Have's and Have Not's: $$$ will determine your level of health care

I'm a big believer in Medical Concierge's like OneMedical here in San Francisco.

A few doctors are taking that kind of initiative, one to the tune of $5,000 per year!

Why? Costs.

Business are intended to make a profit. Too expensive to deal with insurance companies? Go concierge. Too much trouble dealing with all the little claims? Sell High Deductible HSA-qualified plans. Remember, the reimbursement system FAVORS specialists, not primary care physicians. The whole point of the Concierge System is to restore, economically, the neighborhood doctor relationship.

Basically, if you have money:

• Join a Concierge practice
• Buy a high-deductible HSA-qualified plan
• Buy an accident indemnity plan

If you don't have money:

• Rely on the State/Feds to take care of you... good luck!

If you're in between:

• Buy a high-deductible HSA-qualified plan (gotta cover surviving a bus hit, or brain tumors)
• Hope that the state medical system gets your knee fixed within 18 months of injury

Sorry, but that's the reality.

Friday Afternoon Pre-Match Warm-ups

Does your warm-up include beer?

Anyway, here's the latest regarding Health Insurance in CA. (Why can't politicians go after the people end up getting the money: Hospitals, Doctors, and Pharma companies? Price controls? Or, at least, release the charges for each procedure to the public!)

• Insurance Commish cries, "You're using the boots to my head!" Damn right they are... (hat tip: Insureblog.com)
• Here's a great solution to the HSA/Preventive care challenge. Otherwise, only the well-off can afford the tax savings. As posted here before, RI believes that ALL health care dollars should be pre-tax dollars.
• The previous link's solution is corroborated here. Okay, so I have a Health Savings Account, BFD. If I don't go see a Doctor when I'm sick, the condition could exponentially worsen, costing more money.
• Here's where you get your preventive plan: Sam's Club! RI will be check this out, and comparing it to my local health care boutique, One Medical.
  

Basically, I'd like to see HSA-qualified plans with unlimited preventive visits. You can do that with the purchase of an HSA-qualified plan, then joining a health care boutique. Could be tight for the lower incomes. Ergo, a combo plan might be it.

But this is all speculative bullshit if the hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies continue to charge whatever they want sans transparency, and gov't just blindly writes checks.

Who stole the clubhouse beer? Or, why you don't have a Primary Care Doc

Beer. It's what motivates most Rugby players. That first cold draught thrown back immediately after the final whistle reminds us of the conquerors of yore, who drank beer post pillage!

Here's what happens if you have the wrong people guarding the beer.

I don't have a primary care doc, I use a concierge service called One Medical. I'm sure the AMA hates these people.

Specialists take home most of the money in healthcare. Primary docs, the ones a rugby player truly needs to stay on the pitch, are fewer and fewer each day.

Add Obamacare, and you'll see PCPs hang up the boots in multiples of XV.

Solution: Watch your own beer.... Support a primary care physician, and help fix a broken system.

Rugby Players can't spell "Boutique" or "Concierge"

They'd better learn. Healthcare Boutique's and Concierge Medicine will keep you fit through the season.

Our injuries tend to manifest a day or two post match. A nag in the shoulder, a tweak in the knee, and a Monday with pain makes the day go slow.

Is it worth spending $600 at the ER to gets some ibuprofen? No.

If the injury persists over a season, we still don't hit the ER. Why? $600 at once is a lot of money.

But what if you paid a Doctor $50-100 a month, to have same day appointments, and the Doc's cell number. No lines. No waiting room. No ER bullshit. See Doctor, speak to Doctor.

At first Boutique Health was for the rich. However, for a young, unattached single person, this is a great supplement to an HSA qualified plan.

The small family too can benefit from Concierge Medicine. Little kids get sick, and an ER is the LAST place you want to take a child. Plus, no insurance cards, forms, or any other crap that gets in the way of your little girl and the Pediatrician.

And it makes total sense for the Primary Care Physician. PCPs are getting killed by insurance companies, because what they charge is out-pacing what the insurance companies can pay. So, if I have 500 customers, each paying 1000 a year, I'm making half a million. That dog hunts. (This, by the by, is the magic number for a successful insurance practice, auto-dealership, or any other commercial enterprise)

So learn to spell: B O U T I Q U E and C O N C I E R G E. Joining one will keep you rucking.