As someone who graduated medical school in 2006, I have 19 years of experience dealing with insurance companies. From every aspect: as a student, as a resident, as an attending, of course as a patient. And I know a lot of people have hesitations about concierge medicine, because, like, “Why?! I’ve been paying for insurance for 20 years, why wouldn’t I use my health insurance?“
The thing is, the current healthcare system and insurance are designed to keep you sick.
- You go to your general doctor and they diagnose you with arthritis.
- You go to the arthritis doctor and they put you on a pain medicine.
- You go to the pain medicine doctor and they refer you to GI because you’re nauseous from the pain medicine.
- You go to your GI doctor and they refer you to a psychiatrist because you’re depressed because you’re nauseous and constipated from the pain medicine for your arthritis.
- WHAT?!?!
- You go to your GI doctor and they refer you to a psychiatrist because you’re depressed because you’re nauseous and constipated from the pain medicine for your arthritis.
- You go to the pain medicine doctor and they refer you to GI because you’re nauseous from the pain medicine.
- You go to the arthritis doctor and they put you on a pain medicine.
That’s a merry-go-round of seven different doctors, when all you really need is one doctor to sit down with you and not have your time together dictated by insurance companies. A concierge doctor can sit down for 30 minutes and simply say “Girl, what’s wrong, and how can I fix it?“
So when people talk about, “I don’t want to go to a concierge doctor because I pay for insurance,” let’s think about…
What does insurance want from you, and…
What does a concierge doctor want for you?