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bastawhiz10/13/20241 replyview on HN

It's a terrible solution because it sets a price floor that makes it impossible for people to afford repairs. You need a $10 battery connector? 1% of 100k.

It's a vulnerable population who needs these parts. Probably lots of folks who can't work. Medicaid caps the amount of money you can have in an account at $8000 max. Pricing parts this way will push people into abject poverty out of desperation.

How about making parts for all medical devices something that must be covered by healthcare? Or, and this one is a crazy one, provide universal coverage so you can just get a new device at a reasonable price that's negotiated by the government?


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Dylan1680710/14/2024

Again, I was only comparing to your scenario of manufacturers not picking up the phone.

It was not a general-purpose suggestion, it was a weak proposition on purpose for the sake of simplicity.

Please stop treating it as a suggestion of what should happen. That post only exists to counter a specific sentence, it does not exist beyond that scenario.

Analogy: If I say a punch in the gut is more realistic than getting shot, I am not advocating for punches in the gut, and you don't need to tell me about better alternatives to punches in the gut.