Can’t Argue with “Cheaper and Better.”

Can’t Argue with “Cheaper and Better.”

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. William Sage in Austin, Texas a few years ago, not long after launching our price-displaying website. We were part of a roundtable discussion entertaining various healthcare delivery models’ failures and successes. Dr. Sage and I cordially but fundamentally disagreed on almost every point, but in this Dallas Morning News article by Jim Landers, Dr. Sage has conceded the utilitarian argument by recognizing the free market as the best method to allocate healthcare resources, noting the success of those “conservative cowboys” at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma.

I have thought for some time that cheaper and better healthcare was not a partisan issue. Dr. Sage, having identified himself as a liberal Democrat, interestingly finds himself in agreement with the most unapologetic and libertarian advocates of free market healthcare in the industry, and I think this is both fascinating and gratifying.  At this point, I think that Dr. Sage and I would agree that those who insist on and continue feathering their political goals with the issue of healthcare delivery are recklessly gambling with people’s lives.

Several patients from the Dallas area have scheduled surgeries at our facility as a result of the article linked to above, finding high quality and affordable care they had previously assumed was unavailable. Thank you both to Mr. Landers and the Dallas Morning News for this article and thank you to Dr. Sage, who has betrayed his sincere and worthy intentions.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.

www.surgerycenterok.com

www.marketmedicine.org