But we kind of have to say we told you so. Here’s a “stop-what-you’re-doing” type of article from Forbes-contributor Avik Roy. Let’s start with the title, “Obama Officials In 2010: 93 Million Americans Will Be Unable To Keep Their Health Plans Under Obamacare” and then some telling quotes:
“Obama administration knew that Obamacare would disrupt private plans…”
“Mid-range estimate: 51% of employer-sponsored plans will get canceled…”
You know our stance. We’re not here to be political. But if ever there was a time to take the leap of faith and start offering cash-only medicine, now is it. There’s all sorts of wrenches in our healthcare system. We have the government jeopardizing the free market, forcing people out of insurance plans they liked, for something that is in certain cases more restrictive and more expensive.
Yes, we’re the biggest anti-insurance talkers in the room, when it comes to primary care and routine health maintenance. But we’re disheartened by stories like this. Our thinking is that as long as there are wrenches lying around and something broken (the healthcare system), the best thing we can do is start tightening up the things we can.
Direct primary care is that wrench. Just look at this quote from Nancy Pelosi again (we included it on our post about Medibid, another company instilling free market principles):
“Nancy Pelosi’s flippant remark to ‘pass the bill first, then find out what’s in it,’ has led Americans to the discovery that ObamaCare is indeed a ‘nightmare,’ fraught with bureaucratic tangles, the risk to personal privacy, and the real possibility that, when all is said and done, many will have a health insurance card, but no actual health care.”
We bolded those three phrases for a reason. These are exactly the OPPOSITES of what direct care brings back to healthcare. We are divorced from bureaucratic tangles thanks to a few key lines in Obamacare. We do not jeopardize our patients’ privacy and keep our records confidential; only you and the right docs need to see them, not an insurance company who might leverage them for a rate increase (or Big Government just because they like that sort of thing). And we are only selling health care; there’s no card, no insurance, no hoopla. In our line of work you get EXACTLY what you pay for.
It’s silly, but imagine if the government had just given grants and tax exemption to primary care docs who operate cash-only clinics. New clinics could open, prices would fall, insurance would enjoy longterm benefits like reduced payouts for proactive subscribers, entrepreneurial students might be motivated to become interns instead of specialists, and more students might even consider medicine. The doctor shortage could be abated, healthcare would be more affordable, insurance premiums could be lowered. No, wait. This is real life, not a John Lennon song, as nice as it sounds…