"Docs4PatientCare.org is a politically neutral grassroots coalition of physicians. Use of any politically partisan terms does not reflect the position of Docs4PatientCare.org. We do encourage our speakers to express how they feel and we post articles based on their informative content only. Any politically partisan language used does not reflect the group as a whole. Specific party or political allegiances and opposition are not our intent. The goal of D4PC is only to advocate for effective and responsible health care reform."
Long time readers of this blog will know that I am a strong proponent of direct-pay practitioners, of doctors who “drop out” of the system to establish medical practices in which they are paid directly by their patients. This kind of arrangement is the only way today for physicians and patients to enjoy the classic doctor-patient relationship; you know, the relationship where the patient agrees to confide completely in the physician, and the physician agrees to work solely for the benefit of the patient.
In the modern healthcare system, especially under Obamacare, this classic form of the doctor-patient relationship is not only frowned upon, but is considered unethical. It is unethical because doctors have formally adopted a “new ethics” which obligates them to work for “social justice,” which is a pleasant-sounding euphemism for covert bedside healthcare rationing. The direct-pay model allows physicians to avoid this odious new responsibility.
The entire healthcare system today is disposed to hate the direct-pay model. The reason typically given is that this model of practice will establish unfair “two-tiered” healthcare, the new, undesired tier, of course, being the one in which patients would enjoy the benefits of a professional advocate who is looking out for their individual needs.
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Almost everyone involved in health care will tell you that the greatest problem in our system is that we pay on a "fee-for-service" basis. Almost everyone is wrong. Fee for service is not the problem, but FFS in a third party payor system. Only in health care is there someone else picking up the tab for our spending.
If we applied the same third-party payment technique to any other segment of the economy we would get the exact same inflationary spiral we see in health care.
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