[dgoldstein0]

I don't see how the law is the problem here. The problem sounds like insurance companies that dodge their duties. We need them to be held accountable. We likely also need the general cost of doing business in healthcare to go down - which they are partly responsible for due to throwing up so many barriers for them to actually pay for anything.

[bumby]

Steelmanning the OP (which I’m not sure I agree with), it’s possible they are alluding to regulatory capture, implying the laws are crafted to benefit for-profit companies first and patients second.

However, I’m not sure going in the direction of less regulation would help. It’s like saying “The for-profit healthcare companies have too much power, so let’s just give them more power.”

[jfengel]

It's not so much a capture as a hodgepodge. There are a great many interests, and even in a good faith environment it would be a challenge to get everything right.

Add to that the fact that it's not a good faith environment. There are many forces, not even connected to the industry, who fight to lower prices at any cost. Even if it means finding out too late that you're not actually buying anything at all.

The laws and regulatory environment are "the best compromise people were able to get at the time" rather than any kind of cogent plan.

[akira2501]

> We need them to be held accountable. We likely also need the general cost of doing business in healthcare to go down

These two statements are at odds with each other.

> responsible for due to throwing up so many barriers

To me, it's obviously lack of competition that's the problem, you don't want to punish crappy providers, you want to subsidize new ones so the market is flooded with options.

Which can be done right after we solve the monopolization problem in health care service providers, medical equipment providers, and "pharmacy benefit managers."

[xtracto]

My dream project is a non-profit smart-contract based insurance system: with double blind analysis of claims by doctors who have nothing to win from approving/rejecting a specific claim, a system were there is no asshole middleman insurance racket company.

I know this tech is disliked in HN, but I am positive that it is possible build something like that, due to the "trustlessness" capabilities.