It’s more effective to prevent than cure
In the US, the affordable care act requires insurers to cover a long list of preventative care. However, there are still people who are not insured and resort to emergency care because they have no other options. More broadly, even if the preventative care visit is free, accessibility can make it hard for some individuals. The Meta-Problem Method can help to navigate the trade-offs.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Design a prevention-focused healthcare system.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- Ensure necessary services are covered.
- Minimize the overall cost of healthcare.
Other goals could include patients having choices for doctors and services, minimizing wait times to be seen, and improving the wellbeing of our fellow humans.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- How do we ensure necessary services are covered? Maybe the problem to solve is “How do we know what services are necessary?”
- How can we minimize the overall costs of healthcare? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which healthcare should be free because it will ultimately save taxpayers money?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to healthcare coverages. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- A centralized decision maker like an insurance company means has the authority to decide what services are necessary, can help reduce unneeded treatments and cost, and can reduce waiting times by restricting access to healthcare. However, insurance companies often choose not to cover treatments doctors deem necessary, and patients with less money end up less healthy at higher expense.
- Free and easily accessible preventative care will reduce the total cost to taxpayers, ensures necessary services are covered, improves the wellbeing of fellow humans, and can minimize wait times since these important services are prioritized. However, making preventative healthcare free and accessible could be implemented in a way that doesn’t give patients as much choice.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense to reform health and healthcare?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.