Health: The Heart of Health Care Reform

Since March 2010, the nation has worked hard to implement the Affordable Care Act, the largest expansion of health care coverage and access since the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965. This landmark legislation continues the journey of providing health care to Americans while attempting to reform our inefficient and expensive health care delivery system. Yet, there are residual problems and issues regarding “health” that the law cannot and does not address. Factors that affect our health status and impact the cost, quality, and experience of people seeking care are not always obvious and are described as the “social determinants of health,” defined by the World Health Organization as circumstances in which people are born, live, work, and age, as well as the systems established to deal with illness.

“Fixing health care won’t fix health care.” But what if there were a fertile verge, where the traditional health care system and the innovative entrepreneurial community meet to create new processes and new technologies that address health and improve the health care system? Let’s imagine what’s possible and explore the components of this “green space” or “blue ocean.”