Topics created by MeganJanas

Yet another instance where it's good to self-advocate and recognize it's more cost effective and secure to avoid the insurance carrier. I've been using a CPAP since 2010 and decided early on that the monthly rental charge was a waste of money. Masks and accessories are also less expensive buying from an online retailer than through insurance. Now this with the data? The consumer needs to be extra vigilant in what they're allowing and not allowing to be tracked. Not sure if there's a way to enforce a more ethical approach to what gets transmitted to the insurance carrier but anyone who has opted "in" to the tracking from their device should assume that data can and will be transmitted to other parties, whether for insurance purposes or marketing, or other types of data aggregation.

Even as a financial instrument, it's not getting the job done. When merchant boats were sailing around the world for the first time, we needed a way to minimize losses. Thus, we came up with insurance. But now, we can send millions of dollars to the other side of the world in seconds only costing pennies. Our health & wellbeing should be treated differently than wooden boats lost at sea.

@mattrmd You're right -- The first step in fixing these problems starts with being honest and logical. If we see constraints limiting our output, it's not smart to add more constraints. Yet we do it every year with more regulation and bad software. I think we are exhibiting a major case of sunk cost fallacy in healthcare. For the most part, the $3 Trillion economy healthcare operates in has been an experiment for the past 100 years. While we're getting further off track each year, we continue the same irrational behavior because of the time, effort, & capital already sunk is the broken system. Sometimes we've got to wise up and cut our losses.

I’m learning... Thanks to John C and the last CH webinar!

For starters, I believe we can cut our healthcare costs by 50% if we change how we pay for services. See, there's an inherent conflict of interest in the health insurance business model. For every dollar your insurer pays in claims is a dollar less that goes to their profits. So when something bad happens to you, their interests are directly conflicted with yours. Why do we think this is a good plan? It makes terrible economic sense for 99% of the population. Payments from patients to physicians and other healthcare providers should be quicker, cheaper, and easier. We have the technology. We just have to remove insurance from the equation.