All in all I feel surprisingly happy about paying $300 bucks. It's not a solution to public healthcare and it's costs but for me it buys a little bubble of things done right.

He also very awkwardly talked about rising cost of office staff. He was both happy to pay them more but also sounded forced into it by rising labor pay generally and previously losing people.

He did note that he actually gets paid less per visit than "big box" primary care physicians because of weak negotiating power, and how frustrating it is to see insurance premiums go up while their payout is flat.

I asked the doctor his general thoughts. He basically wants to do primary care "right" and the membership (or not taking insurance at all) is the only that's viable. He was sad that only works for better off patients but has little hope for political solutions that work for everyone.

In the end I joined the $300/month membership. I don't want hyper fast appointments with a different doc each time. There really aren't any convenient, non-conveyor-belt primary care doctors that are covered just by insurance.

Should I even be making a decision based on the office's needs? Or should I just ask myself whether or not $300 for the service they provide is a good deal?

Without visibility into the finances of the office it's hard to know if this is closing a gap left by stingy insurance payments and thus truly keeping independence viable, or just making a health business that bit more profitable.