James Stephanie Sterling YouTube Account Suspended

[Specter Von Baren]

Be a better argument if said trained medical staff made more that $15/hr

The argument being used against the idea that a limo costing less than an ambulance is an indicator of ambulances being over costed is very good. My statement does not say that hospitals and healthcare services are not overcharging, it's that that supposed example is a bad argument.

The proper reaction to what I said should be to provide a good argument, which SilentPony did. Therefore the issue I saw was resolved and his argument was better served for it.

 

[Avnger]

The argument being used against the idea that a limo costing less than an ambulance is an indicator of ambulances being over costed is very good. My statement does not say that hospitals and healthcare services are not overcharging, it's that that supposed example is a bad argument.

The proper reaction to what I said should be to provide a good argument, which SilentPony did. Therefore the issue I saw was resolved and his argument was better served for it.

If that makes you feel better for posting a uselessly contrarian take... sure...

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

The argument being used against the idea that a limo costing less than an ambulance is an indicator of ambulances being over costed is very good. My statement does not say that hospitals and healthcare services are not overcharging, it's that that supposed example is a bad argument.

The proper reaction to what I said should be to provide a good argument, which SilentPony did. Therefore the issue I saw was resolved and his argument was better served for it.

Cool. The argument isn't wrong but it's bad nonetheless. Ambulance pricing is massively inflated due to both overcharging for services and slashing compensation for labor.
Any other pithy comments you agree with that you want to police for tone?

 

[Trunkage]

Cool. The argument isn't wrong but it's bad nonetheless. Ambulance pricing is massively inflated due to both overcharging for services and slashing compensation for labor.
Any other pithy comments you agree with that you want to police for tone?

Dude. You have to speak in the right tone or you automatically lose

 

[SilentPony]

Dude. You have to speak in the right tone or you automatically lose

That's why I keep a tuning fork next to my keyboard, like a little Clippy. He'll let me know if my tone is off.

 

[Agema]

I read that the average cost of an Ambulance is like $500 per mile. Truly it is cheaper to get a premium limo at $270 per hour than an ambulance to drive you 1 mile to the Hospital.

Kind of.

When you factor in an ambulance has two personnel at (I'm guessing) about $15-20 an hour, large amounts of medical consumables, and a metric shit ton of very expensive equipment that has to be purchased, maintained, and occasionally replaced, it almost certainly does work out incredibly expensive. I doubt $500 per mile. But about $500 for a call-out seems pretty plausible.

* * *

I find some of the US medical costs astonishing. It costs the UK NHS on average about £500 for a broken arm, £1000 for a broken leg (assuming no surgery required). Then I see the bills Americans get for the same... three, four times higher?

How? Why? What has gone so catastrophically wrong with the USA's healthcare industry to end up with costs so wildly out of proportion to similarly rich countries? This isn't even about obvious stuff like health insurance and pharmacy benefit manager rip-offs, etc. There is something fundamentally broken about the USA's model of healthcare that it does not deliver cost-efficient treatment.

 

[Trunkage]

Kind of.

When you factor in an ambulance has two personnel at (I'm guessing) about $15-20 an hour, large amounts of medical consumables, and a metric shit ton of very expensive equipment that has to be purchased, maintained, and occasionally replaced, it almost certainly does work out incredibly expensive. I doubt $500 per mile. But about $500 for a call-out seems pretty plausible.

* * *

I find some of the US medical costs astonishing. It costs the UK NHS on average about £500 for a broken arm, £1000 for a broken leg (assuming no surgery required). Then I see the bills Americans get for the same... three, four times higher?

How? Why? What has gone so catastrophically wrong with the USA's healthcare industry to end up with costs so wildly out of proportion to similarly rich countries? This isn't even about obvious stuff like health insurance and pharmacy benefit manager rip-offs, etc. There is something fundamentally broken about the USA's model of healthcare that it does not deliver cost-efficient treatment.

Why would you think cost effective treatment would be an objective for the US health care system?

 

[Agema]

Why would you think cost effective treatment would be an objective for the US health care system?

One can point out the obvious that businesses lobby government to benefit themselves. However, one might also note that in most areas of the economy, sectors still tend to drive down prices for the end consumer - something the government is normally perfectly happy to encourage. In fact, the left is usually complaining precisely because these measures to reduce business costs tend to involve passing costs to others in terms of exploitation of workers, reduced pollution controls, etc.

And then there's healthcare.

It has been well noted that healthcare does not fit a normal economic model, because healthcare is nothing like buying a car. A normal market model therefore does not suit it - and this should be the answer to those people who argue the problem is excessive government intervention and the free market will fix everything. However, the USA does not have an effective government-run system either. It is truly staggering to imagine that the US government is paying more in healthcare per head population than the UK does despite offering a fraction of the services. Moving costs to a more comparable level to Euope would save literally hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. I don't think healthcare lobbying alone is sufficient to account for this: it's also ideological.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I don't think healthcare lobbying alone is sufficient to account for this: it's also ideological.

When Rand Paul was running for President, he was asked if people who couldn't pay for medical treatment should be left to die. Some people in the crowd cheered.

Yes, it is absolutely ideological. Some people in this country want to watch other people die for the "crime" of not being wealthy.