Comment by bloopernova | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bloopernova | Hacker News Reader

I'm being offered $550 by my insurance in "gift cards" if I use certain facilities for any MRIs or other diagnostics. I think that shows just how wildly variable different locations charge, and how much they get away with.

I'd love to see a published price list for standard procedures, because I think hospitals have become too used to being cash cows for administrators and CEOs. This isn't to say I think nurses or doctors are overpaid or underworked, or don't deliver good care. I just wish that people in the USA could get good healthcare without having to claim bankruptcy.

I really miss the NHS and Bupa private insurance in the UK. NHS was great for so much stuff, but when I needed multiple surgeries on my leg metalwork, I chose to use private health insurance. This let me have the same consultant as the NHS hospital, same surgeons, but in a smaller "fancier" hospital that took really good care of me. What's funny to me is that extra private insurance was just a few pounds a month, and nothing at all like the thousands we spend here in the USA.

> This isn't to say I think nurses or doctors are overpaid

The probably are. Clearly hospital executives and administrators are raking in most of the money, but we can't sit here and pretend that caregivers don't directly benefit from such an arrangement as well.

There's a reason urgent care centers and small clinics pay their doctors less than most of us make, or skip employing doctors at all in favor of nurse practitioners, and their nursing staff makes ~1/3 what they would be earning in a hospital setting. Labor is expensive; specialized labor is even more so.

> skip employing doctors at all in favor of nurse practitioners

Hold up. I hope you're not being negative on hiring NPs. As someone who is in favor of NPs (and knows many NPs), they provide excellent primary care and hiring them can help bring down the overall cost of healthcare. I say we should teach and hire MORE NPs to provide cheaper primary and preventative care, not blame clinics for hiring them.

This, and exactly this. NP's are great for the run-of-the-mill sicknesses and minor injuries that most adults and children get. In conjunction with a PCP, they provide excellent primary care even for more complicated patients.

In addition, specialist nurses are a great addition to a specialist's team. I don't see a neurologist all that often, but I have checkups with one of the team of wonderful nurses at the office, some of which specialize in the disease I have. It works out wonderfully and allows the specialist to take care of more patients and still provide pretty wonderful service.

I am not, I'm just stating the fact that they are replacing physicians, mainly due to costs. I'm struggling to see how you read into that statement a negative tone on the matter.

FWIW, my partner was an NP before leaving direct patient care.

> The probably are. Clearly hospital executives and administrators are raking in most of the money, but we can't sit here and pretend that caregivers don't directly benefit from such an arrangement as well.

I agree with you but I think at least the nurses, doctors, NPs/PAs, bring more value than what I've seen within my own department at a hospital. A manager hits $100-150k pretty easy and the middle and upper middle ranks are stacked. We have someone that's a director of a three person team, and seven new middle management roles (being filled w/ no internal hires).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com