Press Release: Gov. Schwarzenegger Tackles California's Broken Health Care System - FierceHealthcare
Like string theory, quantum physics and all manner of other phenomena (that effect everyone's daily life, but that few could care less about), a debate has raged in the healthcare "field" for some time now. But this hugely important and contentious issue is beginning to settle into a "unified theory" of its own. For years proponents of supply-side restrictions of healthcare have worked hard to make their various PPO. HMO, Disease Mgmt, etc., pay dividends: i.e., in the form of reduced costs. More recently, demand-side approaches, that rely upon the natural market forces of consumerism, have begun to take hold.. Commonly referred to as CDHP (consumer-driven health plans), things like HSAs, HRAs, HIAs, etc. are showing real promise in both reducing overall cost and, more importantly, improving wellness and participating individuals' sense well being.
Perhaps more remarkable still, is that the nexus of traditional supply-side plans with more innovative demand-side strategies, that is unfolding within the private payor (employer-sponsored plans), may be quickly followed in the public sector. Indeed, it's even conceivable that a leading-edge state government program may lead this charge!
So, what does all this have to do with "the participatory web"? Everything!
CDHP is not only information/transaction-intensive, they will be inordinately P2P (aka, social network) driven as well. Things like Revolution Health, Wellsource, WebMD, and Daily Strength may be the Google, YouTube and MySpace of a near tomorrow. And, a browser that further empowers resources like these may be the Netscape that emerges in the incipient CDHP era?
