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In the US I'd have probably paid $20-30k for my surgery (I had it done in India for 85k rs) and it has drastically increased my quality of life. I like boxing, lifting weights, biking, sexual positions other than girl on top, and walking without pain - any one of these is worth at least $30k to me.

The ultimate question; are you willing to give up medicine invented since 1950 in return for paying 1950's prices? I'm not.

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I don't think the two need to be mutually exclusive. Why can't high quality medicinal practices be coupled with lower costs if there's not reason for the costs to be higher? That was my question. Just accepting high costs and arguing the opposite extreme isn't going to help anyone or drive down prices.

There is a reason for costs to be higher - more human labor was expended on my treatment than on my hypothetical non-treatment. Combine that fact with Baumol's cost disease, and you discover that there is a good reason for things to cost more.

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