I have to agree with you entirely. We already spend $192 billion in our health care system. I think we can do better, rather than spending more money there.
While we worry about whether or not the aging population is driving up health care costs, in fact it is the cost of all of this new technology that's driving up the health care costs. The opportunity to rejig how we do business, if you will, is the one we should focus on.
I'll give you one small example, that of a virtual ward. Sending people home after an acute incident is a challenging situation, and there is the danger they will be readmitted. A project here in Toronto provides a care manager to follow the person home, assess the person's usual vitals—as might have been done had the person stayed in the ward—and readmit the person if necessary, but generally not. If that is done properly, it allows the person to stabilize at home.
Does that cost more? The care manager is the only extra cost. Does it avoid cost? Yes. Readmission is expected to cost about $10,000 in all. And of course there are better health care outcomes.
The opportunity to rejig how we do business is really where we should be targeting our work.