We have some of the most expensive, crappiest healthcare of any industrialized nation. Why?
It’s certainly not because of a lack of talent or technology. Our physicians are among the best-trained in the world, and our medical technology is second to none. Yet, despite these advantages, the care patients receive often falls short. Why? Because the problem isn’t the doctors or the tools they use—it’s the business model.
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Healthcare in the U.S. is riddled with parasitic middlemen, all eager to stick their hands in the pot. These intermediaries—insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, hospital administrators, and other bureaucratic entities—have turned healthcare into a commodity. Patients are reduced to dollar signs, and doctors are treated as mere service providers whose time and skills are just another line item on a spreadsheet.
What’s left is a hollowed-out version of the doctor-patient relationship, the cornerstone of good healthcare. Instead of meaningful, personalized care, we get a system where nearly everything is monetized. Communication suffers, decision-making is bogged down by red tape, and the focus shifts from what’s best for the patient to what’s most profitable for the stakeholders.
Patients are reduced to dollar signs, and doctors are treated as mere service providers whose time and skills are just another line item on a spreadsheet.
Doctors are overburdened with administrative tasks that take time away from patient care, and patients are left navigating a labyrinth of approvals, denials, and surprise bills. Even worse, the profit-driven nature of this system incentivizes cost-cutting at the expense of quality, leading to poorer health outcomes despite sky-high spending.
The solution isn’t complicated: remove the parasites. Strip away the unnecessary layers of bureaucracy that add cost without adding value. Rebuild the doctor-patient relationship to focus on care, not profits. Empower physicians to make decisions based on medical necessity rather than insurance policies.
Until we address the systemic problems caused by these middlemen, we’ll continue to have a healthcare system that prioritizes profits over people. We have the tools and the talent to do better. What’s missing is the will to dismantle the parasitic structure holding us all back.
