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Healthcare isn't _intrinsically_ different, but it's a really distorted market. Americans don't "value" their health 2x more than people in other developed cou

by abeppu 3y ago

Healthcare isn't _intrinsically_ different, but it's a really distorted market. Americans don't "value" their health 2x more than people in other developed countries. But Americans pay more for worse outcomes. It's silly to say that our worse-performing, often racist, hostile-to-the-poor healthcare system is providing "more value" just because corporate interests have aligned to price it higher. If I live in a company town where my employer owns the water supply, and tells me that the 'cost' of that water has increased by some enormous multiple, and now they'll pay me a 'water benefit' in lieu of compensation increases, it would be absurd to say if I'm doing the same work, consuming the same amount of water, and getting the same pay, that my company is suddenly providing me "more value" just because it has declared that the cost of the same amount of water is higher.

LeafItAlone 3y ago
I value the healthcare I’ve received recently more than the price I’ve paid for it. That’s not to say I’m happy with it or would like to pay those inflated rates. Or that I don’t wish it were cheaper for me and for everyone else. But when it comes down to it, the value I have placed on it is higher. If fact, other countries may value their health more than average Americans, given relative activity levels and rates of obesity and other diseases such as type 2 diabetes, despite their cost of healthcare services being cheaper.
- abeppu 3y ago
  I'm glad your healthcare was not so overpriced that it's not worth it. That's a bleak statement to have to make. Suppose we built a Byzantine system around food like we do for prescription drugs. Food can be powerful medicine after all ... so imagine if you needed a nutritionist to prescribe specific foods in specific quantities. When you go to the grocery store, you're not allowed to just pick whatever, and you don't find out the cost of anything until weeks later. Grocery billing specialists send endless documents back and forth. Everyone in this society spends twice as large a portion of their income on food as their peers in other countries, but the food is worse. Food becomes so expensive and costs are so unpredictable that employers provide grocery insurance benefits that pull down the salaries they can pay. But when you're hungry, you need to eat so of course you "value the food you've received recently more than the price you paid for it". Does the fact that a hungry person with no options will pay a lot to not continue being hungry really imply that the high prices in this system match high value being delivered? Or can we perhaps recognize that the value being provided (food to be eaten) is similar to the food-value provided at much lower cost in other systems, and therefore the high prices in this system do not imply that its services are especially valuable?
  - november84 3y ago
    "But I already have enough food so like this doesn't really apply to me " I find it really hard to understand how people will continually go against their own self interests to align with their beliefs, without question. Things can be different, things do change and we're not always right. Data has shown we could all be spending considerably less on Healthcare with single player [1] and not be at the mercy of our employment for it... But it's still shunned because it's socialism or some other reason. 1. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416416/single-payer-systems-likely-save-money-us-analysis-finds https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416416/single-payer-system...

by abeppu 3y ago

LeafItAlone 3y ago

I value the healthcare I’ve received recently more than the price I’ve paid for it. That’s not to say I’m happy with it or would like to pay those inflated rates. Or that I don’t wish it were cheaper for me and for everyone else. But when it comes down to it, the value I have placed on it is higher. If fact, other countries may value their health more than average Americans, given relative activity levels and rates of obesity and other diseases such as type 2 diabetes, despite their cost of healthcare services being cheaper.

abeppu 3y ago
I'm glad your healthcare was not so overpriced that it's not worth it. That's a bleak statement to have to make. Suppose we built a Byzantine system around food like we do for prescription drugs. Food can be powerful medicine after all ... so imagine if you needed a nutritionist to prescribe specific foods in specific quantities. When you go to the grocery store, you're not allowed to just pick whatever, and you don't find out the cost of anything until weeks later. Grocery billing specialists send endless documents back and forth. Everyone in this society spends twice as large a portion of their income on food as their peers in other countries, but the food is worse. Food becomes so expensive and costs are so unpredictable that employers provide grocery insurance benefits that pull down the salaries they can pay. But when you're hungry, you need to eat so of course you "value the food you've received recently more than the price you paid for it". Does the fact that a hungry person with no options will pay a lot to not continue being hungry really imply that the high prices in this system match high value being delivered? Or can we perhaps recognize that the value being provided (food to be eaten) is similar to the food-value provided at much lower cost in other systems, and therefore the high prices in this system do not imply that its services are especially valuable?
- november84 3y ago
  "But I already have enough food so like this doesn't really apply to me " I find it really hard to understand how people will continually go against their own self interests to align with their beliefs, without question. Things can be different, things do change and we're not always right. Data has shown we could all be spending considerably less on Healthcare with single player [1] and not be at the mercy of our employment for it... But it's still shunned because it's socialism or some other reason. 1. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416416/single-payer-systems-likely-save-money-us-analysis-finds https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416416/single-payer-system...