UK Government Finds A Probable Use For Blockchain in Healthcare
Putting data in the hands of patients
Bureaucracy is something governments have been fighting for centuries and the modern world is no different. Where our forefathers once sought an easier way to conduct business across the oceans we instead have to tangle with more localised issues and there are perhaps none more complex than healthcare.
In the post-war era most developed nations saw fit to create universal healthcare systems. With links in the rise of unionised workers in the late 19th Century, the idea was that the state should bear the brunt of the majority, if not all of the healthcare costs of an average citizen. This creates a system that is ‘free’ at the point of use but funded by a mandatory insurance contribution deducted from an employees’ wages as an additional taxation.
Like all great life-improving ideas this was pioneered by Nordic countries but there exists no better poster child for the idea than the National Health Service of the United Kingdom. Staunchly defended by even the free-marketeering Conservative party, the UK’s NHS is one of the world’s top-10 UHC systems and sits only under the monarchy as a cultural entity citizens are most proud of.
For everyday citizens use of the NHS can be quite chaotic. Consistent under-funding by private…
