Sachin Jain: “Consumerism” in healthcare has been a mixed blessing

Sachin Jain shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Two decades ago, the term ‘consumer’ started creeping into healthcare at a brisk pace.

• Consumers
• Consumerism
• Customers
• Shopping

What happened to ‘patients?’

It was seen as disempowering.

Or paternalistic.

But ‘consumerism’ in healthcare has been a mixed blessing.

Consumerism brought copays and coinsurance.

It brought us an endless array of ratings and rankings—only some of which have any correlation to the real quality of care.

Fervent advocates for consumerism say—we are in the middle of the movie.

Don’t judge it by the middle…judge it by the end.

There’s more to do and see.

And when we get there, everything will be better for everyone—patients and doctor alike.

Skeptics say—we’ve seen enough.

Healthcare is different (as they’ve always said).

People don’t want to shop for healthcare.

They just want to be cared for—with the best medicine has to offer.

Consumerism introduces a commercial edge to something that fundamentally shouldn’t be commercial.

Consumerism has been good for the countless private enterprises that it has yielded…but benefit for patients has been vastly overstated.

The best analogs for more fully consumer-driven markets are dentistry and veterinary medicine…or countries like India…where few people have insurance…and access to care is uneven at best.

What can we learn from this analogues?

Where do you stand?

Will consumerism save the day?

Or is it an experiment that has gone on for long enough—-and it’s time to call it.”

Source: Sachin Jain/LinkedIn

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Sachin H. Jain is the President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a Board Member at The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, an Academic Hospitalist (WOC) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and a Board Member at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). He is also a board member of Omada Health.