Comment by joshuaellinger | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joshuaellinger | Hacker News Reader

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Consumer awareness on many health issues is not an incentive problem. Do you really think that someone wrecks their body with a poor diet over 20 years is going to change behavior based on how much they pay for health care? I really wish it was that simple.

Health care is got a nasty price-sensitivity curve. Who wouldn't pay a lot of money to live a little longer?

The solution I would like to see is: 1. Just lower the eligibility age for Medicare by 2-5 years every year. All the machinery is in place and the gradual change gives the system time to adjust. 2. Put 10-20% of the health care budget into making it cheaper to treat and prevent diseases. Allocate the money using the existing grant process. Require that all the results be public domain. 3. Treat lifestyle issues (weight / smoking) when people are young. Go after them aggressively as diseases while people are still in public schools.

The only encouraging thing I have to say is that Social Security got progressively improved once it was enacted. Maybe we will get the same thing over time.

The solution I would like to see is that instead of just offloading the cost of individual health care to the collective whole of all America, we address the underlying absurd costs of healthcare, itself.

If healthcare insurance were treated like automobile insurance, it would be affordable for the individual and it would remain the individual's responsibility to take care of it themselves.

Instead, our solution to a $20,000 ER visit is to move the expense from the person receiving the treatment to the entire tax-payer base . . . the health care industry still benefits, either way and only those paying the bill for everyone feel the negative impact.

Why is our only solution "more government! More taxes! pay for everyone else's problems!". Why can't we find a way to address the pricing, in the first place? Why is this not even a discussion that has been had?

Oh, right. Lobbyists.

"Consumer awareness on many health issues is not an incentive problem. Do you really think that someone wrecks their body with a poor diet over 20 years is going to change behavior based on how much they pay for health care? I really wish it was that simple."

You're assuming that the problem with the US health care system is that people eat too much and are willing to pay so they don't die? Come on. That's universal human behavior. Diabetes and obesity are world-wide epidemics.

I agree that expanding Medicare systematically would be a decent idea -- in fact, it was one of the ideas that got sunk in committee. In a nation where for-profit health corporations have a lot to lose from government competition, the specter of expanding the (efficient and cheap) Medicare system is terrifying to a lot of rich people.

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