[TaylorAlexander]

Louis Rossman gave an example which I believe really happened. A surgery chair that cost tens of thousands of dollars needed a new riser motor. Just an electric motor to move the chair up and down. But the company that makes the electric motor had an agreement with the chair manufacturer not to sell replacement parts. So the only recourse instead of replacing a $500 motor is to replace an entire surgery chair for tens of thousands of dollars.

Given the cost of medical care in this country I think it would be a very good thing if that agreement not to sell parts was against the law. Surely an electric motor to raise a chair up and down could be replaced with the correct part without compromising anyone’s safety.

[znpy]

> Given the cost of medical care in this country

although in this specific case in example, if the country you're talking about are the US, having access to the $500 motor only means wider profit margins for the hostpital, not necessarily lower bills for hospitalized people.

[wdn]

You do understand the reason why US has such high health care cost is because the only player getting screw is the payer, also known as the patient.

[znpy]

yes, but nah.

the reason the US has such high healthcare is because healthcare is both private and paid-by-insurance.

a lot of other nations have free healthcare, both in the american continent and in Europe.

[dragonwriter]

> the reason the US has such high healthcare is because healthcare is both private and paid-by-insurance.

Lots of countries have combined public/private systems and get equal or better results with lower per capita and per GDP expenditure than the US.

The US has expensive healthcare because it has an exceptionally poorly designed public/private system, not because it has a public/private system.

[TaylorAlexander]

Perhaps, but it’s clear we must both lower costs (fix repair laws) and provide free medical care for everyone. So fixing repair is one important step towards an end goal of health care for everyone.

[spicybright]

I agree, but I'd also say there's a line between inconsequential things like a chair motor, and something giving life support to someone.

It would suck to die because the repair guy didn't solder the wire correctly.

It's really tough to draw that line though, and it's in the manufactures interest $ + lawsuit wise to play it safe.

[TaylorAlexander]

Regulating the quality of repair is a separate issue from sourcing parts. The hospital and their insurance company will be well inclined to make sure that repairs are done properly, but we should let the people who own the chair (and some oversight board) decide policy for those repairs, not equipment manufacturers who have a vested interest in selling new equipment.

[noizejoy]

Money wasted leads to money not available for life support.