Personalised Medicine in Public Healthcare Systems

Abstract

This chapter discusses the profound impact personalised medicine is expected to have on public healthcare systems. First, introducing personalised medicine will radically affect the healthcare value chain and stages in which the healthcare system plays the key role, namely in the form of lifelong care for a person’s healthy life. Public healthcare networks will become increasingly international. Second, in the current situation, out-of-pocket payment is the most reasonable way of financing personalised medicine, but the future development of personalised medicine will depend on health insurance that resembles life insurance. Third, it is possible to ground collective financing only on solidarity and not on the differences between social and individual effects. Fourth, personalised medicine requires a great deal of state regulation. Fifth, personalised medicine is based on a large volume of information and only the individual should have the right to decide how this information is used.