
The Costly Paradox of Health-Care Technology - luu
http://m.technologyreview.com/news/518876/the-costly-paradox-of-health-care-technology/
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bowerbird
> In every industry but one, technology makes things better and cheaper.

that's because "better and cheaper" usually means more profit.

> Why is it that innovation increases the cost of health care?

because the health industry recognized there was no cap on "demand" \-- how
much of your savings would you spend in order to keep yourself from dying? --
so they set out to make as much money as they could from the rich people.

no procedure was too costly -- the more it cost, the better! there was always
some rich person who was willing to pay it.

then, because that model basically incentivized everyone to get insurance, the
health industry realized that they could rob _everyone_, not just the rich
people, by hiding the real cost of their industry via "insurance premiums".

spread out your bloated costs over enough people such that nobody realizes
just how obscene they really are, and bingo!

over time, _everyone_ was demanding the expensive treatments, egged on by the
system that said "insurance will pay for it", as if "insurance" was this
magical money-tree up in the clouds.

so now they have essentially forced _everyone_ to pay out _all_ of our life-
savings in order to keep ourselves alive, either by "health insurance" or by
outrageous medical bills.

one way or the other, they'll eventually get all your money. because your cash
does you no good when you are dead, buster.

and then, of course, you'll end up dying anyway. tough luck.

> Yossarian was moved very deeply

> by the absolute simplicity of

> this clause of Catch-22 and

> let out a respectful whistle.

>

> "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

>

> "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

-bowerbird

