[Escapado]

Genuine question: How does it happen that a heart surgery costs 100k? 2 surgeons (200$/h) + 6 nurses(100$/h) for 10 hours would be 10k. Where do the other 100k come from? Is it the equipment cost? Consumables? After care? Or are the margins just ridiculous?

[giantg2]

Lots of equipment, consumable and facility costs. Catheters with realted imaging and machines to place it, meds, anesthesia, cost of the building, specialized HVAC, liability coverage, etc. Margins can also be bad since they'll charge some people more than others.

[dec0dedab0de]

In the breakdown it's usually the anesthesia that costs the most. I think a big chunk of that goes to malpractice insurance.

[ben_w]

Malpractice insurance? One insurance premium is high in order to pay for the cost of another insurance premium?

This seems… suboptimal.

I'm in Germany, I don't know what we spend money on here because I'm still integrating myself and have not mastered the German language to the level of having opinions about the Krankenversicherungsbeitragsentlastungsgesetz, but I do know we spend about 2/3rds per capita as the USA for better outcomes:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health...

[dec0dedab0de]

Malpractice insurance? One insurance premium is high in order to pay for the cost of another insurance premium? This seems… suboptimal.

Absolutely, the only way it makes sense is if you think of insurance as organized crime.

[peterbecich]

Excessive testing to protect against legal liability, also.