The idea that patients are better off paying their doctor directly and using their insurance only for unaffordable catastrophes is gaining some traction. With implementation of the Affordable Care Act looming in 2014 many patients are looking at their doctor’s already crowded waiting room and wondering how their care will be impacted when their doctor is responsible for even more patients. And doctors who even now are swamped and frustrated with insurance bureaucracy are wondering how much worse things will get when they have less time for more patients.
Yesterday Bloomberg Businessweek published an “Health insurance should work more like car insurance,” says Umbehr. “We have car insurance for all the big stuff, but we pay for gas, tires, and oil changes ourselves.”
He's right. ” target=”_blank”>Is Concierge Medicine the Future of Health Care? (Business Week)
” target=”_blank”>Dollars to doughnuts diagnosis (My 2008 op-ed in the LA Times that explains why I got out of the insurance model)
Important legal mumbo jumbo:
Anything you read on the web should be used to supplement, not replace, your doctor’s advice. Anything that I write is no exception. I’m a doctor, but I’m not your doctor.
