The Collapse of U.S. Healthcare – The Perspective of a Primary Care Physician
Veteran doc and health services executive here.  Three recommendations to improve your overall healthcare experience as a patient.Number one recommendation: spend $$$ on a concierge primary care doc.  Depending on your market can be anywhere from $1,500 to $15,000 per year.  Why? Concierge doc will help you triage your problems, give you great access, keep you out of the hospital/ER, and help you cut through red tape if you need to engage the system.Number two recommendation: seek care in facilities in high-income communities with relatively small general hospitals (i.e. Greenwich Hospital in CT) UNLESS you need tertiary/quarternary care.  Why?  Much better staffing.  Much less riff-raff common people stuff (i.e. like homelessness) and much higher patient expectations about quality of care.Number three recommendation: pay up for/seek out a cadillac insurance plan from a high quality insurer like Aetna or United with a low deductible (not high) and low copays.  Why?  Makes the patient experience much better on the back end with much less paperwork if you do engage the system.Yes, I understand that I'm saying "be rich", but if you can afford any of the three recommendations above your healthcare experience will be MUCH better.