• @[email protected]
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    24 hours ago

    Not to worry, it’ll soon dip back down as the Almighty, who is also the Invisible Hand Of The Free Market, wills

  • Kernal64
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    408 hours ago

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen what appears to be a line graph loop back on itself.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 hours ago

        But in this graph it’s correct, isn’t it?

        A bit of a strange choice of axis, but technically it’s correct, I think.
        We see how during COVID people died earlier although expenses went up (didn’t check the dates, but I guess that’s the thing?), and afterwards expenses went down, but people grow older again
        Or do I completely misunderstand this?

        • Farid
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          34 hours ago

          Yeah, it’s correct. What they did is, for every year they place a dot with respect to x and y axis, then connected the dots. An unusual graph, but works well for this situation, IMO.

      • @angrystego
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        65 hours ago

        I don’t think they’re cringing, this is perfectly correct.

  • @[email protected]
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    98 hours ago

    Can you guess when HMOs became a thing (and Blue Cross converted from not-for-profit to for-profit)?

      • @[email protected]
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        86 hours ago

        I was asking rhetorically since the graph makes it pretty obvious, but actually re-reading this article it’s a bit more complex than I recalled. There was basically some legislation in the mid 1970s that made them possible, the model grew through the 80s, but by the late 80s low-rent HMOs had taken over, and a crippling combo of regulation (to create new barriers to entry) and deregulation (for the existing guys) basically cemented the for-profit HMO/PPO providers that we all know and love (haha) by the 1990s. Had we held out for another decade we probably would have seen socialized medicine by the Clinton-era, but instead we got this graph, where we pay more and get less than everyone else, and half the country thinks it’s a great idea.