As a BYU student I can say that the (sometimes excessive) assigned readings that professors pile on aren’t always the highlight of my educational experience. But a little book report for a fairly insignificant lecture series on entrepreneurship turned on the light bulb for what health care reform in America really needs to look like. “Nail It Then Scale It,” written by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, holds the key to making American health care work for Americans. A problem being solved by entrepreneurship? Sounds pretty American to me.
The book describes the process of creating a successful business as discovering the pain point, coming up with the solution, involving the customer, and then continuing to perfect the product and manage profits effectively.
It’s a fairly simple formula. But this formula is made or broken on one small principle: innovation. Contrary to popular belief, innovation is not a simple overhaul of the work and principles of the past. Innovation = invention + market need. Innovation is taking principles and aspects of something that has been created in the past and making it better to adjust to the needs of consumers. You don’t even have to come up with something that’s new and shiny to be a successful entrepreneur. Find the pain point, see what’s been done before, then do it better.
So how does this apply to the recent health care crisis going down in Washington? The pain point is known all too well by far too many Americans. Obamacare has been causing problems since before it was ever signed into law. Republicans are trying to quickly change the health care game, making big promises of a complete overhaul of Obamacare while scrambling in secret rooms to create a shiny new plan.
The secret meetings, flashy press conferences and huge promises of a new health care system seemed promising. But what they rolled out neither nailed the needs or provided a path to scale the services Americans require from health care. What they delivered was not innovative and did not address the pain point for the customer — the American people. If anything, the bill simply extended the status quo and provided protection for big insurance companies.
Congress needs to stop trying to convince Americans that their “overhaul” is the best thing for health care. This is the oldest tool in the book and will no longer work for the health care challenges facing the nation today. Congress needs to ask the questions: What principles of sound health care policy can we build on? What is going to foster sustainable change? What is the real pain point for Americans? Congress needs to innovate around health care outcomes and cost drivers.
Yes, there are many, many problems with Obamacare. It’s easy to recognize this pain point. But what far too often gets lost in the bustling halls of the Capitol is the focus on what the market needs. What if the focus of every meeting shifted from “how can I make my constituents like this?” to “What do my constituents need?”
Maybe this market actually needs less federal controls and more state-based solutions for health care. Maybe the pain point is actually the fact that congressional leaders are trying to do a job that shouldn’t be theirs in the first place.
When Congress decides to build on the invention of the past and actually work for the market, meaning the American people, the changes that need to be made to health care will become much more clear. The right type of innovation that keeps health care dollars and decisions in the hands of people is exactly what the American health care system needs. Innovation driven by customer needs is what has always worked in America — congressional leaders must remember that.
Solving America’s Problems 101: Find the pain point, create a solution based on customer input, then do it better — nailed it!
(Finally, let me give a shout-out to my professor for assigning a reading that clearly applies to the issues we’re facing today. We need more of that in education … but we’ll save that argument for another day. …)
Sarah Matheson is president of The American Agenda, an organization focused on engaging millennials in the pursuit of upward mobility and opportunity for all.