Hospital bills new father $40 to hold his son.

[Argarock]

America, Your healthcare system is disgusting.

you have to PAY 1600$ to make a new taxpayer? That's insane!
...that's after the insurance company pays 10'000!?


also, health insurance in itself is idiotic..

You insure your car because something MIGHT happen to it.
you HAVE to get a healthinsurance because at some point, something WILL happen to it...
at that point, it's no longer insurance and just a way less efficient version of universal healthcare.

[breadisfunny]

yes they definitely can.

- - - Updated - - -

America, Your healthcare system is disgusting.

you have to PAY 1600$ to make a new taxpayer? That's insane!
...that's after the insurance company pays 10'000!?


also, health insurance in itself is idiotic..

You insure your car because something MIGHT happen to it.
you HAVE to get a healthinsurance because at some point, something WILL happen to it...
at that point, it's no longer insurance and just a way less efficient version of universal healthcare.

psh we all know universal healthcare will just lead to a soviet invasion by the russians.

[Deleted]

13k$ for giving birth, holy overpricing Batman

[breadisfunny]

13k$ for giving birth, holy overpricing Batman

don't forget the $2000 or so ambulance ride!

[Djuntas]

Enjoy your welfare system America. Clearly its evil and liberal and big private corp's are much better.

[Raldazzar]

As a nurse explained, in order to do the contact they require an additional person on staff, which is a cost, so they charge for it.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things, the $40 is trivial compared to the thousands+ the birth cost.

if its needed, then how was there one free to take pictures etc?

[Deleted]

nice clickbait

[Deleted]

Da f?

No seriously, I'm confused. I thought those were utterly opposed. Do elaborate. I'm 100% no bullsht interested.

I'm guessing its because Friedman recognised that healtcare does not meet the prerequisites for a free market.

[Slant]

Is this normal for hospitals to do? To make you pay to hold your own kid?

http://abc7.com/society/father-says-...h-son/1539548/

Nope, I live in a civilised country where holding your newborn son is your goddamn entitled right and not a service you pay for.

[Rudkobing]

Paying money to hold your own god damn child....

[Deleted]

Hyperbole isn't really going to help you. "Cost of production" includes R&D, too, so you're literally changing the argument.

Cost of production does not include RND.
And the price of taking a new drug to market is in that range Endus - At least if you add in all the failures that need to be subsidized.

[Slant]

Cost of production does not include RND.
And the price of taking a new drug to market is in that range Endus - At least if you add in all the failures that need to be subsidized.

Are you sure? I always had the impression they put R&D into the cost of production, too. Split by the estimated number of units produced, naturally.

[Ryme]

What does the extra staff do? Catch the baby if someone drops it?

As a random guess, I would say it's to ensure no contaminants are spread to the child which can easily kill a newborn. Still absurd though.

[Deleted]

don't forget the $2000 or so ambulance ride!

Americans really are getting robbed blind.

[JohnBrown1917]

Hospitals gouge people that CAN pay because they are forced to treat people that CAN'T pay. If public or county run hospitals weren't pure dogshit, I'd be more of an advocate for them.

And that is why so many americans end up bankrupt becease of medical bills.
Great system.

- - - Updated - - -

Nope, I live in a civilised country where holding your newborn son is your goddamn entitled right and not a service you pay for.

Isen't it standard to be born at home in Germany? I know it is here in Dutchland.

[Puri]

Isen't it standard to be born at home in Germany? I know it is here in Dutchland.

No, not anymore. It is much more common to give birth in a hospital as midwives became fairly expensive because their insurance costs exploded in the last years. So parents have to pay extra for home births and have to partially pay the costs if something should go wrong.

[Deleted]

Are you sure? I always had the impression they put R&D into the cost of production, too. Split by the estimated number of units produced, naturally.

What is 'Production Cost'
Production cost refers to the cost incurred by a business when manufacturing a good or providing a service. Production costs include a variety of expenses including, but not limited to, labor, raw materials, consumable manufacturing supplies and general overhead. Additionally, any taxes levied by the government or royalties owed by natural resource extracting companies are also considered production costs.

its essentially semantics, but no, generally not.

[Spectral]

I'm guessing its because Friedman recognised that healtcare does not meet the prerequisites for a free market.

There's no way that could have happened. As we all know, anyone that's libertarian-minded hates all non-market solutions and never considers them because they just hate poor people or something

[Forogil]

yes, the second pill cost 5 dollars - but the first pill costs 5 billion.

Correct, good that there are some that have a basic understanding of economics.

Because if you can produce a pill that cures cancer for $5 in production costs, you can charge $10,000 for each pill, because your goal isn't to cure people's cancer, it's to make as much money of cancer-sufferers as you can.

I thought conspiracy theories were not allowed here.

The reality is that they cannot produce a pill that "cures cancer" in general, because cancer is a combination of different diseases - with some common parts (the cell machinery is broken; and at some point the growth-stoppers stop working).
And using the term "production cost" to include basic research and development is disingenuous to say the least (or even wrong), but more importantly the numbers are wrong:

Getting a new drug to market costs about 2-5billion$ (including the attempts that didn't pay off; https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...-exceeds-2-5b/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewh...e-of-medicine/ ).

Assuming this wonder pill actually would cure all forms of cancer, then selling it for 5$ per pill for the about 15million new cancer cases per year during the time it is patent protected would actually result in a loss!

[Socialhealer]

lmfao american healthcare, biggest joke there is.

from a UK PoV it's completely disgusting and basically says people's lives aren't worth shit if they don't have money (let em die you got no money), but you can send aid to 3rd world countries who don't have money?