Very few of the people that I know have a Primary Care Doctor. In New York City, there is a large demographic of young adults who are "trying their luck" in the big city for a few years after college. Most of my friends have jobs that provide health insurance, but there are many young adults who remain uninsured for various reasons. If the young adults are unemployed, sporadically employed or health insurance is not available to them for some other reason, interim health insurance is available, at a hefty price. (Interesting fact: I thought COBRA was a type of insurance, but it is an acronym for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which states that health insurance must provide a group rate insurance to people who fit certain criteria, one of the criteria being recent college graduation). Paying insurance when you are not sick and do not anticipate becoming sick is a fairly responsible thing to do. I venture to guess that when money is tight and it comes down to health insurance or beer, many fearless, healthy young adults are going to forgo the insurance. The group I find more interesting, however, is the group of young adults who dutifully pay for their health insurance but never bother to find a primary care doctor. I, unfortunatley, fall into the category, as do most of the people I know. In our defense, we are in a new city where we do not know any Doctors, and neither, apparently, do any of our friends. We no longer have our mothers to nag us to make an appointment or drag us to the yearly physical. Furthermore, we are very healthy, active people; far too active, in fact, to schedule a doctors appointment, much less go to an appointment on a weekday.
Anyway, I have decided to implement a little survey to some nurses who were hired last summer. I know that they all have insurance, because working at the hospital you must take some kind of insurance unless you can prove that you are otherwise insured. So, after a year living in New York, I would like to see what percentage actually have a primary care doctor. From my experience, I would guess that less than half do. Stay tuned....
1 comment:
This post really hit home. I dutifully have the $110 a month withheld from my paycheck for my corporate healthcare plan, but have gone the past 2 years since college without a primary care doctor. Now that I've moved to New York, I was just recently thinking that I wouldn't even know how to begin finding one in the city. I think that very much sums up my feelings toward both my insurance and going to the doctor: I don't know where to start.
When I started my current corporate job, one of my grandparents' first questions was about the benefits. I answered truthfully that I didn't know -- I hadn't bothered to ask. Ironically, they turned out to be quite good, and I've done an spectacular job of under-utilizing them.
On a sidenote, if anyone can recommend any good doctors, please shoot them my way.
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