Since the 1970s, American healthcare has been a market like almost no other. It’s not just that healthcare is afflicted by bloat, waste, and inefficiency. It’s that the whole system behaves irrationally, as if it were exempt from the basic laws of economics. The magic of competition, in particular, has failed in healthcare, leading to sagging value and runaway costs.
The new healthcare world we are entering is not about limiting access or offering price-discounted care. It is about putting together the pieces in a way that lets healthcare professionals actually accomplish their most important goal: keeping people well and giving them more years of productive, good life.
What will it take to realize this evolution? What if the health system really could enable and encourage good decision making not just about doctors and treatments but about healthy living – about diet and exercise and lifestyle and compliance with treatment plans? What if healthcare organized itself not just around healing the sick but around guiding people to live better lives?
Idea 10 of Oliver Wyman’s Ten Ideas shows how encouraging consumers to make healthier choices will yield big savings and better outcomes.
Better Engagement + Incentives = Healthcare Savings
If the industry could figure out how to organize healthcare around guiding people to live better lives, backed by the enormous market power of employers and the government, the impact would be measured not just in dollars but in years of better living across the population. If accomplished, we estimate the United States could save nearly $500 billion in healthcare costs. That’s more than 15 percent of the $3 trillion health market, as illustrated by the interactive graphic below:
Oliver Wyman Ideas App
