undefined | Better HN

Skip to content

Top Best Ask Show New Jobs

0 pointscelticninja14y ago0 comments

Re:saddling their family with huge expenses, this is a fairly unique problem in 1st world healthcare situations, in that it mainly applies to people in the US. In most other developed nations healthcare and bankruptcy do not go hand in hand.

0 comments

6 comments · 1 top-level

dmgottlieb14y ago· 5 in thread

But the money is just as wasted no matter who pays it.

mdda14y ago

Maybe think of this as one of the burdens that civilization handles for you : One never has to mix the emotional trauma of losing a loved one with the cold facts of how much money they'd save you by dying before tea-time.

lmkg14y ago

This statement is both true, and irrelevant, because who bears the burden is very important for the individual making the decision. What's being weighed is not "are the resources used to keep me alive being efficiently allocated," but rather, "will my spouse and children be irrevocably bankrupted."

dmgottlieb14y ago

What a strange thing to say. It is irrelevant from the myopic point of view of a patient receiving care, at the moment they are receiving the care. It is far from irrelevant as a matter of social policy, because society has to pay the cost even if a particular individual gets off free. Cf. negative externality [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative].

waqf14y ago

That's true of the actual cost of the service. For the 1000% markup that U.S. hospitals take, it's more arguable.

ahi14y ago

It's not nearly as much money in other countries. 5 figures on bad odds vs 6 or 7 figures on bad odds. If it's cheap maybe it's worth a shot?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse