3 ms·

It's not like hospitals are wildly profitable to run though? I think the inflated costs are due to the little understood phenomenon of "cost disease" rather tha

It's not like hospitals are wildly profitable to run though? I think the inflated costs are due to the little understood phenomenon of "cost disease" rather than owners of hospitals extracting outrageous rent for themselves as I think you are implying.

adventured 9y ago
You're correct about the spread of cost disease, it has essentially reached every corner of US healthcare. The part that hospitals are particularly guilty of, is unnecessary admin expense inflation. The US education system has seen an almost identical problem. Building buildings that aren't needed, hiring 10x the admin staff that the system had 30 or 40 years ago, etc. It's the system rewarding itself, bureaucrats hiring more bureaucrats, playing lords as they go on building sprees that aren't needed. There are very few readily available levers in the US healthcare system, that can be used to properly pull back against such cost spirals and spending behavior.
- gregw134 9y ago
  Last time I was out the hospital they had robots running around to just to pick up towels. Robots are great and all, but that's a symptom of not managing costs.
  - bawana 9y ago
    thank you all for your input. The hospital you linked in Asia. It seems that SE Asia has leapfrogged us in the concept of capitalism and the free market. Indeed, it is a 'free-for-all' in terms of lack of regulation, but certainly it is not 'free care for all'. Here in the US, The medical-industrial complex has seen how other industrial complexes deal with our government and are trying to mimic that gravy train. I still remember articles about the $500 hammer, and $2000 toilet the Navy had purchased in the thousands. We need to get back to our roots. A free market where people can buy what they want when they want it. Health care insurance is an oxymoron. Everyone gets sick. There is no probability of someone NOT using the system. The minute you try to amortize the costs over time or large populations to provide services, there is infinite demand. Insurance would make sense for events that are RARE. House fires, automobile accidents, gun accidents, etc. (BTW, why isnt gun insurance mandatory? That way everyone could be happy- you could still buy a gun as long as you paid your $5000 premium. The insurance companies could make more money, there would more 'gun control', and the money could go to the emergency rooms that take care of shooting victims. But OH NO! Hospitals would figure out a way to spend that money too and it would never be enough!! Maybe the gun insurance premiums could be given to the victims !) Anyway, there is no easy fix until we start to force our politicians to GET OFF THEIR ASSES. It particularly annoys me that they offer 'thoughts and prayers' after each mass murder and do nothing else. They should be in Florida digging the graves. Representing their constituents properly.

adventured 9y ago

You're correct about the spread of cost disease, it has essentially reached every corner of US healthcare. The part that hospitals are particularly guilty of, is unnecessary admin expense inflation. The US education system has seen an almost identical problem. Building buildings that aren't needed, hiring 10x the admin staff that the system had 30 or 40 years ago, etc. It's the system rewarding itself, bureaucrats hiring more bureaucrats, playing lords as they go on building sprees that aren't needed. There are very few readily available levers in the US healthcare system, that can be used to properly pull back against such cost spirals and spending behavior.

gregw134 9y ago
Last time I was out the hospital they had robots running around to just to pick up towels. Robots are great and all, but that's a symptom of not managing costs.
- bawana 9y ago
  thank you all for your input. The hospital you linked in Asia. It seems that SE Asia has leapfrogged us in the concept of capitalism and the free market. Indeed, it is a 'free-for-all' in terms of lack of regulation, but certainly it is not 'free care for all'. Here in the US, The medical-industrial complex has seen how other industrial complexes deal with our government and are trying to mimic that gravy train. I still remember articles about the $500 hammer, and $2000 toilet the Navy had purchased in the thousands. We need to get back to our roots. A free market where people can buy what they want when they want it. Health care insurance is an oxymoron. Everyone gets sick. There is no probability of someone NOT using the system. The minute you try to amortize the costs over time or large populations to provide services, there is infinite demand. Insurance would make sense for events that are RARE. House fires, automobile accidents, gun accidents, etc. (BTW, why isnt gun insurance mandatory? That way everyone could be happy- you could still buy a gun as long as you paid your $5000 premium. The insurance companies could make more money, there would more 'gun control', and the money could go to the emergency rooms that take care of shooting victims. But OH NO! Hospitals would figure out a way to spend that money too and it would never be enough!! Maybe the gun insurance premiums could be given to the victims !) Anyway, there is no easy fix until we start to force our politicians to GET OFF THEIR ASSES. It particularly annoys me that they offer 'thoughts and prayers' after each mass murder and do nothing else. They should be in Florida digging the graves. Representing their constituents properly.