Senate candidate Sue Lowden (R-NV) has been catching flak for for promoting the idea that people could barter for health care, as an alternative to health insurance. Now the local Nevada media has taken up the story, finding two local doctors who do indeed negotiate low prices or even barter transactions.
Lowden first suggested bartering would be a good way to lower health care costs two weeks ago. She has not backed down, and even spelled it out further this past Monday. “Let’s change the system and talk about what the possibilities are. I’m telling you that this works,” Lowden said. “You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I’ll paint your house.”
And as it turns out, some doctors actually do engage in this practice.
“For example,” said Dr. Kevin Peterson, “the national average for a hernia surgery is $16,000, and we charge $5,000.” Peterson also added: “I have patients who are farmers and they bring me produce. But a ‘thank you’ is just as good most of the time.”
Another Nevada physician, Dr. Robin Titus of the rural Smith Valley area, said that she has received hay, horseshoeing, and even a bathtub for her services. “She [Lowden] made an innocent comment in Mesquite,” said Titus. “It’s something America has done for hundreds of years.”
“When you don’t have government in between you and your health care, you can negotiate — it was in that context,” Lowden said yesterday. And while this is true to a certain degree, the real question of course is how efficient this can be when it goes outside of small interactions at the margins of the economy, in an era of costly procedures, tests, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and provider networks. But somewhere, at least, a doctor is enjoying her bathtub.
