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Monday, December 1, 2014

Society's Money Sink - Healthcare

People are fixated on the topical problems of the day.  But the biggest problem is not ISIS, it's not Ukraine, and it's not the banking system; more people will die from car crashes than ISIS and China won't let the West go into bankruptcy. They lose their principal in that event.

It's healthcare.  The demand for healthcare is unlimited. It is society's money sink (as in the opposite of a source not the kitchen variety).  That means if everyone came forward with a need for some covered condition it would bankrupt the system.  No system can afford to cover all expenses.  So the reality is that every year the system tries to make efficiencies but also tries to slow down demand to meet the existing budget.

Demographics is the biggest forcing function in society; the age histogram dictates what costs are prevalent to society.  And the aging population is risking society's fiduciary status.  Healthcare costs will go up not flatten.

Healthcare can bankrupt us.  

What we need is mandatory innovative changes forced on the system.  We need to force creative solutions outside their comfort zone, technology, robots, any and all improvements to squeeze every efficiency out of our tax dollars. 

We need e-visits to doctors,  we need automated sample surveys, we need Artificial Intelligence doctor's assistants, e-files, we need doctor teleconferencing for remote locations. 

Any government that is not focused on healthcare is a liability to its citizens. 


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