Shawn Needham: How Consumers and Entrepreneurs Co-Navigate Value Uncertainty in Healthcare

Austrian economics provides new insights into value: what it is, how it is created, and who creates it. The insights are summed up by Professors Per Bylund and Mark Packard in our E4B podcast episode #108 (see Mises.org/E4B_108). One of the most vivid images they paint is the picture of entrepreneurship as “the two-sided navigation of radical value uncertainty, both by producers and consumers, in that never-ending quest towards higher value states”.

The market for healthcare provides us with a pertinent example of co-navigation of radical value uncertainty. For consumers, there is no certainty available — they can’t know which doctors or providers will give them the best experience, they don’t know the right means to choose to attain their end (health), and they can’t use the usual market price signals in the search for value since the price of healthcare is not visible to them. The don’t purchase the product, they purchase insurance, a different financial product than the healthcare experience they really need.

Thus, the healthcare market is a natural medium for the co-navigation of value uncertainty that Professors Bylund and Packard described. In E4B podcast episode #111, Shawn Needham, a healthcare entrepreneur dedicated to helping the consumer in their navigation task, lays out 6 principles for entrepreneurs.

Show notes: https://mises.org/library/shawn-needham-how-consumers-and-entrepreneurs-co-navigate-value-uncertainty-healthcare

“Navigating Healthcare Uncertainty” (PDF): https://Mises.org/E4B_111_PDF

Sickened: How The Government Ruined Healthcare And How To Fix It by Shawn Needham: https://Mises.org/E4B_111_Book

Check out one example of medical cost sharing: https://Mises.org/E4B_111_Example

Read about Direct Primary Care: https://Mises.org/E4B_111_DPCare