Your care should keep you healthy

With all the talk about money and politics, it’s easy to forget we’re still talking about our health and personal well-being here. What is the best way to make sure people stay healthy? When they do get sick, how can we ensure they get the best proven treatments?

Health beyond (and before) taking medicine or getting stitches

We believe quality health insurance must promote wellness and preventive care. We need to invest more in encouraging and maintaining good health, and following proven guidelines for treatment. Right now, there’s a shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S. But these are the doctors who should be managing our care and promoting our wellness. What’s to be done?

Innovating toward better health and lower costs

Freelancers Insurance Company is working on one alternative: creating a network of nurse practitioners who can serve our members health and wellness needs, and at a lower cost. We’re also developing a network of mental health providers who are willing to see our members at a discount, outside the insurance reimbursement system (which often creates so many headaches, doctors opt out of the system all together). Ultimately, we hope to expand that network to include other alternative wellness providers, including chiropractors, acupuncturists, yoga teachers, and the like.

In the long-term, our country needs to move away from the expensive fee-for-service system, which reimburses doctors for each service they provide, and instead compensate doctors and nurses for taking care of our comprehensive health needs. There are some organizations that have lead the way in this area, including the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic. These are models that Freelancers Insurance Company hopes to learn from and emulate in the future.

When we formed Freelancers Insurance Company, some members worried that the profit motive would encourage us to deny care to our members. While the insurance company is run as a business, its best business interest is in promoting the members’ long-term health, and keeping premiums affordable for our members.

Freelancers Insurance Company is wholly owned by Freelancers Union, a non-profit membership organization that depends on building long-term relationships with its members. Since Freelancers Union wants to keep our members with us right up until Medicare, it’s in our interest to keep you healthy. Traditional insurance companies don’t have the flexibility or will to experiment with new approaches to health and wellness, but we do, and believe they’ll pay off in the long run.