The Healthcare Mandate: How to Leverage Disruptive Innovation to Heal America’s Biggest Industry

The Constituent as a Consumer

For some caregivers, calling the constituent or patient a “consumer” is considered profanity. It’s offensive to their sensibilities because for centuries they’ve enjoyed the professional ability to have a doctor-centered delivery model.

This means that the service provided by the physician is so mysterious and vital that the patient—the consumer—should feel grateful to receive it and should be willing to tolerate delays and high prices to get it. The naysayers who claim we shouldn’t call our constituents “consumers” try to justify this bold proclamation with a barrage of unconvincing rhetoric. This is because they’re ...