Healthcare Debate, and the impact of Internet

Today, everybody is talking about health care. Governments around the world are taking notice of the rising costs and dissatisfaction among their electorates with the current system.

So, why is this discussion going on and how can we “the common man” can help in creating a more robust and a flexible system in which everyone participates and contributes to the well being of their fellow beings?

The different models used in different countries are now being hotly discussed for their pros and cons but do we really know how the future will look like?

How do we really know what is good for us?

Let us try to compare some of the different models in practice today. We will then talk about how we as individuals can help in creating a healthy health care system which caters to people and not corporations.

Comparison by Countries:

The below table shows some comparative numbers by countries:

Country	Life Expectancy	Infant Mortality Rate	Physicians per 100 people	Nurses per 100 people	Per capita expenditure on Health (USD)	Health Care costs as a percent of GDP	% of government revenues spent on health	% of health care costs paid by government
Australia	81.4	4.2	2.8	9.7	3,137	8.7	17.7	67.7
Canada	80.7	5.0	2.2	9.0	3,895	10.1	16.7	69.8
France	81.0	4.0	3.4	7.7	3,601	11.0	14.2	79.0
Germany	79.8	3.8	3.5	9.9	3,588	10.4	17.6	76.9
Japan	82.6	2.6	2.1	9.4	2,581	8.1	16.8	81.3
Sweden	81.0	2.5	3.6	10.8	3,323	9.1	13.6	81.7
UK	79.1	4.8	2.5	10.0	2,992	8.4	15.8	81.7
US	78.1	6.7	2.4	10.6	7,290	16.0	18.5	45.4

The comparison highlights some really interesting facts and shows us how to measure the current state of our health care systems and what we need to focus on for the future.

So, how do we make a decision as to what model is the best among these and is more effective? Does it really matter whether we chose one model among these and then apply it universally?

Shouldn’t we as individuals get the freedom to choose what works for us and then pay for the services we choose? Should it matter where are we getting the advice from? Should the government regulate how we choose our doctors, physicians, health care providers, insurers etc?

How Internet is changing the landscape and where we as individuals fit in.

Internet since its inception has changed the way people communicate with each other. It has opened the doors to the world and has shrunk the distances. There have been break through firms and business models like Amazon, EBay, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace etc which have changed the way how people do business with each other. It has leveled the playing field by reducing the barriers to entry and at the same time has fostered the culture of innovation by giving the freedom to individuals to get their ideas in front of the world any time, any where at no cost.

One such innovation is enabling Personal or Micro Sourcing on the internet platform. This is not a new concept by any stretch as it has been in practice since the Indus Valley, Mayans, and other older civilizations. It was one of the ways to facilitate local trade but till the advent of internet was practiced on a small scale.

Internet has given wings to the micro sourcing area by opening the access to the world at the touch of a button. I happen to know that a very good friend of my colleague at eZdia, Sachin is working on a research paper on this very topic to gain deeper insights on how people make decision on the internet and real life when it comes to trading at an individual level.

Now, let’s see what happens when we apply the micro sourcing phenomenon and the wisdom of crowds to the Health Care area. We know that the heath care systems today are broken, inefficient, and haven’t upgraded to meet the needs of today. We also know that governments have been trying for decades to overhaul the health care systems. But, changing complex systems, and bringing change is difficult, time consuming and incredibly frustrating.

So, how can we help to bring this change?

I talked earlier about breakthrough firms successfully using internet based models. Let us take a deeper look into some of these firms who have started to use the concept of micro sourcing and are providing the online platforms to facilitate this trade.

A comparison between these firms can be found on my very good friend and colleague, Vikas’s blog (http://referencedesigner.com/blog/tag/health/).

The idea is to provide information and freedom to people looking for advice at a minimal cost without encountering the hurdles of the bureaucratic health care systems. Take a peek at ezdia (www.ezdia.com) where you will find hundreds of registered experts and physicians by their areas of expertise. You can search for your question or search for the expert by area on ezdia and both of these ways will lead you to a live person regardless of where is he located. Once you have the expert identified, you can choose to talk to him live through chat or phone (this feature is coming soon in October’ 09) and pay only for the services you take.

This is not say that the formal health care systems will go away or vanish in thin air. They do have a great role to play from Pharmaceuticals to Health Insurance providers to Hospitals to Nurses to Doctors. But, at the same time we can and should leverage the wisdom of people and there are almost 4billion of us on this planet.

We need to get the information out on our effective practices, preventative measures, and common remedies. It is in all of our interests to help our fellow beings and at the same time online platforms like eZdia will help in ensuring that you are rewarded for your efforts.

In my next blog, I will focus on the health care systems in India, China and other developing countries.

Related posts:

1. HealthCare in China, its Lessons, and eZdia In the recent posts I have talked about health care...
2. Health Care in India and how eZdia can help Lets start with some facts and slides on the current...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.