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Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by cft on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @12:42PM (#16923336)
1. Deregulation - reduce compliance and legal burdens. That would bring cash prices down, so instead of 1% perhaps 50% can afford them. That's a start.

2. Charities. You can start your own: give 5% of your income to underinsured. For example:

http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/j...

At the urging of Frederick T. Gates, perhaps his most trusted philanthropic adviser, Rockefeller became increasingly devoted to medical research. In 1901, he funded the Rockefeller Medical Research Institute in New York City. Modeled on the Institut Pasteur in France and the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, it was the country’s first biomedical institute, soon on a par with its European models. The results were dramatic. Within a decade, it created a vaccine for cerebrospinal meningitis and had supported the work of America’s first winner of a Nobel Prize in medicine. Today, known as the Rockefeller University, it is one of the leading biomedical research centers in the world. Twenty-four Nobel Prize winners have served on its faculty.

But don't force charity on others who may be struggling.

Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by neuromantik8086 on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @12:54PM (#16923487)
Rockefeller University is an impressive research outfit, but not a) a pharmaceutical company or b) a treatment center. It deals more with moonshot basic research that most people won't benefit from for a few decades (e.g., Oswald Avery's early work on genetics) and doesn't directly affect the plight of the poor and underinsured.

Having worked in non-profits extensively, it's also disingenuous to claim that non-profits answer to anyone other than their primary donors, whose priorities are frequently not aligned with regular people.

Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by isostatic on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @03:20PM (#16925075)
> 2. Charities. You can start your own: give 5% of your income to underinsured. For example:

That's a shockingly high amount, especially if you don't get healthcare out of that.

16% of my taxes go to pay for my health care system, which covers the whole country. For someone on a median income that's 3% of their income. For someone on a top 10% income that's 4.15% of their income.

To spend 5% of your Gross Income on the NHS in the UK, you have to pay 31% in total taxes, that's an income of £75k, that's circa top 5% income.

Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by icebraining on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @12:54PM (#16923478)
What if even with the amazing price reductions achieved by deregulation, charities still can't cover for all uninsured patients?
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by 0care on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @02:05PM (#16924289)
Why should this matter? There will always be more things desired than money to pay for them.
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by blackbagboys on Thursday April 26, 2018 @04:44AM (#16930118)
The continued health and well-being of our fellow human beings take precedence over most other 'things'. If it's a choice between letting someone buy an extra boat and giving someone potentially life-saving preventative care, the choice is clear.
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by dctoedt on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @01:10PM (#16923677)
Deregulation might work if all market participants behaved like angels. But few people do, and so over time deregulation tends to result in cutthroat behavior, consolidation, and price increases.
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by cft on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @01:36PM (#16923970)
Airline tickets are cheapest ever, and that's despite the fact that relative to biotech which is the fastest evolving field currently, airplane technology has been practically stagnant since the deregulation
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by kaibee on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @02:43PM (#16924677)
It is much easier to compare airline tickets than hospitals/medical procedures. The worst case scenario for choosing wrong in the first case is a flight you're uncomfortable on and overpaid for.
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by dctoedt on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @02:55PM (#16924831)
Airlines are still heavily regulated on safety-related issues. (That might be the sweet spot.)
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by darpa_escapee on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @01:02PM (#16923586)
1. Regulation is not the cause of high healthcare costs in America. One could argue that the lack of regulation in certain areas could be responsible for price hikes[1] in healthcare.

2. Charity has had thousands of years to solve societal problems, yet it didn't. What you're describing is a pipe dream.

Within the span of a less than a century, countries around the world have addressed healthcare effectively such that care is available to most, if not all.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli#Daraprim_price_...

Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by avoutthere on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @01:17PM (#16923757)
It's a shame this is being downvoted. It's a valid point of view that has merit and should be part of the discussion.