THE New Book Health Care in the Next Curve: Transforming a Dysfunctional Industry, is a must-read for health care industry leaders, policy analysts, lawmakers, and consumers.

“Medicare for all” will be a centerpiece issue of many campaigns in the forthcoming election cycles. There will be a renewed and highly-energized interest in health care policy direction in the wake of an Obamacare program that has imploded on many fronts, as well as the failure of a Republican congress to effectively deal with the mounting problems of health care.

Health Care in the Next Curve: Transforming a Dysfunctional Industry (Routledge, August 2018) is now hitting shelves across the country.  It takes an oft-times scathing look at an industry that continues to head toward crisis, identifying the root causes of industry dysfunction.  The book then focuses on the essential things that must be done to fix these root problems, and to take the industry in a dramatically new direction.

John Abendshien, the author, has a unique insider’s perspective on both the problems and the solutions.  In his decades-long experience as a policy and strategy advisor to virtually all segments of the industry, he has had first-hand involvement with both the problems and their possible solutions.

His critique of the industry identifies how the various industry insiders and stakeholders have contributed to the problems that we are facing today.  In particular, he chronicles the role of government legislation and policy direction in creating much of the dysfunctionality in health care; and how various industry stakeholders—providers, insurers, and trade and professional associations—have had a  vested interest in creating and perpetuating many of the problems that we face.

The author does not buy into the premise that the government is the answer to our health care problems.  Instead, the book describes a transformative force that is already at work.  It is a market that is armed with the explosive growth of Big Data and all of its derivative analytical tools.  A market that is now able to make objectively-informed decisions regarding how health care is delivered, purchased, and consumed.  But in order to actualize this rationalized future state, we will need to systematically undo or revise obsolete insurance products, payer approaches, delivery models, and regulatory structures.

From a public policy perspective, the book spells out how society can meet its obligations to provide high quality health care to all citizens regardless of income and age, while at the same time providing the average consumer with more affordable options for health insurance coverage.  The solutions set forth are instructive not only for remedying the ills of the US system, but could provide a meaningful framework for tackling the structural drawbacks to health systems in the UK, Canada, and other countries.

– Aug. 3, 2018 @ 16:37 GMT |