same-day appointments and unhurried 30 to 60-minute office visits. Other savings can be invested in electronic medical records, on-site lab and imaging equipment or drug dispensaries. With efficient business models, this can all be accomplished while charging surprisingly affordable monthly fees.
Insurance does play a valuable role in paying for specialists and hospital care in those rare circumstances when it’s needed, like when people suffer injuries from car accidents and need to go the emergency room. Insurance spreads the risk and cost of this type of more expensive, less predictable health care. Not surprisingly, a “wrap-around” insurance plan people can buy to protect themselves from an unpredictable health catastrophe is much less expensive than a traditional comprehensive insurance plan.
Combining an affordable direct primary care medical home practice with a low premium wrap-around insurance plan provides the best of both worlds: Quality, low-cost primary and preventive care that will cover 90 percent of what most patients need to see a doctor for; and cost-effective comprehensive coverage for serious, expensive illnesses.
In Washington state, some direct practice patients are realizing total out-of-pocket savings of 40 to 50 percent for such comprehensive health care coverage, and employers are routinely seeing 20 to 35 percent savings, all without any government subsidy.
By eliminating insurance where it isn’t needed and optimizing it where it is, we can save loads of money, and provide better care. Direct primary care medical homes should be a key element of broad-based health care reform and be included as an option for Americans and employers. Senator Cantwell’s #C-9 amendment will allow the combination of a non-insurance, direct primary care medical home plus a wrap-around insurance plan to be offered inside the proposed insurance exchange. This will promote low-cost, high-quality health care as an option for all, and help attract physicians and medical students back into primary care.
Please ask your representatives in Congress to support such an option. You can easily do that by clicking here.
