By ANDREW TSANG

Healthcare only industry in the room for your first breath – and it bills you for it.

The only industry in the room for your last one – and its claim outlives you.

The only industry that hires more humans every year to take care of everybody else.

The only industry whose best work is the sickness you never knew was coming.

The only industry that’s left holding the smoker’s lungs, the drinker’s liver, and the soda kid’s blood sugar – long after everyone else has cashed out.

The only industry that still needs a person at the bedside when the machines do the rest.

The only industry that has nearly a fifth of everything we make, and is still growing.

Healthcare should keep growing. It is the only industry whose whole product is human capacity—more years, and more ability to use them. It is the only industry that takes in the damage every other industry leaves behind. I don’t care how big tech, retail, autos or manufacturing get. Past a point we stop wanting more of what they sell, and none of them gets handed the bill for anyone else’s harm. As their machines take over more of the work, healthcare is where our money, our people, and our ambition should go. It will grow into whatever we pay it to do.