Crush Liberalism

Private sector in RI comes up with health care solution

What?  The government didn’t come up with it?  How that possibly be?  For those of you on the left, the prior was sarcasm.  Anywho, from Rhode Island:

… Lisker was finally able to do that because she is one of a couple of hundred uninsured people who have enrolled in an innovative program called HealthAccessRI. In this program, she pays $30 a month for a “membership” in her primary care doctor’s practice, essentially keeping him on retainer. That means that even without insurance, she can get frontline medical help whenever she needs it, paying just $10 for each office visit.
…
HealthAccessRI is the brainchild of Lisker’s doctor, Michael D. Fine, who today will join his colleagues in announcing that HealthAccessRI is going statewide and launching a publicity campaign, hoping to reach more of the 120,000 uninsured Rhode Islanders.

Fine’s practice, Hillside Family and Community Medicine, with eight doctors in Pawtucket and Scituate, has been offering the program since 2002, as has Family Doctors of East Providence, with three doctors.

Recently, five other family-medicine practices joined, bringing to 21 the number of participating doctors. The fees vary by practice, with a monthly retainer of $25 or $30 per person (with discounts for families) and office-visit co-pays of $5 or $10. For this price, patients get all the basics of primary care: yearly physicals, well-child visits, checkups, sick visits within a day of calling, school and sports physicals, family planning, preventive health advice and a doctor to call to at any hour when they feel sick.

But they have to pay out of pocket for specialty care, hospitalization, x-rays, laboratory work, prescription drugs, emergency room visits and mental-health care.

The premise underlying the plan, Fine says, is that primary care is both inexpensive and effective, and for most people, it’s all they need. 

If you’re healthy most of the time and rarely see a doctor (and thus opt out of health insurance), then this option works great, especially if you pair it with some kind of high deductible catastrophic insurance plan (or health savings account).  Like it says, the vast majority of doctor’s patients are people who aren’t in there very often.  HealthAccessRI is great for these patients.

Naturally, the big government bureaucrat pooh-poohed the plan:

Christopher F. Koller, the state’s health insurance commissioner, welcomed HealthAccessRI as an interesting experiment and worthwhile effort to promote primary care, but said he did not expect it to attract many people. “It’s an innovation,” he said. “I’m really convinced at this point that we need to encourage experimentation and we need to learn from it.”  

The private sector, on the other hand, likes the idea:

Dale Venturini, president and chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association, is sold on the idea. Her industry employs many young people who often don’t want to pay for health insurance. Venturini sees potential for restaurants to offer to pay the monthly fees of employees who enroll in HealthAccessRI. “We thought that our industry would be a likely incubator to get it started off the ground,” she said. “This is an opportunity for people to get basic health care at minimal cost.”  

A family from the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts sees the benefits, too, and is even willing to pay Mass’ “how dare you not purchase expensive insurance in our bloated leftist state!” fine:

Rose and Fyed Zia, of Reboboth, stopped buying health insurance for themselves and five children a year and half ago, when the cost rose to a prohibitive $1,500 a month. They run two convenience stores and own some rental property, and have few options for group health coverage. Luckily their doctors are part of Family Doctors of East Providence, which offered them the HealthAccessRI program for $25 a month. It’s been “perfect” for them, says Rose Zia.

“Having a primary care doctor, that eliminates any visit to the emergency room or even to the walk-in,” she says. “If you have a primary care doctor that you can call, they will advise you what to do.”

Under Massachusetts law, the Zias are required to obtain health insurance, but they paid the $219 per-person fine last year rather than buy it. Since then, their children have qualified for MassHealth, the state-run health plan, while the parents were put in a free insurance program with a $15,000 deductible. They don’t want to end their relationship with their doctors in East Providence, so the Zias will pass up the benefits of MassHealth for their children. For the parents, the high deductible in their coverage makes HealthAccessRI an ideal alternative for them. 

Every time, the innovation of the market will work, if only the government would get the hell out of the way.

January 18, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | big government, health care