Bitcoin as a catalyst for Health Care (Worldwide)

[Kprawn]

The MAIN problem with Health Care is the prohibitive cost for most people to afford quality care.

If you could implement Bitcoin payment in the whole supply chain, from the development and sourcing of raw material to the payment by the patient, you would see a significant change in the cost.

Multiply the cost saving factor in this whole process, and you WILL see a reduction in cost.

Some doctors give discount for cash or emmediate payments... {They do not have to wait 3 to 4 weeks for medical insurance companies to pay their bills} These discounts could also be awarded to Bitcoin payments for two reasons :

1. The doctor pay less banking fees.
2. The doctor gets almost instant payment for services rendered. { If they waited 4 weeks, they would have lost interest on that money in a bank }

This will benefit both the doctor and the patient.  

Edit : Information could also be recorded in the Blockchain {Treatment history / Payment history for tax purpose} Imagine being able to keep all records of payment and treatment forever, without having to archive it yourselves.  

That is IF you not worried about privacy issues.  

 

[grendel25]

Bitcoin is an important part of fixing healthcare.  Bitcoin is an important financial tool that has obvious inherent security and conveniences that fiat or wire transfers do not.

However... there is an absolute requirement, in my opinion, to completely eradicate all health insurance.  Healthcare is already a profit organization.  A for-profit finance organization on top of healthcare only acts to the detriment of healthcare.  Executive pay and bonuses in healthcare insurance is absolutely wrong.

Insurance is important for homes, cars, electronics, etc.. but it has no place in healthcare.  It's proven to be a failed financial model and an impediment to healthcare.

The sooner people stop talking about healthcare insurance as if it's a necessity the sooner healthcare will be solved.  And then... Bitcoin can have even more benefits to healthcare and just about anything else that requires efficient financing.   

[nutildah]

The MAIN problem with Health Care is the prohibitive cost for most people to afford quality care.
 

So long as we continue pretending there is a relationship between cost and quality of healthcare, the problem will remain in tact. Employee salaries comprise the vast majority of healthcare costs -- not advancements in medicine and technology.

We really should be following the footsteps of the rest of the developed world and implement a single-payer healthcare system. Until then, we are just encouraging physicians to figure out how to work the insurance system rather than to concentrate on delivering quality healthcare.

If we did move to single-payer, I suspect a lot of physicians who are in it solely for the money will be weeded out, and perhaps our life expectancy will catch up to all the other countries we currently make fun of for being too socialist.*


*This includes ISRAEL by the way, to all my Republican conservative friends out there. Yes, that's right. Israel has a single-payer healthcare system. Deal with it.

[newtothescene]

Glad to see this thread resurrected - I haven't made much progress with this idea in the past year but it has been something I think about frequently.  Utilization of a blockchain for faster payment, accurate billing, and potential storage of medical records (something to make it accessible by all, but private to the individual and that person's providers) would be large improvements.  Certainly in a place like the USA, there would have be larger changes happening to make this effective, but as others mentioned in smaller countries where there is less regulation and red tap the possibilities for integration into crypto technologies could be a huge win. 

[muhrohmat]

well the furfillment of technology money like bitcoin its not the technology it sellf its the capacidty of ideas and bussness that comes by having less nervouse and more active community in bitcoin the inovation ideas and active bussness do a better use of technology even in medical terms

[Osasumox]

Maybe Bitcoin can help pay for blackmarket doctor, i.e. if you have a shootout in the hood and get wounded, you can't go to regular hospital for treatment since they would call the cops, so you call a blackmarket doctor to treat you and you can pay with Bitcoin.

This way, Bitcoin could help the healthcare in low income hoods for people getting treatment.

[bitbets]

What (if any) uses/benefits can the Bitcoin currency offer to improve both the care people receive and reduce the overall cost?  Seems like every country has a unique approach to healthcare and I am wondering if the unified currency model can benefit the adaptation to and improvement of healthcare in a variety of countries.  Anything is fair game here, just looking for ideas or input.  

Everyone needs some kind of healthcare and everyone needs some kind of currency.  Why not combine two universal needs to make both stronger for all people?  

Ideas/Discussion - GO

I think it is appropriate to discuss Jesus Christ in this discussion about health care.


In regards to the 'high cost' of 'health care':

Jesus Christ miraculously healed people with the Power of Almighty God!

Jesus did not charge any money to do those amazing works for people.


Bitcoin is money, or it is 'like money'.

In regards to how to use your money, when you are confronted with a health emergency:

Jesus spoke a parable, that people have named 'The Good Samaritan Parable'


Quoted from: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10:25-37&version=NIV

Luke 10:25-37New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’(a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’(b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”



Therefore, I say to you, Go And Do Likewise With Your Bitcoins(money)

[nutildah]

Maybe Bitcoin can help pay for blackmarket doctor, i.e. if you have a shootout in the hood and get wounded, you can't go to regular hospital for treatment since they would call the cops, so you call a blackmarket doctor to treat you and you can pay with Bitcoin.

This way, Bitcoin could help the healthcare in low income hoods for people getting treatment.

Now here's some realistic thinking...

If you exclude the speculators (90% of holders), bitcoin is really only used for fraud, gambling and drugs (this is true -- lets stop pretending its not).

So yes, you could use bitcoin as a way to skirt around the PPO or HMO system where 100 people have to get paid before 1 patient can get a surgery.

However, as we've learned over the past 3 years, there has been ZERO adoption of bitcoin among lower-income populations. Want to know why? Because you have to have shit like a bank account, money, the internet and a computer in order to get bitcoin. That's a lot of 1st world shit that we take for granted as spoiled pussies.

I see it more likely being used by Rush Limbaugh- or Michael Jackson-types to get highly experimental penis enlargement surgeries and/or large quantities of sleepy-time meds.

Bitcoin won't ever be used to help poor people. Let's face it: any time a new way to make or use money is involved, the children of rich, white people swoop in, set up regulations and tip that scale also in their favor. Looking at the pictures of the people who comprise the Bitcoin Foundation says it all.

[CoralHealth]

Fraud is one of the biggest areas of concern within healthcare.  If we could find ways to reduce fraud, healthcare would be a lot cheaper and more people could have access to it.  I like the idea of using transaction logs within the blockchain as a way to verify financial aspects of the exchange.  Maybe there could exist a health record blockchain/"coin" that all parties have access to.  Since the unique identifiers are anonymous there wouldn't be any risk of HIPAA violations.  The same way that transactions are "confirmed" we could do something similar for confirming treatments.  Keeps the patients and doctors honest about what they charge.  If they only get payed based on confirmed transactions in the log then it would be a whole lot easier to spot fraud this way...

Yeah I think the payment side of healthcare will benefit before the clinical side does. Here's a well written paper on using the blockchain for claims processing. It's written by Humana one of the largest insurers in the US.  https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/3-47-whitepaperblockchainforclaims_v10.pdf