Sunday, April 26, 2009

Why Not More Like This

I have been a bit puzzled why there haven't been more things like this.

Dr. Ores is also a physician who runs a nonprofit health care cooperative for city restaurant workers that he sees as a model for how national health care could work. The undertaking, which he began last summer, is particularly timely as President Obama contemplates an overhaul of the nation’s health insurance system.

“It’s like a food co-op,” Dr. Ores, 51, said of the project. “Except it’s health care.”

Under the plan, he charges each restaurant a dollar each month for every seat in the establishment and pools the money. In return, any employee from those restaurants can visit him free of charge, whether for a cut finger or the flu.


I don't mean precisely that model, necessarily, and this kind of thing isn't a substitute for comprehensive health insurance (or, of course, comprehensive national health care). But it's a bit weird that people have trouble just going to the doctor for the little stuff, and it seems like there should be opportunities for either for-profit or non-profits to fill that gap fairly affordably.