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Business opportunity in healthcare

Let us review some recent statistics:



  • Number of uninsured Americans = 45 million
  • The amount workers paid for premiums rose 36% on average from 2000 to 2004 -- nearly three times faster than average U.S. earnings

iProceed forecast

  1. The number of uninsured Americans will rise even faster since we do not expect any change in public policy
  2. As individuals/families find it difficult to pay for healthcare and small businesses (many of them already do not provide health coverage) stay away or drop healthcare coverage, number of uninsured will grow even more.

Opportunity to provide healthcare for uninsured Americans

  1. It is estimated that 36 million American live below the poverty line and if we assume that all of them do not have health insurance, that leaves us with 9 million Americans who most likely have jobs but not health coverage. That is a pretty sizeable number for any marketer.
  2. Illegal immigrants, who do not always get counted in a lot of these statistics, also do not have any health insurance. Most estimates put number of illegal immigrants at 8 million. Assuming that half of them have jobs, that means that 4 million of these people will be able to pay for health insurance if it were available and affordable.
  3. Conclusion: Approximately 13 million people will be interested in some sort of health insurance if it was available at a reasonable cost.
  4. The way the current American healthcare system is set up, our analysis does not see that there is any hope for uninsured residents in America (legal or otherwise). However, these individuals fall sick like anyone else and need access to reasonable medical services.

Proposed solution

  • Entrepreneurs need to think a new business model for the uninsured - one that includes a large offshore component using tele-medicine. The doctors can be based in inexpensive locations like The Philippines, India, Ireland, and other English-speaking countries in Africa (essentially following the model already successful in IT).
  • Some nursing staff will be based in the United States but the insured individuals will need to learn a few basic things like measuring their own heartbeat, pulse, temperatures, etc. and other good health practices by attending training sessions and through e-learning.
  • For non-emergencies, one can call an 800# for medical advice and doctors can either recommend OTC drugs or arrange to ship prescription drugs by overnight delivery.
  • For emergencies, a network of doctors will be available, and patients will need to pay based on a high deductible.
  • The option described above will be available only to reasonably healthy individuals. People with more complex medical situations will need to sign up for premium service that will allow them more frequent access to doctors but since the bulk of the work will be done in an offshore location, the cost to the individual will still be lower than current premiums.

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