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Comment by novateg | Hacker News Reader

It's very weird to see someone posting about money spent for her grandma. In other cultures it's a shame.

That's the point the author is trying to make. That it is unjust to have to spend so much for end of life care and that as a society we should feel ashamed

The grandmother required 24-hour care, which they received for $13K/month.

For a 30-day month, that's $16.77/hr to the worker plus $1.28 to SS/Medicare if you allow for 0 minutes of shift-hand-off, PTO/sick, etc.

How much less than $16.77/hr do we think that care should cost? (Note that Massachusetts has a $15 minimum wage. This care cost less than 12% over minimum wage.)

Exactly. 24h will cost the same everywhere. Maybe you can use a video baby monitor at night to reduce from 24 to 16h a day

Free obviously /s, because people dont understand basic economics and are either delusional it will be cheaper in a monopoly (socialized) (assuming you even have the choice to die at home with it) or want to imagine people working for free like doctors and nurses.

That being said the corruption in the us system is insane, insurance companies being protected by regulations against competition, big pharmas regulatory capture and media control, etc.

The answer is a more competitive marketplace, including non profits. Not a eu socialized model.

Yup, it seems people gloss over that 24*7 care means 168hr per week, i.e. 4x42hr or 3x56 hr of labor per week. The only ways to make this cheaper is 1) lower salaries, 2) fewer hours or 3) have someone else pick up the tab (which can sometimes work on the individual level but not on the societal level)

I think you're reading the parent post the wrong way around: in many cultures, paying for your relatives is an honour and obligation. i.e: Paying a lot of money for your grandmother's end of life care is the bare minimum, not something to complain about or expect the state to handle.

In other cultures there is no way it would cost that much, or anything at all.

How much does paying for your relatives cost in places where those cultures exist, relative to median income?

It's more a way to shame the system, where dying at home costs so much.

What's to be done about it though? Round the clock care requires people. Those people have to be paid. Paid enough to attract people to do the work. Someone has to pay for it. Shifting it to the tax payer base doesn't change the math, it just moves the food around on the plate.

Honestly, if I lived well into my 80s and a last few horrible months was going to cost over $100K of money I didn't have to spend and eat up 2-3 peoples full time efforts, I'd probably just opt out.

What's the shame -- paying for your grandma, or posting about it?

Having one in the first place. ;-P

There are no other cultures on Hackernews, only Nacirema.

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