Consumer Directed Healthcare, Continues to Grow

Having been in medicine since I was 17 (over 25 years), I have heard all the talks about how healthcare needs to be fixed. I have been on all sides, patient, provider, and healthcare executive, but nothing is as compelling to me as the consumer directed healthcare movement. I believe it is here to stay (or at least until something better comes along), but, it is the closest concept that I have seen to helping "fix" a broken healthcare system. In short, give the consumer control to decide where and how he spends his healthcare dollar, give him transparence and information, educate him. For whatever the many reasons, medicine and the business of medicine for the last century has been unlike any other market or industry. You basically went to the doctor and didnt care what it cost as insurance covered you..so you had no incentive to do your "due diligence", with consumer directed heatlhcare it is different, and you, the consumer , have incentives to understand where best to receive care, how much to pay, how to prevent, educate , and inform. Your incentive....savings.. The more you save on your healthcare annually the more you save...thus, 87% of healthcare savings accounts roll over..and if you are in an eligible plan, you can use your savings after age 65 just as another retirement account. It makes sense.

It makes so much sense it is bipartisan swinging from Hiliary to Newt. Consumer directed healthcare plans are now growing 7-8% annually and it is predicted by 2010 that 27% of all insurance plans will be a derivative of this. Minute clinic is a fall out of this as is MDVIP (concierge boutique medicine) though on 2 different ends of the spectra. An industry is burgeoning with solutions to help the consumer execute, understand, educate and more...Doctors on Demand is an offshoot of this as well...

I support it...give the consumer control, intelligence and let the natural market forces that affect every other industry or sector, that we consumers participate in...naturally correct the inefficiences..I do think we are on the right track.