Congressional Committee Hears Testimony on Blockchain in Health Care
A representative for a US think tank spoke before a Congressional committee yesterday on blockchain's role in health care.
Make us preferred on Google
During an appearance on Capitol Hill earlier this week, a representative for a prominent US think tank suggested that blockchain applications could fuel next-generation health and insurance data systems.
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) resident fellow Scott Gottlieb spoke yesterday before the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health. In his remarks, Gottlieb testified about ideas for bringing innovation and competition to US insurance markets, at one point discussing using technology to design more intuitive insurance risk pools.
Gottlieb suggested that a more technologically advanced risk pool would have the capacity to auto-regulate insurance subsidies in real time, indicating that, from AEI’s perspective, such a system could employ a blockchain.
He remarked:
"The designations that follow individuals in such a hypothetical insurance pool, which would indicate the existence of their adjusted subsidies and thus their underlying medical condition, would need to be completely de-identified in advance of enrollment and impenetrable to disclosures. But there are other economic constructs that trade contractual information with units of value and that allow these exchanges to be made anonymously. Blockchain, for example, incorporates some of these features."
The suggestion comes during a notable period in the years since the US government implemented the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare, which aimed to expand health care access through an insurance mandate and an effective socialization of insurer losses.
Further, it comes as major healthcare organizations are beginning to investigate blockchain technology, with Philips recently partnering with industry startups Gem and Tierion as well as opening a research lab devoted to the tech.
Image via Shutterstock
More For You
Bitcoin could fall to $10,000 as U.S. recession risk builds, Mike McGlone says
McGlone links bitcoin’s downturn to record U.S. market cap-to-GDP levels, low equity volatility and rising gold prices, warning of potential contagion into stocks.
What to know:
- Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone warns that collapsing crypto prices and a potential bitcoin slide toward $10,000 could signal mounting financial stress and foreshadow a U.S. recession.
- McGlone argues the post-2008 "buy the dip" era may be ending as crypto weakens, stock market valuations sit near century highs relative to GDP, and equity volatility remains unusually low.
- Market analyst Jason Fernandes counters that a drop to $10,000 bitcoin would likely require a severe systemic shock and recession, calling such an outcome a low-probability tail risk compared with a milder reset or consolidation.
