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Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by jimison on Thursday November 15, 2018 @02:36PM (#18462505)
> I can't afford to do another sleep study (American Healthcare rocks!).

That's the invisible hand of the free market taking care of you!

Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by njarboe on Thursday November 15, 2018 @04:14PM (#18463410)
Almost nothing about the American healthcare system has anything to do with a free markets. From medical schools, to opening a new hospital, to pricing, to forced insurance, healthcare tied to employment, companies or government pay for almost all of it, FDA drug approval process, etc. Not saying free market and medical are a good mix (who knows?), but what there is in America not is not even a market at all.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by mullingitover on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:03PM (#18463877)
> Not saying free market and medical are a good mix (who knows?), but what there is in America not is not even a market at all.

The free market is simply incompatible with health care. Imagine a world where, any time you have a life-threatening health problem, you can expect to transfer everything you own to the hospital, since they have perfect leverage over you.

Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by aidenn0 on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:10PM (#18463933)
That's not how free markets work. Otherwise food would also cost everything you own.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by rocqua on Thursday November 15, 2018 @06:16PM (#18464406)
Any kind of food will do to prevent starvation given a slight mix. So, if you won't sell me potato's for a decent price, I'll just get rice from somewhere else.

In medicine, you tend to need very specific treatments. This means the set of potential suppliers is much lower, which essentially means the supply is restricted. If you won't sell me an epi-pen for less than 100 dollars, there aren't a lot of places I can turn to. Moreover it's not like open-heart surgery is going to work.

Besides, some procedures are just actually expensive. Open-heart surgery takes a lot of labor, organ transplants require intense logistics. Dialysis is a complex and repetitive procedure. The 'fair price' for these in the economic sense is still high. Way to high for most people's morality.

Should people really have to chose between death and the bankruptcy of their entire family? Because in a functioning free market, it is near essential that some people have demand for something they can't pay for. So if we turn dialysis, heart surgery, etc. into free markets, there are going to be people who need those treatments that cannot pay for them.

Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by brokenmachine on Thursday November 15, 2018 @11:12PM (#18466339)
> So if we turn dialysis, heart surgery, etc. into free markets, there are going to be people who need those treatments that cannot pay for them.

Isn't that exactly what happens now?

Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by IshKebab on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:23PM (#18464038)
Poor analogy. Food is not generally patented, and people can eat many different kinds of food to live.

Would you tell the people that needed epipens "well just have some paracetamol instead".

Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by Zak on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:48PM (#18464218)
In a free market, there would be cheap generic alternatives. Epinephrine itself isn't expensive at all (around a dollar a dose), and the autoinjector was patented in 1977, making it long-expired (though modifications of the design are covered by newer patents).

There are other examples, such as complex surgeries that would illustrate the point you're trying to make better.

Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by jamiek88 on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:27PM (#18464061)
Anyone can grow food thus price floor in normal times (and yes everything you own in times of great famine. Diamonds for tripe in WW2 Polish ghettos). Can’t grow a new lung.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by db48x on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:35PM (#18464123)
I disagree. If doctors had to compete with each other, then none of them could charge so much.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by abjorn on Thursday November 15, 2018 @05:48PM (#18464210)
It's hard to shop around when you're having a heart attack.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by db48x on Thursday November 15, 2018 @09:09PM (#18465677)
You're supposed to do that _before_ you have a heart attack.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by abjorn on Friday November 16, 2018 @10:53AM (#18469494)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the 911 operator doesn't ask your preferred doctor before sending an ambulance.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by anticensor on Friday November 16, 2018 @06:46AM (#18468090)
Congrats. You managed make it like telco market, in that everyone will subcsribe to a group of doctor for a long-term contract.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by njarboe on Friday November 16, 2018 @02:12PM (#18471155)
This is how a HMO works in the US and they are very popular due to lower costs than health insurance plans that allows you to go to any doctor/hospital of your choice. My experience with Kaiser in California is that they also provide better service in general, but sometimes don't have the specialty services you might need in their system.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by axaxs on Friday November 16, 2018 @12:51AM (#18466736)
Not true. Healthcare is pretty much the opposite of a free market. In a true free market, healthcare costs would tank.
Re:Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker by jimison on Thursday November 15, 2018 @04:30PM (#18463548)
Touche.

Perhaps the rhetoric of free-market-can-solve-everything Libertarians, the get-the-government-out-of-my-health-care Republicans, and the healthcare-is-a-human-right Democrats are all co-opted by America's crony capitalism and we get... this.