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Comment by point78 | Hacker News Reader

Well as screwed up as the system is one little part of why prices are so high is to cover when people don't pay.

Not true at all.

The reason why prices are so high is because of the complicated billing system that each insurance provider has. Medical providers have to create positions just for people to bill insurance.

It's gotten to the point where single-payer health care will be cheaper just because of the paperwork it'll save. (Not that I personally advocate for single-payer. We can also lower costs by correctly regulating private insurance.)

By the way, if you're into economics, look into Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Kings used to do the same things to keep peasants busy while they profited. This is no different.

Medical providers have to create positions just for people to bill insurance

It's the same in Canada. Billing doesn't go away under single payer. Sure it's likely less complex, but someone still needs to do it.

Then how do you explain countries like India where it's drastically affordable and high quality at the same time?

You can’t compare the costs of labor-intensive services across countries with dramatically different labor costs. When we lived in Bangladesh, my dad made maybe $40,000/year (in today’s money). My mom stayed home and we had a full time live in cook, nanny, and housekeeper.

You pay at the entrance, not at the exit. Also, standards of care, facility costs, and compensation for medical professionals is much lower.

Idk, doctors in France are literally 10x cheaper and the standard of care is actually higher. The US has a big cost control issue even for your PCP.

This is simply not true enough to be generalized. In most hospitals always pay at the exit unless you weren't there for some pre defined checkup package instead of proper consulting.

I am sure you have data to back up your claim that "standards of care, facility costs, and compensation for medical professionals is much lower." Care to post it?

I’ve only been in the hospital in India once (food poisoning), but everything was vastly different from the states. It was pretty cheap, and I had to pay up front.

Fairly sure Indian doctors make much less than American ones, because I don’t have the empirical evidence of that that you are looking for.

If people did pay, would hospitals lower their prices? Is the market that competitive? If not, where would the extra money go?

Well then it sounds like a vicious circle. Should we fix it by paying exorbitant fees or charging reasonable prices?

People saying, 'We should pay for the things I do in the economy, but not something someone else does, "out of principle"' is an opinion that exists in reality, it's just an unbecoming and non-constructive one.

Is it more, or less unbecoming than charging $756.00 to take someone’s temperature?

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