Both socialized medicine and insurance-based medicine have pros and cons, but within either system there is one hubris in common: a patient is just someone, or more precisely - some number, in line. That the question to a doctor "you make house calls?" has become cliche, is indicative of the numerical property of patients in current health care. Doctors should know their patients, have a friendship with their patients, treat their patients as long as possible: only with a long history of friendship and background knowledge can one needing healthcare be best treated. Is it coincident that the decline of doctors who make house calls coincides with the rise of the hmo?