How does a successful doctor deal with patients lacking insurance? Dr. John Muney decided to offer a deal. For $79 each month he would service patients with unlimited office visits, some tests, and even in-office surgeries — at all his AMG Medical Group centers.
Now, the deal’s not for me. I have insurance through work, and I also have a family, so that $79 would have to be multiplied by four. Real money. But for some people, I bet, this makes perfect sense.
Yet, if government gets its way, no patient of New York’s five boroughs — where Muney’s clinics are located — need ever consider the good doctor’s innovation. Why? Because the state Insurance Department has declared his service a form of insurance and says it requires a license from the state.
What were you thinking, Dr. Muney? This is a free country, and … you can’t just do what you want, you know.
Dr. Muney is fighting back. The application form for this contract has THIS IS NOT INSURANCE emblazoned on every page. He is challenging the bureaucracy’s ruling.
Once upon a time, doctors regularly engaged in this kind of pricing. Many doctors — perhaps most — engaged in pro bono work for the poor. Other had special rates, etc. But the American Medical Association pressured politicians to put an end to such competitive practices.
Thanks, AMA.
As for Dr. Muney, my thanks to you is not sarcastic. Hang in there.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
8 replies on “Doctoring on the Installment Plan”
Amen! If that is how the good doctor wants to run his own business, then I see no need for him to be classified as some sort of insurance company.
Dang! Does anyone remember house calls, or the discount some doctors gave to families with five or six children?
I know my pediatrician gave my mother a break, so did the pharmacist for that matter. They both had a full house of kids, but that is the way they chose to run their business.
“Do no harm” does not mean you are suddenly under the jurisdiction of the State Insurance Board!!!
Egads! What next in our messianic rush to Socialism?
If there is any collective private entity more greedy than a law firms, a bank or an insurance company it has to a government. Of course, private entities do have the means and the will to suborn governments to aid and abet their own private greed even at the cost of human health and life itself. I used to think that my anarchist grandmother was a bit off the rails. Now, as I grow older, the wiser she seems to me. Government always has a smile on its face and shackles in its hands! One of her bon mots!
Thank you, Dr. Muney, for standing up for what you believe is right. I hope many more will join you in this. You are to be commended for considering how you can help people in the financial area as well as in the physical area.
The doctor has a great concept, and it follows one of the great ideas Johnathan Swift had for Lilliput — doctors there got a payment from everyone on their ‘list’ every month, UNLESS the person was sick. When sickness struck, the doctor’s payment ENDED, so there was a special encouragement to get the person well again!
Can you add that feature Dr. Muney?
Yes! Great thinking and action. Some day, we can collectively, as America will realize that the excessive amount of bureaucracy has costs money and time really has no place in the health industry. Thank you Dr. Muney for finding a creative way to save us money. Please stay full of integrity so that nobody can lay claim and insist bureaucracy has a place in your plan. Common sense is a wonderful thing.
thank you Dr. Muney…you broke the barrier„,keep it up, don’t let anyone stop you from doing what you want to do to help people. I hope many other doctors follow in your footsteps, I pray it does happen. We are self employed, no insurance for me, my husband or my son…we just cannot afford the cost, so we hold our breath and hope and pray we stay healthy…for if we get sick we have to miss a payment on our house or car or not pay our utilites in order to afford a dr. visit…e.g. we paid for school insurance while my son played football it was cheap..37.00 for the season…however, he did get hurt so, we took him in to the sport medicine dr. the first office visit was 15 minutes long and the doctor charged us $250.00 for fifteen minutes??!! then we got an MRI which the insurance pays 70% of what we believe the bill will be 1500.00 if not more…long story short…all exorbant fees all around…GOD BLESS YOU DR. MUNEY..YOU GIVE US ALL HOPE FOR THE FUTURE…
Just goes to show you how the government operates. Some one develops an efficient and cost competive solution for a large societal problem (the unemployed uninsured) and the government puts a hault to it to please their own special interets (large insurance companies and hmos).
It is no different with govt. involvement in the financial sector. The bottomless pits that are AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Not to mention half of the banking sector, and don’t forget the UAW bailout, or, a, the auto industry bailout.
That’s just what we need the govt. running more of America! America wake up and look what path we are going down. We need change all right, change back to our founding and constitutional principles.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happinenss, not equality of outcome.
“Government, Get Out of the WAY!”…
A doctor set up a system where a patient could pay a monthly fee and get unlimited office visits and even some minor in-office surgery, but the government intervened, saying it was “insurance,” and required a license. His idea might not.…..