re: How are vets able to perform surgeries and prescribe meds so much cheaper?

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Investors run human healthcare and they have profits to maximize.

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And people that choose to invest or build vets near large populations of GoldenDoodles hate profit? Please, dude, you build new vet shops near where there are rich women. A large animal vet (who knows the economic value of large animal) charges you different than a bullshite suburban vet that mostly works on animals less than 30 pounds.

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You have to pay for pet visits before you leave

If everyone paid their hospital bill, before going home, things would be much cheaper.

Instead we have folks that use the ER like their PCP and will never pay a dime

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That and pet insurance hasn't taken over yet.

When it does watch out.

Years ago people only carried major medical for things like hospital stay. Everything else was cash.

The insurance and docs figured out they could inflate the shite out of cost and make people buy insurance it was a huge profit win dumped on the consumers.

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The insurance and docs figured out they could inflate the shite out of cost and make people buy insurance it was a huge profit win dumped on the consumers.

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It’s a giant wealth transfer from the healthy to the sick.

TL/DNR: It's a LOT more complicated than just lawsuits.

Let me count a few of the ways:
-Expensive health care surveyors (Medicare, Medicaid, Radiology, Joint Commission, ad -nauseam) who make "recommendations" that are expensive. In the case of Joint Commission, submitting to the survey itself it expensive.
-Because of the increased inefficiency of electronic medical records (EMR), more nurses are needed to do the same job as was needed pre-EMR.
-There are an increasingly large number of insurance programs (the worst offenders I'm told are Medicare Advantage insurance, especially Humana, United Health and Aetna. that discount services provided by the. hospital. Frequently the entire hospitalization is denied. This usually occurs after the services have already been provide, but sometimes happens during the hospitalization. Medicare Advantage insurance programs. Lots of times the reimbursement is discounted to a lower level. The hospital will try to recoup those losses from other pateints/insurances.
-Defensive medicine. The threat of lawsuits and unhappy patient results in a lot of medically unnecesary testing. Should everyone with a simple, uncomplicated concussion really need an expensive CT scan?
-An increasing large number of physicians and /mid-level are utilizing a large number of expensive tests to make a diagnosis or determine treatment. I know someone who recently had a degenerative meniscus tear (a common knee injury that normally heals on it's own without complications). The ortho made the diagnosis by taking a careful histiory and carrying out a good examination. A cortisone shot was given and the patient was back to normal as predicted in a few weeks. OTOH, many would've done an MRI, oftentimes even before seeing the patient, and still given the same cortisone shot. Many of those patients would end up being referred to an Ortho unnecessarily for a number of reasons.
-Pharmaceuticals are becoming increasingly more expensive both for the hospital as well as from the pharmacy. Our dog took lisinopril for heart failure. It was prescribed and provided by the vet. The same medication for my grandmother bought from a pharmacy was much more expensive. The increaing cost of meds will continue to worsen as the huge box pharmacies like Walgreens take over pharmacy. I've talked to some independent pharmacists about the price structure of medicines and the struggle independent pharmacies to stay open. I still don't understand the complicated price structure.

Less liability. Ambulance chasers aren’t suing vets

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If everyone paid their hospital bill, before going home, things would be much cheaper.

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Took my granddaughter to the doctor before she was covered, cost me an extra $150 before I could even see the doctor.

They seem to punish cash payers more.

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Health insurance and malpractice lawsuits drive up costs for humans

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This is partially true. The dearth of regulations mandated by Federal Law and a huge glut of Adminstrators in hospitals are equally if not more at fault.

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So as much as people compare them, it’s apples and bananas.

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What do you have against oranges, sir?

Cause it’s less blowback if a animal dies… them not having a soul in all