A Post-COVID Credo

We’re honored to have Dr. Marcelo Hochman of Charleston join Palmetto Promise Institute as a Visiting Fellow, specializing in Healthcare policy. In this first article, Dr. Hochman issues a healthcare wakeup call, demanding that the political world focus on the patient-doctor relationship, the only relationship on which we should base policy decisions. 

• cre·do (origin: Latin, “I believe”) 

The coronavirus pandemic has stressed every part of our health care system—from the individuals actually providing and receiving medical care to the organizations that manage the delivery of that care to the agencies that regulate us all. Under this stress, deep cracks have developed, and pre-existing ones have been highlighted. In fact, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 may be the ultimate disruptor of the most dysfunctional medico-politico-industrial system in the world.

I believe that we will see changes in the post-COVID world that otherwise would creep in incrementally or would not happen at all due to the inertia of the incumbent system.

I believe patients will have increased freedom to choose what kind, how much, by whom and where they receive their medical care–not where they are herded by their employers, insurance plans, hospital systems or government agencies.

I believe doctors will have increased freedom to practice medicine as we deem best for our patients—not restricted by non-compete clauses or certificate of need laws or decisions based on non-medical agendas.

I believe that true charity medical care will move back into the private realm where historically it has been most genuine and effective.

In short, I believe that Clayton Christensen’s “disruptive innovation” will come into full expression in the healthcare arena.