←back to thread

249 points randycupertino | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.296s | source
Show context
stego-tech ◴[] No.45949690[source]
I feel kinda bad for the writer, because it's a good question: no, curing patients is not a good business model, just like public transit is not a good business model.

What a lot of folks neglect are N+1-order effects, because those are harder to quantify and fail to reach the predetermined decision some executive or board or shareholder has already made. Is curing patients a bad business model? Sure, for the biotech company it is, but those cured patients are far more likely to go on living longer, healthier lives, and in turn contribute additional value to society - which will impact others in ways that may also create additional value. That doesn't even get into the jobs and value created through the R&D process, testing, manufacturing, logistics of delivery, ongoing monitoring, etc. As long as the value created is more than the cost of the treatment, then it's a net-gain for the economy even if it's a net loss for that singular business.

If all you're judging is the first-order impacts on a single business, you're missing the forest for the trees.

replies(21): >>45949742 #>>45949753 #>>45949762 #>>45949770 #>>45949870 #>>45949906 #>>45950012 #>>45950170 #>>45950199 #>>45950225 #>>45950250 #>>45950263 #>>45950419 #>>45950655 #>>45950858 #>>45950892 #>>45950987 #>>45951787 #>>45952894 #>>45952915 #>>45955069 #
1. thrance ◴[] No.45955069[source]
I think this is a bad argument for socialized healthcare (Which I am 100% for BTW).

Look at retired people, they contribute very little to society. From a purely economical POV, letting them die is the correct course of action. I, and many others, find this morally abhorrent. We should provide healhcare because it is the correct thing to do, not because it is economically viable. The whole point of a society is for its members to live better lives collectively than they would individually, not to maximize some abstract value.

So, determine democratically how much resources we should pool into healthcare and distribute that fairly among ourselves, on an as-needed basis. That's how it works in much of the 1st world, and it works reasonably well. Better than in America, that's for sure, as can be seen by the higher life expectancies and cheaper medicine overall.