News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online. Parent comment

Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by kurthr on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @03:15PM (#16925019)
I don't think that making sure that insurance doesn't cover checkups and preventative care would have a very desirable effect. Putting people (and their young children) on high deductible plans has the very predictable effect of discouraging treatment or even 'well baby' checks. That is part of what leads to such an abysmal (third world) infant mortality in the US.

You can argue that hospitals and ERs in particular are not a good place for checkups, but discouraging them is likely to be more costly (in $ and human lives) than not.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by stolsvik on Thursday April 26, 2018 @01:25AM (#16929050)
Come to Norway. Every visit to a doctor or hospital involving any of our children is completely without cost to us as parents - there is no deductible. We just walk right out the doors from the doctor's office or hospital, and there is no bill.

It makes so much sense: If your father had to decide between a beer and you getting that wound checked, kids would die.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by ironjunkie on Sunday April 29, 2018 @07:12PM (#16954438)
Yes, I'm wondering how would that work in Norway without the petrodollar economy behind it.

(For clarification, I'm all in for universal free healthcare, but comparisons need to be fair, and comparing the US to the nordics, is not fair)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by montecarl on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @06:04PM (#16926701)
Yea, I think that those things are highly desirable FOR the insurance company, because yearly checkups reduce the chance that the insurance company has to make a big payout. So you would either see insurance rate refunds/reductions for a yearly checkup or you would see them covered.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by dragonwriter on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @09:38PM (#16928129)
We tried that, for, well, the whole history of health insurance in the US prior to the ACA, and that's not what happened. Preventive care improves outcomes but doesn't reduce aggregate costs.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by tcbawo on Thursday April 26, 2018 @08:37AM (#16931269)
Is there data that backs up this assertion?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online by GFischer on Thursday April 26, 2018 @10:43AM (#16932269)
Not sure about data, but medical costs are for the most part inelastic, and concentrated on a small number of patients with expensive conditions.

What I DO know from working in insurance is that lifetime medical costs are concentrated in the last 2 years of life (I worked on credit card insurance and life insurance).

That's where you could make huge costs savings (but is an ethical landmine, not to mention economic interests)

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2017....

https://www.nihcm.org/categories/publications/the-concentrat...

[ Parent | on HN ]