For DU MDs...

I've jumped in a couple of times on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3218983&mesg_id=3219394&page=

I get really po'd at the flat out calculated gouging I see going on between MDs, drug manufacturers, insurance companies, and lawyers. The person seeking health care is just at the mercy of the vultures in the health care system. Is there any group of practicioners out there who are looking at a way to get outside of that system? Is it impossible for practitioners to work on a fee for service basis and not link it to insurance? For example, people tend to go to the doctor generally for run of the mill complaints--cough, sore throat, fever, abrasions and cuts. Some patients have chronic or more severe conditions requiring specialists. I know family practice was originally set up to kind of address this. But I'm thinking of doctors practicing within the means of their communities. What is a reasonable fee for looking down my throat and doing a swab that you can read the results of within less than an hour? Can there be a patient coop of some sort where basic services are agreed upon and extraordinary care goes elsewhere?

Something has to give. Perhaps these are stupid and uninformed questions, but I find it very frustrating to continually sort my way through the insurance mess and trying to figure out which doctor will see me. We quit going to one practice because we could never figure out who our doctor was.

I know I'm rambling now, but no one in any of these interest groups above appears to want to give an inch and people are hurting financially and physically for it.