this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2026
326 points (99.4% liked)
Fuck AI
8360 readers
3151 users here now
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What if... the government set expected prices for things? Say they set the price for 90% of treatments. That includes life long medications and multiple tentative surgeries.
If it's on the government register, the cost is known.
Like, they say that 90% of medical treatment will be a fixed cost. And it starts off fairly expensive. But with aggregate data it gets cheaper. And the fact that the government mandates it. And I'm sure there is already a lot of data...
It costs 1$ for a dose of paracetamol (or whatever). Starts off whatever the average is, then trends towards the actual cost to acquire. Takes a year or 2 to bring costs inline, paracetamol is $20 per dose but 20¢ per dose, etc.
I mean, who the fuck is licencing these hospitals to charge this much? The government, right?
Who the fuck is licencing these pharma companies to sell the drugs this expensive? The government, right?
And who is letting medical insurance companies this much power? The government!
Why the fuck doesn't the government actually align price with cost?
Oh, money. Yeh, it's money.
It's about senators being bought for $10k.
It's about "lobbying" $10m, and generating a $1bn gap.
Here is a good essay on the topic comparing a system like Japans with strict price controls with the US free for all system. The premise is Japan has offered incentives to close the gap of drug availability and their price, even after this premium, is still significantly less than the US.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12777408/