Latino (Free Enterprise) Medicine
A year old story that’s worth revisiting:
The so-called bodega clinicas that line the streets of Los Angeles’ immigrant neighborhoods blend into a dense forest of commerce. Wedged between money order kiosks and pawn shops, these storefront doctors’ offices treat ailments for cash: a doctor’s visit is $20 to $40, a podiatry exam is $120 and at one bustling clinica, a colonoscopy is advertised on an erasable white board for $700.
County health officials describe the clinicas as a parallel health care system, servicing a vast number of uninsured Latino residents, yet the officials say they have little understanding of who owns and operates them, how they are regulated and the quality of the medical care they provide…
Visits to more than two dozen clinicas in South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley found Latino women in brightly colored nurses scrubs handing out cards and coupons that promise everything from pregnancy tests to tubal ligations. Others advertise evening and weekend hours, and, some 24-hour a day operations trumpet that they are “nunca cerramos” — never closed. That all-hours access — and up-front pricing — is critical, Latino health experts say, to a population that often works low-wage, around-the-clock jobs.
Also important, officials say, is that new immigrants from Mexico and Central America are more accustomed to a corner clinica, which is common in their home countries, than to the sprawling medical complexes or large community health centers found in the United States. And they can get the kind of medical treatments — including injections of hypertension drugs, vitamin solutions delivered intravenously and liberally dispensed antibiotics — that are frowned upon in traditional American medicine. (KHN/NYT)
It’s called “Libre Empresa”.
Free market medicine. Imagine that.
This sounds great. I can go get an annual exam for $20 bucks and a Google translate app.
Sounds like a deal.
Where it’s tried, it works.
Rarely tried is the big problem.
And often short-lived.
This is certainly an interesting substitute for the uninsured who need medical attention.
Seems like a good deal for the insured too. Beats the co-pay.
Why a substitute and not a legitimate replacement?
“Also important, officials say, is that new immigrants from Mexico and Central America are more accustomed to a corner clinica, which is common in their home countries”
Sounds like these clinics are perfectly suited for their target market base. A win-win situation.
With appeal in the wider market as well, if there wasn’t a language barrier.
At my home in Brazil, a young woman comes by regularly to invite me to the corner clinic, about 4 blocks away. I’m not even a permanent resident there, only a tourist who owns a house.
At the clinic I wait for about and hour, then enter to get antibiotics and god-knows what else: contractptives, Viagra, anti-helminths, flu shots, and so on. Nobody charges me a dime.
I don’t mind paying, but mostly I’d pay for not having to wait. The insurance-drug-doc-hospital system in the USSA is so messed up. It might work if Walmart were running it.
Just a matter of time before some busy-body moves to shut them down.
As the government does with all good things.
Given enough time.
For the greater good.