Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mbiondi 1133 days ago
If it's your life, it might be worth it.
4 comments

> it might be worth it

It’s absolutely worth it if you can afford it, which the rich world can. But personalised medicine forces us to face, in stark and dollarised terms, the inequity of healthcare access across the world.

Not to worry, it’ll be 1000x cheaper in 10 years.
> it’ll be 1000x cheaper in 10 years

Personalised medicine has high cost floors. The factors which would enable a triple order-of-magnitude reduction in its cost would sooner realise massive savings elsewhere, which means it’s unlikely a niche cancer treatment would be prioritised.

Then give it 50 years, have to start somewhere
My plan is to get it via a hospital which accepts public funds. This requires them (by law) to offer a payment plan that works for my income level.

I'm fine with """paying $1M dollars""" via a monthly bill of $50 or whatever until I die and the rest of the debt evaporates.

> requires them (by law) to offer a payment plan that works for my income level

Which is a rich-world perk. (That, to be clear, we absolutely should offer our people.)

Side note: do you have a link to more on this law? Currently dealing with an uninsured friend for whom we’re pooling resources for a medical treatment.

Certainly - here's the CFPB's page on it:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-repor...

Note that this is for lower-income households

Is your friend in the US? If their income is low enough they would qualify for expanded Medicaid or ACA subsidy.
I always wonder if they take assets into account with this?
Stand and deliver, your money or your life.
Yeah, best to just not have developed it, or to wait until a more equitable country like Norway develops it. Then it will be fair.
Norway and Germany aren't that different I'd say.
Damn haven't thought of Adam Ant in years. Nice
i happen to know that this is the lupin express!
I wouldn't want to burden my family with the debt.

Especially if it might not ultimately work.

That said, I appreciate that costs will go down over time--even if only somewhat, if the author is correct.

If it doesn’t work you get your money back.

The worst case scenario is it works but you die in a car crash anyway.

It's cheaper than cancer, the loss of work and the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on treatment, $100K is totally reasonalble.