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 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.