The U.S. remains a bastion for health care innovation. We grow organs in labs, surgeons use augmented reality, and the Biden administration launched the Cancer Moonshot to reduce the death rate by 50 percent.
So why are Americans getting sicker?
Today, the expected life span is the shortest it's been in almost two decades. While our fractured health system was under the spotlight during the pandemic, we saw high rates of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes lead to more deaths than other industrialized nations.
Our rural communities are a telling clue to America's ailing health.
Hospitals in our heartland are on the brink of closure due to rising costs and financial loss. In fact, 30 percent of all rural hospitals are at risk of shutting down. And just last month, residents of Martin County, N.C. were blindsided as the eleventh rural hospital closed its doors.
If predictions prevail, 60 percent of Alabama's hospitals would be wiped out, and hundreds more across blue and red states, farmlands and wetlands—adversely impacting families, neighbors and fellow citizens.
The sheer complexity of the medical establishment stifles access to affordable, quality care.
An inscrutable maze, health care in America welds together the private and public, payors and policymakers, and a morass of regulation. But as consumers, we don't need to understand the substrate of our system to know it's broken. We feel the strain when trying to simply book a doctor's appointment. And if we find a doctor, the average wait is 26 days. That's unacceptable.
Easy access to upstream care, from sniffles and a headache to a busted knee, has downstream benefits. Why? Because a fever managed early prevents severe symptoms treated at the emergency room. All the while, our ERs remain overcrowded, and a national staffing shortage of doctors and nurses will outstrip the demand for care by 2034.
As health care reels, technology giants enter.
Amazon has been shouldering its way into health care for years. The retail giant acquired primary-care practice One Medical for $3.9 billion, and recently, unveiled its virtual clinics, offering around-the-clock access to providers. Amazon's chief medical officer touted that "by creating a healthcare experience that is transparent and simple, we hope to make health care more accessible for all."
Propelled during the lockdowns, virtual care became the modern day "house call."
Boundless to physical barriers, from any device, people have access to doctors and nurses to assess symptoms, prescribe medicine, and get referrals to the best avenues of care. And in rural America, home to our most vulnerable populations, virtual care is a bridge to fill a critical gap for those that need it most.
A welcome building block, virtual care establishes a continuity of care toward patient wellness, including behavioral health, and not just treatment. It also chips away at making care more affordable and empowers people to take an active control of chronic conditions.
As the adage goes: In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity—a fitting reminder as Amazon is not the only outsider working to change how we consume health care.
Major retailers, from Walmart to Albertsons, have entered the health care market. If you consider that 90 percent of Americans live within 15 minutes of a Walmart, retailers have the physical and digital footprint to expand the reach of care.
In a few decades, Amazon uprooted the retail sector. And in the process, every retailer was forced to compete. Transformation was a mode of survival. As a result, buying online has never been easier.
Yes, our health care institutions are slow to move. We may all enjoy the convenience of getting a flu shot at a big-box store, but care is, and will forever remain a personal and human-intensive service. No app or supermarket chain will replace the trust between a patient and their provider, which underpins the success of our individual wellness journey.
In Indiana, one health system is proving that collaboration can lead to positive outcomes.
Community Health Network partnered with Walgreens to serve as frontline clinics to make care accessible for latent, rural, and underserved populations. Dr. Patrick McGill, their chief transformation officer, reported that they're able to treat more people, detect disease early and drive better health care outcomes.
For all the challenges facing U.S. health care, our legacy systems have the advantage. Only they deliver specialized and comprehensive care to prevent and treat disease and maintain the relationships that lead to improved results.
We cannot concede the casual consumer of health care nor fuel perceptions of a laggard industry. While some systems may fail, those that reinvent and move quickly will usher in a new dawn, where both rural and urban Americans, young and old, will have access to exceptional care.
Can outsiders alone solve our care crisis? No. But newfound competition may be just what the doctor ordered.
Derek Streat is CEO of DexCare.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
