News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by icebraining on Thursday April 12, 2018 @04:01AM (#16818840)
Only for the patient and only in the immediate term. But if you could increase your wealth by more than the cost of the cure by living longer, then you could say dying is more expensive. And the same for society, if your future contributions (taxes and others) are worth more than the cost of the cure.
Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by AdrianB1 on Thursday April 12, 2018 @07:28AM (#16819709)
Only if you treat people as cattle and expect returns (taxes and others) from them. A very common but inhuman way of treating people.
Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by loceng on Thursday April 12, 2018 @09:07AM (#16820487)
True, including lost knowledge, etc.

It makes sense to invest as much money possible in returning someone to being the most productive they can in a society, especially if you think about automation systems that will lower costs of everything more and more - assuming a profit layer isn't gouging unreasonably; that is if you are following trusted processes and carefully following them as to not make mistakes, and directing investment towards fixing source causes and not simply symptoms, when possible. The problem I have personally been facing the past two years relating to this kind of process is from human error - incompetence (inability to do something successfully) - whereby I've observed that it seems doctors are selected for their memorization skills to regurgitate information on tests (etc) and not critical thinking skills, to understand more complex, less straight-forward scenarios. And this will likely lead me to ending my life; I have chronic pain I have been problem solving, had success with healing, but have been stonewalled by illogical thinking. I am trying to write my story out, though it's difficult for me to organize thought and focus/concentrate enough for longer form.

Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by zerr on Thursday April 12, 2018 @05:49AM (#16819308)
Also take in count the psychological impact for relatives and close ones.
Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by trophycase on Thursday April 12, 2018 @02:27PM (#16823591)
You can find infinite varieties of confounding variables and perform infinite levels of indirection to find effects.

Maybe the death of someone will motivate someone to perform better. Maybe if a relative dies of lung cancer from smoking, I will be motivated to quit, which thereby increases my productive output (healthier, less time smoking). Maybe keeping the person alive longer will increase the total number of visits to them in the hospital, which could be considered lost productivity time.

Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by wastedhours on Thursday April 12, 2018 @06:45AM (#16819519)
Even just factoring in purely lost output from compassionate leave would probably contribute significantly to bridging that gap (not that any employer should even try and quantify it, but if we're looking at the "system cost" of treatment vs non-treatment, the wider impact is probably staggering).