The Henry Ford of Health Care

Paul Howard tells us that entrepreneurs are fixing health care, if only government would get out of the way:

Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile. He just found a way to mass-produce it, allowing him to sell an affordable, reliable form of transportation to middle-class Americans. Can twenty-first-century entrepreneurs do the same for health care, which seems defined by expensive, labor-intensive services? In a word, yes—by “unbundling” inexpensive services from expensive settings like hospitals and by moving from a reactive medical model that treats already sick patients (very expensive) to a predictive, personalized model that monitors patients for disease predispositions and keeps them healthy (far cheaper).

Wal-Mart, for all the fire that labor activists direct at it, is quickly becoming the Henry Ford of health care. It took a bold stride into health-care markets in 2006, rolling out a Florida pilot program offering dozens of generic drugs at just $4 for a month’s supply. The program quickly spread to other states and added many new generics, including medicines for glaucoma, attention deficit disorder, fungal infections, and acne. As of May 2008, Wal-Mart estimates, the program has saved consumers over $1 billion in prescription drug costs. Competitors like Target and Kroger have rushed to match its offerings.

This topic bores me to tears, and yet I loved Howard's essay in full.

Spoiler alert: national health care is not the answer.

Comments

[Jamie]

I'm from Australia, and from our vantage point, the American debates on public health care are absolutely bizarre. The health care system here - state-run hospitals, public health insurance, and ample incentives to go private if you can afford it - works excellently, by and large. There are problems and there are controversies, naturally, but nothing remotely on the scale of the problems you have in the United States. Just what are the massive drawbacks of public health care meant to be?

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