Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MamaLiberty]

Simple Care - The health care of the future  http://simplecare.com/

How does it work? We call it PIFATOS – Pay In Full At Time Of Service – and it is truly a “Cash-Based Revolution.” A patient sees a doctor for a non-catastrophic reason – yearly check-up, a nagging flu, a twisted wrist, an aching stomach, etc. The doctor bills the patient after the visit. The patient pays in full before leaving. Because doctor charges are anywhere from 25 – 50% inflated due to administrative costs caused by the health insurance industry, you’ll be paying drastically reduced rates for your medical expenses. In conjunction with a regular catastrophic health insurance policy to cover extremely costly procedures, PIFATOS can save the average healthy adult and/or family up to $5000/year!*

Now, ask yourself. How often do you go to the doctor? And when you do, how long does it take the doctor to treat what you have? The fact is, most healthy Americans don’t visit the doctor all that often for non-catastrophic reasons, and when they do, they don’t visit with the doctor for all that long and they don’t receive very elaborate treatment. So why are most healthy Americans paying huge sums of money to insure themselves against regular doctor visits that actually aren’t that expensive? They shouldn’t be, and with SimpleCare, they don’t.

[OLD TIRED RN]

DEFINITELY an idea who's time has come.  Hope it works out OK without some sneaky/slippery government man stopping it.

                                                    RN

[MamaLiberty]

Simple Care has been around for quite a while without any problems so far. The major hurdle is that most people have 'insurance' of one kind or another and either can't or won't dump it. As long as insurance is a substantial part of a person's paycheck, they are not apt to do anything else, but this is perfect for the "outlaws" among us who are not wrapped up in the insurance thing.

[slidemansailor]

A psychologist friend of mine swore off 3rd party payers a couple of years ago.  He does his work and gets paid.... no time spent serving paper monsters.

[vonuvan]

A pure application of "PIFATOS – Pay In Full At Time Of Service" should be even cheaper than Simple Care.
It would certainly be simpler.
Simply find a doctor that will accept cash at a discount, then use and recommend him/her.

[MamaLiberty]

The major role of "Simple Care" is to educate both doctors and patients in this concept, and help them make it happen - as well as help them find each other. Sure you can do it yourself... nobody's stopping you.

[Silver]

How often do you go to the doctor? And when you do, how long does it take the doctor to treat what you have? The fact is, most healthy Americans don’t visit the doctor all that often for non-catastrophic reasons, and when they do, they don’t visit with the doctor for all that long and they don’t receive very elaborate treatment.

(emphasis added)

While I applaud the effort, I think the concept is fatally flawed.  Here's why:

I'm not a doctor, but I have studied the human body, human physiology, and human action for decades.  The fact of the matter is that I could see 80% of those people who don’t visit with the doctor for all that long and they don’t receive very elaborate treatment.  I would need to know enough to spot the 20% or so who had problems bigger than I could treat, but there is no doubt that I could help a lot of people, at a fraction of the cost and bother associated with seeing a doctor.  I would make housecalls.

But then I would be infringing on the 95-year old privileges of the American medical guild.  Guilds survive only with the liberal application of government force, and there is little doubt that if I were to set up such a business, I would eventually find myself facedown on the pavement with a machine gun pressed to the back of my head.

It's not just the insurance that makes medicine expensive and poor quality.  It's the economic organization of the profession.  As long as it is illegal for me to charge you $5 to pick a splinter from your hand with a $2.5 million DaVinci robot mounted in the back of my van, while a guild member can do it with a pair of pliers and charge you $100 for an office visit, the costs will continue to climb, the service will continue to deteriorate, and eventually there will be shortages and rationing.  Just like we are seeing today.

Peace,

Silver

[ShortyDawkins]

How often do you go to the doctor? And when you do, how long does it take the doctor to treat what you have? The fact is, most healthy Americans don’t visit the doctor all that often for non-catastrophic reasons, and when they do, they don’t visit with the doctor for all that long and they don’t receive very elaborate treatment.

(emphasis added)

While I applaud the effort, I think the concept is fatally flawed.  Here's why:

I'm not a doctor, but I have studied the human body, human physiology, and human action for decades.  The fact of the matter is that I could see 80% of those people who don’t visit with the doctor for all that long and they don’t receive very elaborate treatment.  I would need to know enough to spot the 20% or so who had problems bigger than I could treat, but there is no doubt that I could help a lot of people, at a fraction of the cost and bother associated with seeing a doctor.  I would make housecalls.

But then I would be infringing on the 95-year old privileges of the American medical guild.  Guilds survive only with the liberal application of government force, and there is little doubt that if I were to set up such a business, I would eventually find myself facedown on the pavement with a machine gun pressed to the back of my head.

It's not just the insurance that makes medicine expensive and poor quality.  It's the economic organization of the profession.  As long as it is illegal for me to charge you $5 to pick a splinter from your hand with a $2.5 million DaVinci robot mounted in the back of my van, while a guild member can do it with a pair of pliers and charge you $100 for an office visit, the costs will continue to climb, the service will continue to deteriorate, and eventually there will be shortages and rationing.  Just like we are seeing today.

Peace,

Silver

  On the nose, silver. I agree completely. The AMA has been the enemy of public health since its inception. Limiting the availability for help from ANY source, for those in need of it, is the root of the current problem.

  Shorty Dwkins

[surveillancejunky]

My doctor bills me later at discounted rates, knows I have no insurance by choice, and is probably sailing(if the craft is seaworthy) away right now.  That said, he's probably making a killing off of others via "the system."  That said once again, I agree with Silver and wonder what to do about the older folks who've lived their lives but must now reside in urine(or urine and more-filled/smelling rooms) for a couple of years.  That generation was taught a way of life is my point there...It's a harsh reality that the systems have failed since government got involved and changed the paradigm for so many.  It's happening now too.  My kids, your kids will be "adapted" to whatever systems have been and will be developed by people and entities they don't even understand...
 

Peace, Liberty, and Respect!