It is cheaper and easier every day to tailor your media,
food, clothing, and most other choices thanks to technology. Gooogle and WebMD
make it possible to diagnose your own ailments. Health savings accounts (HSAs)
provide incentives to spend money wisely, delay or deny unnecessary care, and
save for large health expenses. Home blood pressure monitors can help you
measure and track your heart health. Your phone, iPod, and video game system
each can assist with diet and exercise. With insulin pumps and improving
pharmaceuticals, individuals can treat themselves and adjust their treatments
with even greater success.
UNC Health System’s expansion into primary care through
acquisition of private practices and a recently announced collaboration with
Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina seem ominously anachronistic in light of
these advances in personalized care. There are valid arguments for
consolidation, a trend that predates ObamaCare. But the prohibition against
physician-owned hospitals and Medicare’s rewards for larger networks all tilt
the field in favor of large organizations even if they do not make sense.
Rewarding large networks will also make it more difficult to dismantle these
networks in the future without another major legislative overhaul. We need to resist and repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because it tilts the
field against personalized care in favor of more centralization and
consolidation.
