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Haven-Not: Silver-Bullet Health "Solution" Misfires

Can you have a better A-Team than this?  Amazon, Chase & Berkshire Hathaway joint venturing via a new nonprofit, Haven, to finally solve our health care problems!  

While I was hopeful when this joint venture was announced several years ago, I was also deeply skeptical.  Rather than addressing the root causes of health costs, such as inactivity and unhealthy nutrition, Haven tried to "develop new ways to improve access to primary care, simplify insurance coverage and make prescription drugs more affordable"--including by throwing a lot of "big data" tech innovations at these issues.

While this approach was pitched as a breakthrough, it was more of a Disease Management 2.0--focusing on more cost-efficient "care," rather than less chronic conditions to begin with.  The latter is the ultimate solution, but requires far more than blue-chip brands plus high-tech to resolve--and a lot more time.  

2-3 years of effort just scratches the surface.  Dramatic improvements in America's health require long-term advocacy, quality implementation in K-12 schools, large-scale permanent funding, and more--and over many decades, as we did with smoking.  

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