Direct Primary Care (DPC) is based on the idea that better care can be delivered much more affordably by separating primary care from traditional fee-for-service insurance.

Dr. Garrison Bliss and Dr. Josh Umbehr, pioneers of the DPC movement, use the analogy of car insurance to explain DPC. Imagine if we insured our car the way we insure ourselves...

If you pay for coverage of the big expenses (like collisions), that will keep your premiums lower. The little and variable expenses –gas, car washes, oil changes, tire rotations —we pay for out of our own pocket. To apply these charges to insurance would cost so much that it wouldn’t be possible to have a car in the first place! We maintain the ability to plan and negotiate by paying out of our own pocket. If gas or oil changes are too high at our usual place, we go to the location with competitive pricing. There is an incentive for businesses to keep their costs low.

If you apply this idea to your health care: oil changes, tire rotations, car washes are like primary care and collisions are like hospital care. You need insurance for the big things—the collisions. These are unplanned catastrophes that are costly and can damage an expensive asset (like our car or ourselves). Gas, oil changes, etc… these are like primary care. These are not expensive. Immunizations, routine labs, pap smears, counseling about chronic illness… you are better off negotiating for these services outside of insurance. When you do, you can plan and save time and money.