The Price We Pay
One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of price-gouging, middlemen, and a series of elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a roadmap for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
8mentions
5people
2021–2026years
88% recommend13% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- You misinterpreted by comment. It was not partisan, and was based on reality and cold economics rather than ideology. None of the major US political parties have workable reform proposals that could actually be implemented and achieve net positive results.
This is a complex topic with no tl;dr possible. If you want to be able to participate in discussions on a rational, quantitative basis then a good starting point is "The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It" by Marty Makary, MD. It goes into the numbers far better than I can cover in a short HN comment.
- If you want to understand the hidden cross-subsidies in the US healthcare financing system then a good place to start is the book "The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It" by Dr. Marty Makary.
- For those who want to really understand the impact that PMBs play on the overall US healthcare system I highly recommend reading the "The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It" by Marty Makary, MD. The system of legalized kickbacks that they use isn't widely recognized but it will have to be reformed if we ever want to bring down prescription drug spending.
- It is simply naive to think that the threat of malpractice discipline by state medical boards would deter bad actors from delivering wasteful or unnecessary care. The fee-for-service financial system heavily incentivizes over treatment. If you don't believe me then read "The Price We Pay" by Dr. Marty Makary. It documents many such incidents for which the providers were never punished.
- I thought ‘The Price We Pay’ by Marty Makary was a great way to dive into some of the reasons of how expensive and complex the US Healthcare system is. Here’s a quick summary of the book: https://alijiwani1.medium.com/summary-of-the-price-we-pay-4b...
- If you like this, you might enjoy The Price We Pay[0] by Marty Makary. It talks about the incentives in the US health system, and how they combine to create a system where even people with insurance can end up with unmanageable medical debt.
The book points out both genuinely bad actors (e.g. companies that pay kickbacks to medical staff for pushing patients into unnecessary helicopter rides) and also problems that happen due to the design of the system, despite the best intentions of individual actors.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Price-We-Pay-American-Care/dp/1635574...
