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Hospitals in the US (just like a lot of other market participants) have no incentive to save money. This is what universal healthcare would give you: more money

Hospitals in the US (just like a lot of other market participants) have no incentive to save money. This is what universal healthcare would give you: more money spent on care, less on bullshit. Obama famously said you couldn't do universal / single payer healthcare in the late 2000s because it would destroy too many jobs in billing.

yamtaddle 4y ago
The military is our blue-collar/lower-class jobs program. Our healthcare system is our white-collar/middle-class jobs program.
- mindslight 4y ago
  Don't forget Wall Street! I guess that's the jobs program for the upper class. Honestly after many decades of technological growth, extreme offshoring, and the workforce nearly doubling due to women entering it, I'd estimate that 80% of positions are bullshit jobs.
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    Adtech?
    - softjobs 4y ago
      And its cousin, Fintech.
  - User23 4y ago
    Have you noticed how your light switches still work and your toilet still flushes? Yeah? Turns out there are real jobs. Being a doctor is a real job too. It's a huge commitment and they deserve to be well compensated. But of course they're not, it's the administrators capturing all the economic rents.
    - mindslight 4y ago
      Yeah, I left 20% there for a reason. Doctors do accomplish real work, but I'd say most of their time is wasted - dealing with paperwork and financialization slicing most of their time up into useless 15 minute chunks. Speaking of the trades though, it's a plain illustration of the dynamic. Simple jobs end up with massive bills these days, and you know the guy doing the actual work isn't seeing much of it. Rather that money is going to the administrators that have congregated around his work - scheduler, billing, manager, owners, insurances, etc etc. So even for a straightforward concrete real-world physical job, there is still a huge amount of overhead!

yamtaddle 4y ago

The military is our blue-collar/lower-class jobs program. Our healthcare system is our white-collar/middle-class jobs program.

mindslight 4y ago
Don't forget Wall Street! I guess that's the jobs program for the upper class. Honestly after many decades of technological growth, extreme offshoring, and the workforce nearly doubling due to women entering it, I'd estimate that 80% of positions are bullshit jobs.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Adtech?
  - softjobs 4y ago
    And its cousin, Fintech.
- User23 4y ago
  Have you noticed how your light switches still work and your toilet still flushes? Yeah? Turns out there are real jobs. Being a doctor is a real job too. It's a huge commitment and they deserve to be well compensated. But of course they're not, it's the administrators capturing all the economic rents.
  - mindslight 4y ago
    Yeah, I left 20% there for a reason. Doctors do accomplish real work, but I'd say most of their time is wasted - dealing with paperwork and financialization slicing most of their time up into useless 15 minute chunks. Speaking of the trades though, it's a plain illustration of the dynamic. Simple jobs end up with massive bills these days, and you know the guy doing the actual work isn't seeing much of it. Rather that money is going to the administrators that have congregated around his work - scheduler, billing, manager, owners, insurances, etc etc. So even for a straightforward concrete real-world physical job, there is still a huge amount of overhead!