Even most broken bones have some pretty wide time periods to find and travel to the best hospital option. (Just not a broken femur, that shit is serious)

by sbov 10y ago

colechristensen 10y ago

People sometimes aren't able to making decisions, but dire emergencies don't make up all of hospital care. Even then, a counter anecdote, I live in a city with maybe 4 hospitals within minutes at any given time and another dozen within a half hour or so. In the most dire situations I would have a choice and with anything less than critical I have a wide variety of options to choose from. If I need medications there are dozens of pharmacies to choose from. Yeah if you break your leg in the back woods, you're not going to have a choice for the initial care. But you will have a choice for any follow-up care. Also other people who aren't you using that same hospital will have choices between it and it's further away competition. You're right the "I'm dying and far away from urban areas" is a pretty location-based captive market, but it's far from the whole market. When I was a young teenager I broke my arm at a school event and ended up sitting in a hospital bed for hours waiting for them to find my parents to give consent for treatment. Even most broken bones have some pretty wide time periods to find and travel to the best hospital option. (Just not a broken femur, that shit is serious)