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With the increasing numbers of citizens going into retirement, and lifestyle-related diseases on the rise, the healthcare sector is bound for continued growth, both here in the Gulf and in the US … though for different reasons, how healthcare will be provided is possibly the most complex societal challenge in both places.
As with education, healthcare is an area where it is more a matter about how resources are used rather than how much. If you are not careful, you can find yourself spending vast amounts and seeing very little in return. Despite this, I often find it hard to argue publically against dedicating more resources to healthcare.
Take the US, which spends 19% of its GDP on healthcare, a mind-boggling figure that amounts to $7,538 a person. Compare that to Japan, which spends just $2,729 a person, and has a population that is among the healthiest in the world.
Yet rarely do I hear anyone framing the US healthcare problem as being a matter of too much money being spent. From every corner, you only hear calls for more. The debate is only ever about who should foot the bill, or how to divvy it up.
Earlier this month, the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) paid a $3bn fine in the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history. Reported by Time, besides suppressing data of dangerous side-effects, prosecutors said GSK sales consultants received bonuses for successfully giving doctors kickbacks to prescribe medicines for unapproved uses. Employees who failed to do so were put on involuntary leave.
The story does not surprise me. Neither does it surprise me to hear that Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital has stakes in numerous fastfood chains, while also involved in healthcare.
It would make a lot of business sense to invest heavily in ‘addictive’ foods with high fat and sugar content, while concurrently investing in providing health treatment.
With heavy investments in healthcare being made around the Gulf, there are many who stand to benefit greatly, from the design of hospitals to the choice of approach for delivering treatment. In this critical juncture, it is vital that the right decisions are made with the right partners to avoid long-term failure. With this in mind, it is worth stopping to consider any hidden agendas.
Often you hear the future depicted in bright colours with fluffy, feel-good buzzwords and catchphrases that go something like: “Sustainable knowledge economies tied in with academic cities that will inspire new sectors with hi-tech start-up firms led by the hardworking and innovative youth being educated today.”
If this phrasing is perceived in context of large contracts at stake, there is a risk that it is a large-scale version of the car salesman trying to up-sell you to buy a high-end sports car.
On credit, no less! It may be worth questioning if he really has your best interests at heart, or thinks as highly of you as it would appear. As a rule of thumb, instead of listening to what values people claim to have, look at who and what benefits their paycheck, in order to best predict their motives and actions.
There is no easy fix for the dilemma of government bureaucracies running and funding healthcare systems while serviced by the private sector, with starkly different incentives and management structures. However, awareness is a big first step.
It is difficult to set guidelines and targets to ensure quality of service when dealing in something that is largely based on human interaction between individuals. In the bigger picture, social infrastructure comprises the entire eco-system that enables care, education and providing safe and hospitable living environments for citizens.
What models and modes of healthcare delivery will work best, whether here or in the US, is almost impossible to predict. However, my guess is that pharmaceutical corporations, fastfood chains and healthcare providers will all continue to jointly share in a very healthy growth of their respective fields of business.
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