Capacity Constraints

There are three main problems with the healthcare system in Germany:

Bad economics: cost of care is too high. This is driven by many factors, including reimbursement incentives, high manual work, various system inefficiencies and silos, and the medical field simply developing further and finding ever more cures for ever more diseases.
Low supply: capacity is maxed out. The main drivers here are the lack of good job opportunities as a whole and the eroding reward/sacrifice ratio in particular, which pushes people out.
High and uneven demand: people live longer and accumulate more and more diseases. The top 10% of patients - which is predominantly the population over 70 - generate 68% of the costs and because of the longer life spans (thanks to that very healthcare system!), this percentage is only getting bigger.

Is this fixable and how? A topic for next week.

Healthcare Demand Drivers

This is the third point I want to address as part of my effort to explore the capacity constraints in the German healthcare system. Part one was looking at cost of care and part two from yesterday was about the origins of the physicians shortages in Germany. 200 years ago

Clinicians Shortages, Drivers

To continue the cost of care thread from yesterday, the second big capacity constraint is around clinicians. Here is a quick recipe for how to think about this problem: 1. First we take specialists such as radiologists and dermatologists (in-patient care) vs GPs (out-patient care). 2. Second we

Cost of Care Drivers

Last week I listed what I believe are the main factors contributing to capacity constraints in the healthcare system in Germany. Some of those are being already addressed in various ways, while others remain an open field (or shall we call it a blue ocean?): * Reimbursement incentives: Until recently, hospitals

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Healthcare Demand Drivers

Clinicians Shortages, Drivers

Cost of Care Drivers

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