On Friday, May 13th, 2022, Shankar Poncelet, Antréa Ferguson, and Dr. Roger Moczygemba won the Be a Beacon Award as the leaders of the San Antonio Free Market Medical Association chapter (FMMA).
The award was presented in Fort Worth at the Omni Hotel, the venue for the annual conference Alternative Nation. The award is designed to honor a member which best supports the movement. Previous honorees include Sedera founder Dr. Tony Dale and Prairie Spine founder Dr. Kube.
The chapter’s mission is to promote the values of the FMMA and educate the public about the benefits of treating healthcare like any other industry in a free market.
A marketplace typically consists of buyers, sellers, vendors, and suppliers. In healthcare, doctors/hospitals are sellers, and patients are buyers. The decision to purchase healthcare from a doctor, hospital, or another healthcare provider should be made by the patient and not influenced by health insurance plans, or other organizations such as health maintenance organizations.
As Jay Kempton, co-founder of the FMMA, noted, healthcare is the only industry where the buyer has to worry about the seller’s problems. He is referring to “surprise bills” that patients have to accept because medical facilities claim they cannot foresee certain expenses, such as anesthesia during surgery. When SHANKX sells a website, no client accepts not knowing what costs are involved.
SHANKX organizes chapter meetings throughout the year. Each meeting features a thought leader in free-market healthcare who presents valuable information aimed at helping grow the movement. You can find a list of future meetings at https://sanantoniofmma.org.
Attendees can attend in person or online, network, exchange information, and help each other. For these FMMA chapter meetings, SHANKX handles everything from marketing, public relations, production, planning, and event delivery.