An Experiment With Concierge Medical Care
Reader Comments
Concierge Care
A new online news source, Concierge Medicine Today, is now available for physicians interested in this relatively new practice model.
What's Your Health Worth?
I've been an MDVIP patient since 2003. I'm not wealthy but I put a premium on my health. My mdvip doctor charges $1650 a year -- that's $137.5 a month or $4.52 a day. It's easy to blow that amount on a couple of dinners eating out a month or on a daily Starbucks habit or cigarettes. So I don't think it is really for "the wealthy." It's for people who value good healthcare. In our society it is really easy to blow through money and then have nothing to show for it.
Wonderful. But don't be distracted
There have always been compassionate doctors (individuals) who would donate their time out of generosity, selflessness, and (in some cases) a strong desire to follow the teachings of Jesus. We admire these people, and we should always appreciate each and every one of them.
We should also recognize that for-profit corporations do not similarly have the human characteristics of conscience, compassion, empathy and spirituality. Corporations are paper entities, literally made of money, and under the law have a duty NOT TO CUSTOMERS (or patients) but rather to shareholders---and that single duty is to maximize profit without exposing the officers to prison time. This is why America needs to reduce the corporate grip and influence on health care. Maximizing profits and maximizing humanitarian care are incongruent goals.
Socialist, you say? No. Realist.
Citizens, via government, must set the limits on what corporations are permitted to monopolize in the health arena. We've been doing so since the first vision for an FDA or any state insurance regulators. It's great that there are pockets of charity work. It's also important that the publicity of those works DOES NOT blind us from seeing that medical care and its related "insurance" financing needs regulation, regulation, regulation ----forever. Not to protect us from doctors, to protect us from paper entities.
I think I would
But I can't afford it right now. Wealthy people always get the best stuff first...including healthcare. I'm not sure this is a bad thing. 6 years ago, I would have spent several months wages on a tv that now would cost me a couple of weeks. Someone has to pay for innovation. This sort of service will probably make it's way to the general market - in a more affordable, if slightly less helpful, format.
