The Sad State of the Healthcare "Market”

The U.S. healthcare system has become a puzzling and overly complicated mess. What should be a simple exchange—doctors providing care and patients paying for it—has been buried under layers of middlemen, inflated prices, and endless paperwork. The result? A system where nobody really knows what anything costs.  

Here’s how it works: hospitals often charge insurance companies 10 to 20 times what a procedure should cost. Why? Because patients rarely pay directly anymore. Instead, we’ve all come to rely on insurance to cover nearly everything. It’s as if we’re paying for “food insurance” that covers every meal, no matter the price. While this sounds convenient, it actually breaks the system.  

Doctors, who increasingly work for large hospital networks, are often in the dark about how much their services cost. Meanwhile, hospitals and insurance companies hash out prices—but not in a way that benefits patients. Insurance companies, allowed only a fixed profit margin, have an odd incentive to spend more money, not less. The higher the costs, the more they can charge in premiums and still stay within their profit limits. This fuels a never-ending cycle of rising prices.  

Over the years, healthcare costs have outpaced inflation and wages, leaving Americans paying more of their income for care. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel: **direct primary care (DPC)**.  

DPC offers a simpler way forward by cutting out the middlemen. Patients pay doctors directly, often through affordable monthly memberships, making care transparent and cost-effective. It’s a refreshing approach that puts patients and doctors back in charge—just as it should be.  

Healthcare doesn’t have to be this complicated. Maybe it’s time to embrace a system that works for everyone.