Was just thinking that there should be doctor clubs, where a bunch of people pool their money to hire a dedicated general physician. Or to have a shared tailor, or group cafeteria, or whatever....
I want universal healthcare. I was thinking about this since maybe a town or community could actually get something in place while nationwide universal healthcare seems decades away in the U.S.
I think if it started to get bigger the other factor that would come into play is the entity could be democratically controlled, which is another thing we don’t get with typical insurance.
You’re right. Health care needs are more uneven than the other services I mentioned. What about piecemealing the services? So not universal healthcare for Smalltownsville, not MRIs or designer drugs initially, but everyone at least gets a general physician visit. Potentially still a better experience for doctor and patients. But not thinking just about healthcare, what about a neighborhood cafeteria or tax service, or any commonly used service?
Not saying it would work, but what I’m describing is more bite size than a full health system. So if a group only committed to “everyone gets to see a general practitioner” then people are on their own for MRIs and chemo. Figure out how many patients a type of practitioner can handle in a year, then pool that many people to hire one. Same idea for any other role, like how many cars can one mechanic fix a year?
I’m not married to the idea, but more thinking about how could we take concrete steps towards universal health care, other common services, democratic workplaces. If people see a micro version working then it may inspire more ideas, attract more effort.
Well, fair criticism aside, I didn’t say money would be useless. The idea is if one doctor can see a thousand people a year, then a thousand people pool their money and hire their own doctor. Not an infinite service for finding a doctor. (Of course you’re right they still need to find each other and then find that one doctor, which sounds like real middleman stuff) But sort of this less abstract relationship - as it is you pay thousands to health insurance, not a specific doctor, and then when you go to see a doctor they pop in for 5 minutes then off to the next patient.
Wasn’t saying farmers would hire the doctor, was throwing out examples of services. Another one might be a neighborhood cafeteria - how many people can one or two people prepare lunch for everyday, then pool that many guests. Kind a very specific consumer coop.
If you see my other replies here I’m interested in universal healthcare. More was thinking about options because doesn’t seem to be an intermediate step for how far away the U.S. at least is from universal healthcare.
Thanks for commenting! Having experienced the difficulty in getting traction on a state level campaign for an unrelated issue, I’m discouraged about the prospects for a nationwide overhaul of our health system, although that’s what I’d prefer to see.
Do you have any thoughts on what the pathway for such an overhaul would look like?
How many patients can one doctor take care of per year? How many people can one farmer feed a year?
Was just thinking that there should be doctor clubs, where a bunch of people pool their money to hire a dedicated general physician. Or to have a shared tailor, or group cafeteria, or whatever....