Is Concierge Medicine Worth the Cost?
We spend a lot of time planning for retirement.
How much will you need? When should you claim Social Security? How should the portfolio be invested? What should we do about taxes?
All important questions.
But there is another asset that may ultimately have more influence over the quality of your retirement than anything in your investment portfolio:
Your health.
You can have plenty of money to travel, spend time with grandchildren, play golf, hunt, ski, or do whatever else you've been looking forward to. But your ability to enjoy those things depends in large part on staying healthy enough to do them.
That's one reason we think concierge medicine is an interesting conversation for retirees and people approaching retirement.
It costs more. Sometimes considerably more.
But for someone who can comfortably afford it, the better question may not be, "Why would I pay extra for a doctor?"
It may be, "What am I getting for the money?"
What Is Concierge Medicine?
The basic idea is fairly simple.
Instead of relying entirely on the traditional insurance-based model, patients pay a physician or medical practice an additional membership or retainer fee.
In exchange, the physician generally maintains a smaller patient roster and can devote more time and attention to each patient.
The exact services vary significantly from one practice to another. Depending on the practice, membership may include longer appointments, easier scheduling, greater access to the physician, more comprehensive annual evaluations, and more time devoted to preventive care.
Some practices may offer same-day or next-day appointments or more direct communication with the physician. The source material notes that increased accessibility and longer appointments are common features of the model.
That doesn't necessarily mean the medical care itself is "better."
But the experience of receiving that care can be very different.
More Time With Your Doctor May Be the Real Benefit
Think about a typical doctor's appointment.
You may wait several weeks for an appointment, spend time in the waiting room, see a nurse, and then have a relatively short period with the physician.
There's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's largely a consequence of how the traditional healthcare system works.
Doctors have a lot of patients to see.
Concierge medicine changes the economics by allowing physicians to maintain smaller patient panels. That can create something increasingly scarce in modern medicine:
Time.
Time to talk.
Time to ask questions.
Time for your doctor to understand your medical history.
Time to discuss something that may not fit neatly into the reason you scheduled the appointment.
And perhaps most importantly, time to develop a relationship.
The source material makes this point well. When appointments are rushed, it can be harder for patients and physicians to develop the trust and rapport that sometimes leads to important conversations about health.
That becomes increasingly valuable as we age and our medical lives become more complicated.
The Value May Be in Preventing Problems
Most of us understand the concept of preventive maintenance.
We maintain our homes. We service our cars. We review our financial plans. We rebalance investment portfolios.
We do these things because it's generally better to identify a small problem before it becomes a big one.
Our health shouldn't be any different.
The traditional healthcare system can sometimes feel reactive. Something hurts, you get sick, a test comes back abnormal, and then you see the doctor.
A concierge relationship may create more opportunity to be proactive.
With more time available, there may be greater opportunity to discuss family history, changes in health, testing, exercise, sleep, nutrition, medications, and other factors before they develop into larger problems. The source describes this shift as moving from simply reacting to illness toward more individualized preventive planning.
There are obviously no guarantees.
Paying a concierge fee doesn't prevent cancer, heart disease, dementia, or any of the other health problems we worry about as we age.
But better access and more communication may make it easier to pay attention to your health before something forces you to.
Access Becomes More Valuable as We Get Older
At 35, you may see your doctor once a year.
At 65 or 75, things can be different.
There may be specialists involved. Medications need to be coordinated. Test results need to be interpreted. One physician may recommend something that affects another condition.
And when something changes, you may not want to wait three weeks for an appointment.
That's where access itself begins to have value.
If you're worried about something on Tuesday morning, being able to speak with a physician who knows you can be worth a lot more than it was when you were younger and rarely needed medical care.
It's difficult to put a dollar value on that.
But that doesn't mean it has no value.
What Are You Really Buying?
This is where concierge medicine fits particularly well into the way we think about financial planning.
Not every financial decision needs to produce a financial return.
Sometimes we spend money to make life better.
Maybe you fly business class because a long flight is easier on your body.
Maybe you hire someone to maintain the house because you'd rather spend your Saturday doing something else.
Maybe you pay for a personal trainer because you're much more likely to exercise when someone is expecting you to show up.
And maybe you pay more for medical care because you value having more time and better access to your doctor.
None of those decisions necessarily maximizes your net worth.
That's not the point.
The return comes from what the money allows you to do.
Is It Worth It?
That depends.
Concierge medicine isn't necessary for everyone, and paying a membership fee doesn't automatically mean you'll receive better medical outcomes.
The services offered by individual practices can also differ substantially, so it's important to understand exactly what you're buying.
Before joining a practice, I would want to know how many patients the physician sees, how long appointments typically last, how quickly appointments are available, how after-hours questions are handled, what the annual fee covers, what remains billed to insurance, and how the physician coordinates care with specialists.
Most importantly, I'd want to know whether the physician and the model actually fit what you're looking for.
Because the value isn't really the nicer waiting room or an annual membership card.
It's the relationship.
Your Money Is Supposed to Improve Your Life
We spend decades accumulating money.
At some point, we should also be willing to ask what that money is for.
For most people, the answer isn't simply to leave behind the largest possible investment portfolio.
It's to create security, independence, choices, experiences, and the ability to take care of ourselves and the people we love.
Health belongs in that conversation.
If you're financially secure and spending a few thousand dollars a year could give you better access to a physician, more time to discuss your health, and greater confidence that someone is paying attention to the whole picture, that may be a very reasonable use of your money.
You can't control everything that happens to your health.
But you can decide how much attention, time, and resources you're willing to devote to it.
What good is having enough money for a great retirement if your health keeps you from enjoying it?
If you'd like to talk about how your spending decisions fit into the life you want to live in retirement, we'd be happy to help. Schedule a complimentary 15-minute call.
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This material was written in collaboration with artificial intelligence (ChatGPT) and derived from sources believed to be correct.
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