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Comment by taneq | Hacker News Reader

Likewise, my best mate has had hearing aids since ever, and now a cochlear implant. According to him, the official line is that prices are high because volumes are low and medical devices are expensive to design. The unofficial line is that they're price gouging because they have a captive market and no real competition.

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If I needed hearing aids, I'd pay anything for them.

You need water to live and would pay anything for it, but this is not sufficient to explain a market failure.

I was under the impression that modern water markets were all either massively regulated in response to historical market failures (public utilities in developed nations) or currently undergoing market failure (developing nations, c.f. Nestle's shit in Africa).

My point is not that markets in water and hearing aids can't fail, it's that "the demand curve is almost completely inelastic" isn't an explanation. Water and sewage are generally provided by public utilities (in non-rural areas, at least), but the conventional justifications involve the "natural monopoly" of the associated infrastructure, not the shape of the demand curve. People in developed countries would pay almost anything to have flushing toilets, but septic systems (to which infrastructure arguments don't apply) are usually provided by private companies.

As far as I know, there's no real water market anywhere, it's all granted by governments. Unsurprisingly, some governments are better than others at managing such resources, and large companies take advantage of that.

And that's the reason why anything and everything medical costs as much as can be gotten away with.

You've just described the intersection of capitalism and human survival instinct in a nutshell.

Yep, and the reason why governments are useful in the first place. To protect us against capitalism failures.

That presupposes you'd have the money for them. I'm fortunate to be able to either have had insurance coverage or pay $5-6000 out of pocket every 3-5 years for new hearing aids, but there are many many people who can't afford that.

My daughter played with another child with cochlear implants the other day and as far as I could tell her hearing was perfect.

My mother, who was deaf and wore hearing aids, died in 1989. I always wonder what difference they could have made to her.

Presuming you have access to the money and/or some expensive insurance to cover them. Don't forget about 99%.

Building medical devices is extremely difficult due to regulation. I don't know if they are price gouging or not, but it is expensive to do.

This is the reality. Prices are set based on what the market will bear, which is determined primarily by what health insurance will pay for. The same HA or CI costs different amounts depending on whether you're buying it in the USA, Europe or Australia.

If you're paying out of pocket, I strongly recommend that you check out eBay. Second-hand gear is quite cheap.

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