This blog post is the first in a series describing the advantages of the MedCredits platform over traditional doctor office visits. Each article will focus on a separate benefit of MedCredits. Topics will include affordability, ease-of-use, expediency and a freer healthcare market. In this post, we address the affordability of MedCredits.

Healthcare is expensive. In the USA, the average American spends $10,345 annually on health care. A new patient office visit will cost between $100 and $200, and can exceed $300 with a specialist. Even with private insurance, average out-of-pocket cost is still often over $50 per visit.

In countries with universal health care such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Sweden, health care options include the public healthcare system, private insurance or cash for service. The public healthcare option is free, but requires an initial evaluation by a primary care doctor in order to get a referral to a specialist. Afterwards, it can still take weeks to months before actually seeing the specialist. With private insurance, costs vary, but wait times can still take weeks. Cash for service is the quickest way to be evaluated by a specialist, but can easily cost over 250 Euro.

On a national level, health care costs are enormous, accounting for 17% of the GDP in the USA, and approximately 10% of the GDP for most countries within the European Union. In summary, for both individuals and on a national level, healthcare is expensive. Even in countries with public healthcare, what is saved in money is lost in inconvenience and wait times.

The exorbitant cost of health care is multifactorial, but is related to the restricted supply of doctors, middlemen fees (i.e. complicated billing systems, insurance companies and regulatory compliance), and excessive testing. MedCredits eliminates these inefficiencies.

By connecting patients and doctors globally on a telemedicine platform, MedCredits distributes the demand for physicians more evenly — creating an efficient, free market for healthcare.

Affordability does not necessarily mean lesser compensation for the doctors. With a decentralized platform, MedCredits removes the middlemen and overhead. An interaction in an “office visit” on the MedCredits platform is between the patient and the doctor. There are no building expenses or staff. There is no complex billing system. The cost of the “billing system” on MedCredits is equivalent to the price of gas for a single smart contract transaction on the Ethereum platform, about 0.10 USD as of August 2017.

With the MedCredits app, we expect the average physician will be able to review and submit a patient case in under 5 minutes. With no overhead or middlemen, the physician will retain 100% of the payment. Assuming it takes 5 minutes to complete an evaluation, we expect the app to be profitable for physicians at a cost of less than $10 per patient case. This translates into wages of $120 per hour for the physician.

At a discounted price of $10, our app will be far more competitive in pricing than traditional office visits.

In conclusion…

· A traditional doctor office visit costs about $200

· An evaluation on MedCredits costs about $10

MedCredits — healthcare at a fraction of the cost.