Comments on: Medicaid = Nursing Homes

By: Bryan Willman

Bryan Willman — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 04:02:40 +0000

#1 suffers from an insurmountable information insufficiency. I saw it first hand – a realtive was very ill, but literally no one actually knew why. By the time they figured it out, several days and huge dollars had been spent. None of it was in any sense ‘heroic’. And the person in question was ready to die, was in fact praying to die. But for all sorts of deep reasons we do not and cannot let people die when there’s a very good chance all they have is something like an ulcer that can be fixed with a relatively minor procedure. People seem to have this impression that huge dollars are spent on Uncle Joe who everybody knows is dying of specific cancer type C247 and anything beyond pallative care is a waste. I’m sure that happens, but cases where it’s not all clear what is actually going on are also likely very common and a huge source of cost.

By: Jeff R.

Jeff R. — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 19:53:57 +0000

Having patients pay more might encourage more price transparency. It would also likely lower patient volume, which, if you agree with Robin Hanson that ~50% of healthcare expenditures are either wasteful or actively harmful, should be taken as a positive.

By: Lord

Lord — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 18:54:44 +0000

Having patients pay more can’t work as long as costs are hidden and unknown until long after treatment if even then. It is trying to force use of a market that doesn’t exist. So much policy is backwards in this sense.