MedExpert International’s Individual Medical Decision Systems (IMDS) help patients answer the question, “What would the world’s top experts do for my medical situation?” This e-enabled shared decision tool promises to provide answers in the short time frame patients demand when facing serious health problems.
Say’s Law, discussed in college-level economics is often summarized as “supply creates its own demand.” In recent years this notion has been applied in health care. For example, a provider who buys a pricey new CT machine may be more likely to find reasons to use it. In general –because of examples like this– I tend to believe supply does create its own demand in health care.
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Drew Altman does some Simple Arithmetic to demonstrate that the average cost of a family health insurance policy could reach $30,000 in ten years, which is kind of nuts in an era where overall price levels are likely to be pretty flat and so are wages. The law of compounding will eventually catch up with us. Health care costs simply can’t keep rising like this forever. On the other hand, Altman assumes an 8.7% compound annual rate of growth while we just learned that in Massachusetts we can expect rates to rise 10 percent next year.
I sure had a good chuckle reading the Wall Street Journal’s lead story today (Wal-Mart Backs Drive to Make Companies Pay for Health Coverage). As reported, Wal-Mart wrote a letter to President Obama –co-signed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Center for American Progress (CAP)– calling for an employer mandate to offer health insurance coverage.
I attended a forum devoted to the Impact of the 2008 Presidential Election on Health Policy this morning in Boston, and found it to be rather interesting. Professor Robert Blendon from the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor Stuart Altman from Brandeis were particularly good. Former Lt. Governor Kerry Healey and former MA Democratic Party Chair Phil Johnston weren’t bad either.