Kaiser Residency: Fill & Download for Free

I will start out by saying that I may be biased. I worked as a pediatrician at K-P in the northern California region for 31 years before retiring in 2011. I continue to get my own health care there. My decision to base my career at KP was the best decision I ever made. I kept in contact with many of my colleagues from medical school and residency and looking at their practices, I was never once tempted to leave KP for another job or to start my own practice.The different regions where KP exists do not function identically. Each region’s medical group develops their own way of doing things to a certain extent, but all are dedicated to providing the highest quality medicine without wasting the member’s money on the superfluous.One caveat: As of December 31, 2018, Kaiser Permanente had 22,914 physicians, 59,127 nurses, and another 194,000 employees. I believe that the vast majority of the doctors and nurses and support staff at KP are very high quality. For instance, on average, we get 8 applications for every MD opening. That being said, with that many people, it is inevitable that if one has bad luck, occasionally one will run into people that don’t perform to the level that they wish.By objective measures, it will be hard to find any other health care organization that does better than KP. The National Committee for Quality Assurance, a national group that rates health plans for consumer experience, prevention, and treatment, regularly rates KP at the top. The NCQA recently analyzed over 1,000 health plans in the nation − private, Medicare, Medicaid − for quality and service. Only 14 health plans in the country, or about 1 percent, were rated 5 out of 5. Of those 14, Kaiser Permanente had 9 of those highest rated plans in its various regions, including Northern California, Southern California, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic (Washington DC, VA, MD). These ratings are based on outcomes, like heart attack survival, cancer survival, treatment of high blood pressure, immunization rates, mammogram rates, etc., just to name a few.KP also regularly receives awards from various business ratings groups for being a great place to work.Here is a list of other awards received by KP: Accolades and awards

You didn’t say where you live now. But regardless of where you move, you may not even have the option of keeping your Kaiser insurance. If your residence address is not in a zip code that Kaiser provides service to within California, you won’t be eligible for KP individual coverage—which I assume you are asking about.Kaiser, you probably know, is in some counties and not in others. For example, it is all over Santa Clara County like a blanket; but cross the line into San Benito County and Monterey County, it’s not available for you to purchase. As it happens, when we lived for some years in Monterey we kept our Kaiser insurance attached to our old address in Oakland, a building we happened to continue owning—because pre-ACA, no other insurer would have written us a policy—but for medical care we had to drive almost an hour up to the clinic in Gilroy, or to Santa Teresa (Kaiser) Hospital, respectively 1 and 2 hours away.

Not really, because:1) It's not universal. You have to sign up and pay a premium. Canadian public healthcare is available to all citizens and Permanent Residents without any need to register (except for immigrants; people born here are registered at birth) or pay a separate fee.2) You're not covered everywhere. Crucially, Kaiser Permanente doesn't exist across the whole country. When you're signed up with Kaiser Permanente, you can only receive full coverage from their facilities. Coverage for emergency treatment at different facilities is covered at only 80%, and the patient still has to pay out-of-pocket first and then file a claim. In Canada, healthcare is administrated provincially, but the provinces honour each other's residents. So, with my Ontario health card, I can get treated at any hospital/clinic anywhere without worrying about out-of-pocket costs.3) It's not a public service. Canadian healthcare is available to everyone because it's funded by taxes. Everyone pays, everyone can access services. KP is a private service that requires membership and separate premiums to be paid.