[ericd]

Probably some inefficiencies baked into the price? There are massive inefficiencies at every level. I probably wouldn't share this "it's the way it is because it has to be" reasoning if you've never looked into why US healthcare is as expensive as it is.

For a decent overview: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-does-health-care-co...

"Just to give you one example, Duke University Hospital has 900 hospital beds and 1,300 billing clerks."

[ineedasername]

You need context for that because your article is incorrect about Canada. Across all of Canada, on average, there are still 1.1 clerks per bed. (1,100 clerks for every 1,000 beds) [0]

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4511963/#:~:tex....

[ericd]

Interesting. What do all of those clerks do in the Canadian system vs the US system? Would you say that the Canadian system is a paragon of efficiency?

[ericmay]

I say probably because although I’m quite sure that there are inefficiencies, I am not an expert and don’t have hard data to support my assertion.

Don’t mistake what I’ve said as support for the current system.