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The dirty little secret is that the country's GDP depends on expensive healthcare. Imagine if something overnight dramatically cut spending and the knock-on ef

The dirty little secret is that the country's GDP depends on expensive healthcare. Imagine if something overnight dramatically cut spending and the knock-on effects for drug companies, healthcare providers, etc. losing massive amounts of profit, having down quarters, and their stocks tanking (which also tank all the mutual funds and retirement accounts that see them as dependable and good investments). It's an insane house of cards we have built up and expensive healthcare is a sick 'feature' not a bug of America today. All of this was kind of laid out with the push for Obamacare and refusal to consider Medicare for all. It was a clear decision by Congress that the status quo of the healthcare industry being a huge part of the American economy would be solidified in law. Anything that tries to rock the boat or change that is going to be facing extreme resistance at all levels from the political and financial elite.

anu7df 4y ago
It is for precisely these kinds of reasons that I always thought GDP was a flawed or at the very least an incomplete measure. At constant "efficiency" for whatever definition of efficiency is appropriate for a given sector/activity/industry increase in GDP is a net positive. But what is happening in health care is a travesty. From my first real hospital visit (other than annual health checkup) to when my daughter was born the actual cost of care and the billed amount were so ridiculous, billing so confusing, that I decided to from now on not pay any out of pocket amount till may be a sternly worded letter gets to me. At least I would wait for bill number 3 before deciding to pay. Learned it the hard way after I ended up paying a few thousand dollars extra for maternity care. In a span of a 3 week I got 3 bills for the same service all progressively getting lower for some mysterious reason. Not collecting my mail often, I, idiotically paid the first one as soon as I opened it, not knowing that the lower amount is just 2 envelopes down in the pile.
- wincy 4y ago
  Our first daughter was born in a hospital while they were being acquired by another hospital. Then they shut down the maternity ward soon after. They then called us two years later claiming insurance hadn’t gone through. My wife said that was their problem. The bill magically disappeared. We never paid a dime. We just sort of fell through the cracks.
analog31 4y ago
I'm not sure it would be a net negative. Reducing health care costs might possibly open up other sectors of economic growth.
Retric 4y ago
The broken window fallacy is tempting but not actually true. Reducing healthcare waste means people are available to actually do useful work. Consider, doctors spending less time dealing with insurance companies would actually improve healthcare outcomes either because they are less distracted or because they have more time to work with patients/research. It also frees up money that can be spent on other things.

anu7df 4y ago

It is for precisely these kinds of reasons that I always thought GDP was a flawed or at the very least an incomplete measure. At constant "efficiency" for whatever definition of efficiency is appropriate for a given sector/activity/industry increase in GDP is a net positive. But what is happening in health care is a travesty. From my first real hospital visit (other than annual health checkup) to when my daughter was born the actual cost of care and the billed amount were so ridiculous, billing so confusing, that I decided to from now on not pay any out of pocket amount till may be a sternly worded letter gets to me. At least I would wait for bill number 3 before deciding to pay. Learned it the hard way after I ended up paying a few thousand dollars extra for maternity care. In a span of a 3 week I got 3 bills for the same service all progressively getting lower for some mysterious reason. Not collecting my mail often, I, idiotically paid the first one as soon as I opened it, not knowing that the lower amount is just 2 envelopes down in the pile.

wincy 4y ago
Our first daughter was born in a hospital while they were being acquired by another hospital. Then they shut down the maternity ward soon after. They then called us two years later claiming insurance hadn’t gone through. My wife said that was their problem. The bill magically disappeared. We never paid a dime. We just sort of fell through the cracks.

analog31 4y ago

I'm not sure it would be a net negative. Reducing health care costs might possibly open up other sectors of economic growth.

Retric 4y ago

The broken window fallacy is tempting but not actually true. Reducing healthcare waste means people are available to actually do useful work. Consider, doctors spending less time dealing with insurance companies would actually improve healthcare outcomes either because they are less distracted or because they have more time to work with patients/research. It also frees up money that can be spent on other things.