The prudence of a patient-centered approach to health care was the focus of a recent article in the Washington Times written by Drs. Kenneth Fisher and Lee Gross, Presidents of the Michigan and Florida Chapters of Docs4PatientCare. The article begins by stating that all Americans should have affordable, high quality health care. Unfortunately the PPACA is neither affordable and if anything decreases the quality of health care by systematically interfering with the patient-doctor relationship. The law greatly expands Medicaid while not addressing the problems these patients have with access.
The second half of the article provided an outline for a far superior alternative. Health saving accounts (HSAs) along with high deductable insurance is proposed for all Americans. Direct Primary Care Programs funded by each person’s HSAs would for the first time allow all Americans to have access to first rate primary care. Another suggestion was that HSAs funds accumulate throughout one’s lifetime so that upon retirement all Americans could fund their own health care without depending on succeeding generations.
The entire article is available at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/3/prudence-of-a-patient-centered-approach/