Back to the Future: Patient Pays Directly for Medical Care
Dr. Berry recently testified before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. Pay-as-you-go medicine, it seems, is an idea whose time has come again, at least for most non-hospital medical services, and especially for the medically uninsured.
Old-fashioned high deductible insurance makes sense to cover high-ticket items such as major accidents and illnesses.
Even better is coupling a qualifying high-deductible insurance policy with a Health Savings Account (HSA), as newly established in last year’s Medicare reform law.
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The Medicine Men predict several positive outcomes from HSAs. People who buy medical services using their personal HSA funds see they’re spending their own money; many will shop around for the best value for their dollars. Health care providers will notice that price is once again a factor in attracting patients and will once again charge competitive rates. This is another way of saying doctors will shift their focus from serving the insurance companies back to serving their patients; your personal medical services will likely improve.
Amen
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3 Responses to Paying for health care – Brilliant!
RGL
May 29th, 2004 at 11:21 am
I see this as a variation of the Singapore model, which has long been advocated by Dr. George Lundberg, former JAMA editor and now the CEO of Web.Med.
There, patients pay for their own office visits except for basic preventive services like paps and mammograms, with hospitialization and concurrent necessary services provided for by the government.
MSAs have not made their entry there yet, but private insurance is available for those services not covered by the government in out-patient settings.
The Patmos model discussed here, however, does not address the problem of indigents, most of whom don’t have the means to take advantage of the MSAs. Which means some type of a Medicaid-type system still has to be left in place.
This is an alluring concept but I still have concerns about the 40 or so million Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured.
arf
May 29th, 2004 at 11:33 pm
Dr. Berry may not have solved the problem of the indigent, but he contributes to the solution. Many of the people he serves are working-class without insurance. Medical practices set up to accept insurance carry an overhead cost that makes everything more expensive.
By avoiding all that, Dr. Berry keeps his fees much lower than one would normally see.
So the working poor, formerly unable to afford primary care, now have a place to do.
Agreed, that does not address the problem of the truly, completely indigent. But let’s not make perfect the enemy of better.
NJOKU AMARACHI GIFT
November 30th, 2004 at 6:56 am
urgent medical treatment.