The WSJ’s Ben Brewer (via Dr. Wes) suggests the government give $1 per day to patients for primary care. The resulting $365 will be put to good use:
The patient would choose the doctor. The basket of services would be predefined, and the price would be locked in for a year, paid as a monthly subscription like cellphone service or movie rentals.
Money spent that way would cover a lot of preventive health, office visits, management of chronic diseases, email contact with the doctor, and after-hours advice. Make it tax deductible for individuals as well as businesses.
Makes sense to me. Insurers will push back, as those who benefit from the current bureaucracy such as the coders and administrators, will lose. But this idea is a win for patients and doctors.
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{ 8 comments }
That’s an interesting proposal, considering it sounds EXACTLY like my proposal from over one year ago.
The Proposal Sounds Just Like Happy’s Proposal From Over One Year Ago
I think it would juice costs up.
I am sure I am not the only person who doesn’t go to the doctor once a month — and doesn’t need to.
If you give people that credit then they’ll feel they are entitled (a common feeling when health care is mentioned) to use it.
All those little things your Mother who didn’t have $30 to spend taking you to the doctor told you -drink more water, eat your vegetables, maybe you shouldn’t drink so much, wear your sunscreen, take an aspirin- will go right out the door. You can just visit your Doctor, after all you’re entitled.
A certain percentage would result in referrals to specialists. That would cost even more.
While it’s an interesting concept it probably needs to be targeted at people who actually should be checking in regularly and aren’t.
This is remarkably similar to The Happy Hospitalist’s post back in November of 2007. Coincidence or Plagiarism? More at link -
http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2008/11/did-happys-idea-just-make-it-into-wall.html
you have to spend money to save money
Don’t you mean it’s a win for “PCPs”, not “doctors”?
I tend to lose track because of how it’s always just “doctors” for something that only benefits PCPs, but “primary care physicians” when you’re declaring that specialists are the enemy and you can’t wait for their income to be redistributed to you.
Meanwhile the government and insurers can’t stop laughing at how they get the rats to fight harder and harder over the cheese as they give less and less.
How about not taking the dollar from the person in the first place? If the American people are unwilling to spend a mere 365$ a year out of their own pocket on needed healthcare, then the only healthcare that we need is sterilization so that we might be more rapidly replaced by a more vigorous people.
Kevin – Doesn’t this go against the point you always make about how increasing access to the system will further exacerbate the problems with our battered primary care delivery system? In other words, who’s going to see all of these patients?
I’m also not sure how administrators and coders lose out in that scenario??
Sounds a lot like Hello Health to me.
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