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514 points sarimkx | 2 comments | | HN request time: 2.085s | source
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CalChris ◴[] No.39376282[source]
ELIMINATING MIDDLEMEN IN HEALTHCARE

by creating another middleman in healthcare. This was first proposed by Jim Clark's Healtheon. "We want to empower the doctors and the patients and get all the other assholes out of the way." … "Except for us. One asshole in the middle." — The New New Thing, Michael Lewis.

The reason we spend so much is that public healthcare is a public good and private companies aren't good at managing public goods. They're good at making money which is a different purpose (which has probably served most people reading this very well). We need Single Payer. Indeed we have Single Payer in Medicare and TriCare and other areas. It works pretty well. We need to eliminate middlemen in healthcare by actually eliminating rent seeking middlemen in healthcare.

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shiroiushi ◴[] No.39381103[source]
>The reason we spend so much is that public healthcare is ... We need Single Payer.

Lots of countries do not have single payer healthcare, and have an insurance system that resembles America's, yet they don't have America's ridiculous prices.

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1. dragonwriter ◴[] No.39383678[source]
> Lots of countries do not have single payer healthcare, and have an insurance system that resembles America's,

No, they don't, beyond “private insurance exists”. The US has the largest share of the population uncovered by health insurance in the OECD besides Mexico, and that's after improving considerably because of the ACA.

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2. shiroiushi ◴[] No.39392126[source]
>No, they don't, beyond “private insurance exists”.

Yes, they do. Here in Japan, everyone is covered by either government insurance, or private insurance that's partially paid by their employer. Sound familiar? Germany's system is similar. These are not single-payer systems.