On January 8, 2018 Dr. Voigt Smith sat down in studio with radio host Ben Armstrong of WSAU 550AM in Wausau, Wisconsin to discuss how healthcare insurance does not automatically mean quality healthcare.
Transcript
Ben Armstrong: Well, joining me once again is Dr. Smith of Backsmith Advanced Physical Therapy, and Dr. Smith, always glad to see you in studio. Look, let’s talk about insurance and how insurance isn’t the same thing as healthcare. Explain a little bit about that.
Dr. Smith: Good morning, Ben. Yes, I would really like to emphasize to our listeners that insurance is not healthcare. It’s simply one way of paying for healthcare, and increasingly, it’s becoming a much less effective and more complicated, less predictable, and much more limited way of addressing healthcare cost. You look at insurance today, you’re paying higher deductibles, more out-of-pocket costs. Your choices are dwindling. Too often, your care that actually is approved is not really adequate to meet your individual needs.
People want high-value, effective care at a good price. Consider this. Insurance companies profit by limiting coverage and at the same time, continuing to get a steady flow of premiums coming in. That’s just the fact. To emphasize this, I really love the car analogy. You don’t pay a car insurance to get your oil changed. It’s a form of preventative maintenance. Insurance is really designed for accidents or catastrophic events. It doesn’t really make sense that insurance would pay for new tires, or wipers, or gas, or tire rotations, or a car wash.
Have you considered that cash-based healthcare can really provide great options for you? First of all, it’s less expensive and often, is better care. You know exactly what the upfront costs are. The cost is usually a small fraction of what you would be charged in an insurance model, and often, individuals who have insurance even find that it’s a better value than using their insurance. Overall, your costs are significantly less, you get to choose the doctor, and you are in control.
Ben Armstrong: Well, there you go. You can do it just with cash, and you don’t have to have some sort of insurance policy to do it, and it actually has a lot of benefits. You might not know a lot about it, so you can check them out on the website, Backsmith Advanced Physical Therapy. What’s your website?
Dr. Smith: Our website is backsmithpt.com, and you can also call us at 715-298-5888.
Ben Armstrong: That’s backsmithpt.com. You can remember that. One more time, backsmithpt.com. Dr. Smith, thanks for stopping in.
Dr. Smith: Thank you, Ben.
