Microblog Memes

ah that western bias again....

My parents are part of a clinic exactly like this. I legit thought it might be a scam at first because "how have insurance companies not shut this down?"

I don't love Kaiser - the prices still suck. But they sometimes suck less, and their system is far more streamlined than I've had with other insurance providers. Still ridiculous to be trapped in a system with no control over or transparency into costs.

It would convert nicely enough to a single payer. Granted costs might suck but if they were just absorbed into the system, I wouldn't really care. I could at least believe they are trying to be efficient. As it is, I'm left believing I get charged as much as they think they can get away with. And wth else am I going to do? Kaiser is much cheaper than my employer's other option (there are literally 2), and I've had the other before. It just sucks (slightly) differently.

I have something like that, sorta. I work for a very tiny company (literally 4 people), and so we couldn't get a good insurance plan that covered vision and dental because insurance companies suck ass.

So my dentist has a thing where I pay a single price once a year and get 2 cleanings out of the deal. Though anything beyond that is still out of pocket.

I believe the main problem in the US is the focus on shareholder value. Some people invest into shares of healthcare companies to turn a profit. That is just insane. In Germany (which‘s healthcare system is not perfect) there are many private health insurance companies, but there are not allowed to make a profit (or pay out dividends to shareholders, because there aren‘t any). If there are profits they need to be reinvested into the system. It leads to much better outcomes in my opinion.

If we're all going to be pooling money anyway it shouldn't be filtered through a for-profit system first.

Not to sound like someone who wants a small government, but instead paying money to shareholders you can also pay tons and tons of government workers. In Germany when you work for the government you can‘t get fired which leads to a lot of overcapacity. In the tax department it is very often the case that there is only work for less than half a day. A friend of mine actually quit their (very safe) job there, because they couldn‘t stand being bored half a day and being mocked for working too fast.

Again I believe everything is better than the system in the US, but there is some nuance to the alternatives.

The cost of insurance goes down the larger the pool of people. The largest pool in a country is everyone, so like utilities it becomes a natural monopoly.

Natural monopolies should be the purview of the government as they allow for abuse.

I‘ve heard that car insurance is too expensive in the US, but keep in mind that you are usually not insuring your own car, but everyone else‘s, so if you are causing an accidents the other party can buy a new car for example. An old car (due to the lack of safety systems) is often more likely to end up in car crash than a newer one. In Germany (where insurance prices are much saner) this applies as well. You either get an expensive car and pay less for insurance or an old one and pay more. Also in Germany fees are pooled by model, so if your car is used by a lot young people (who get into accidents more) you also pay more. The good thing is that you can inform yourself about it before you buy a car to factor it into a buying decision from the start.