What ails modern medicine? Answer: the absence of a good doctor-patient relationship.

To have such a relationship, the patient should pay the doctor money for an office visit.

If a customer can pay money directly to a barber, a shoe store owner, or a restaurant owner, why can’t the customer pay the doctor directly?

If an individual is a good customer at a given restaurant, the owner will know and appreciate the customer. The owner, in all likelihood, will give the customer better service and perhaps bigger portions of food.

If a patient could pay some money directly to a doctor, perhaps $100 for an office visit, then the doctor might be more willing to give the patient better service. After all, the doctor would not want to lose the customer.

So, in the curent debate about health care, let’s have the patient pay the doctor directly. And when the patient has a problem, the doctor will be happy to take the patient’s telephone call.

Richard S. Colman
Orinda, CA
June 25, 2009