Dan Tasset is the Vice Chairman of NueHealth Holdings, the CEO of NueHealth Performance, and the Chairman of Nueterra Capital. His blog posts offer his experienced and innovative views on healthcare, healthcare reform, and related topics.
The repeal and replacement of ObamaCare has now failed twice. ls it possible Congress was focused on the wrong thing? Like ObamaCare, they were debating the number of people with health INSURANCE. Maybe they should be focused on increasing access by decreasing the cost of CARE. This would mean adopting policies that create market conditions that have been long proven in other industries to bring down prices and improve quality. Those policies result in empowering consumers to seek value, increase the supply of care, stimulate competition which will in turn spark innovation. It’s worked in every other industry and it will work in healthcare. Consumer empowerment, competition and innovation are the foundational cornerstones for impactful, long lasting healthcare reform.
We’ve long known the market is going to outstrip the government in transforming healthcare delivery. It’s time for the federal government to step back and enable innovation and competition to produce a system for the future. It’s time for the industry to become truly consumer-facing. In other countries, governments hold down costs mainly by limiting access to care, drugs and technology. The results are long waits and worse medical outcomes, particularly for the poor and middle class, who are unable to circumvent those single-payer systems. If Congress wants to avoid going down that road, they need to educate the public on a different approach: leveraging incentives and de-regulation to empower and engage consumers while stimulating competition and innovation like other industries have done. The result will be affordable healthcare for all Americans.