Direct Primary Care and a high deductible insurance plan

While not a possibility for everyone, more people are finding high deductible insurance plans an option every year. The monthly savings on a premium can be 40% or more but they leave you wondering if it will cost more with higher copays and higher prescription prices. For some, Direct Primary Care not only fills in the gaps, it reduces the costs for things you need. Let’s look at an example.

Here’s Jean. She is 50 years old and is overall very healthy, but has well-controlled pre-diabetes and she takes a couple of generic medications. When she goes to the health exchange to choose a plan she comes up with 3 types of options. The high deductible plan (bronze) is much less, but she has to pay a lot of out of pocket costs if she uses a traditional primary care practice. For a lot more she can get a silver or gold plan. She also heard about our Direct Primary Care (DPC) membership and loves the access and personal care that would provide, but is worried that will just increase her monthly expenses. Here are how her typical expenses would be with different plans.

As you can see, a DPC membership pairs extremely well with a high deductible plan. In this example, Jean did not highly utilize the clinic or take any expensive medications, but the costs with other plans stack up quickly. This can be true for families as well. One ER visit for stitches can cost a few years’ worth of membership for a child.

While some join a DPC practice because it makes financial sense, most patients stay because of the level of service and quality a practice like Greenlake Direct Primary Care provides. What none of these other plans provide is unhurried visits, the convenience of contacting your doctor directly how and when you want to, and a personal relationship with someone who knows you well.