US Healthcare
Sep. 2nd, 2024 10:33 pm
I am proud to know PJ Parmar and I wish I was half the man he is. Here is his 10 minute TED talk from 2018, and a 2021 Denver Post article about his Ardas family clinic and Mango House. In a previous lifetime, he wrote this book: 101 Countries. Snippets from his TED talk:
A study by Merritt Hawkins found that only 20 percent of the family doctors in Denver take any Medicaid patients. And of those 20 percent, some have caps, like five Medicaid patients a month. Others make Medicaid patients wait months to be seen, but will see you today, if you have Blue Cross. This form of classist discrimination is legal and is not just a problem in Denver. Almost half the family doctors in the country refuse to see Medicaid patients.
This is Mango House. My version of a medical home. In it, we have programs to feed and clothe the poor, an after-school program, English classes, churches, dentist, legal help, mental health and the scout groups. These programs are run by tenant organizations and amazing staff, but all receive some amount of funding form profits from my clinic. Some call this social entrepreneurship. I call it social-service arbitrage. Exploiting inefficiencies in our health care system to serve the poor. We're serving 15,000 refugees a year at less cost than where else they would be going.
PJ's dedication reminds me of another great MD: Paul Farmer and his liberation theology. I highly recommend "Bending the Arc", the documentary about him and Partners in Health.