<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>dota_fanatic</author><text>The work done by David Belk MD shows that these costs are an extremely small cost of hospitals, and that you&amp;#x27;re basically promoting a myth. [1][2]&lt;p&gt;He directly addresses the inaccuracy of that claim in the following 10 minute video, &amp;quot;The $55,000 Appendectomy: What Everyone Should Know About Hospital Bills&amp;quot;. [3]&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;IAmA&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;4lgnif&amp;#x2F;i_am_david_belk_im_a_doctor_who_has_spent_the&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;IAmA&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;4lgnif&amp;#x2F;i_am_david_bel...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;truecostofhealthcare.net&amp;#x2F;conclusion&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;truecostofhealthcare.net&amp;#x2F;conclusion&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=jkAY15p2DN4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=jkAY15p2DN4&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>Transparent medical pricing is not possible so long as hospitals have an obligation to treat sick people whether or not they can pay. Hospitals &lt;i&gt;heavily&lt;/i&gt; cross subsidize between insured, uninsured, and Medicare&amp;#x2F;Medicaid patients. As long as we put expectations on doctors and hospitals that compel them to do that, they cannot provide transparent pricing.</text></item><item><author>codegeek</author><text>This. Exactly This. I am sick of hearing &amp;quot;oh you just pay $20 co-pay&amp;quot;. No we don&amp;#x27;t. The real cost is much more and these pharmas and insurance companies know it. I know because I paid it for a family of 4. It costs $1500&amp;#x2F;Month for a decent plan that does not have high &amp;quot;out of pocket&amp;quot; costs (Read capped at $5000). So you pay $1500 per month and in worst case scenario, you can still pay $5000 out of pocket for a year IF the insurance company does not deny a claim.&lt;p&gt;I usually don&amp;#x27;t make political comments but one thing that was disappointing with Obamacare was the fact that it did not address this root cause and instead touted that now anyone can get insurance. Sure, someone with pre-existing condition is now probably a little better off but overall, obamacare did not address the main issue: getting rid of middlemen (insurance companies) and let doctors&amp;#x2F;hospitals work on fair and transparent pricing. Isn&amp;#x27;t that what America is all about ? Free Market, eh.&lt;p&gt;If I may steal the legendary MLK&amp;#x27;s words, I have a dream. A dream where I can call any doctor&amp;#x2F;hospital and ask what will it exactly cost to get a simple X-Ray done without saying &amp;quot;Oh no, I ain&amp;#x27;t got no insurance&amp;quot;. Just a dream.</text></item><item><author>bradleyjg</author><text>This whole drug company argument -- that the only thing that really matters is what end users pay as a co-pay or co-insurance and that no one should care what insurance companies (including governments) pay -- is so breathtakingly bad I can only imagine it is in bad faith. Where do they expect us to believe the institutional payments are coming from, out of thin air?</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>EpiPen Maker Quietly Steers Effort That Could Protect Its Price</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/business/epipen-maker-mylan-preventative-drug-campaign.html</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>astockwell</author><text>THIS. Many Americans don&amp;#x27;t seem to realize we already have a &amp;quot;socialized&amp;quot; medical system - everyone paying into everyone else&amp;#x27;s costs - it&amp;#x27;s just that it&amp;#x27;s brokered by private companies instead of the gov&amp;#x27;t. Which means that it&amp;#x27;s less transparent, less regulated, and subjected to a bigger rake [1] than if it was run by the gov&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rake_(poker)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Rake_(poker)&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>Transparent medical pricing is not possible so long as hospitals have an obligation to treat sick people whether or not they can pay. Hospitals &lt;i&gt;heavily&lt;/i&gt; cross subsidize between insured, uninsured, and Medicare&amp;#x2F;Medicaid patients. As long as we put expectations on doctors and hospitals that compel them to do that, they cannot provide transparent pricing.</text></item><item><author>codegeek</author><text>This. Exactly This. I am sick of hearing &amp;quot;oh you just pay $20 co-pay&amp;quot;. No we don&amp;#x27;t. The real cost is much more and these pharmas and insurance companies know it. I know because I paid it for a family of 4. It costs $1500&amp;#x2F;Month for a decent plan that does not have high &amp;quot;out of pocket&amp;quot; costs (Read capped at $5000). So you pay $1500 per month and in worst case scenario, you can still pay $5000 out of pocket for a year IF the insurance company does not deny a claim.&lt;p&gt;I usually don&amp;#x27;t make political comments but one thing that was disappointing with Obamacare was the fact that it did not address this root cause and instead touted that now anyone can get insurance. Sure, someone with pre-existing condition is now probably a little better off but overall, obamacare did not address the main issue: getting rid of middlemen (insurance companies) and let doctors&amp;#x2F;hospitals work on fair and transparent pricing. Isn&amp;#x27;t that what America is all about ? Free Market, eh.&lt;p&gt;If I may steal the legendary MLK&amp;#x27;s words, I have a dream. A dream where I can call any doctor&amp;#x2F;hospital and ask what will it exactly cost to get a simple X-Ray done without saying &amp;quot;Oh no, I ain&amp;#x27;t got no insurance&amp;quot;. Just a dream.</text></item><item><author>bradleyjg</author><text>This whole drug company argument -- that the only thing that really matters is what end users pay as a co-pay or co-insurance and that no one should care what insurance companies (including governments) pay -- is so breathtakingly bad I can only imagine it is in bad faith. Where do they expect us to believe the institutional payments are coming from, out of thin air?</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>EpiPen Maker Quietly Steers Effort That Could Protect Its Price</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/business/epipen-maker-mylan-preventative-drug-campaign.html</url></story>