With the presidential election fast approaching, I'm pleased to provide a guest post and great infographic from Information Builders' Jake Freivald, Vice President of Corporate Marketing. I think you'll agree that no matter which candidate we support, we will all want to vote for the Business Intelligence Ticket (found below)!

Here's Jake's post:

"I don't think a working mom in Denver should have to wait to get a mammogram just because money is tight. I don't think a college student in Colorado Springs should have to choose between textbooks and the preventive care she needs. That's why we have this law. It was the right thing to do."

 

"The reason health care is so expensive... [is] not just because of insurance, it's because of the cost of providing care. And one reason for that is the person who receives care in America generally doesn't care how much it costs, because once they've paid their deductible, it's free. And the provider, the more they do, the more they get paid.... What we have to do is make sure that individuals have a concern and care about how much something costs."

 
The presidential candidates have stark differences over healthcare. Governor Romney thinks costs are going up because consumers aren't focused on them enough; President Obama thinks costs are high enough that we need to relieve people from thinking about them too much.
 
There's no question, though, that business intelligence will play a large part in containing the dramatic costs that threaten to overwhelm our personal and governmental budgets. Whether it helps healthcare providers achieve greater efficiencies and attain meaningful use of electronic health records, or whether it helps government agencies eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid and Medicare, we'll need business intelligence and analytics to help us make smarter decisions about where our money goes.
 
Perhaps we'll even see some business intelligence delivered to us end consumers to help us make choices about our own healthcare. The question is: Will it help us choose plans in a governmental exchange, or will it help us choose which plan to spend our vouchers on? Stay tuned for November 6 and check back next week for related posts on more hot button election topics!