I nominally have a Primary Care doctor that works for a large health care org - nonprofit that pays its CEO ~$18M/year. When he was new and had few patients, he took time and initiative. Since then and especially after Covid, his attention to detail has dropped and his bosses increasingly dictate what he can and cannot do. He has to refer specialists within the health care org if they have that specialty. On a couple of occasions he has suggested I go to a specialist but he has no names to recommend. He is perfectly happy to be a salaried employee where the nuts and bolts of running a practice are taken care of by his company. He won't say how many patients he has on his roster but given the time to get an appointment it must be in the hundreds. The front office pushes Urgent Care whenever they can which dumps the whole concept of a doctor who knows you into the toilet. Pay a premium (natch) for someone who doesn't know you and doesn't give a damn (see the reviews).
He is required to type 90wpm into the Epic system which prompts him on what to do during the 10-15 minutes he is authorized to spend on me. I am fortunately alert and functional when I have seen him but when that is no longer the case, I am well and truly hosed.
If by Direct Primary Care you mean "Concierge medicine" where one pays a private practice Doctor a yearly fee for improved access, I tried that as well before the guy above. The doctor was a big talker when selling his practice but he was scatterbrained, unfocused, and inept in actuality spending more time talking about his extreme politics than actually paying attention during the exam and my questions. I bailed after a physical exam and followup.
Before that I had Kaiser which is beneath contempt.
Every doctor, medical org, and insurance talks up the relationship between patient and primary care but once you're in, it's a f&*king joke. There are no success stories I can find among my coworkers and acquaintances. We're all on the same stinking sinking ship.
This year is my year of recovering from that experience. It's costing me tens of thousands of dollars.
I'm glad you really like your primary care doctor, really, but no it won't. They're still slaves to the broken system they work for (insurance) and they're still overworked and underprovisioned.
> Not only will that doctor actually care about your health continuously
I think "care" is being used too generously here. Their job is to _be aware of_ your health. They don't "care" about it, necessarily.
> but he will
I can't help but point out this use of "he"
> who will treat your issues with similar care once you mention that Dr. SoAndSo referred you as his patient
This is again not true, but again, really happy this is your experience.
Granted, if they want to refer you to anyone else, your insurance may be involved, but not a few of them also have arrangements with those "health sharing ministries" where the patient cash pays for any procedure with the assistance of other people in the health share, which again saves enormous amounts of money by skipping the insurance system.
I've also had both experiences that correspond to and directly oppose your take on the church donation plate, so I'm curious if you're aware of data about this, or if we're just comparing personal experiences.
> I can't help but point out this use of "he"
What about it?
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using correct English.
Of course, you also need to be lucky enough to get a good one.