Hi Jason, One encouraging innovation that is beginning to pick up steam is subscription-based health care, and insurance companies are starting to come on board. You pay a monthly fee and get unlimited access to your primary-care doctor. It's a huge improvement because the incentives are much better aligned - in this model, the doctor's office is incentivized to keep people *out* of the office. In the existing model it's the opposite.
Terren On Thu, Jul 14, 2022 at 9:38 AM Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > The graph begins to make a little more sense if one replaces the term > "healthcare" with a more reality-representing term: "sickcare". > > Healthy people don't need to spend a lot of money on their health. > > This doesn't explain it all, but the relationship begins to become more > intuitive when viewed this way: an unhealthy (but wealthy enough to spend a > lot of money) population will spend more on sickcare, and will have worse > health outcomes than healthier populations. > > The US is one of the most obese nations on this chart. I recall reading > some statistic that said if we returned to 1975 obesity levels we could > reduce government health spending by 400 billion annually. > > Of course obesity is just one aspect of many that might lead to poor > health and shorter life expectancy in the US. (Insufficient preventative > care, subsidized cheap and unhealthy foods, high stress jobs with little > vacation, the opioid epidemic, prevalence of dysfunctional schools, etc.) > > And all this is before exploring any of the many reasons we pay high costs > for the sickcare we get (rationing of licensed doctors and treatment > facilities, prohibitions on reimporting cheaply exported drugs, > administrative and insurance overheads, lack of price transparency, > emergency rooms as default care facilities for those who can't afford > doctor appointments, medical malpractice insurance and high rates of > lawsuits, multi-billion dollar cost of new drug development, etc.) > > A lot has to be fixed. Unfortunately, the root of the problem may stem > from a misalignment of objectives. In the same way private prisons work to > incarcerate more prisoners, for-profit sickcare is discouraged from working > towards a healthier population (which doesn't need as much of their > services). If we could design a reward system where the decision makers in > power were rewarded based on the health and well-being of the population as > a whole, I think things would look very different. > > Jason > > On Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 8:45 AM Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi Terren, >> >> You are right, I know that. I have the impression that a bad health >> situation can ruin people in the US. I have heard of stories of people >> refusing to call an ambulance after a serious accident, for fear of the >> bill. I think that another country were this is the case is South Korea. A >> colleague told me that it is common there for people there to invest in a >> second home, to use it to pay for the health bill in case they get cancer >> or something serious like that. >> >> I guess what perplexes is that people seem to be more or less ok with >> this, when there is overwhelming evidence that a better systems is possible. >> >> Telmo >> >> Am Do, 14. Jul 2022, um 14:34, schrieb Terren Suydam: >> >> Hi Telmo, >> >> I’d want to know how they adjust for price differences between countries, >> as that could be a subtle way to introduce bias. But as an American and >> assuming the above is kosher, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Health care >> here is a worst case scenario. It’s the result of decades of anti >> competitive practices and perverse incentives. But you knew that! >> >> Terren >> >> On Thu, Jul 14, 2022 at 8:13 AM Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >> I am curious about what Americans in this list think about this: >> https://i.redd.it/qrjgb2aakhb91.jpg >> >> >> >> Telmo >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/724092fd-48a5-44ed-a3c5-7ec8aa38c3fe%40www.fastmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/724092fd-48a5-44ed-a3c5-7ec8aa38c3fe%40www.fastmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAMy3ZA9uK_y2aZUHhe3Tv%3D1rg2u4YR5yP6KjqQJppFkiuiK2aA%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAMy3ZA9uK_y2aZUHhe3Tv%3D1rg2u4YR5yP6KjqQJppFkiuiK2aA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/60eabc69-a0cc-4dec-91ce-1871e6d0f4cf%40www.fastmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/60eabc69-a0cc-4dec-91ce-1871e6d0f4cf%40www.fastmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUiR%2Bj8X2ZyRe-zFrzu0xRk9A9_b8FZhi-JLu4up%3D7E9XQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUiR%2Bj8X2ZyRe-zFrzu0xRk9A9_b8FZhi-JLu4up%3D7E9XQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAMy3ZA9jqT-k_zUmRYpw65%2BLTKNkvmY-KLOP1zbnk0zJJVn1nw%40mail.gmail.com.
