Dr. Keith Smith of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma

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Dr Keith Smith, anesthesiologist, managing partner and co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma (surgerycenterok.com), and co-founder of the Free Market Medical Association (fmma.org) believes that providing medical care should be a mutually beneficial exchange between the physician and the patient. That’s how transactions work in other sectors of the economy. But being employed by a hospital pits the physician against the patient; they become financial adversaries.

The Surgery Center of Oklahoma (SCO) offers high quality care for a fraction of the cost of surgery at a hospital. Prices are bundled and completely transparent. Their simple successful business model highlights the contrast between thinking of health care as a good or service not unlike any other, and the convoluted and dysfunctional healthcare system dominated by government and large entrenched players such as “non-profit” hospitals and insurance companies. Dr Smith sheds light on what is wrong in the healthcare system and explains how it is designed to benefit hospitals and insurance companies at the expense of patients and physicians. We discuss the function of insurance and how our over-reliance on insurance to finance health care adds considerably to health care spending. Dr Smith leaves us on an optimistic note; he sees that people (both patients and physicians) are increasingly seceding from the government run health care system and seeking out mutually beneficial exchange between physicians and patients.