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comment by mk
mk  ·  4382 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Dirty Medicine
We want to order a refrigerator for our lab. The Hospital requires us to use a vendor that charges $2k for a refrigerator that costs $400 at the Home Depot.

My father was a quadreplegic. The costs of the most basic supplies were ridiculous. For a rubber hose, the insurer would be charged $40, when the actual cost was probably $0.50, if that.

This is a huge part of healthcare costs in the US. The US is under the thumb of corporate legislation.





b_b  ·  4382 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Ha. I was just having a conversation with a co-worker about how our computers suck balls. I could go to Best Buy and pick one up for a few hundred bucks that would outperform any two we currently have (his has 512MB, while mine, the fancy one, has 1GB memory). But I can't. I have to purchase through ou rpurchasing dept, who is contracted to Dell, and this will cost probably 2-3 times what I could get in the "free market". The effect is that we continue to use POS computers from 6, 8, 10 years ago. Its funny that politicians all lick the free market's taint, but then codify into law rules that ensure lack of access to it. Remember the Medicare prescription drug benefit that forbids the Gov't from price negotiating?
mk  ·  4382 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    Remember the Medicare prescription drug benefit that forbids the Gov't from price negotiating?

I do. I recall that Bush said that to do otherwise would allow for 'price-fixing'. -He might have added that day was night.

b_b  ·  4382 days ago  ·  link  ·  
When he was running, he promised to run government like a business. I guess that's why his businesses always failed.
forwardslash  ·  4382 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    I have to purchase through ou rpurchasing dept, who is contracted to Dell

Just curious, was this a conscious decision made by the company? To pay more than you need seems anathema to a business.

b_b  ·  4382 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Doesn't it? Don't ask me to explain it. They say its because of "security".