The US is considered the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
About 20% of the GDP is spent on healthcare. This means that one out of every five dollars spent in the wealthiest country in the history of the world is spent on healthcare.
Do we have better outcomes than countries that spend less? Nope.
Sometimes we have worse outcomes.
Why?
Physician salaries make up about 8% of that spend.
This means that 92% of that spend is going towards other things, many of which are important.
But a large amount of that 92% is going towards large institutions that add no clinical value, and whose main goal is to suck money out of the system. Some have called it the healthcare tapeworm. I prefer parasites.
A large amount of GDP money goes towards large institutions that add no clinical value, and whose main goal is to suck money out of the system. Some have called it the healthcare tapeworm. I prefer parasites. Click To Tweet
The direct care movement is a relationship based way of practicing medicine.
Relationship based care takes time (hour long appointments), and this is incompatible with insurance billing/gaming.
For that reason, direct care is opposed to in system ways of doing things, because they change the way that a physician is able to practice (makes it worse). Direct care = parasite removal.
The direct care movement is a relationship based way of practicing medicine. Relationship based care takes time (hour long appointments), and this is incompatible with insurance billing/gaming. Click To Tweet
Family med physicians are ahead of the curve with direct primary care.
They hit the pain point much earlier and have developed a tried and true model. They figured it out.
We can all learn something from them.