Many insurers and providers know neither their real costs nor real income until it's too late to do anything about it. The industry response to the crisis is to clamp down on pharmaceutical spending and other treatments. None of these solutions is consistent with the public good. As the financial crisis mounts, patients are increasingly complaining about the lack of access to care. Health care professionals complain about being overworked and not having the freedom to treat patients as they see fit.
Employers complain about rising costs.
But imagine a health care utopia where you, your family and your associates could get quality care whenever and wherever the need arose, independent of your insurer. With some acknowledgment to the financial services industry, I can now get cash easily almost anywhere in the world. Not true with medical attention. The transformative role of IT in this industry could be enormous. The possibilities go well beyond fixing financial systems.