Addressing the Looming Healthcare Crisis

Publication Date: March 2008

Publisher: IBM Center for The Business of Government

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

Keywords: Presidential transition; Healthcare industry; Prevention

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Current approaches to health care fail to address the long-term problems. Financial constraints, counterproductive societal expectations and norms, the lack of alignment in incentives, short-term thinking, and the inability to access and share critical information all inhibit change in healthcare systems. If the willingness and ability to change cannot be mustered, the result will be a scenario in which the situation for virtually all stakeholders in the healthcare system deteriorates.

We need to realign health care providers to focus more on prevention and improved health care outcomes. Healthcare providers expand their current focus on episodic, acute care to encompass the enhanced management of chronic diseases and the life-long prediction and prevention of illness.