Expanding the Circles of Care

Almost two thousand years ago, the Stoic philosopher Hierocles described life as a series of circles. At the center is the self. Then comes family, then community, then fellow citizens, and finally all of humanity. His challenge to us was simple: draw those outer circles closer. Treat the people on the edges as if they were in our innermost circle.

Healthcare in America has done the opposite. Instead of pulling patients in, it has pushed them out—into phone trees, billing departments, insurance claims, and network restrictions. The result is that the most important circle, the relationship between doctor and patient, has been smothered by layers of red tape.

Direct Primary Care (DPC) is about redrawing those circles. It starts with the most human of connections: a patient and a physician who know each other, trust each other, and can communicate directly. For a simple monthly membership, patients get unlimited visits, 24/7 messaging, wholesale prices on medications and labs, and most importantly—time. No rushed 7-minute visits. No fighting through bureaucracy. Just care that feels close again.

But DPC is not only about convenience. It’s about reclaiming healthcare as a circle of compassion rather than a maze of transactions. When we strip away the unnecessary layers, we discover that most of medicine is actually affordable—too affordable to insure. Ninety-five percent savings on labs, medications at pennies on the dollar, procedures included at no cost. Insurance should protect against the serious and catastrophic, not the routine. Direct care fixes healthcare by making most care simple and direct, and it fixes insurance by making it honest and limited to what it was meant for.

This is how Hierocles’ wisdom applies today. By choosing direct care, we bring patients back into the innermost circle where they belong. We expand compassion outward by lowering costs, restoring trust, and making healthcare accessible again. And as more communities adopt this model, the circles ripple outward—helping employers, families, and eventually the entire system.

Direct care is not just a business model. It’s a movement. It’s about remembering that healthcare is not paperwork—it’s people. By putting patients first, we can fix healthcare one circle at a time.

Is Direct Care a Flop? Yes and in the Best Way

In the 1960s, the sport of high jumping had stalled out. Athletes had tried every variation—straddle, scissors, western roll—but the records stopped inching higher. Then came Dick Fosbury.

At the 1968 Olympics, Fosbury showed up with a strange new technique: instead of going face-down or sideways over the bar, he threw himself over backwards, head first. It looked bizarre. Commentators laughed. But it worked. He cleared 2.24 meters, won gold, and shattered the plateau. Within a few years, every high jumper in the world was doing the “Fosbury Flop.”

The same thing happened in running. For decades, the four-minute mile was considered physiologically impossible. Then Roger Bannister broke it in 1954. The next year, dozens more did too. The barrier was never about biology—it was about belief and method.

Healthcare today looks a lot like those sports before their breakthroughs. Policymakers, insurers, and employers have tried every tiny tweak: higher deductibles, bigger networks, smaller networks, new acronyms, shiny apps. None of it has broken the plateau of skyrocketing costs and declining satisfaction.

Direct primary care is the Fosbury Flop. Instead of trying to run insurance through every routine doctor’s visit, we step back and say: what if most care is too cheap to insure in the first place? What if we rebuild the model so patients pay directly for a membership that offers unlimited visits, free procedures, and medications and labs at up to 95% savings? Suddenly, the impossible becomes obvious.

When the model changes, the records fall. Direct care has already delivered a 10x improvement in affordability for patients and employers who try it. The only thing standing in the way of mass adoption is old habits—just like track and field before 1968.

The bar isn’t too high. We just need to flip over it.

Abundance in Healthcare: A Direct Care Vision

When Tesla shared its “Master Plan” for sustainable abundance, the message was simple: technology should make essential things—like energy and transportation—so reliable and affordable that everyone can access them without worry. It’s a bold vision, but it resonates far beyond cars and batteries.

Healthcare needs its own master plan for abundance.

Today, too many patients experience scarcity in the system: not enough time with their doctor, not enough clarity about costs, not enough control over decisions. The system often leaves people feeling like healthcare is a luxury, instead of a necessity we all depend on.

Direct Care flips that script. By removing insurance middlemen, cutting through red tape, and restoring the doctor–patient relationship, we make most healthcare too simple and too affordable to insure. Medicines that used to cost hundreds are available at wholesale prices. Labs that used to feel out of reach are now cheaper than a trip to the grocery store. And the most important resource—time with a physician—is restored.

This isn’t just about saving money. It’s about creating abundance. When patients don’t have to ration care, delay visits, or fear surprise bills, they can finally get the care they need, when they need it. When doctors aren’t crushed by paperwork and bureaucracy, they can spend their energy where it matters most: with patients.

Tesla’s vision is to power the world without compromise. Ours is to care for patients without compromise. Abundance in healthcare doesn’t mean more complexity, more programs, or more layers of coverage. It means making the basics—access, time, and trust—so reliable and affordable that no one has to think twice about them.

That’s what Direct Care is building. And it’s why we believe the future of healthcare can be not just sustainable, but abundant.