8 votes

How ossified funding models in medicine are throttling our response to COVID-19

3 comments

  1. [3]
    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...]

    From the article:

    [A]s far as I can tell, we’re not manufacturing more ventilators. Why? Hospitals aren’t ordering them. Why? There may be multiple reasons—for one, ventilators aren’t the only critical resources; they require trained staff to operate and are useless without them—but one key factor seems to be funding.

    [...]

    This isn’t about greedy hospitals who won’t save people’s lives unless they can profit—many hospitals are non-profit. It’s the simple fact that no one can spend an unlimited amount of money with no return.

    [...]

    In any case, the general pattern here, as with all economic development, is that funding is required up front, long before a benefit is received, and even if the demand never materializes. This requires (1) accumulated capital (2) in the hands of people who think long-range, and (3) mechanisms for them to recoup their investment and ideally make a profit, at least on average.

    The modern world has plenty of accumulated capital, and in general it is in the hands of people who think long-range. Where we could improve, it seems to me, is in mechanisms for deploying the capital towards worthy ends, and profiting from the investment.

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      joplin
      Link Parent
      I wonder if there's some sort of rental model that could make this work. Like some billionaire buys a bunch of ventilators wholesale. Every time an epidemic comes up in some part of the world,...

      I wonder if there's some sort of rental model that could make this work. Like some billionaire buys a bunch of ventilators wholesale. Every time an epidemic comes up in some part of the world, they ship a boatload of ventilators there for use and charge some amount less than purchasing the same number of ventilators. When the epidemic has passed there, the ventilators are cleaned and returned. If it moves to another area or a new one arises, repeat.

      I'm sure someone's done the math here. Maybe it could work if it was a non-profit that got donations instead of a company or person doing it? And that doesn't solve the need for people who know how to work the ventilators, either. Seems like a tough problem.

      1 vote
      1. skybrian
        Link Parent
        I have been wondering if options would would work. The idea would be to pay some money to manufacturers to have the option to buy on short notice if it's needed.

        I have been wondering if options would would work. The idea would be to pay some money to manufacturers to have the option to buy on short notice if it's needed.

        1 vote