Non-Disruptive Innovation

Yesterday, on NPR, a Republican congressman complained that Obama’s health care plan might endanger an innovative health care system. In fact, it is taken as an article of faith, that the US health care system is the most innovative in the world.

On some level, this is true. There are many new treatments and drugs every year. However, most of this is non-disruptive innovation—it feeds the current system, but never challenges it.

It is mostly illegal to actually touch the fundamental mechanisms through which health care is delivered.

Have people which don’t have a traditional MD provide medical services? Replace doctors with computer programs? Franchise hospitals built around the McDonald’s model? Insurance with an explicit dollar amount on your life (something like the NICE model used in Britain [and praised by many single-payer advocates]: if it costs more than X to save your life, it’s not covered)? All of these are simply illegal.

Nurse practitioners could be the thin end of the wedge, but they are always controversial. Doctors, more than teachers or trial-lawyers, are the most sacrosant interest group in the country. Libertarian blogs are full of posts bemoaning the way in which teacher unions stand in the way of disruption in education. Rarely do we see the same being said of the medical association (which is even worse than the teachers union because its licensing has force-of-law).

Yesterday, on NPR, a Republican congressman complained that Obama's health care plan might endanger an innovative health care system. In fact, it is taken as an article of faith, that the US health care system is the most innovative in the world. On some level, this is true. There are many new treatments and drugs ...