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Podcast: PRay TeLL, Dr. Hash
Episode: 303 Hospitals As Primary Care Providers
Description: Almost all medical costs are fixed. A hospital doesn't get any cheaper by not having patients: the equipment & the medical staff have to be there whether there's one patient or the Waiting room is full. Think of the whole hospital as one cost & more people using it wouldn't make much difference to prices. Also, different costs assigned to different procedures are purely artificial: fixing a broken arm takes no more resources than “sniffles;” and an MRI of a head injury costs no more than treating a diabetic. Primary doctors are multi-disciplinary & multi-tasking, and if a specialist is needed, hospitals have...