Why is making healthcare easy so hard?

Well, the simple answer is there are too many players and partnerships between them are next to impossible to broker. In order to fix the healthcare experience we all hate, the partners must have a singular vision for a better experience, and then broker the deal so we all benefit. 

There are a four main players in healthcare:

• Employers

• Health insurance companies

• Doctors/Hospitals

• Patients

Employers want a healthy and happy workforce for an affordable price. Doctors and hospitals want to fix illness and make a profit. Health insurance companies want to calculate risk, manage risk, and make a profit. And patients just want a doctor who will help them either optimize their health or get better.

Presently, for the most part, employers are responsible for paying for health. Employers purchase health insurance for their employees. They of course know it’s in their best interest to have a healthy workforce. Healthy workers make their business better.

But the challenge here is creating an ecosystem of disruption that markedly changes healthcare for the better. In order for healthcare to be “disrupted” and made into a completely better experience, we’ve got to have an ecosystem of disruptors all playing on the same team with the same goals— disruptive employers, disruptive health insurance companies, disruptive doctors/hospitals, and disruptive patients. The chances of that happening are quite slim.

So let’s follow the money. It all starts with the employer. They’re, by far, the ones shelling out obscene amounts of money on ever-increasing health insurance premiums. They are the ones that can start this disruptive ecosystem. The forward-thinking companies, who are disruptors themselves, are the ones who need to think differently about healthcare.

It’s in their DNA.