MICHIGAN State Senator, P. Colbeck: ‘The Return of Direct Primary Care’ « Concierge Medicine Today

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1. This is a great perspective and analysis given by Senator Colbeck.

   I particularly appreciate the discussion about the “uncompensated care” misunderstanding that has turned into a talking point for advocates of more government intervention. There is a reasonable amount of statistical and observational data that suggests quite strongly that increased enrollment in Medicaid by those currently eligible, but not enrolled, would actually cause governmental, and thus societies’ costs to increase.

   This makes sense when you think about it. The uninsured (that are now eligible for medicaid) do end up in the ER for “uncompensated care” as the hospitals like to call it. However, most “not show a profit” hospitals, are reimbursed via CMS for a large percentage of non-collectible care costs. Furthermore, because these patients are not enrolled in medicaid, the state and federal government does not have as high of a payout and tax dollars are not consumed at such a high rate; Furthermore, these same patients are not very likely to go to the doctor for trivial issues due to cost, so they utilize less overall than their peer-matched medicaid recipients. One reason for this observation is that the way Medicaid is structured incentivises the wrong behavior.

   Kudos to a politician for speaking out truthfully with good evidence to back up his points.

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