Fed Chair Jerome Powell calls out massive US health spending, says Americans are 'getting nothing'

[Cynic]

i'm not disagreeing with your basic premise. i'm saying look at the people today. why are we even talking about M4A. 10 yrs ago it would've been nuts to bring it up. we would've called you a green party socialist kook. now its a progressive dem party move and we're for the most part in agreement thats its a necessity. The only hold outs are republicans and older dems. thats it. i'm not going to count corporate dems. we already know what they're talking about. they might as well be republicans in regards to economic issues.

The entire mechanism of American Life is built on profit seeking and worshipping the elite at any or all costs.

It's possible that one day - people will vote in their best interests but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.

 

[Snoopy Loops]

Theoretically, yes. But you will have a war with providers. A lot of the $930 billion in waste is on stuff like hospital-acquired infections; use of high cost services when lower-cost ones would suffice; low rates of preventive care; avoidable complications and avoidable hospital admissions and readmissions; and services that provide little to no benefit.

We really should be spending like $2.8 trillion on healthcare and we should have 100% coverage, no surprise billing, no pulling GoFundMe for treatments, etc.

It’s a criminal system

it's all well and good when it's numbers on a page, but the "waste" is running expensive diagnostic tests, expensive end of life care, etc etc. all things that we've been conditioned to believe we deserve. if we aren't getting everything done for us then we're being short changed. cost control involves saying "NO" to people often. and death panels, etc.

As a lay person who had to navigate the health insurance maze these past 2 years, I don’t think it’s a case of using “expensive” tests, it’s moreso that theyre so damn expensive in the first place. I’ve had an mri at Houston Methodist and that shyt cost 7gs. I think that value was before insurance paid their cut. But Why? Why is that shyt 7gs? What’s so special about their MRI machine that it should cost that much. In other countries, they do all shyt for way less. Plus the prices aren’t transparent, so you’re constantly surprised by the bill.

My sister had an accident and went to the ER. They put her hand in sling and gave her some Tylenol and that shyt was.....you guessed it, around 7/8gs. There needs to be some price control, I don’t know what mechanism we’re gonna use to get there, but this status quo is not the wave at all.

 

[Oldschooler]

As a lay person who had to navigate the health insurance maze these past 2 years, I don’t think it’s a case of using “expensive” tests, it’s moreso that theyre so damn expensive in the first place. I’ve had an mri at Houston Methodist and that shyt cost 7gs. I think that value was before insurance paid their cut. But Why? Why is that shyt 7gs? What’s so special about their MRI machine that it should cost that much. In other countries, they do all shyt for way less. Plus the prices aren’t transparent, so you’re constantly surprised by the bill.

My sister had an accident and went to the ER. They put her hand in sling and gave her some Tylenol and that shyt was.....you guessed it, around 7/8gs. There needs to be some price control, I don’t know what mechanism we’re gonna use to get there, but this status quo is not the wave at all.

You just discovered why so many people are asking for government intervention in the healthcare industry. What is the incentive of the hospital to be efficient when they know you are covered by insurance? None, there is no incentive because the insurance will pay. What is the incentive for insurance companies to push back on hospital costs? None because you will be paying their premiums. Even when insurance companies push back for lower rates they are doing that to increase their profit margin and not reduce your costs. When you push for a public healthcare system that is available to everyone and directly funded by increased taxation it pushes it towards operating efficiently because there is no negotiating room for more $$$ simply because to get more $$$ means to increase taxes further and no politician is willing to do that. Therefore it resorts to an equilibrium where the healthcare system is pushed to its capacity with no waste.

 

[EndDomination]

Get rid of private insurance and health models.

Problem solved.

 

[Wild self]

Get rid of private insurance and health models.

Problem solved.

B b bu but thats not efficient