New Health Care Center! No, You Can’t Go In

The other paper has a lengthy article gleefully announcing the creation of a new health care center in Hanover. The center, which will be open to current and former college employees, is the brainchild of President Kim and is intended to take the lead in nationwide efforts to “reinvent he doctor-patient relationship by giving patients a more active role in primary care.”

First off, credit should go where it is due. The new clinic seems designed to cut out the middleman of insurance by offering primary care through the college, and to improve access for employees by giving them a clinic close to where they work. If all goes according to plan, the clinic will break even or even save the college money.

Now, there is nothing in principle wrong with health care for workers, or with trying to save money. Nonetheless, there are ominous signs. The D’s own article emphasizes Kim’s significant personal involvement in the creation of the clinic in cooperation with a health-care innovator based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his old haunt.