Another Ounce of Prevention

As if on cue, Ezra Klein illustrates my point about the lack of focus on diet and exercise in the health care discussion. He was invited to give the keynote address at the annual convention of the American Medical Student Association. Laying out his vision of the future, he says one or more of the following things will happen:

1. Doctors will be paid on outcomes, with the curve constructed such that most doctors are making less but the best doctors are making more
2. doctors will not be the only ones doing doctorlike things
3. some disruptive innovation, such as IBM’s Watson, will have made various classes of doctors less necessary
4. we’ll have moved to an all-payer or single-payer system where we’ve cut doctor payments dramatically
5. more people are flying their jet packs to India for surgeries
6. we’ll have dramatically cut health-care subsidies such that fewer people are able to afford health care
7. something I haven’t thought of

That's from Ezra Klein--noted health care expert--the kind of person who gets invited by the American Medical Student Association to give a keynote address. His list of future possibilities includes people flying their jet packs to India for surgery. His list does not include the possibility that Americans will start eating better and exercising. Perhaps that should have been number 7.