Why WELL Network is following Warby Parker’s philanthropic model?
Healthcare has become a huge part of our lives, and as we evolve and live longer and longer, it continues to become bigger and bigger part of world economy. Already healthcare constitutes 20% the U.S. and 10% of Global GDP. One aspect of healthcare is its inelastic demand.
Price elasticity of demand is a measure of the relationship between a change in the quantity demanded of a particular good and a change in its price. Price elasticity of demand is a term in economics often used when discussing price sensitivity.[1] Despite the wide variety of empirical methods and data sources used in the literature, the demand for health care is consistently found to be price inelastic, with values centering around -0.17.[2]
Those, who are fortunate to afford healthcare pay whatever price necessary to get that care, while those, who can’t afford it have no access to it. The largest part of healthcare cost is overhead, paperwork and financial friction. WELL network powered by blockchain and smart contracts eliminates ALL overhead and friction, by connecting doctors and patients directly and eliminating middlemen. Because of this, WELL can charge only a small transaction fee to invest in continued software, technology, network marketing and other improvements of WELL network.
We estimate that we will be able to cut telehealth visit costs by 70%+, however, even that may still be unaffordable for those that need, but cannot afford healthcare. Imagine, a mother in a remote village in Africa. She probably has access to a smart phone at a reasonable rate, but there is no OBGYN or maybe even a generalist doctor to consult her. With WELL network powered by blockchain this mother will be able to connect with an OBGYN or other health specialist in her country or region for a very small affordable fee to get a telehealth consultation and prescription. Her prescription will then be called into the nearest pharmacy for pick-up or mailed to her.
We agree with Warby Parker that kind-hearted gestures can have unintended consequences such as dependency and unsustainability. Instead of donating, WELL partners will train healthcare professionals to provide healthcare at ultra-affordable costs, which allows them to earn a living. More importantly, it enables our partners to offer healthcare that people actually need and want.
By committing to donate enabling a visit for every booked visit, we as a WELL community of patients, doctors, validators and other constituents, do good by doing well.
About the author: Ildar Fazulyanov is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in healthcare, fintech and venture capital. He founded Well, Inc. over two years ago with a mission to provide access to highest quality care to everyone. Ildar has managed all aspects of running a successful healthcare business, including accounting, business development, Medicare licensing, recruiting clinicians, sales, marketing and HIPPA compliance. Prior to WELL Ildar founded and completely bootstrapped Greener Equity, a successful fintech company, sold to Econ Partners. Ildar started his career at Bain & Company. He worked for DB Alex. Brown and was part of a launch of DB Advisors from an internal trading desk to multibillion dollar hedge fund. He also worked in Venture Capital at vSpring Capital ($450M AUM), now Signal Peak Ventures. Ildar graduated with MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth with Tuck Scholar Distinction and degree in Economics from BYU Magna Cum Laude.
About WELL: WELL is building the world’s first decentralized global marketplace for healthcare, using blockchain technology to eliminate borders and directly connect healthcare specialists and patients worldwide. By creating a token for on-demand healthcare that solves the current problems of cross-border payments, data accessibility, and payment risk, we allow regions with the highest quality of healthcare to serve the entire world.