COMP 2300 Winter 26 / Will Zuzic
With technology becoming more and more advanced, the world is quickly changing because of this. This is very much true in the healthcare and medical industries. Technologies such as AI-assisted diagnostics and robot-assisted surgeries are greatly changing the medical world, offering faster procedures and even more accurate diagnostics. Yet for most patients, these breakthroughs are out of reach.
Without a shift in prioritizing affordable and accessible healthcare technology, the gap between what technology is available and what patients are getting will continue to grow.
Because of the incredibly high costs and limited availability, a vast majority of people do not have access to cutting-edge medical equipment. As the price for proper healthcare continues to rise, healthcare officials need to allocate their resources wisely and towards different angles. Only technological innovation will not solve the growing costs and unaffordability of the healthcare industry.
The Access Problem
Already, access to healthcare is a great challenge to many Americans. According to a survey, over 35% of Americans struggle to afford healthcare, and around 11% of them are unable to afford it at all. When expensive technologies such as the devices currently being created are added to an already costly system, access will become even more limited.
The urgency is clear: the system is already so unaffordable that many Americans plead with others not to call an ambulance for them, fearing the bill more than the injury. Adding more expensive technology to this structure only intensifies the crisis. These advanced tools would only be available in large hospitals. Because of this, modern healthcare access will greatly depend on income, insurance, and distance. This will create disparities that undermine the benefits of innovation.
Costs Compound the Gap
These healthcare costs place a strain on both the patient and the hospital. According to data, the average American spends around $14,570 on healthcare a year. What is worse is that this number is expected to increase. This means higher insurance premiums and increases in out-of-pocket expenses. Expensive new technology increases these costs as providers expect a higher profit return when spending millions on technology.
Prevention Should Count as Innovation
Another factor that we must consider is the rise of chronic illnesses. Both diabetes and heart disease are becoming more and more common, now affecting over half of adults in the United States of America. In fact, these two chronic illnesses are responsible for over 90 percent of the US’s healthcare spending.
Creating affordable and new technologies focusing on the prevention and treatment of these illnesses could greatly improve people’s health more than a 10-million-dollar robot ever could. Currently, the tools used to prevent these are inaccessible due to cost, leaving people with fewer options to maintain their health.
Who Can Change This?
The main people with the power to address this issue are healthcare policymakers and administrators. These people are the ones who decide where most of the major funding goes. Too often, it goes towards expensive cutting-edge technology when the market is also in need of affordable, easily accessible tech.
Another potential solution is to require major hospitals to balance their investments between high-cost innovation and affordable community-based care. For every multi-million dollar purchase of a cutting-edge device, there should also be a focus towards preventative screening and subsidized treatment.
There should also be policies in place requiring hospitals to report how new technologies will affect pricing, allowing communities to see if these machines will actually improve the community or not. While hospitals compete to adopt new technologies, they should also be competing to try to make the most affordable care as well. By creating financial accountability, hospitals will be incentivized to try to lower the cost of healthcare within their own hospitals.
What Healthcare Innovation Should Mean
I believe that healthcare innovation shouldn’t be measured by how advanced medical technology becomes, but by how many lives it can save or improve. The US doesn’t suffer from a lack of incredible medical technology but from an unequal distribution of it.
If policymakers continue to prioritize new advanced technologies over accessible solutions, then the vast majority of the population will continue to have access to the same medical technology as costs rise and disparities deepen. On the other hand, if focuses begin to move towards accessibility and prevention, then the whole system will be strengthened rather than divided. Healthcare shouldn’t be focused only on those who can afford it, but for everyone.
