Health care in the United States is fraught with complexity, fragmentation, inefficiency, unexplained variation, and waste. The sobering reality is that more than one-third of health care delivered today may not make people healthier, and a substantial portion of that unnecessary care may in and of itself cause harm.
This may paint a bleak picture of the current state of affairs in health care and the resultant “value shortfall.” Indeed, the system may be sick, but it is not yet terminal. We can do better. We must do better. In order to make care more affordable, safer, and more convenient, we will need to understand the root causes of our system shortfalls, recognize waste, and learn new methods of care delivery.
Warren Buffett, the famous American businessman, investor, and philanthropist, has likened health care costs to “a tapeworm eating at our economic body” because national health care expenditures, particularly those that are considered waste, divert major resources from other important domestic priorities, such as education, infrastructure (roads, railroads, and bridges), basic research, and other public goods. It drags down our global competitiveness in business, and thwarts social programs to support small businesses.