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Profit-motivated (above all else) health care? When that health insurance CEO got shot, there was a lot of venting about health insurance companies and their p

Profit-motivated (above all else) health care? When that health insurance CEO got shot, there was a lot of venting about health insurance companies and their practices, but much less about the practices of the health care providers. Noah Smith argued that the latter should be considered the main 'villain': > This means that eliminating all administrative waste and inefficiency in the entire U.S. health care system — not just at insurance companies, but administration of government insurance programs — could save Americans at most about $680 per person every year, and probably not anywhere close to that amount.[3] A few hundred bucks a year is not nothing, but it’s only a small fraction of the $5683 more that we pay relative to other countries. > So the fundamental reason your health care costs so much is not that the health insurance companies are lining their pockets. And it’s not that insurers are an inefficient mess. It’s that the actual provision of America’s health care itself just costs way too much in the first place. * https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/insurance-companies-arent-the-main https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/insurance-companies-arent-the-... * https://archive.is/https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/insurance-companies-arent-the-main https://archive.is/https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/insurance-c...

tough 1y ago
It's an overall perverse system of incentives which makes every part evil. Putting it only on one party seems off to me.
koolba 1y ago
> ... but much less about the practices of the health care providers. > Noah Smith argued that the latter should be considered the main 'villain': Health care providers are like concert venues that outsource jerk-as-a-service to Ticket Master.
rayiner 1y ago
Go get a quote for how expensive it is to have your locks handyman install new countertops. Now project that into workers who have a lot more education and need to use very expensive equipment to do their jobs. It’s not “profit motive.” Labor is expensive in a first world country.
- ty6853 1y ago
  It's even more expensive when the government regulates it to hell and back, intertwines itself with insurance industry, and has an incestuous relationship with the AMA resulting in massively fewer number of doctors than would like to go through the education. And then those same doctors, who are usually on the same professional board as say PAs, use their leverage as a hammer against other high level practitioners to ensure they don't lose a handle on their racket.
gruez 1y ago
>Profit-motivated (above all else) health care? That's an incomplete explanation at best. Most things in the economy are "profit motivated" yet aren't dumpster fire that health care is.
- poncho_romero 1y ago
  But healthcare is a captive market. People will pay whatever is necessary for life saving treatment. That’s not the case with, say, buying a new couch. If couches are too expensive, people will find alternative places to sit or forgo having a seat altogether. No diabetic can say no to insulin, so the market forces that produce sane prices elsewhere in the economy vanish in healthcare
  - ty6853 1y ago
    People will pay whatever is necessary for water or a bite to eat as well, yet we don't see that phenomenon.
    - const_cast 1y ago
      The main difference is that healthcare is absolutely not a free market and is pretty much as far from it as it can possibly be. You don't choose your insurance, your coverage, your claims, or even your doctor. It's so bad that your doctor, in fact, doesn't even choose your care - your care is already pre-determined by your insurer's guidelines. Your doctor just sees you for the allotted time insurance grants them, runs the allotted tests they're allowed to run given your symptoms, and then gives a diagnosis and follows the set treatment plan for said diagnosis. With food or water, if the price is too high I can just go somewhere else. With healthcare, I don't even know the price. And even if I did, I can't go anywhere else. I'm completely at the mercy of the system to be reasonable. So, obviously, the system isn't going to be reasonable.

tough 1y ago

It's an overall perverse system of incentives which makes every part evil. Putting it only on one party seems off to me.

koolba 1y ago

> ... but much less about the practices of the health care providers. > Noah Smith argued that the latter should be considered the main 'villain': Health care providers are like concert venues that outsource jerk-as-a-service to Ticket Master.

rayiner 1y ago

Go get a quote for how expensive it is to have your locks handyman install new countertops. Now project that into workers who have a lot more education and need to use very expensive equipment to do their jobs. It’s not “profit motive.” Labor is expensive in a first world country.

ty6853 1y ago
It's even more expensive when the government regulates it to hell and back, intertwines itself with insurance industry, and has an incestuous relationship with the AMA resulting in massively fewer number of doctors than would like to go through the education. And then those same doctors, who are usually on the same professional board as say PAs, use their leverage as a hammer against other high level practitioners to ensure they don't lose a handle on their racket.

gruez 1y ago

>Profit-motivated (above all else) health care? That's an incomplete explanation at best. Most things in the economy are "profit motivated" yet aren't dumpster fire that health care is.

poncho_romero 1y ago
But healthcare is a captive market. People will pay whatever is necessary for life saving treatment. That’s not the case with, say, buying a new couch. If couches are too expensive, people will find alternative places to sit or forgo having a seat altogether. No diabetic can say no to insulin, so the market forces that produce sane prices elsewhere in the economy vanish in healthcare
- ty6853 1y ago
  People will pay whatever is necessary for water or a bite to eat as well, yet we don't see that phenomenon.
  - const_cast 1y ago
    The main difference is that healthcare is absolutely not a free market and is pretty much as far from it as it can possibly be. You don't choose your insurance, your coverage, your claims, or even your doctor. It's so bad that your doctor, in fact, doesn't even choose your care - your care is already pre-determined by your insurer's guidelines. Your doctor just sees you for the allotted time insurance grants them, runs the allotted tests they're allowed to run given your symptoms, and then gives a diagnosis and follows the set treatment plan for said diagnosis. With food or water, if the price is too high I can just go somewhere else. With healthcare, I don't even know the price. And even if I did, I can't go anywhere else. I'm completely at the mercy of the system to be reasonable. So, obviously, the system isn't going to be reasonable.