Re:Medicare will require hospitals to post prices online
by dragonwriter on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @09:50PM
(#16928179)
> Except checkups and preventative care are usually far, far more effective than emergency care.
This may be true in terms of outcomes, but it turns out not to be true in terms of aggregate costs.
(If you encourage smoking and discourage screenings and preventive care, you'll probably do a lot to reduce aggregate health costs, but at the expense of outcomes; the efficiencies you really want are ones that reduce cost while preserving outocomes, or improve outcomes without increasing costs. When outcomes and costs are in tension, though, desirability can be more ambiguous.)
This may be true in terms of outcomes, but it turns out not to be true in terms of aggregate costs.
(If you encourage smoking and discourage screenings and preventive care, you'll probably do a lot to reduce aggregate health costs, but at the expense of outcomes; the efficiencies you really want are ones that reduce cost while preserving outocomes, or improve outcomes without increasing costs. When outcomes and costs are in tension, though, desirability can be more ambiguous.)