[Buttons840]

I worked at a company that did background checks on doctors. Part of that involved involved checking doctors licenses in all 50 states, which all do things a little differently. I was paid 6 figures a year to help automate this, and this company had a few hundred other employees who would make calls and do other things to support that. It was all very expensive and could have gone away if only there were some standardized ways for all the states to report these things.

I realized then that I was part of the problem, not on a personal level, but part of everyone's high medical bills ended up in my pocket as a developer at this random healthcare company awkwardly filling our niche.

15% of US workers are in the healthcare industry, and they're not all doctors and nurses. All those people have to be paid, and all of them have to be paid by that ridiculously high medical bill you just received. Sadly, making healthcare cheaper will involve pushing a lot of these people out of the industry, and that won't be politically popular. The insurance companies are going to have to become smaller and lose some profits before things get better.

[Gibbon1]

> Sadly, making healthcare cheaper will involve pushing a lot of these people out of the industry

As someone 20 years into a chronic condition who has to deal with this mess constantly. We'd be ahead if we paid those people to stay home and drink themselves to death. Because it's not just the money it's also the interference in care. That sounds harsh but above and beyond the stress they are actually killing people.