Let us work through the average family budget and see where health is landing. Clearly the landscape of everyone’s family unit is different depending upon the cities and towns that you live in as well as natural access to healthy lifestyles. In my case, I have access to the mountains and trails of Colorado as well as the coastal trails in lower Delaware. You could view the exercise options there as “free.” Whether or not you have roadside farm stands in your neighborhood may also determine how much your family needs to spend on organic, home-grown food. That said, health has become more important for the “proactive patient” because: people want to live a long healthspan, they want to avoid preventable disease, they want to protect against disease, they want to look and feel healthier, and they are re-evaluating lifestyle (top five on Nielsen IQ Study 09/2021).
Let us start with insurances. Stats in 2020 quote the average insurance cost per person was anywhere from $456-1152/month. Insurance now consumes about 10% of the family budget. Factor in co-pays for medication and visits or procedures, and that amount goes up. Let us put a ledger together for those other health-related costs that a person may not consider as factors but add up quickly. Are these items in your budget?
· Dental Care
· Prescriptions
· Medical supplies
· Out-of-pocket co-pays for primary care and specialists
· Gym memberships
· Trainer
· Chiropractor care
· Naturopath
· Therapists
· Massage
· Organic Grocery shopping
· Supplements and/or vitamins
· Yoga classes
· Non-invasive procedures
· Juicing
· Nutrition coaches
· Brain enhancers
· Bottled or purified water
· Cannabis
Before you know it, that household budget is gobbled up with keeping your body and mind well. Is there a way to consolidate and do things better? I am watching a savvier bunch of patients go to more basic insurance plans and Medi-Share style that is far cheaper and designed for younger healthier populations that do not need much insurance. It helps with the catastrophic hospitalizations but not so much of the higher premiums when the family is otherwise well. This is where I have stepped in and joined a pay-as-you-go style of medicine that a patient only uses it when they need it. No premiums, no co-pays, pay up front, reimbursed after the visit. Could this save health care dollars per month in your house?
Out-of-pocket costs, supplements, and health and wellness products now have better online presence with ease of buying, and the ability to buy in all one platform or subscription. For instance, I see patients with 10-15 different supplements that they have purchased from stores, several different online shops, or directly from an alternative provider. Online subscription shopping can put all the vetted nutraceutical companies in one spot for my ease of prescribing, and the patients’ ease of acquiring. One shipment fee, and complete accounting of what a patient has spent on all supplements for that month. I have converted my practicing over to these newer styles of accessing spectacular products that get results. Would this save health care dollars in your house?
Social outreach platforms have also helped patients find like-minded folks to share in a certain exercise, yoga, mindfulness, or therapeutic group that meets on a regular basis. This could be someone’s answer to exercise socially and for free. Is a “Meet-Up” your cup of tea? Not only for the exercise pieces but also for the coaching and nutrition pieces there are free platforms as well as online coaches who wind up being far less expensive because there is no travel time, loss of work, or gas expenditure for the car!!
It is also time to reformulate the way you spend money on prescriptions. If you do not typically use prescriptions, look for base plans that do not have high premiums for this. Keep a Good RX handy or consider the online savings’ platform such as a “Cost Plus,” as one example. There are contraceptive pill websites that offer incredibly low rates for the uninsured women. And while we are on this topic of medication, we must always consider compounded medications. I cannot stress enough how supporting your local compounding pharmacists will pay off in spades. The options are limitless, and most times, the prescription is less than a co-pay with insurance at a traditional pharmacy. The unique compounds are simply not available in the traditional pharmacies, either. These pharmacies are adept at working with the cash-pay client. I have patients who only use compounding pharmacies. In fact, many are online and ship directly to your house. I personally use them as much as possible.
I really need to update the laboratory expenditures that seem hidden in your budget, because we sometimes forget this large co-pay out-of-pocket expense. This arena is changing as well. I have watched and utilized newer trends in self-ordering. For those patients who track copious amounts of numbers and have high deductible plans, self-ordering is a great option to such labs as “Any Lab Test Now” or “Quest” and sometimes, “LabCorp” (to name a few). For example, I have seen a basic thyroid profile invoiced at $250 at a hospital lab, and an “Any Lab Test Now” charge $37 with a cash up front. The differences between the two are astounding. In my arena, so many innovative labs are drop shipping kits to the home. These labs may use urine, saliva, or a finger prick to analyze vast amounts of levels bundled up in one fee. Of course, there are some labs that require a blood-draw and will co-op with certain labs to waive the blood-draw fee. The world of laboratory testing has changed quickly to meet the demands of us physicians who need easy access to them while the patient is looking to get larger panels in a more affordable process. Few will work with insurance billing, but many will do a pay-as-you-go while you seek reimbursement afterward. The beauty of all these platforms is that you need no insurance to receive innovative health care. If you do not need it, you pay for NOTHING!!!
Virtual care with your functionally trained physician certainly is no more expensive than what you are paying now. In fact, the visits lend themselves to cutting back polypharmacy, considering consolidated labs and supplements, with a streamlined approach to get you on your path to wellness. You pay nothing if you do not need services. This is obvious. No need for concierge fees, premiums, or co-pays. It may give you pause to re-work your insurance needs and get back to supporting local businesses who share the same philosophies of care that you may have. It may free up discretionary income to use for your other alternative providers you have been meaning to get to (or who I may recommend rounding out your wellness). Join me in this next wave of health care delivery.
