Business in Healthcare

Written By: Chloe Griffin, W’26, N’26 | Edited By: Alejandra Lozada, W’25

Business in Healthcare, what is it?

“Healing is an art, medicine is a profession, but healthcare is a business.” - Stewart Gandolf

Suppose you're a doctor providing care to your patient who suffers from kidney failure. You might suggest two treatment options: hopping on the kidney transplant waitlist (which is usually a 3–5-year process) or undergoing dialysis treatment (a time demanding treatment which requires a patient to undergo dialysis three times a week, each session lasting 3-5 hours). While both options have proven successful and your healthcare facility has the resources necessary to treat the patient, your patient is in a difficult financial and logistical situation, lacking health insurance and reliable transportation to the hospital. What will you do?

Healthcare providers run into circumstances like this all too often when caring for their patients who lack health insurance. The U.S healthcare system is the most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet 45,000 deaths occur annually in the U.S due to lack of healthcare access (1). Costly health care forces lower income patients to choose between their health and their financial wellbeing.  

The onset of COVID-19 no doubt exacerbated the issue. Since the start of the pandemic, roughly 6.2 million workers have lost their access to health insurance previously provided by their employers (2). During economic crises, unemployment, and subsequent loss of health insurance places millions of working families in the U.S. in financially risky situations. Healthcare reform in the U.S is needed now more than ever, and the critical role the business sector plays in affordability and accessibility to care is an emerging factor in solving this problem. 

When people ask me why I choose to study both nursing and economics, here’s why: there are fundamental issues within the U.S healthcare system I am seeking to change. Health care is a human right, and patients shouldn’t have to choose between paying for their medication or putting food on the table. 

So, when answering my question regarding your sick patient, consider this: Can we do a better job in our country of removing barriers to necessary medical treatments whether they be financial or logistical? And, if we achieve this, can we create an overall healthier community that considers equity and access to quality health care a human right? I think we can do it.