With Obama’s top domestic priority achieved the House of Representatives passed the biggest reform of health care in America for 40 years.

Service Design has only begun to scrape the surface of the public health service in the UK and the US system is an entirely different animal, with complex financial, political and social elements. But what lies at its core is health care and whether you bring service design methodologies to the existing (organically grown) system or start again from scratch everything else has the potential to align with the delivery and structure of a new health service.

From community health centres to hospitals if the health service is made sustainable and functions in such a capacity that it is equipped to serve the massive influx of people now granted access it will impact health insurers, Medicare and Medicaid, medical staff and training institutions, the private sector, pharmaceutical companies, public opinion, tax, the budget deficit, philanthropic organizations, social and economic development, and the health of 300 million people.

The current president has been the pioneer of transparent democracy and an opportunity has arisen to once again be at the forefront of innovation by discovering how best to provide the one fundamental need of all citizens, access to healthcare, with a transparent and open approach to rebuilding the health service from the ground up.

This is the most exceptional and exciting service design challenge facing the democratic western world. Existing public health services, the success stories and mistakes, can be identified. Only in this instance Service Design will be needed far beyond the realms of healthcare.

Mr Obama has said ‘that the public option was only a means to an end, and he remained open to other ideas if they had the same effect’. His outlined, more detailed blueprint for healthcare overhaul is barely the beginning. 

Chris Brooker