My personal perspective: I am a Kaiser member (California) and I love it. It is extremely simple to deal with: if I ever feel sick, I show up at a Kaiser facil

My personal perspective: I am a Kaiser member (California) and I love it. It is extremely simple to deal with: if I ever feel sick, I show up at a Kaiser facility and pay a $10 co-pay. If I need tests, I walk down the hall and pay a $20 co-pay. There is no billing, no headache, no mess. Everything is in one facility and integrated. The doctors, nurses, and NPs seem competent, if somewhat busy. That said, I've heard that people with rare and specialized conditions have a harder time navigating the Kaiser system, but I'm not sure that it's any worse with other healthcare systems. Overall, it has made me a believer in the HMO model when properly executed. And it appears that it takes complete integration for it to work right: the joy of Kaiser is having everything in one building and managed through one system.