[001sky]

Lets say a doctor charges $1,000/hour and each trip takes 20 minutes, plus 10 mintues to egress a building and parking garage/pick up a taxi. The overhead for a single visit is...$1,000 give or take...

You can adjust the numbers around a bit but the point remains the same unless you radically change the transit time and the wage by a factor of 10.

[click170]

Couldn't the price of a house call just be increased to account for this?

Or rather, a health care system where visiting a doctor is free, but house calls are only included in the health care plan if your have a disability that restricts your movement, allowing you to pay for house calls out of pocket if you chose to.

[ceejayoz]

No GP is making $1k/hour.

[Crito]

Swap in any number that you think is reasonable. The reasoning and conclusion is the same.

[ceejayoz]

You said it'd have to change by a factor of 10, but your estimation of a GP's salary is off by at least a factor of 10 - $100/hour would be a much more reasonable estimate. A bit high, even. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291062.htm

[TTPrograms]

It still halves the efficiency of a critical, expensive workforce that is already in high demand.

The number doesn't matter - it's still suggesting that it's feasible for doctors to be half as productive as their potential. That seems absurd to me.

[ceejayoz]

This makes the assumption that home visits are the same level of productivity as office visits. For the elderly, infirm, those who work during normal doctors' office hours, etc., home visits might reach a population that isn't getting good care currently.