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Hospitals don't provide primary care, and they are not the problem. The high cost of hospitals is due to insurance system incentivized for profits over efficie
by rediguanayum 2y ago
Hospitals don't provide primary care, and they are not the problem. The high cost of hospitals is due to insurance system incentivized for profits over efficiency and service to the patient: https://www.propublica.org/article/why-your-health-insurer-does-not-care-about-your-big-bills https://www.propublica.org/article/why-your-health-insurer-d... It does not help that private equity has also discovered hospitals as a source of revenue: https://www.propublica.org/article/investors-extracted-400-million-from-a-hospital-chain-that-sometimes-couldnt-pay-for-medical-supplies-or-gas-for-ambulances https://www.propublica.org/article/investors-extracted-400-m....
To understand the true cost of the American medical system, I think you need to look over the border at most any other 1st world country's medical system. Doctor's training is lot cheaper, so more people are incentivized to go into primary care. Insurance is better regulated or single payer. Hospitals are not forced to provide free care (US EMTALA) that causes financial uncertainty. Patients are typically incentivized to not abuse the system unlike the US (e.g. Dilaudid drug abuse enabled by EMTALA)... etc etc...
- 2Gkashmiri 2y agoin india you can go to a government hosipital and you get a big line but you are seen by top doctors. you go into an accident, you are met with the top most doctors of that area. the only thing upfront cost is to get a "Card" or a prescription number from the registry outside. costs Inr 10 normally or $ 12 cents. that gets you infront of a doctor who can decide what to do with you. blood tests or some radiology or something else. if you are to be admitted, they ask you to get a "file" that costs around $ 1 or $2. that gets you a bed in a general ward where you are monitored by good doctors. surgery if you have a health card, you dont have to pay anything. there is a line for non-essential procedures but if its an emergency, you are prioritized and taken care of. i have relatives working in government hospitals and their opinion is to not do procedures in private hospitals. it just costs an arm and a leg (without insurance) and you dont even get best care because consultants/top doctors arent even available during nights for example.
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoSounds similar to China. One issue is that they don’t provide many nursing/nurse assistant services, so you have to bring your own (usually family members, but you can hire someone to do it). I just used private hospitals in China which are very western, and not very costly with private insurance. Yes, the ER is only staffed by a couple of doctors at night, but that worked for me.
- Onavo 2y agoHave they fixed the corruption issue yet? Last I heard you have to pay bribes to doctors in that part of the world
- 2Gkashmiri 2y agobribes for what?
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoUnclear. Things have definitely changed over the last 20 years. They used to have problems with scalpers monopolizing appointment tickets but I think they’ve fixed that with ID registration.
- 2Gkashmiri 2y agoyeah. you need tonnes of family members to stay for the night, do the chores, arrange for medicine, get test reports and such.