Posted on 04/04/2004 12:50:28 PM PDT by mountaineer
RENTON, Wash. -- When Chuck O'Brien visits his doctor, they talk about his aches and pains, his heart problems and his diet, but never about his health insurance. That's because his doctor only accepts cash.
Dr. Vern Cherewatenko is one of a small but growing number of physicians across the country who are dumping complicated insurance contracts in favor of simple cash payments.
When O'Brien leaves the exam room, he writes a check for $50 and he's done -- no forms, no ID numbers, no copayments.
"This is traditional medicine. This is what America was like 30 years ago," said O'Brien, 55 and self-employed, who believes he has saved thousands of dollars by dropping his expensive insurance policy and paying cash. "It's a whole world of difference."
Is this the health care wave of the future? Probably not, experts say. Most people are content with monthly premiums and $10 copays; nine out of 10 doctors contract with managed-care companies.
But cash-only medicine is becoming an increasingly attractive option for doctors frustrated by red tape and for the 43 million Americans who lack health insurance.
"It's a terrible indictment of the collapsing health care system," said Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. "Insurance and managed care were supposed to streamline -- instead what they've done is add so much paperwork and bureaucracy they're driving some doctors out."
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Actually, the availability of catastrophic coverage at a cheap price makes it MORE likely that small employers will help the "working poor" to buy coverage, not less likely. If you have the ability to put money away and earn interest on it you can start saving for medical expenses at a much earlier age (when your out-of-pocket costs are low). As for retirees, if you start saving early you will have more money when you retire to pay for medical expenses that Medicare doesn't cover.
These plans reintroduce the free market into the purchase of health care services. The reason health care is so expensive is that we've treated it like an entitlement and not as a finite commodity that is best regulated by a free market approach. Having the insurance companies or the government pay for all of the costs of health care is insane. For every dollar that goes to pay for services at least 30% goes to pay for insurance company overhead and it only gets worse when you get the government involved. Then there's the fraud, waste, and abuse inherent in using someone else's money to pay for something. Nobody ever solved a problem or got rich swapping dollars with insurance companies or the government.
Your question sounds like you've been reading the Democrat's talking points on Consumer Driven Health Care. Creating incentives for people to provide their own insurance and use their health care dollars wisely and to get more young healthy people to buy insurance can only help us have more resources to provide care for the few who need help.
In one presentation I saw, a company that introduced a high-deductible plan saw utilization drop by the 13% the first year. People do use more services when they don't have to pay for it themselves.
Ha, I wish. But I do remember the visits to the pediatrician, where my mother would write out the $15 check (probably less if I didn't need a booster shot) and that was the end of it. Now, I write a $15 co-pay, and have to deal with additional paperwork for the next six months.
On the other hand, I think the patients would feel more "cared for."
I've belonged to an HMO for almost thirty years. My family and I have been discouraged (by the folks manning the telephone banks) from seeing our doctors for very serious conditions far more often than would happen if there hadn't been a sort of "HMO-triage" system set up.
One time we received a call, asking if my son didn't want to cancel a long-awaited appointment to see his urologist. The "nurse," who called me, told me that she thought the positive test results on my son's kidneys (IVP?, Ultrasound?---can't remember which) didn't mean anything. She said such positive results were common. My son has ongoing kidney problems. At the time she called he already had undergone serious surgery to remove a huge staghorn calculus. He has also undergone lithotripsy for several other kidney stones..
In this day and age my youngest daughter should not have gotten scarlet fever because a strep infection was missed, nor should she have had to go to the hospital emergency room to get her pneumonia diagnosed.
I certainly am grateful to live in a country where I can pay money directly to doctors outside my medical group in order to get the care my family members need.
I shudder when I think of Hillary-care.
OTOH, there are many illnessness that could not be treated in the 60's.
True, but none of which afflicted me, thankfully. I was referring only to regular checkups and the typical innoculations of childhood.
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