FREE NEWSLETTER
This is from my blog, but I thought interesting. You may recognize the doctors name from recent posts.
The idea of health insurance is generally said to have begun in the 1940s, but consider this.
Early in his career (around 1815) in an attempt to build his practice in Philadelphia, Dr. Philip Physick offered the first healthcare insurance package in the country. He advertised that he could take care of an entire family for a year for $20.
Dr. Physick is known as the father of American surgery.
But some things never change🤔
Physick pursued wealth and had an income of $20,000 a year (equivalent to $343,600 in 2024) and invested nearly all his surplus wealth in real estate, which at the time of his death was valued at half a million dollars (equivalent to $13,895,588 in 2024.
Dr. Physick, called the father of American surgery, brought the scientific approach in surgery from Europe to the U.S. in 1800s. But with bloodletting as the main treatment for nearly every ailment, no anesthesia, and germ theory still a few decades away (hence no aseptic surgical practice), it’s hard to see why anyone would pine for those “good old days of health insurance.”
Modern health insurance bleeds us financially, but back then it drained both our wallets and our veins.
I fear you missed the point- maybe two.
The first point was the concept of prepayment not the type of care provided.
The second point is that “health insurance” bleeds us financially.
The cost and use of health care may bleed us, but it’s not the insurance which is merely a reflection of those costs.
Using your inflation figure, the good doctor cared for a family for $343.60 a year in 2024 dollars. Inexpensive. Oops, I see Dan provided a similar comment.
Given my insurances today cost more than that amount per week, I’ll take it – as long as anesthesia comes with it.
He used to perform cataract surgery. Can you imagine that sans anesthesia?
Yes. I’m seeing early adopters moving to the “we don’t take insurance” along with if you have to ask, you probably cannot afford my services. In fact, I’ve have 2 recommendations in the past year where a PCP felt a concierge would provide superior focus bc they are so time measured per patient by the all seeing care system.