Paying doctors with chickens?

I would imagine doctors would claim it isn't healthy to have a flock of chickens sitting around in their waiting rooms until they take them home at night

Bartering! I love it. I wonder if I can get a new car for a some goats and a few geese? For a typical visit to the doctor, it's really not the fault of the doctor for what they charge. They aren't allowed to undercut the amount paid out of pocket for a visit because of medicare (or is it medicaid?) restrictions. It's not just the insurance companies, the government has had its hand in the muddying of the health care waters, too.

Anything is possible, she could be elected. At the same time, Pelosi keeps getting reelected and she hasn't made an intelligent comment since she's been in office. Perhaps it's time for Freeman Dyson and the physics community to work on a paper discussing a theory of relative stupidity?

Bartering is still a fairly widespread practice in the world, even today. There are a good deal of businesses in the US alone that use bartering as way to reduce monetary costs and to exchange and move inventory. That being said, I think it's a good means of trade when it comes to goods, but I don't think it's a practical means of paying for services or consumer items since people are in business to make money.

You think I could pay for my groceries with siggies?

Ahhh...flash backs to "Little House on the Prairie"

Pa: "I don't have the money to pay you, but I'll fix your roof if you will set Laurie's arm"

Doc: *thinks* "Done!"

Nice thought, but it's impossible now.

My uncle paid for at least one of my cousins to be delivered by doing home repairs and chopping wood at the doctor's place, and that wasn't even that long ago. It wouldn't work for everyone to barter for medical care or any other service, because the service provider needs some cash coming in, but there's room in the system for some amount of creative horse trading, and it's always nice to have options.

BF does tech support work for a local doctor's office, for a fixed quarterly payment; usually they only take uninsured people if they pay up front, but he gets it knocked off of his next payment from them, and tests at-cost instead of marked up. In return, he doesn't cough on the keyboards and infect all their staff :P

In a different line of service, my apartment complex gives a police officer a break on his rent to park his car in the lot and be available for small stuff when he's off-duty. They also have a contracted security service, and it's a good safe neighborhood anyway, but having someone on the property who can handle situations makes people feel safe...it must be a good deal, or they wouldn't do it, since it's completely voluntary on both sides. If I were an apartment owner, I could similarly see giving a doctor free or discounted rent (depending on the size of the owner's family, and the niceness of the apartment) in exchange for medical services in order to only need catastrophic coverage, and I could see that being a good deal for the doctor, especially if they were fresh out of med school, drowning in student loans, and had to keep funny hours for the on-call schedule so having roommates on a conventional schedule would be difficult.

At least she's thinking outside the box in trying to make healthcare affordable for everyone. Maybe this isn't a good idea, but it might make someone else start thinking outside the box too, and then others as well. And out of one of those ideas may come an answer that we hadn't considered before now that doesn't include the Government taking care of everything.

I've already tried this approach. Not only does it NOT work well, the IRS makes us claim any in-trade work as income & we are taxed on it

Of course, everyone wants to promise the moon when they are in jail, or facing custody issues, etc. but when it comes time to perform, I'd say at least 90% of the people flake out I'm sure that doctors & dentists would have the same sad results.
We are owed thousands of dollars for legal work to have been paid with exchange for plumbing services, roofing, landscaping, auto repairs, rebuilt chicken coops, respite care for my disabled daughter.....it's a great idea, but not practical considering the heart of man....so much for trusting in personal accountability...

chickens huh? *facepalm*

I think I'm ready to move to canada..

It's not unheard of....although I imagine it wouldn't be practical for most physicians. We did have an orthopedic surgeon who worked with our local Amish community through a barter system (he's now retired.) He had some beautiful quilts and a gorgeous pole barn built by them, after doing some (rather extensive) emergency orthopedic surgery.

Just as corporations were probably better citizens when their CEO's pay at least had some relationship to the success of the company, the income of the company, and the pay of other workers, just so it was probably true that medical costs stayed down better when the doctor was just another well-educated member of the community, his home address was known to everyone, and he came to your house in the middle of the night if you needed him.