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A. I spoke of other expenses, not merely health care, such as costs, both financial and non financial, of a minor child losing a parent. B. I have trouble bel

A. I spoke of other expenses, not merely health care, such as costs, both financial and non financial, of a minor child losing a parent. B. I have trouble believing this analysis is really looking at the whole picture. One of the costs of illness that is frequently cited is lost productivity. You are going to tell me that when people live longer, all of them are merely running up more medical bills without also working additional years to help cover those costs?

lotsofpulp 4y ago
It is possible, in the current environment, that people’s labor, on average, is not valuable enough relative to the healthcare they might receive. For example, how many people get coronary heart disease, and how many years of their work would be needed to pay for a bypass or stent or even open heart surgery? I assume these surgeries cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus the ongoing costs after that. Same with effects of diabetes and hypertension, which might as well effect everyone. Of course, there is liability, patents, licensing costs, etc that can be changed.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  If you live long enough, you are practically guaranteed to end up with cancer (say, past age 80). On the other hand, if you drink and drive while young and healthy, you can helpfully donate your organs to someone with a terrible condition and they can run up potentially a few million dollars in health care.
- nradov 4y ago
  It doesn't have to be that expensive. Hospitals in India manage to do coronary bypass surgery for only $4,300 with good outcomes. I understand that costs and salaries are higher in the US, but still there is a huge amount of waste, fraud, and abuse that could be cut out. https://www.annfammed.org/content/12/5/470 https://www.annfammed.org/content/12/5/470
  - riahi 4y ago
    What is the purchasing power parity of $4300 in India vs the US? https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-ppp.htm https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-p... This has India at 23:1 for USA. An extremely simplistic analysis would say assuming that conversion factor holds true for all costs, you are “spending” $100,000 dollars of US value when you spend $4300 USD in India.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

It is possible, in the current environment, that people’s labor, on average, is not valuable enough relative to the healthcare they might receive. For example, how many people get coronary heart disease, and how many years of their work would be needed to pay for a bypass or stent or even open heart surgery? I assume these surgeries cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus the ongoing costs after that. Same with effects of diabetes and hypertension, which might as well effect everyone. Of course, there is liability, patents, licensing costs, etc that can be changed.

DoreenMichele 4y ago
If you live long enough, you are practically guaranteed to end up with cancer (say, past age 80). On the other hand, if you drink and drive while young and healthy, you can helpfully donate your organs to someone with a terrible condition and they can run up potentially a few million dollars in health care.
nradov 4y ago
It doesn't have to be that expensive. Hospitals in India manage to do coronary bypass surgery for only $4,300 with good outcomes. I understand that costs and salaries are higher in the US, but still there is a huge amount of waste, fraud, and abuse that could be cut out. https://www.annfammed.org/content/12/5/470 https://www.annfammed.org/content/12/5/470
- riahi 4y ago
  What is the purchasing power parity of $4300 in India vs the US? https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-ppp.htm https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-p... This has India at 23:1 for USA. An extremely simplistic analysis would say assuming that conversion factor holds true for all costs, you are “spending” $100,000 dollars of US value when you spend $4300 USD in India.