Just got a letter from my primary doctor indicating that they are transitioning to a concierge service later this year and will be billing an annual fee of $2,400 which doesn't include the cost of clinical services like labs which I will still need to have insurance for (not to mention insurance to cover hospitalizations, prescriptions, testing, specialists, etc. that may or may not come up.)
The most frustrating thing about this is that this is the 3rd doctor my family has used that has switched to concierge and essentially priced us out. I liked these doctors because they were kind and caring, and I can empathize with their frustration of wrangling insurance, but it's really starting to feel like compassionate healthcare is only available for the wealthy. My prior primary doctor switched to concierge in 2019, so I found this new doctor and had to start over. My kid's pediatrician switched to hybrid concierge for 2 years before ultimately rolling out a full concierge program and we had to find a new pediatrician as well. I know it's packaged as "we're doing this to give you better service" but what it really feels like is "you're too poor to be our patient and there are plenty of rich people who will happily pay for this."
I visit my primary care doctor 3 times a year to review regular bloodwork results and renew my usual prescriptions and I've thankfully never needed a same-day or even an extended-time appointment, so I don't think I am the prime customer for this type of service, but I still would like to see kind and caring doctors even if I can't pay an extra fee for it. I see specialists when I need to manage my chronic health conditions, and thankfully there's no sign of them switching to concierge, but I'm on edge over this. Is this really the future of healthcare in the US?
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