Direct Primary Care Coalition: Write

Write your Representative

To help change the culture of our politics, here's a simple twist on an old idea: write a letter to your U.S. Representatives and Senators in Congress in Congress. Instead of writing about a policy issue, ask them what their core principles are and how those principles are truly patriotic.

Members of Congress have files filled with form letters that they send out to their constituents sharing their stances on Iraq, health care, the economy, global warming, and a host of other issues. But they almost never have a form letter prepared on their core moral principles and public philosophy. Just by asking them, you'll force your elected representatives and their staff to get off the relentless treadmill of legislative tactics, and to reflect more deeply on what they believe and why. If enough of us ask our representatives to fit their political stances in a broad and thoughtful framework of true patriotism, then eventually we will get a different kind of leader. Our questions will ripple out and hasten the arrival of a more purposeful and principle-based politics.

Working with the non-partisan organization Govit, we've made it easy for you to find and contact your representatives in congress below.

Subject:

Message:

As Congress looks to innovative delivery system and payment reforms for Medicare, I urge you to consider using the direct primary care medical home model as an alternative to traditional fee for service Medicare.  I also urge you to support and co-sponsor S.1098 - Family and Retirement Health Investment Act of 2011, which would encourage the growth of direct primary care by allowing pre-tax dollars from healthcare accounts to be used to pay for the services of direct primary care physicians.

Data shows that this simple monthly fee based model, operating outside insurance can help achieve significant savings in administrative cost, and more importantly, improved health outcomes. Direct primary care providers charge a flat monthly fee in lieu of insurance for routine primary and preventive care.  For more than a decade, these practices (sometimes referred to as "direct primary care medical homes") have been meeting the health care needs of individuals and lowering costs for employers, and they are expanding into neighborhoods across the country.

Individuals pay low monthly fees (as low as $49 per month).  In return, they are assured a free appointment with a board-certified primary care doctor, within 48 hours of their call—and often sooner. There are no deductibles or co-pays, routine tests are free, and there is no prior approval or hassle with insurance paperwork.  Because the doctors are not paid on a per-visit basis, and because they no longer need to spend time and money on insurance paperwork nor justify expensive capital investments with repeat usage at every opportunity, they are able to spend more extensive one-on-one time with their patients.

Patients often choose to combine direct primary care with a higher-deductible, lower-premium health insurance plan—the cost of which, when combined with the monthly fee for direct primary care, is much lower than they are used to paying.  Even with a combination of direct primary care and low-premium polices, employers save roughly 35 percent on comprehensive health care benefits and individuals’ payments (premiums, deductibles, and co-payments) drop by almost half.  Senator Orrin Hatch and Rep. Erik Paulsen have introduced legislation (S. 1098 – Family and Retirement Health Investment Act of 2011) which would clarify that expenses paid to a direct primary care practice are qualified medical expenses for the purposes of pre-tax healthcare accounts, such as Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements.

Research has shown that direct primary care dramatically lowers downstream health care costs for things like hospital stays and diseases management. Patients receiving direct primary care in Seattle, Washington have experienced 65% fewer ER visits, 35% fewer hospitalizations, 66% fewer specialist visits and 82% fewer surgeries than regional benchmarks with comparable population disease burdens. This translates to real costs savings in our current health care system.

Affordable, hassle-free and more immediate care with familiar doctors, the direct primary care model restores insurance to its original intent (coverage for unforeseeable catastrophes and hospitalization), returns primary care to its original mission, and frees up patient and employer dollars to be spent elsewhere.

Please allow Medicare beneficiaries the same access to direct primary care practices as individuals and employers, and please support and co-sponsor S.1098 - Family and Retirement Health Investment Act of 2011, which would encourage the growth of this innovative model.

Thank you.

News

CNBC.com, 09/12/2011
The Huffington Post, 08/11/2011
US News & World Report, 06/23/2011
Time Magazine: Healthland, 06/21/2011
American Medical News, 06/20/2011

Primary Care:

Essential to Good Health

Primary care includes disease prevention, health maintenance, patient education and counseling, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses. It spans preventive care (such as immunizations and check-ups), routine treatment of common injuries and complaints, and maintenance for ongoing health issues.

Primary care is the foundation of good health. It's the key to preventing debilitating and expensive problems. A health care solution that doesn't address primary care is no solution at all.