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But, is it? Almost half of the funding for Healthcare innovation is governmental even in the US, and a competent public health system already has a strong incentive to reduce costs. So if a technology has the potential to reduce costs, a more efficient healthcare system would also pay for it - and if one doesn't there are dozens that can too - and if there is no path to it providing value overall in such a system, then it's going to be on the balance less efficient anyways. To note, a big issue in public innovation is that rich western countries, led by the US, HATE governments competing against the private sector. So if a government comes up with an innovative solution, they are generally disallowed from selling it, which hurts everyone except private companies. This happened in my city a few years ago, which had a very early innovation in bike sharing, much before any VC funded bike sharing company, and other cities had expressed interest in paying my city for implementing this service locally. But because of laws banning public endeavors from engaging in commercial activities, this was struck down, hurting all the taxpayers in my city, citizens of my city that would have benefited from better service from the experience, and millions of citizens from interested cities which would have received better service and who would have saved money. Or another case in my province was the invention by the electricity utility of the electric hub motor - which is now over 40 years later in widespread use due to its efficiency and low cost - but instead of exploiting that patent and selling those things, it had to partner with a private company which got exclusivity and mostly squandered it. Again, hurting almost everyone which might have benefited from lower cost electric transportation as well as the taxpayer here. This is actually part of why China is eating everyone's lunch, they used their size and never really agreed to these rules, leaving themselves the opportunity to profitably invent at the state level, leading into more efficient state owned enterprises that can often profitably outcompete the private sector. |