What If We Woke Up to Realize We Don’t Need Health Insurance Companies—We Need Each Other?

Janet Michel; Peter Schönenberger; Nina Soenderberg; Lars Münter; Marcel Tanner

Abstract

Imagine a healthcare system rooted not in profit margins, but in community care. Globally health care costs are rising while patient outcomes are not. How about eliminating health insurance middlemen and saving costs by removing administrative overheads and profit-driven pricing? Could this combat loneliness by encouraging people to need people, appreciate each other, local care networks and building communities from the inside out? Economically, this challenges the market model of healthcare where life is viewed in terms of costs. Realistically speaking how much does a life cost? The current health economic models of viewing health care as a cost rather than an investment need to be reviewed. The work ethics in healthcare; 15-min consultations have robbed the health care systems of the value of empathy, time, and long-term relationships over patient quotas and revenue targets. A shift of focus from treatment to prevention and well-being is overdue. What people seem to want is a health system where people are seen and heard, where preventive care flourishes, not as a cost-saving afterthought, but as the nucleus of a social, healthier and more connected society. It seems it takes people waking up from a certain state. Initiatives Buurtzorg-Neighborhood Care give us hope.

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