Universal access to healthcare is possible only with the support of private sector, says Scott W. Atlas, member of Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Health Care Policy.
Prof. Atlas, who is at Stanford University, was in Chennai for the commissioning of a new-generation MRI equipment.
In an interaction with The Hindu he spoke on the government’s role in health care and insurance.
“It is easy to convince people who are not super knowledgeable that the government will take care of them. I want to make changes to bring down the cost of healthcare without impeding quality and innovation. My job is to bring the facts out,” he says of his efforts at educating people about the performance of the government.
For quality healthcare, the way forward is to increase competition in the private sector. “The private sector is not the enemy. It is the private sector that has come up with innovation in healthcare,” he says and added that there were enough studies from across Western Europe and Canada to show that the government had failed in its mission to provide universal health care.
“The more we regulate things the more we hide competitive forces that have benefited people. Let us get rid of the obstacles coming in the way of the company,” he says.
The problem is not confined to the West. Even India, which is “gradually solving problems such as access to clean water and infections,” is confronting an ageing population.
The three chronic diseases of old age – cancer, heart disease, and stroke — require expensive drugs.
“In healthcare, prices are invisible and nobody knows till you have used the healthcare what it costs you,” he says, pointing out that when innovation is impeded it hurts quality.
Exposing health care to competition would mean hospitals have to compete for money and this would bring down the prices.
“Everyone keeps saying healthcare is different. But it is no different. There are ways to make government spend money smarter ” he argues.
Corrections & Clarifications:
This article has been edited for a factual error.
