Your Healthcare

Since the financial “downturn” (a very polite term to use for something that has affected so many people) the barter system has taken a stronger hold on how Americans do business.

Pockets of barterers across the country are pooling their collective talents together to exchange things instead of relying on the dwindling dollar. Even Donald Trump is getting in on the game—Mr. Trump recently accepted gold bullion as payment for rent in one of his NY skyscrapers.

While most of us don’t have gold bricks or property on Wall Street, there are basic—and costly—services we all need: healthcare. And even if we can’t afford to pay for our healthcare in cash, we may have something else that a healthcare provider wants.  

Groups in Arizona and Maine have already begun to use a network where people can exchange goods and services for visits to doctors.

Monday, NPR featured a story about True North, a nonprofit healthcare clinic where 33 patients pay their doctor bills by doing yard work and other chores. The goal is to provide better care (with doctor’s visits that can last up to an hour) for people without insurance or not enough insurance.

While this program probably could not be sustained everywhere (doctors do need money after all, especially young ones who are buried in debts from school) patients with True North are able to get the services they personally need through a network called Hour Exchange Portland.

A similar program has also sprung up in Arizona.

The truth is, this is an actual old way of thinking. Bartering for healthcare is nothing new to this country. Natives that populated America long before Europeans took over their lands had their medicine men, doctors who were given food and shelter by the tribe in exchange for medical care.

The barter system could offer an important step for numerous people, especially those who see cost as a major inhibitor to see a doctor when symptoms of a chronic condition do not pass. This could also get people to see their doctors more regularly for check-ups.