Life for Health is a bold reimagining of how we fight chronic disease.
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For decades, we've asked one health system to do two wildly different jobs - treating short-term issues and complex, long-term disease. It’s impossible.
The solution? A second system for chronic disease using life insurance instead of health insurance.
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Part manifesto, part blueprint, Life for Health exposes the design flaws that keep Americans sick and how to fix them - a new system freed from health insurance, that gets Americans and their doctors working together to solve disease.
Americans stand to gain more than a decade of good health and trillions of dollars in wealth by avoiding and postponing sick care. Companies offering breakthroughs to prevent and cure disease stifled by today’s health care behemoths will finally have a world to flourish.
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It’s all doable within existing laws. Life for Health shows how, blending insight and common sense to offer a truly revolutionary path forward.
Testimonials
"Life for Health is one of those books that will forever change how you think about health care. It shows us how to stop “sick care” and create a system that actually prevents disease and rewards Americans and their doctors for getting and staying healthy.
- Dr. John Whyte, Chief Executive Officer, American Medical Association
"Brilliant, original, and practical. After reading Life for Health, it will seem obvious: of course we should use long-term arrangements like life insurance to stop long-term threats like chronic disease and cancer, ideally before they even start."
- Dr. Arza Raza, Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center
Audio Overviews
Listen to these quick takes on Life for Health's main points
(Overviews generated by Notebook LM)
Key Takeaways
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We need two health systems not one.
Health insurance for short-term issues.
Life insurance for long-term ones.
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Life insurance enables decades-long alignment among Americans, clinicians, and insurers to stop multimorbidity
& share the value created over time.
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The main driver of shrinking healthspan and skyrocketing cost is multimorbidity - when someone has 3+ chronic conditions.
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The potential value is ENORMOUS:
a decade more of good health,
$15 trillion in wealth creation,
and 50% lower health spending.
The Goal:
Get Americans to 65 without multimorbidity.
How?
Reverse disease
Maintain health
Predict risk
Prevent onset
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We can fund the new system by moving funds misspent in the status quo to Life for Health, shrinking total spending as disease prevalence declines.
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Individuals are PARTICIPANTS in Life for Health not "just" patients. They take a proactive role in improving their health and sharing in the value of their success.
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Solving multi-decade disease requires new ways to collect and use longitudinal data, compensating participants for contributing, speeding up discovery and broad access to breakthroughs.
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Disease prevention will never happen in a system built for short-term issues. It requires decades-long focus, assessing risk and results, and sharing value among participants, clinicians, and insurers.
About the Author
Jeremy Shane has co-founded and built businesses in consumer health, education, and energy. He led operations and growth of HealthCentral, a unique collection of online health communities to help people overcome chronic and life-threatening diseases, later overseeing editorial operations at WebMD and Medscape. In education, he built high-quality online graduate degree programs for physical therapists and family nurse practitioners. He is also a non-resident fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center.
