Health is not the same as healthcare; healthcare is not the same as health insurance. The endpoint is health.
Let us begin with a distinction that conventional health-policy debate often obscures: health is not the same as healthcare, healthcare is not the same as health insurance, and insurance is not the endpoint. Insurance, payment rules, and coverage matter, but they do not examine a patient, discover a drug, help an older person get out of bed, remind a diabetic to check blood sugar, or get anyone to an appointment. The endpoint is better health, and better health depends on the people and processes that produce it.
The question is therefore not only “who pays?” It is “who supplies, and how?” This report treats patients, families, clinicians, firms, care organizations, public-health information systems, and competitive discovery as productive inputs into health. It argues that health policy should be judged by whether it expands productive capacity, raises the productivity of patients and clinicians, allows entry and experimentation, and improves the information available for decentralized decision-making.
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