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Comment by sametmax | Hacker News Reader

Any technological progress in health tech worsen disparities, because when it's new, it's expensive. The more the tech is ground breaking, the more the disparity because the effect is so drastic for the money.

Doesn't mean we should not improve health tech.

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It’s also sometimes needlessly expensive when companies make excess profits on medical gear. It’s up to governments (is really) to help everyone get access to improved care.

Medical device companies have very high gross profit margins but net profit margins around 7%, which is pretty typical for high tech manufacturing. That suggests that there isn't much in the way of excess profit.

Agreed I think the (financial) excesses of the health care system are mostly related to the litigiousness of the USA and the administrative burden.

"Overall annual medical liability system costs, including defensive medicine, are estimated to be $55.6 billion in 2008 dollars, or 2.4 percent of total health care spending."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048809/

Litigiousness is an issue but it's not the biggest one.

My understanding is that the main proposed mechanism of action is that fear of lawsuits results in excess treatments.

That's included in the 2.4% estimate.

Some medical devices also have other net cost benefits though. For example, shorter, less intensive hospital stays from less invasive testing.

This thread went from factual to political very quickly.

>companies make excess profits on medical gear.

Define excess profits.

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