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I'm curious to find out what it would take for someone to create a service that counters some of these dark patterns. The abundance of companies using dark pat

I'm curious to find out what it would take for someone to create a service that counters some of these dark patterns. The abundance of companies using dark patterns in their subscriptions to prevent subscription cancellations has led to other companies offering services that allow you to manage your various subscriptions with ease and cancel subscriptions with even greater ease. I'm wondering what it would take to apply the same mindset to managing healthcare-related paperwork.

platz 8y ago
It's called medical tourism
- andrewprock 8y ago
  I somehow read that as "medical terrorism".
  - mythrwy 8y ago
    No that's the topic of the article.
    - joelx 8y ago
      I found this article extraordinarily helpful in understanding the high cost of US care - https://mises.org/library/how-government-helped-create-coming-doctor-shortage https://mises.org/library/how-government-helped-create-comin...
- joelx 8y ago
  Insurance companies are often used as the punching bag for healthcare costs. In reality, insurance companies are just a payment method for the true cost - enormously expensive doctors. Insurance companies are portrayed as having crazy profits, but in reality the insurance company Cigna has a profit margin of 6%. The American Medical Association realized a century ago that medical care demand is inelastic... Basically if you need medical care, you will pay any price to get it. Doctors took advantage of the situation by passing laws and regulations limiting the number of new doctors allowed each year, who can practice medicine, and the types of businesses that can compete. This greatly limited the supply of doctors. There are not enough doctors to fully meet demand. The basic laws of economics say that when you have strong and inelastic demand, and a limited supply then prices will go through the roof. I propose we remove these artificial limits that are grossly enriching doctors. If you allow anyone to practice medicine, just like we allow anyone to prepare and serve food or distribute goods then you will end up with a lot more competition. This will result in far better patient outcomes at a far lower price. The AMA will argue that without limits on who can practice medicine huge numbers of people will die. This is false. Our lives rely on many businesses that if they screw up would kill us. Everything from farming to distribution to food prep to construction needs to perform and deliver for us to survive. The AMA is self serving and greedy. There is no reason an individual surgeon should make hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is no reason certain business types should be legally prevented from competing. Imagine if you had the efficiencies of a business like Amazon or Google in healthcare. Imagine if you could see statistics on the performance of every doctor and hospital in the country, then decide where you wanted to get treated. Allow competition in healthcare by removing limits on the number of doctors each year and by allowing new business types that can take advantage of scale and specialization. This will drive down healthcare costs a hundredfold and allow everyone in America access to top healthcare at reasonable prices
  - selimthegrim 8y ago
    What’s top healthcare defined as - my doctor was nice to me? My doctor made me feel better? My doctor was better?
tracker1 8y ago
Making insurance carriers legally required to act as a fiduciary to the person holding insurance benefits would be a good start. States requiring medical services to bundle billing through a state agency (one place to pay) would be another. Although this would in practice mean a bigger government, I think a majority of people would agree to it. Likewise apportionment of payments would go to approved and priority based on service date. Of course the next step would be to limit exposure to credit to a "single" entry for all medical related bills, and limit the total payroll deductions allowed for medical bills to a total of 10% of one's gross income (deduction pre-tax). This would take a lot of work inside individual states and at the federal level.

platz 8y ago

It's called medical tourism

andrewprock 8y ago
I somehow read that as "medical terrorism".
- mythrwy 8y ago
  No that's the topic of the article.
  - joelx 8y ago
    I found this article extraordinarily helpful in understanding the high cost of US care - https://mises.org/library/how-government-helped-create-coming-doctor-shortage https://mises.org/library/how-government-helped-create-comin...
joelx 8y ago
Insurance companies are often used as the punching bag for healthcare costs. In reality, insurance companies are just a payment method for the true cost - enormously expensive doctors. Insurance companies are portrayed as having crazy profits, but in reality the insurance company Cigna has a profit margin of 6%. The American Medical Association realized a century ago that medical care demand is inelastic... Basically if you need medical care, you will pay any price to get it. Doctors took advantage of the situation by passing laws and regulations limiting the number of new doctors allowed each year, who can practice medicine, and the types of businesses that can compete. This greatly limited the supply of doctors. There are not enough doctors to fully meet demand. The basic laws of economics say that when you have strong and inelastic demand, and a limited supply then prices will go through the roof. I propose we remove these artificial limits that are grossly enriching doctors. If you allow anyone to practice medicine, just like we allow anyone to prepare and serve food or distribute goods then you will end up with a lot more competition. This will result in far better patient outcomes at a far lower price. The AMA will argue that without limits on who can practice medicine huge numbers of people will die. This is false. Our lives rely on many businesses that if they screw up would kill us. Everything from farming to distribution to food prep to construction needs to perform and deliver for us to survive. The AMA is self serving and greedy. There is no reason an individual surgeon should make hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is no reason certain business types should be legally prevented from competing. Imagine if you had the efficiencies of a business like Amazon or Google in healthcare. Imagine if you could see statistics on the performance of every doctor and hospital in the country, then decide where you wanted to get treated. Allow competition in healthcare by removing limits on the number of doctors each year and by allowing new business types that can take advantage of scale and specialization. This will drive down healthcare costs a hundredfold and allow everyone in America access to top healthcare at reasonable prices
- selimthegrim 8y ago
  What’s top healthcare defined as - my doctor was nice to me? My doctor made me feel better? My doctor was better?

tracker1 8y ago

Making insurance carriers legally required to act as a fiduciary to the person holding insurance benefits would be a good start. States requiring medical services to bundle billing through a state agency (one place to pay) would be another. Although this would in practice mean a bigger government, I think a majority of people would agree to it. Likewise apportionment of payments would go to approved and priority based on service date. Of course the next step would be to limit exposure to credit to a "single" entry for all medical related bills, and limit the total payroll deductions allowed for medical bills to a total of 10% of one's gross income (deduction pre-tax). This would take a lot of work inside individual states and at the federal level.