I think that is going to be the next evolution of the healthcare industry. This all started when mega healthcare systems started buying up community hospitals in the late 90's. Now in almost all area's your choice is say 4 different hospitals but they're all owned by the SAME healthcare company so your choice of providers is a total illusion. We need to go back to the community hospital concept which created competition,better quality of care, and lower prices.
Perhaps a membership subscription service, with real benefits included besides just emergency and preventive healthcare to entice the young and healthy to join, such as the use of gyms and pools, and included or reduced price health food restaurants/shops. You would be a member of your community hospital instead of paying into health insurance. Hospitals could have sharing agreements for member care when the are not near their home hospital. It might be similar to current insurance in network and out of network costs to the patient.
I think you are right. The only thing is that I think the community hospitals were bought up in the first place because they were having trouble staying afloat on their own. Some way would have to be found to keep them funded and innovative. This would be hard to do under a public funding system as such tend to become very beaurocratic and onerous. Funding by selling shares means accountability to the shareholders who would want a return for their support, which means a way would need to be found to earn a healthy profit while maintaining integrity and service to all patients.
I think that is going to be the next evolution of the healthcare industry. This all started when mega healthcare systems started buying up community hospitals in the late 90's. Now in almost all area's your choice is say 4 different hospitals but they're all owned by the SAME healthcare company so your choice of providers is a total illusion. We need to go back to the community hospital concept which created competition,better quality of care, and lower prices.
Perhaps a membership subscription service, with real benefits included besides just emergency and preventive healthcare to entice the young and healthy to join, such as the use of gyms and pools, and included or reduced price health food restaurants/shops. You would be a member of your community hospital instead of paying into health insurance. Hospitals could have sharing agreements for member care when the are not near their home hospital. It might be similar to current insurance in network and out of network costs to the patient.
I think you are right. The only thing is that I think the community hospitals were bought up in the first place because they were having trouble staying afloat on their own. Some way would have to be found to keep them funded and innovative. This would be hard to do under a public funding system as such tend to become very beaurocratic and onerous. Funding by selling shares means accountability to the shareholders who would want a return for their support, which means a way would need to be found to earn a healthy profit while maintaining integrity and service to all patients.