Major Insurers Are Scamming Billions from Medicare, Whistle-Blowers Say | Hacker News Reader

Major Insurers Are Scamming Billions from Medicare, Whistle-Blowers Say

bloomberg.com

88 pointsinfinite_beam13 comments

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The existence of this particular scam is known to the health economics literature.

I’m not sure there’s really a point in the insurers’ denying it.

Here’s a reference to a recent paper:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2612913

The paper itself was published in the Journal of Political Economy.

I think you mean the cost of American healthcare is a scam known to most people. What most people don't know is how much health insurance plays a role.

Yeah, I see the advantage of the US health system - all those people who shuffle papers to handle costs and payments, all those people to enforce the rules and deal with infractions, ... People's health should not be a profit centre, maybe a regulated utility but as far as "for the general good" goes, health is up there with fire and police in "things a modern society sorta needs".

Lots of new people created every generation, churn (mortality) can remain high or grow higher and society can still function lol

With declining birthrates, higher mortality rates lately, and very little immigration, I don't think "churn" will be sufficient here.

US immigration is near its 100-year historic peak [1], and takes the largest share of international migrants [2]. If that's "very little", then what would merely "moderate" immigration look like?

[1] https://cis.org/Report/Immigrant-Population-Growth-Slows

[2] https://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/the-us-ranks...

Your first link notes a slowing down of immigration to US 2017-2020. I wonder why? Your second link is claiming data from the US as having the most foreign born residents.. From 2006. Although that hasn't changed in recent years. US immigration is, like many things, at a historic peak because population size is at a historic peak. Percentage-wise, foreign born immigrants make of a record high proportion of the US population, probably due in large part, again, to our declining birthrates. Our population is aging at record rates as well, and our dependency ratio is increasing. We'd better hope immigration continues, or who is going to take care of all the old folks? There are economic consequences to declining and aging population.

> Your first link notes a slowing down of immigration to US 2017-2020.

A small slowing down, that still left immigration higher than at almost any other point in US history.

> US immigration is, like many things, at a historic peak because population size is at a historic peak. Percentage-wise, foreign born immigrants make of a record high proportion of the US population

Your second sentence directly refutes your first - US immigration is at a historic peak in both absolute and relative (compared to US population) terms.

> Our population is aging..

That's an argument that immigration is necessary, not that it's "very little".

I can’t tell if it was sarcastic, but the answer was trump

Get rid of all the regulations in health care and you will see 95% drops in pricing across the board. If a consumer had to pay directly for medical care, they would consider price. If providers had more competition, prices would drop.

The entire healthcare system in US is a legalized fraud.

The number 1 reason why older Americans immigrate to Thailand, Vietnam and other low COL countries is to get access to services at a reasonable price AND to not have to deal with the fraudulent system that nickels and dimes them to bankruptcy.

Healthcare is fraud these days. How many administrators are employed for every MD? How many lawyers for each researcher? How many lobbyists and marketers for each regulator? Follow the money.

It isn't hard to see that the unscrupulous find themselves seeking rent in an industry in which the "customers" are very often over a barrel.

Extortion is a reliable source of rents, once legalized.

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