"When Michigan expanded Medicaid in 2013, one person who was relieved was cancer survivor and self-employed child care provider, Dani Valassis.
“I wasn’t making enough money to afford good, quality care,” said Valassis, who was seeking new health insurance after a divorce.
When she learned she qualified for “Healthy Michigan,” this state's version of the Medicaid expansion component of the Affordable Care Act, she thought her coverage woes were over until she sought routine care.
Of the doctors included under a state Medicaid managed care contract in Livingston County, where she lived, several were not accepting new patients and the ones who did were overwhelmed.
It was not unusual to sit in a waiting room for over an hour to see a doctor for a few minutes, which was hardly enough time for a doctor to learn her complicated medical history
“It was just frustrating. I felt like I was cattle,” said Valassis.
She was diagnosed with strep throat, something that could have been treated more cheaply and faster in a doctor’s office.
The stress was compromising her health.
Out of desperation, she went back to her primary care doctor under private health insurance and asked if he could treat her.
To her dismay, she learned he wasn’t accepting any insurance, let alone Medicaid.
She thought there was no way she could afford the visits until she learned her physician, Dr. Chad Savage, was using a new billing model known as direct primary care.
“You pay a flat fee. You can see him as often as you want, and we can communicate on the internet and it’s amazing,” said Valassis.
Valassis pays $49 a month.
Younger patients pay even less.
Savage can offer care for that price because he no longer spends time and money processing insurance claims.
He added that when he left the insurance-based system, his costs dropped by more than half..."
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