The issue here is economics and economics only. It has squat to do with patient care. So, why not drop that front when it comes to this issue and instead objectively discuss how the sole issue here is providers continuing to want the easy cases?

You make no sense.

And again, the retail clinic (in small rural areas) probably just hurts the business of those MD’s, which you will only need a small percentage of the time, but which you expect to just sit around making no money until YOU decide to waltz over there. Do you see that such an idea is ludicrous.

So says the “f-ing nutjob” that is an oligpolist and proponent for the current medical feudal system. After all, we have to ensure that the medical lords continue to take their cut of the share of the work done competently by others.

The choice that you make for yourself and your family grants you zero authority to make the same choices for others and their families. It also grants you zero authority to pick my pockets to enrich yourself secondary to promoting a system that forces the equivalent of a mandated Yugo at Lexus prices that is paid through the extortion of the work product of the productive. I understand that the Dons want their cut of the pie by retaining supremacy over the system, but the openly anti-competitive nature of such a move is one that would have made Standard Oil proud.

anyway, as far as hurting the allopath position, i think the minute clinics will HELP the allopath position while hurting the healthcare system & insurers in general: everyone with anything serious e.g. CHF exacerbation, COPD exacerbation, uncontrolled diabetes, pneumonia, asthma, stroke, MI, etc. will wind up in an ER after a course of augmentin or zithromax, & be told to follow-up with a DOCTOR instead of a minute-clinic.

as a doctor who works with NPs every day, I can say that some are great as an assistant, some suck, but ALL are a far cry from a physician, & i’d never use one as a primary care “provider” for myself or my family without real supervision from someone with the training & experience (& intelligence) of a physician.

If retail clinics present no real threat to the primary care MD, then why the animosity and directed oligopolistic targeting of them by the AMA? Methinks that there is much more to this story in regards to the actions of organized medicine when it comes to protecting its turf and the basis of such action(s) having nothing to do with patient safety.

so don’t go to an allopath, go see an NP or PA – believe me, it’s not making the primary care MD worse off to lose your business – on the contrary you seem like the typical patient i’d fire.

good luck with your cold – if you get really sick, i’d be really curious if you stick to avoiding the criminal allopaths you so easily denigrate.

The success rate of following an algorithm is not the same as a success rate of real patient outcomes.

What IS expensive (for everyone) is when the uninsured have a major trauma (eg. MVA), or a heart attack & get admitted for a prolonged hospitalization. then the bill goes unpaid & everyone’s premiums go up.

The miraculous $30 gimme-a-zpak-for-my-cold visit is like pissing in the wind, not to mention the occasional serious problem that is missed.