To: The Arizona State House, The Arizona State Senate, Governor Doug Ducey, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Healthcare Reform: The THIRD OPTION a Membership Driven Nonprofit Healthcare System For ALL Ameri...
Tell your state representatives and congress to start the discussion on the THIRD VIABLE HEALTHCARE OPTION:
Membership Driven Nonprofit Healthcare Systems
Membership Driven Nonprofit Healthcare Systems
Why is this important?
THIS IS MY STORY:
I am a recently medically retired Family Nurse Practitioner with a near 30-year career working with my hometown's community and other tribal hospital organizations. Had I not worked with the indigenous populations of America I would have been serving the veterans or military. My work is for the underserved populations of our nation.
The affordable and socially responsible healthcare debate has been breaking my heart for years. It is apparent to me that Americans cannot reach a consensus on this issue. Some of the very valid reasons are that we don’t want our choices limited and we don’t want the government deciding what healthcare provider we can see or how much we will be taxed for the Medicare for All type plan.
Because my health insurance dropped me due to my lost employment, I had to seek out an alternative. I did an online search for low-cost clinics in the Tucson, AZ area and found one that is trying a membership or cooperative type business model to provide services to people like me.
I compared what it has been costing me to have my healthcare needs addressed by a poorly run family clinic organization. My insurance copay was $20/visit to my primary care provider and for a specialist, it was $40/visit. My last visit to a specialist ended up costing me more because they wanted a chest x-ray that would cost me $1000 and I was attempting physical therapy at $50/visit for awhile too. The list of medical expenses goes on to include medication prices that were ridiculous for an uninsured person to try to meet.
Enter my first visit to the membership driven clinic and my new medical home. I have received astoundingly better healthcare that is specific to my needs for much, much less than paying insurance or taxes. For my demographic, I pay $75/month for unlimited access to my provider. I can call, text, email and so on. My provider listened to my history and worked with me to come up with a plan that fit me as an individual. She respects my opinion as a nursing professional which is something I didn’t have at my previous clinic. She ordered the chest x-ray that ended up costing me only $35.
My medications? Wholesale prices. I get the medications I need for pennies on the dollar.
Now, imagine what we could do with this type of business plan across America and for more than a family practice clinic.
As healthcare consumers, we should be using our power to drive the insurance companies and government out of our healthcare. In a nonprofit system, we would have more choices, more affordability, more mobility, better patient/provider interactions, beliefs preserving (for the pro-life/pro-choice populations) and more. There is so much more we could be doing for people using this valid system that has been under funded, under promoted and largely ignored.
You can look at the information provided in this link from the Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care and look through the resources for some good information.
http://nonprofithealthcare.org/
You can also go to the discussion group I've created on Facebook to see what else I have found.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/278503785960711/
The infrastructure exists. The laws need to change in order to bolster the systems and remove for profit industry from holding sway over our nation's health and economic and national security.
This is what I want to discuss. This is something that is working for me and I want to share it with others so that we might find some decent leverage with the corporations and government.
Thanks for reading!
Karen McLane FNP-BC Retired
I am a recently medically retired Family Nurse Practitioner with a near 30-year career working with my hometown's community and other tribal hospital organizations. Had I not worked with the indigenous populations of America I would have been serving the veterans or military. My work is for the underserved populations of our nation.
The affordable and socially responsible healthcare debate has been breaking my heart for years. It is apparent to me that Americans cannot reach a consensus on this issue. Some of the very valid reasons are that we don’t want our choices limited and we don’t want the government deciding what healthcare provider we can see or how much we will be taxed for the Medicare for All type plan.
Because my health insurance dropped me due to my lost employment, I had to seek out an alternative. I did an online search for low-cost clinics in the Tucson, AZ area and found one that is trying a membership or cooperative type business model to provide services to people like me.
I compared what it has been costing me to have my healthcare needs addressed by a poorly run family clinic organization. My insurance copay was $20/visit to my primary care provider and for a specialist, it was $40/visit. My last visit to a specialist ended up costing me more because they wanted a chest x-ray that would cost me $1000 and I was attempting physical therapy at $50/visit for awhile too. The list of medical expenses goes on to include medication prices that were ridiculous for an uninsured person to try to meet.
Enter my first visit to the membership driven clinic and my new medical home. I have received astoundingly better healthcare that is specific to my needs for much, much less than paying insurance or taxes. For my demographic, I pay $75/month for unlimited access to my provider. I can call, text, email and so on. My provider listened to my history and worked with me to come up with a plan that fit me as an individual. She respects my opinion as a nursing professional which is something I didn’t have at my previous clinic. She ordered the chest x-ray that ended up costing me only $35.
My medications? Wholesale prices. I get the medications I need for pennies on the dollar.
Now, imagine what we could do with this type of business plan across America and for more than a family practice clinic.
As healthcare consumers, we should be using our power to drive the insurance companies and government out of our healthcare. In a nonprofit system, we would have more choices, more affordability, more mobility, better patient/provider interactions, beliefs preserving (for the pro-life/pro-choice populations) and more. There is so much more we could be doing for people using this valid system that has been under funded, under promoted and largely ignored.
You can look at the information provided in this link from the Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care and look through the resources for some good information.
http://nonprofithealthcare.org/
You can also go to the discussion group I've created on Facebook to see what else I have found.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/278503785960711/
The infrastructure exists. The laws need to change in order to bolster the systems and remove for profit industry from holding sway over our nation's health and economic and national security.
This is what I want to discuss. This is something that is working for me and I want to share it with others so that we might find some decent leverage with the corporations and government.
Thanks for reading!
Karen McLane FNP-BC Retired