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View Full Version : Georgia Allows Doctors to Offer Flat-rate Care Agreements




Swordsmyth
05-24-2019, 06:48 PM
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp recently signed into law legislation that should spur the growth of free-market medicine in the Peach State, a move some observers believe will hasten the demise of ObamaCare.
On April 25, Kemp, a Republican, signed (https://wnegradio.com/kemp-signs-10-healthcare-legislations-into-law/) the Direct Primary Care Act, which allows doctors and patients to enter into private healthcare agreements unencumbered by the bureaucracy of insurance. The state Senate and House of Representatives passed the bills almost unanimously. The law will take effect July 1.
According to the Tenth Amendment Center’s Mike Maharrey (https://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2019/05/signed-as-law-georgia-bill-to-expand-healthcare-freedom/):
The new law specifies that direct primary care agreements (sometimes called medical retainer agreements) do not constitute insurance, thereby freeing doctors and patients from the onerous requirements and regulations under the state insurance code. Under the new law, a physician offering, marketing, selling, or entering into a direct primary care agreement will not be required to obtain a certificate of authority or license other than to maintain a current license to practice medicine with the State of Georgia.

Under direct primary care agreements, doctors and patients enter into a contract whereby the patient pays a flat fee for a specified array of physician services, which may include everything from office, home, and virtual visits to minor surgical procedures. Some doctors even offer prescription drugs to their patients at little to no cost.
Such agreements do not involve either public or private insurance and thus are free of the associated red tape and high costs.

More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/32442-georgia-allows-doctors-to-offer-flat-rate-care-agreements

jkr
05-24-2019, 07:26 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A

Schifference
05-25-2019, 06:50 AM
The issue I see forthcoming is price. What happens when you charge this price to care for person A and a higher price for patient B? Those doctors probably have to only work with private pay also. If you charge $10 to remove a wart in the office for the private pay you probably cannot send in a $500 bill to remove a wart to ultimately get $10 from the insurance company.

shakey1
05-25-2019, 07:11 AM
:up:

Anti Globalist
05-25-2019, 07:51 AM
Good.

Libertea Party
05-25-2019, 07:53 AM
Great article. If we can get through the obstacles... this is how we really win in the long run. Market outpacing the state! The Woods interview (https://tomwoods.com/capitalism-vs-american-health-care/) with the doctor linked in the article was amazing.

sparebulb
05-25-2019, 08:39 AM
This is a step in the right direction.

I'm not a fan of lots of laws, but I've always thought that states should pass laws stating that doctors/hospitals should be prohibited from charging more than the their lowest accepted insurance rate for non-insurance customers who pay promptly.

ATruepatriot
05-25-2019, 09:15 AM
This is a step in the right direction.

I'm not a fan of lots of laws, but I've always thought that states should pass laws stating that doctors/hospitals should be prohibited from charging more than the their lowest accepted insurance rate for customers who pay promptly.

If the trend becomes bypassing the middleman insurance companies it will become a freemarket. Then the industry will expand and competition for patients will commence and eventually bring the price down for self pay.