Universal Healthcare: Inevitable Problems and a Can of Worms

We have a deeply troubled health system, where billions of dollars are wasted on inefficiencies. Drug prices are skyrocketing, and insurance companies have almost total control of reimbursement for medical treatments, which means they can deny coverage based on their own criteria.

Health is a political issue, but politics haven’t solved the main problems with the healthcare system: Good medical care is still broadly available to people of wealth and means, but people with fewer resources are stuck with care that is dominated by insurance companies, the corporate boardrooms of heath networks and politicians who use healthcare as a campaign issue and a means for reelection only.

Many people hope that giving the government an even bigger role in healthcare — by instituting a single-payer system or universal healthcare — will be the silver bullet for our system’s many problems.

But government has caused many of the problems we are stuck with today — isn’t it foolish to think more government is the answer?

What our system needs are new policies aimed at keeping the patient at the center of the healthcare equation. But even more importantly, we need new technological solutions that give more patients access to the best care and enable doctors to do the work they went to medical school to do.

Consumers Want Choice, Not More Government

American consumers expect to be able to get what they want and get it the way they want it. Consumers are in control when it comes to buying electronics, cars, housing or clothing. A consumer expects to find the exact product or service they need, pay for it how they want, and get it delivered.

Consumers expect the same choice, and the same feeling of being in control, when it comes to getting healthcare.

How will consumers react if even more choices are made by others? Today, insurers and drug companies make many of the most important choices. Will consumers really be happier, or get better care, if it is the government making those choices?

Consumers today have new ways to shop, travel and socialize. They want new ways to experience healthcare too.

Some countries have systems of universal healthcare and the single-payer model today. But what works well in smaller countries like Finland or Cuba might not scale to cover the many challenges of a healthcare system and a population like we have in America.

Putting the government in complete control in this country will be like opening a can of worms.

America is a litigious society, and the lawsuits alone that would come with a move to a single-payer system could be enough to end the program in its infancy. And if we try to move to universal care and fail, our system will go from imperfect to broken.

The only increase in government control our system needs is when it comes to drug pricing and the control of medical supplies. Because when the government uses the term universal healthcare, what they really mean is health insurance for all.

Coverage is not the same thing as quality healthcare. We may need a better system for insurance, but a better system for delivering care is far more important.

New strategies and new technologies for delivering care are what it will take to fix our troubled system. We need to be using advanced technologies like VR, AI and blockchain to connect the best physicians with as many patients as possible.

We need an open, virtual healthcare marketplace that restores consumer choice by letting people shop for the healthcare they want, instead of what insurers tell them.

We need practice management systems that will keep independent practices connected with other healthcare providers and with government agencies. These smaller practices have been going out of business, and the government cannot reverse this unfortunate trend.

New technologies and new approaches can do what the government cannot.

Organizations like VirtuMed 360 — a group of physicians and entrepreneurs who are building a better system — will do a better job than government agencies can at bringing doctors and their patients closer together.

Because the government wants healthcare coverage for all. New technologies and new approaches can offer something better than that: Quality healthcare for all.

We welcome your comments about our post. Find out more about VirtuMed 360.