Be Careful What You Wish For! A Cautionary Tale from the Electric Vehicle Industry for DPC

First, apologies for the extended quotes, but I think they are necessary to make my point.

Electric vehicles (EVs) received tremendous incentives from the last administration. One of the main concerns with EVs remains range. Can I make it to the next charging station? Will there be a charging station where I want to go? 

As Jeff Childers, popular Coffee & Covid blogger, observes on his 09/07/2026 post:

Somehow, Tesla —a company with no revenue and no market share— was able to build a nationwide network of charging stations that solved drivers’ thorniest EV problem: range anxiety. But the traditional carmakers who already owned the auto market relied on a $7.5 billion Biden grant to build out their networks— hoping to use ‘free’ taxpayer money.

Shockingly, even with Tesla’s example to follow, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg couldn’t pull it off and built only about 68 chargers in total, at around $110 million per charger. That was a problem. Automakers experienced what the [Wall Street] Journal euphemistically called a “painful retrenchment,” leaving “billions of dollars in stranded investments as customers failed to make the switch at levels once projected.”

Worse, the new Administration stopped pushing everyone toward electric cars.

To solve this problem, EV manufacturers recently realized they could put the charging station right in the car! They are calling them Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs).

Childers snidely points out:

EREVs are not hybrids (which everyone hates). Hybrids combine two propulsion systems in the same vehicle, doubling the number of things that will probably break as soon as the warranty expires.

EREVs will still be all-electric vehicles, but with a gas generator —not a motor— added to charge the battery when it runs low. Do not call it a hybrid. It is an electric vehicle with a battery, a gas tank, an exhaust system, and a 250hp V6 gasoline engine. Please try to keep up. Admittedly, the distinction is not completely obvious. The point is, carmakers have solved the electric-vehicle range problem with a daring new technology called fossil fuel.

He summarizes (and this is key for DPC and my incentive for this post):

There are many morals to this story. First, whenever you see a distortion in the market —like electric cars without a charging network— look for the withered, interfering hand of government. Second, relying on the government to support your business is probably on the reckless side. So.

After ten years of announcing the death of the gasoline engine, carmakers have invited it back to rescue their electric vehicles. Irony.

How does this EV story matter for DPC? There are some voices within DPC seeking to partner with the government programs of Medicaid and Medicare (or start new programs?) to cover DPC memberships so as to expand access to health care. This is probably well intended.

But, DPC already offers a valuable service at a price the vast majority of Americans can afford, if they choose to prioritize it. My fee remains less than what many spend on hair and nails for a month, and that membership covers a lot more body parts than just hair and nails! 

We all know the saying about where the road of good intentions leads. Almost always, when government gets involved, the free market is distorted, and (almost – I may be off for one example I can’t think of at the moment) never for the long term good. Not to mention a government track record of many short-term patches that failed or weren’t supposed to long term or expand or increase but have! Examine the history of the income tax for instance.

While many in DPC praise the clarification of allowing HSA funds to be used for DPC membership fees, others predict the imposed, arbitrary caps ($150/individual and $300/family) will distort the market. I mean, really? – the Duggers family is capped at $300?! Perhaps this limitation will not distort the market much, this year…

I agree with Mr. Childers. Let the warning be clear: Relying on the government to support your business is reckless and dangerous. When the government fights fraud, waste and abuse, we all win. When it puts its thumb on the scales in the market, some may benefit or win initially, but it will be costly for others initially, and for many of us, eventually. Look at how efficiently it spent our tax dollars to build charging stations. Now we (DPC) want to invite these masterminds into the mix?!

It’d be sadly ironic if future DPC docs had to announce why they need to and choose to leave government programs (again) that promised fair payment with continued autonomy but then didn’t deliver, only to return to that revolutionary idea of free market health care. 

As the age old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”