By some accounts, the crashing economy is taking health care with it—and vice versa. Many experts say this is an opportune moment for entrepreneurial troubleshooting.
Cover Story:
When Crises Collide
When graphic designer Deborah Adler picked a topic for her master’s thesis at New York’s School of Visual Arts, she decided to address a very personal matter. Adler’s grandmother, Helen, took the wrong medication after mistaking her husband’s prescription pill bottle for her own. Other than the addition of childproof lids in the 1970s, the ubiquitous amber-colored vial had not changed since the First World War, even though polling found 60 percent of prescription drug users were taking medication incorrectly. Adler decided to revamp the prescription pill bottle, and the result was a revolutionary design born from a simple need: clear and detailed labeling that included different color-coded rings for different users. In 2004, a creative director at Target saw her work, and the company quickly purchased patent rights. The bottle went into the store’s pharmacies the following year. The product instantly captured the attention of the press and the design industry, which lauded its simple ambition. Adler not only effectively addressed a major health care concern, her work also raised an interesting question: Why hadn’t anyone thought of this before?
The U.S. health care sector is rife with problems like the pill bottle, yet entrepreneurial success stories like Adler’s seem few and far between. Health care is seen as a monstrous organism mired in managerial inefficiencies and ideological debates over reform, and Americans say they are overwhelmed. A study released last year by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation promoting a high-performing health care system, found 82 percent of Americans advocating fundamental change or a complete overhaul. However, while the debate continues on how to overhaul the system, smaller changes within that system don’t have to wait. As Adler’s thesis project proves, with problems come possibilities. Atul Gawande, surgeon and New Yorker contributor, encourages Americans not to overlook the prospects for improvement within our existing imperfection. “Recognizing that we had better build on what we’ve got doesn’t mean that we have to curtail our ambitions,” he wrote in a January New Yorker article.
And now may well be the ideal time to get ambitious. With $19 billion in stimulus money targeting health-information technology, with employers desperate for solutions in tough economic times, and with consumers hungry for better services and products, the marketplace is primed for good ideas.
Seeking a Remedy
President Barack Obama sparked serious debate among pundits when he convened a White House forum on health care reform this past April. Some considered focusing on such a major issue during an economic recession foolhardy—The New York Times’ columnist David Brooks among them. “I think the president should spend 50 percent of his time on the banking crisis, 25 percent of his time on getting our allies to coordinate with a global stimulus package, and 25 percent of his time beginning work on a second round of stimulus. He’s taking his eye off the ball if he spends hours every day working on health care, education, and energy,” Brooks wrote on The New York Times Web site.
Uwe Reinhardt couldn’t disagree more. A professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, Reinhardt is considered one of the nation’s leading authorities on health care economics. “Health care is now 17 percent of the economy, so if you want to address the economy, you can’t just say you are focusing on 83 percent,” he says.
There is no doubt that the current economic crisis is compounding the existing health care crisis and vice versa. Unemployment is adding to the 47 million already living without insurance, and businesses are struggling to pay soaring premiums. “Employers are having a tough time maintaining their health care [plans] both in terms of quality and cost. That’s what’s forcing everybody to the table,” says Donna Shalala. Now president of the University of Miami, Shalala was considered a top governmental manager during her eight-year tenure as U.S. secretary of health and human services under Bill Clinton.
Shalala attended the White House forum on health care reform and found one thing remarkable. “It’s very clear that this is going to be a major debate, but for the first time you’re beginning to see that people aren’t sitting in the same place that they were before,” she says. “Members of Congress sat with the other invitees who were representatives of key stakeholders and some policy wonks, and it was very cordial.
“Industry would very much like to get this done because they can’t be competitive around the world, and the health care industry is having a tough time negotiating with doctors and hospitals to make any money, let alone get any savings,” Shalala adds.
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2, SPRING/SUMMER 2009
By Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
Crashing economy, crashing health care system . . . this is opportunity? Some experts say, "Yes, indeed." Myriad problems mean myriad openings for entrepreneurial troubleshooters.
BY THE NUMBERS: A WORLD OF THIRST
By Greg Hanscom
There are alternatives to depleting oil. There are no alternatives to
depleting water. A water map of the world is paradoxical, scary,
and a bulletin from the future.
PHOTO Water is everywhere—except where 884
million people desperately need it. The water crisis
may make the oil crisis look easy.
By Geoff Brown
Success at tech transfer has been elusive. Universities jumped at what seemed a sure thing and found only red ink. From the few places where it has worked, four words: Be realistic, be flexible.
By Bill U'Ren
Success at tech transfer has been elusive. Universities jumped at what seemed a sure thing and found only red ink. From the few places where it has worked, four words: Be realistic, be flexible.
Cooperative Capitalism
by Robin Chase
The Real Problem of Somali Piracy
by Corey Flintoff
Bad Banking Addiction: A 15-Step Program
by John Sakowicz
The Moral Compass
by Lindsay Thompson