Americans currently spend $2 trillion a year on health care, nearly 15.30f GDP, and the total is projected to reach $4 trillion by 2016. That's more per capita than any other nation in the world, and yet it doesn't seem to be enough. 45 million Americans do not have health insurance at all, and many of the rest of us struggle with high premiums and a sense of inadequate coverage that forces us to choose between the best care versus 'covered care.' Meanwhile, more and more employers are dropping health plans every year, the large corporate health insurance providers are showing signs of financial trouble, and Medicare is projected to go bankrupt by 2017.
In the face of these grim statistics, author John H. Hammergren (CEO of McKesson Corporation) argues that this is the beginning of a new era for healthcare. In Skin in the Game, Hammergren and co-author Phil Harkins (author of Everybody Wins) provide an overview of the history of the healthcare system, an explanation of its current state, and a picture of the great strides that they see being made in the near future. According to Hammergren and Harkins, the American healthcare system is in a fragmented state, split between mega-hospital systems, giant pharmaceutical companies, billion-dollar insurance providers, and multiple layers of government beaurocracy. However, the high-tech productivity and quality boom experienced by other industries is finally catching on in health care, making a fully digital and integrated system possible for the first time.
