When people without health insurance experience suspicious symptoms, they often rely on an internet search to decide whether the situation is dire enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room.

However, by the time they seek help, the condition may have advanced to the point where care is complicated and expensive. Or, those without urgent need may end up wasting valuable emergency room resources to perform a screening service that could have been done elsewhere for a fraction of the cost.

The irony of strict regulation is that while it drives up the quality of care, it also drives up costs, making it unreachable for those without health insurance. The fact that few for-profit screening services exist outside of health insurance ecosystems suggests the cost of FDA approval makes it prohibitively expensive to develop low-cost solutions. This leaves no options for the poor.

Continue reading at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/22/automated-telemedicine-is-coming-for-everyone/