Curing U.S. Health Care, 2nd Edition (HBR Article Collection)

U.S. health care is suffering from rising costs and low-quality care. The antidotes? Radical approaches to: First, competition: Currently, industry players divide up rather than drive up value. Employers shift costs to employees. Insurers limit patients' access to services and reward providers for spending less time with patients. Instead, companies should put consumers in charge of health care by giving employees more health plan options, greater control over their spending, and more information to make wiser choices. Providers must excel at preventing, diagnosing, and treating specific diseases, realizing cost and quality improvements. Second, innovation: Hospitals and HMOs need to embrace simpler, more affordable, and convenient innovations, such as angioplasty. Third, process improvement: Health-care practitioners must identify and eradicate problems during patient care delivery rather than work around problems. By harnessing the collective power of competition, innovation, and process improvement, we can revitalize this struggling system.