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> Our currency loses value because too much of the economy is constituted by unproductive jobs where people just attend to each other instead of creating any va

> Our currency loses value because too much of the economy is constituted by unproductive jobs where people just attend to each other instead of creating any value. 1.2 trillion dollars on health care every year. 800 billion dollars on welfare. I think you're almost there but not quite. It's not that we're spending money pushing people around. It's that we're spending people pushing money around. If medical spending were focused on medical equipment, facilities, and professionals, we would free up huge amounts of resources. But we have legions of hospital and insurance administrators whose entire job is to fight against each other over billing. Those people are resources who could be used to produce things, or provide care!

readthenotes1 4y ago
You're almost there, but not quite. ACA incentivizes the disease insurance companies to spend more on disease care (machines, drugs, processors, etc.), not to ameliorate costs. Executive bonuses, marketing, overhead, almost come from 20% of total costs, so the only way to get a bigger bonus is for the whole pie to grow. Even before that, litigation encourages the same. Companies (hospitals and the like) in the US resell (or used to) perfectly good equipment abroad with a huge discount after it's been used so that it can be replaced with the newest model with the shiniest bells and most expensive cost to avoid a lawsuit.
- willcipriano 4y ago
  The US taxpayer already pays for the best socialized medicine system in the world[0], our government/compulsory spending on a per capita basis ($10052) is higher than the nation (Germany) with the next highest overall per capita spending ($7383). We are being ripped off. Anyone who tells you we need to raise taxes to pay for Medicare for all is a friend of the medical industrial complex, not the people. [0]https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm
- housedrafta 4y ago
  The great thing is that we can all blame our own political bogeyman (ACA) for healthcare costs for expensive medical equipment bought to avoid lawsuits, and not say, the enforcement of HIPAA on electronical data 17 years ago. The answer will surely lie in first blaming a political enemy, then vaguely hinting at something relevant (litigation).
  - readthenotes1 4y ago
    I didn't mean to blame ACA for the equipment problem. That was happening well beforehand because of litigation. ACA is directly responsible for the perverse incentive in not reducing medical costs. ACA is bad, and they knew it when they passed it. IIRC, senator Lieberman stopped government supplied medical care for the other 50% of people who don't already get it that way

readthenotes1 4y ago

You're almost there, but not quite. ACA incentivizes the disease insurance companies to spend more on disease care (machines, drugs, processors, etc.), not to ameliorate costs. Executive bonuses, marketing, overhead, almost come from 20% of total costs, so the only way to get a bigger bonus is for the whole pie to grow. Even before that, litigation encourages the same. Companies (hospitals and the like) in the US resell (or used to) perfectly good equipment abroad with a huge discount after it's been used so that it can be replaced with the newest model with the shiniest bells and most expensive cost to avoid a lawsuit.

willcipriano 4y ago
The US taxpayer already pays for the best socialized medicine system in the world[0], our government/compulsory spending on a per capita basis ($10052) is higher than the nation (Germany) with the next highest overall per capita spending ($7383). We are being ripped off. Anyone who tells you we need to raise taxes to pay for Medicare for all is a friend of the medical industrial complex, not the people. [0]https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm
housedrafta 4y ago
The great thing is that we can all blame our own political bogeyman (ACA) for healthcare costs for expensive medical equipment bought to avoid lawsuits, and not say, the enforcement of HIPAA on electronical data 17 years ago. The answer will surely lie in first blaming a political enemy, then vaguely hinting at something relevant (litigation).
- readthenotes1 4y ago
  I didn't mean to blame ACA for the equipment problem. That was happening well beforehand because of litigation. ACA is directly responsible for the perverse incentive in not reducing medical costs. ACA is bad, and they knew it when they passed it. IIRC, senator Lieberman stopped government supplied medical care for the other 50% of people who don't already get it that way