Episode 19: Can we fix the friction in U.S. healthcare? A discussion with Othman Laraki from Color Health
The U.S. healthcare market isn’t exactly known for its efficiency. A quarter of every dollar spent on healthcare in the U.S. covers the transaction itself, and the market frequently limits consumers to a handful of choices. Othman Laraki, CEO of Color Health, joins Justin to share his vision of a more free and open healthcare market with less friction, lower costs, and greater access. Othman and Justin discuss how underutilization of preventive care amplifies expenses downstream, whether decoupling health insurance and clinical networks can improve access, and why efforts on the margins can go a long way toward eliminating friction across the care continuum.
Justin and Othman also brush off their macroeconomics textbooks to examine the market from an academic perspective: Do current payment models manufacture scarcity? Might other industries’ markets offer a positive model for healthcare? And can increased competition keep the market from swallowing the value we put into it? This discussion is literally one for the books.
To learn more about Definitive Healthcare, please visit us at definitivehc.com.
