Imagine an economy, without friction—a new world of digital marketplaces in which labor, information, and money move easily, cheaply, and almost instantly. In his 1999 book, The Road Ahead, Bill Gates defined “friction-free capitalism.” At the time it was a prediction. But by 2015 it became a reality. This is a story about a Soonicorn, and 2 Unicorns.
It’s the 21st century, and the healthcare industry hasn’t changed much.
These Patients would argue that its broken. Drs forced to treat everyone the same, without personalisation. So focused on treatment, without the luxury of prevention or even prediction. And with climate change and a rise in infectious diseases, chronic diseases and an aging population, this is only going to get worse.
The problem, affordable access to healthcare in a reactive model. And our healthcare costs are skyrocketing.
In 2018, 37M beds were filled by avoidable EU hospital admissions. 84 M people were affected by mental health issues. Today more than one in six people in EU countries have a mental health problem, and 301B euros was lost due to fraud or error in the health care system.
Around the world total healthcare spend is escalating. Private health insurance is becoming more necessary. Today Insurance in Asia is a US$100B Market and Growing. But Premiums are also growing at 9.5% per year to the point where healthcare for many is becoming unaffordable.
We have a saying in Asia – you can die bu you can’t get sick.
Serguei Nettesine, a Wharton Professor once said to me, Leesa, if you want to disrupt a market, in a risk driven business model, there are 2 levers –
1. Change the alignment of incentives and / or
2. Change the level of information risk – i.e. change where/when/who or what decision is made in the value chain.
The INFORMATION INEFFICIENCY (RISK) is where Decisions are often based on incomplete information because they are made before information is available.
The ALIGNMENT INEFFICIENCY (RISK) where Decisions are often made on the basis of self-interest rather than based on what best serves the value chain.
Meet Rosaline Chow Koo, the 57 female Founder and CEO of CxA, a healthcare benefits and compensation platform disrupting the global insurance industry, a 6 year old startup in Singapore.
The insurance industry processes for compensation and benefits was traditional. It was built on paperwork and multiple systems with lots of friction and inefficiencies. CxA are removing friction through Digitization.
Through digitization of the insurance into
1) a digital wallet for employee benefits & health spend,
2) a health ecosystem, where an employee converts spend from insurance to prevention, with rewards to incentivize health and
3) a Data lake that includes health, lifestyle, demographic, life event & shopping data to inform recommendations],
CxA is fundamentally changing the alignment of incentives and changes the level of information risk.
Employees don't need insurers they need insurance.
The complex pain points in employee health and benefits created the need for CxA.
It was a one size fits all, paper based system. CxA and its client employers have digitized and digitalized and finally are digitally transforming the entire healthcare process, moving its employees from treatment to preventtion.
CxA focuses on Frictionless Customer Experience
So What are they doing to digitize and remove friction from employee benefits & healthcare?
CxA’s Platform delivers every employee a personalized and affordable healthcare journey. Now an employer empowers their employees to customise their insurance cover, use the money for wellness and improve workplace health and wellbeing.
In a friction free economy, value can be more effectively distributed. It can be inclusive.
Grab is an excellent example of a unicorn in Asia providing a platform of inclusivity in Asia.