One of the ironies of politics is that big government by its nature actually favors those who are more wealthy – thus big business loves big gov’t. A few months ago, I alluded in the comments that I suspect that one of the unintended consequences of the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka “Obamacare”) would be that the more affluent would simply opt out and start going to concierge medical services in which the doctor makes him/herself available to fewer customers at a higher price at any time they are called. It is all cash and they don’t deal with insurance at all. Read more about the concept here.
I’m usually not so much interested in the “problem” (in this case “Obamacare”) as I am in the solution. And here, the solution is to make more money and pay for concierge medicine! But seriously, I suspect that many businesses will likely see a money making opportunity and establish concierge medicine options for middle income brackets as well. I understand that this is already happening. As technology gets better, the solution is increasingly going to be to simply opt out of whatever it is the gov’t tries to provide (with a few obvious exceptions). Especially as more physicians completely avoid insurance companies and government based medical payment systems altogether.
As it all pans out over the years, it seems that health insurance as we now know it will be pretty much only for emergency care and catastrophes like major surgery and cancer treatment.
Also, watch the video below for an explanation of the concept: