Marc Andreessen: Can Tech Finally Fix Healthcare?

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Healthcare is a $4 trillion industry, making up nearly a fifth of the U.S. economy—but despite having some of the best doctors and advanced technology, the system often delivers poor outcomes at skyrocketing costs. Why is this the case, and what will it take to fix it? In this episode, a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen and General Partners Vijay Pande and Julie Yoo tackle some of the biggest questions shaping the future of healthcare: - Is the solution to our healthcare crisis a policy, technology, or competition problem? - Will AI and technology transform the industry, or are regulatory and structural barriers too entrenched? - Who will crack the code—healthcare incumbents, tech giants, or AI-native startups? From chronic care to cost curves, from disruptive technologies to shifting patient agency, this conversation offers an unfiltered look at what’s broken in the healthcare system and how it might finally change.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Healthcare is like a fifth of the American economy and growing.
0:03.0	If this process continues, it will eventually be half the economy and then the entire economy.
0:07.0	We have some of the best doctors in the world.
0:09.0	We have the best technology in the world.
0:11.0	We pay the most and we have the worst outcomes.
0:14.0	How is that possible?
0:16.0	Ultimately, is it a policy regulation issue or is it a technology issue?
0:20.0	Maybe the curing cancer is a lot easier than packing the suitcase.
0:23.6	I think what we're really providing patients is agency, and I think that's what was kind of missing.
0:28.9	The healthcare industry has captured the attention of America, and it's no wonder.
0:33.0	The confusing and complex colossus makes up about 20% of GDP and growing,
0:39.3	clocking in at an over $4 trillion industry.
0:42.3	People seem to agree on problems, but rarely the solutions.
0:46.3	But as we kick off 2025, it's hard not to wonder whether the latest platform shift may offer some answers.
0:53.3	I suspect that this is the dynamic that's going to play out in healthcare.
0:56.5	The more abstract, intellectual, knowledge-driven, data-driven, the task, the easier it is
1:01.0	to get the AI to do it.
1:02.1	The more applied, the physical, messy, unpredictable, sort of all the human elements
1:07.1	are probably the hardest thing.
1:08.8	So who will finally crack this code? And what's really driving up prices?
1:12.6	Could competition flip that dynamic on its head?
1:14.6	And what will finally catalyze change?
	...

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