The solution is single payer. Any attempt to solve this with technological band aids is completely futile. We know what the solution is because we see it work in every other developed nation. We don't have it because a class of billionaire doners doesn't want to pay into the system that allowed them to become fabulously wealthy. People who are claiming AI is the solution to healthcare access and affordability are delusional or lying to you.
There are good reasons to think single payer systems are not the answer. The numerous documented inefficiencies and inconveniences they suffer from don't need repeating here.
And many single payer systems around the world only appear to work as well as they do because the US effectively subsidizes medical costs through its own out of control prices.
Compare: Google's founders can buy all the yachts they could possibly eat, yet Google Searches are offered for free.
If we could get healthcare to that level, it would be great.
For a less extreme example: Wal-Mart and Amazon have made plenty of people very rich, and they charge customers for their goods; but their entrance into the markets have arguable brought down prices.
> Google's founders can buy all the yachts they could possibly eat, yet Google Searches are offered for free.
Google searches cost many billions of dollars: your confusion is because the customer isn’t the person searching but the advertisers paying to influence them. Healthcare can’t work like that not just because the real costs are both much higher and resistant to economies of scale but, critically, there aren’t people with deep pockets lining up to pay for you to be healthy. That’s why every other developed country sees better results for less money: keeping people healthy is a social good, and political forces work for that better than raw economic incentives.
And Google search, a service on the level of a public utility, has been degrading noticeably for years in the face of shareholders demanding more and more returns.
IDK, the owners of retail clothing chains buy yachts and yet that sector is jaw-droppingly efficient at delivering clothes to people. Executives can be annoying tools but I don't think their pay is the problem.
Shame those same owners have plenty of money for buying yachts and not enough money to pay their sweat-shop employees a living wage or to provide decent work conditions. Executives don't "earn" huge paychecks, they merely exploit others by figuring out a way to not pay them their worth.
And "disruption" (a pretty ill-defined term) is the solution to that?
The solution is single payer. Any attempt to solve this with technological band aids is completely futile. We know what the solution is because we see it work in every other developed nation. We don't have it because a class of billionaire doners doesn't want to pay into the system that allowed them to become fabulously wealthy. People who are claiming AI is the solution to healthcare access and affordability are delusional or lying to you.
There are good reasons to think single payer systems are not the answer. The numerous documented inefficiencies and inconveniences they suffer from don't need repeating here.
And many single payer systems around the world only appear to work as well as they do because the US effectively subsidizes medical costs through its own out of control prices.
2 replies →
That's because it's incredibly corrupted, not because it needs disruption. Unless the disruption comes in the form of jail time.
The inefficiency is the buying of yachts for billionaires.
Compare: Google's founders can buy all the yachts they could possibly eat, yet Google Searches are offered for free.
If we could get healthcare to that level, it would be great.
For a less extreme example: Wal-Mart and Amazon have made plenty of people very rich, and they charge customers for their goods; but their entrance into the markets have arguable brought down prices.
> Google's founders can buy all the yachts they could possibly eat, yet Google Searches are offered for free.
Google searches cost many billions of dollars: your confusion is because the customer isn’t the person searching but the advertisers paying to influence them. Healthcare can’t work like that not just because the real costs are both much higher and resistant to economies of scale but, critically, there aren’t people with deep pockets lining up to pay for you to be healthy. That’s why every other developed country sees better results for less money: keeping people healthy is a social good, and political forces work for that better than raw economic incentives.
Wal-Mart and Amazon have reduced wages for employees and the quality of purchased goods more than they have improved prices for consumers.
5 replies →
And Google search, a service on the level of a public utility, has been degrading noticeably for years in the face of shareholders demanding more and more returns.
5 replies →
IDK, the owners of retail clothing chains buy yachts and yet that sector is jaw-droppingly efficient at delivering clothes to people. Executives can be annoying tools but I don't think their pay is the problem.
Shame those same owners have plenty of money for buying yachts and not enough money to pay their sweat-shop employees a living wage or to provide decent work conditions. Executives don't "earn" huge paychecks, they merely exploit others by figuring out a way to not pay them their worth.
It's inefficient and not living to its potential
Yeah, because we saw what a great job the tech bros did making government more efficient.