In recent days, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have reported on the Affordable Care Act’s growing problems. Skyrocketing premiums, more lost coverage, skyrocketing deductibles, narrow networks, dysfunctional health insurance exchanges (more than half of which have now closed shop), and a warning from the nation’s largest insurer UnitedHealth that it may abandon Obamacare altogether. One consumer summed up the dismal situation:
“We can’t afford the Affordable Care Act, quite honestly,” said Cassaundra Anderson, whose family canvassed for Obama in their neighborhood, a Republican stronghold outside Cincinnati. “The intention is great, but there is so much wrong. . . . I’m mad.”
Is there a better way? Yes, there are lots of better ways, and lots of good ideas to “reform health care reform.” In fact, I believe health care is poised to explode with exciting innovations that will slash costs and radically improve care. Just yesterday the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced a new fund focused on software for biotech. But many of these important medical and economic advancements will only happen to the degree we allow them to happen. And right now, the ACA is exacerbating the worst features of the existing health market while adding new pathologies of its own. Choice is contracting, costs are mushrooming, and innovation is being stifled. The FDA, too, is a big obstacle. Instead of this rigid, top-down, costly path, I’ve laid out what I think is a more hopeful vision for the future of health care in a new report called “The App-ification of Medicine: A Four-Facted Information Revolution in Health.” This revolution is based on:
- Smartphones and personal technology
- Big Data, Social Data
- The Code of Life
- The app-ification of the business of health care
The report is by no means a comprehensive look at what is a huge sector and a hugely complex topic. But it might spark some ideas and bolster our optimism that if we free the health sector, it can become an economic blessing rather than a burden.
