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Comment by noad | Hacker News Reader

We already shut down our entire civilization so that the healthcare status quo could be maintained and bills can keep getting sent to the correct address. How on earth is that pragmatic?

We could open up massive free clinics in every city tomorrow morning. Nothing is stopping us.

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>We already shut down our entire civilization so that the healthcare status quo could be maintained and bills can keep getting sent to the correct address.

What a garbage interpretation of what is going on. Jesus Christ, I'm jaded and cynical, but that's just too much.

Saying that we don't want to overwhelm our medical capacity because of the billing, versus the actual reason of human deaths. Too much. That's just too much.

The amount of medical capacity around is very much a function of "status quo" institutions and frameworks. Maybe not billing per se, but plenty of other stuff that's nonetheless quite relevant.

No, the medical capacity is limited by equipment and training. The medical status quo is based around normal, everyday life, where a wide variety of conditions and diseases need to be treated. It’s not an institutional problem that we don’t have the capacity to treat millions of people with pneumonia, as all of that capacity would be wasted during normal times.

Guess who is still considered vital and fighting over every procedure and claim? Medical billers, insurance companies, health companies, the many, many financial and legal people every hospital is employing.

Every cog in that machine is still spinning along, wasting massive amounts of time and resources. ER docs are still on the phone fighting insurance companies, while treating covid patients, right now, today. This is reality.

If you complain about any of this you will be fired by the hospital you work for.

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