Health care is turning into a consumer product

I really believe in this general category. Giving people healthcare that isn't a shitty experience will change the world.

I'm not confident a typical telehealth-style consultation with one of these direct-to-consumer companies is that great, but by the same token, I am confident the medical care I get in a traditional setting is mediocre. For example, the time an MD tried to convince me I couldn't be feeling pain... after I told him I was specifically there for pain.

The greatest healthcare improvements in the US could be brought about by:

- Dismantling the insurance/big hospital complex that milks the US population for the enrichment of c-suite executives.

- Removing the capacity for lobbying by insurance companies, large hospital groups, device and pharma companies (so they're less able to price gouge consumers).

- Price transparency on all links of the chain of healthcare delivery.

- Changing the incentives for physicians and other providers towards expensive, often harmful and unnecessary interventions.

- Facilitating improved therapeutic relationships between providers and patients (More time spent, more communication, more incentives for harm reduction).

- Social changes including less stigma for things like drug use, greater emphasis on community cohesion and care.

- Demilitarization (Not only are absurd amounts of money spent on the military that could be redirected to better community health services; but innumerable veterans (not to mention foreign and local civilians) are injured psychologically and physically annually in the absurd pursuit of 'global security'.

- Better end of life care. I think something around 40% of healthcare expenditure is on patients in the last 2 years of life. Patients and families would benefit from earlier access to hospice care and less aggressive therapies that only prolong suffering.

- A greater emphasis on preventative health and lifestyle choices (better diet, exercise and sleep regimes - ideally within the context of a long term health care provider relationship).

Its very typical of modernism (especially in the US) to think that the way to address everything is a nice app with a better UI. This also facilitates the corporate narrative of marketing the shiny new thing to throw money at (make money for the company) to solve everything whilst digging the hole even deeper (and letting society absorb the collateral damage).

EDIT* Thanks for the feedback, I have added some of the points made by others to the list above.

On the euthanasia point I would agree that this should be a legal option (but on a humanitarian rather than a financial basis).

We definitely need do do a better job with end of life care/terminal diseases - in practice this would look like earlier/more hospice/compassionate care, less needless end of life treatments and interventions).

You think it’s the c-suite reaping all the financial gains?

This probably also is the hardest part. And the most alien to the whole American model of which lobbying is an integral part. IMHO you can only counter lobbying by allocating more to fact checking so it would be harder for them lobby things which are objectively wrong.