Like it or not, healthcare is an industry with various liabilities attached to it, some of which are unfunded or underfunded. While medical malpractice rates have been trending down, a soft market can raise concerns of irresponsible pricing on the part of insurers. Indeed, there are no holidays for liabilities.
Nor are tomorrow’s liabilities self-evident. Nano-technology has gotten a lot of attention as a possible enabler of future medical breakthroughs, but this reporter at least cautions about nano-technology as a source of liability (while citing Milliman research on asbestos as a way of putting things in perspective: an eventual $265 billion total price tag for asbestos certainly gets your attention).
Cautionary tales of nano-technology may or may not hold up to scrutiny–certainly there are a lot more immediate worries in healthcare–though hopefully we can learn enough from history to ward off future 12-figure product liabilities.