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> It’s really interesting how the US has managed to get a health system that’s extremely expensive, doesn’t cover everybody, is highly bureaucratic and complex,
by jjav 3y ago
> It’s really interesting how the US has managed to get a health system that’s extremely expensive, doesn’t cover everybody, is highly bureaucratic and complex, delivers below average outcomes and has overworked hospital staff.
The healthcare industry (it should not be an "industry") in the US is all about extracting maximum profit for the benefit of middlemen.
In a rational system, the only people who should be involved in health care are the patients and the providers (doctors, nurses, technicians, etc) who actually provide health care. Nobody else should be involved, let alone skimming profits from the care.
In the US both the providers and the patients are just an afterthought, the whole system is set up to extract maximum profit to the hospital and clinic administrators and, most and worst of all, to the insurance industry. The latter of course contributes nothing at all in therms of actual health care, it's pure profiteering.
The solutions are quite simple, but they don't maximize the share price and CxO bonuses at insurance companies so it's not possible to implement them in the US.
- tstrimple 3y ago> In a rational system, the only people who should be involved in health care are the patients and the providers (doctors, nurses, technicians, etc) who actually provide health care. Nobody else should be involved, let alone skimming profits from the care. While I agree with the sentiment, hospitals require management to run well. They certainly don't need the amount of overhead they have, but it can't just be doctors, nurses and patients. Maybe in very small hospitals you could actually have doctors manage schedules and things like that, but once you reach a few dozen people you'll want to have someone coordinating availability and to deal with scheduling at the very least.
- jjav 3y agoI did not mean to imply there should be a place for office admins to do scheduling, facilities people to keep the building running, etc. They are needed, and should be paid a fair living wage for their work. What should be eliminated is the very highly paid class of middlemen who provide no value and just skim profits from the labor of health care providers.
- nradov 3y agoWell don't leave us hanging. If the solutions are quite simple then what are they? It's easy to say that only patients and providers should be involved with healthcare. But what do you propose to do with patients who need expensive treatments and can't afford to pay? Some level of cost and risk sharing is always going to be necessary, and that's where the complexities and politics come in.