What Would Google Do_ - Jeff Jarvis [111]
will blow up insurance, because it will transparently link the whole system, insured, insurers, providers of the service that insurance is paying for. no place to hide, accountability everywhere, prices will drop, profits/savings more evenly dispersed. best thing that can happen.
Tie all this together and we can begin to draw a picture of a disruptive insurance enterprise that empowers a community by handing over control of insurance to the members of that community. I played out this scenario for a couple of insurance executives who said I may be mad but the ideas are good.
Imagine a forward-looking company—Google, for example—creating a new insurance compact: If the community makes itself healthier and lowers the costs—and raises the effectiveness—of its own care, the cost of insurance will fall. The deal would motivate the community to pressure its members to become healthier and smarter. Insurance companies today try to get us to act healthier, pushing us to join health clubs or eat smarter. But—apart from our feeling better—the direct economic benefit on medical costs is almost entirely the insurance company’s and we never see a transparent accounting of the impact. The insurance 2.0 compact puts the community in charge and gives it mutual benefit and responsibility. Giving the community control means giving it information. The insurance company would need to give members complete disclosure about actuarial data, costs, and profits. The insurance company would also need to pressure doctors to hand over data about their work so community members could make smarter decisions about treatment.
The community, in return, needs to manage its health care, including keeping an eye on health providers. For example, my medical group makes me come in every four weeks to get checked for the blood-thinning drug I take because of my afib. My results never vary. Every time I’m there, I’m amazed at the inefficiency I see: two nurses making a big show out of pricking a finger (which some diabetics do on their own a half-dozen times a day). The medical group profits from my copay and from my insurance company’s fees. It’s a waste. I’m not motivated to do much about it. I have no relationship with the insurance company except mutual distrust and inconvenience. I would get nothing out of protesting or whistleblowing. If my community and I were in charge of our health care and insurance, that would be different. I’d make it my business.
The community also might choose to sponsor races, diets, and classes and pay for that out of its pool of premiums if it believes the bet on health will pay off. It might offer services such as the French MAIF’s home and child care if the group believes it is worth the cost. That becomes the community’s decision. What emerges is a community whose members want to maintain better health at lower cost and risk through mutual benefit. They are able to do this because the new insurance company provides a platform with tools, information, and organization to help the community meet its goals. The insurance company’s not in charge. The community is. It’s a vision of insurance that follows many of Google’s rules and starts with Jarvis’ First Law.
This vision came from my readers. They applied the internet’s new ways to old problems to see what could be improved. They believed that more transparency in marketplaces would yield greater value. They believed that adding social elements—the interests and pressures of a community—would increase value. They told me that handing control to the market would increase trust, and insurance is about trust. So they proposed networks of mutual need and service that diminish if not eliminate the middlemen.
I’m proud to say that I didn’t come up with these ideas. My generous readers did. They were my insurance against an empty chapter.
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Google U: Opening education
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