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Emergency care for things like a heart attack or broken bone only account for 2% of healthcare spending. So your primary case for why "shopping around" is bad

Emergency care for things like a heart attack or broken bone only account for 2% of healthcare spending. So your primary case for why "shopping around" is bad is mostly irrelevant. Nothing is stopping you from creating a not-for-profit healthcare co-op, getting participants to voluntarily turn over their healthcare decisions to you, and then demanding reduced prices from vendors. All I ask is that you don't force me to join it against my will. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/28/nick-gillespie/does-emergency-care-account-just-2-percent-all-hea/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/...

txcwpalpha 9y ago
I never said anything about emergency care being my "primary case". My comment even specifically lists 2 instances of non-emergency care. Needing to shop around is an absurd concept for any medical care.
- Consultant32452 9y ago
  Please don't force me against my will to live by the whims of what you personally consider absurd in your own life. You are free to abdicate responsibility and choice to a third party all you like.
  - txcwpalpha 9y ago
    Your choice to live by an absurdly low standard of care is what forces the rest of us to suffer from a low standard of care as well (against our will). Your request to "don't force me against my will" is hypocritical.
    - Consultant32452 9y ago
      Please don't force me against my will to be limited to what you personally consider to be an acceptable standard of care. How I choose to live or die is none of your business.
      - txcwpalpha 9y ago
        Are you trolling? Don't you understand that this goes both ways? By accepting this, you are forcing me against my will to be limited by what you personally consider to be an acceptable standard of care. Again, your request is hypocritical and carries no merit.
        Consultant32452 9y ago
        No, I'm not trolling. Your freedom ends where mine begins. If you want to turn your healthcare choices over to a third party then I have no intention of stopping you. What you're calling your "choice" is to enslave me against my will, to steal the fruits of my labor for your personal benefit. All I'm asking of you is that you don't enslave me. You are still free to participate in collective bargaining, turning over your healthcare choices to a third party, etc. You don't need me to do those things.
        neverender 9y ago
        This is what libertarians actually believe, folks.
        Consultant32452 9y ago
        As opposed to authoritarians who want to force me to ask the likes of Donald Trump for permission to get the kind of healthcare I want. I'll take the libertarian solution any day, thanks.
        m1n1 9y ago
        Do libertarians think it's wrong for the federal government to require hospitals provide emergency care regardless of the patient's ability to pay? Surgeons are forced to operate, which violates their personal freedom? Edit: https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/09/libertarians_health_insurance https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/09/l...
  - MertsA 9y ago
    And when you're dying on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, do you expect them to just let you die there and leave it to the county to dispose of the body? Like it or not it's unreasonable and inhumane to let capitalism condemn someone to a preventable death. Someone has to foot the bill for this. The only question is who and how. The naive answer is to let the hospital eat the loss but ultimately that just means that the rest of the patients pay it in increased costs. You can't sell yourself into slavery, you can't sell your organs, and you can't sign a contract to let the hospital ignore you dying on the sidewalk in front of the ER.
    - Consultant32452 9y ago
      The total sum of all emergency care is less than 2% of healthcare spending in the US. And obviously the majority of that is going to be paid for by the patients, either directly or via insurance. The scenario you're talking about is a rounding error in healthcare spending costs. It certainly doesn't justify forcing people to accept what the likes of Donald Trump considers to be sufficient healthcare.
  - dang 9y ago
    Could you please not do flamewars on Hacker News? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

txcwpalpha 9y ago

I never said anything about emergency care being my "primary case". My comment even specifically lists 2 instances of non-emergency care. Needing to shop around is an absurd concept for any medical care.

Consultant32452 9y ago
Please don't force me against my will to live by the whims of what you personally consider absurd in your own life. You are free to abdicate responsibility and choice to a third party all you like.
- txcwpalpha 9y ago
  Your choice to live by an absurdly low standard of care is what forces the rest of us to suffer from a low standard of care as well (against our will). Your request to "don't force me against my will" is hypocritical.
  - Consultant32452 9y ago
    Please don't force me against my will to be limited to what you personally consider to be an acceptable standard of care. How I choose to live or die is none of your business.
    - txcwpalpha 9y ago
      Are you trolling? Don't you understand that this goes both ways? By accepting this, you are forcing me against my will to be limited by what you personally consider to be an acceptable standard of care. Again, your request is hypocritical and carries no merit.
      - Consultant32452 9y ago
        No, I'm not trolling. Your freedom ends where mine begins. If you want to turn your healthcare choices over to a third party then I have no intention of stopping you. What you're calling your "choice" is to enslave me against my will, to steal the fruits of my labor for your personal benefit. All I'm asking of you is that you don't enslave me. You are still free to participate in collective bargaining, turning over your healthcare choices to a third party, etc. You don't need me to do those things.
        neverender 9y ago
        This is what libertarians actually believe, folks.
        Consultant32452 9y ago
        As opposed to authoritarians who want to force me to ask the likes of Donald Trump for permission to get the kind of healthcare I want. I'll take the libertarian solution any day, thanks.
        m1n1 9y ago
        Do libertarians think it's wrong for the federal government to require hospitals provide emergency care regardless of the patient's ability to pay? Surgeons are forced to operate, which violates their personal freedom? Edit: https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/09/libertarians_health_insurance https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/09/l...
- MertsA 9y ago
  And when you're dying on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, do you expect them to just let you die there and leave it to the county to dispose of the body? Like it or not it's unreasonable and inhumane to let capitalism condemn someone to a preventable death. Someone has to foot the bill for this. The only question is who and how. The naive answer is to let the hospital eat the loss but ultimately that just means that the rest of the patients pay it in increased costs. You can't sell yourself into slavery, you can't sell your organs, and you can't sign a contract to let the hospital ignore you dying on the sidewalk in front of the ER.
  - Consultant32452 9y ago
    The total sum of all emergency care is less than 2% of healthcare spending in the US. And obviously the majority of that is going to be paid for by the patients, either directly or via insurance. The scenario you're talking about is a rounding error in healthcare spending costs. It certainly doesn't justify forcing people to accept what the likes of Donald Trump considers to be sufficient healthcare.
- dang 9y ago
  Could you please not do flamewars on Hacker News? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html