Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruzilla  Yes, doctors do invest a ton of time and money into their education, but what's the value of that investment? Should it be so the doctor can charge $40 an hour for their services? $400 an hour? $4,000 an hour? |
Yes. And the doctor worth $40 charging $4,000 will go out of business. The doctor worth $4,000 charging $40 will be overrun with patients and unable to really help any unless he/she limits the number of patients they'll see. We refer to this as a free market, and (for the most part) it works.
Quote:
|
Doctors are free to charge whatever they like and most people don't care because the cost is shared across many people. And when insurers try to get fees more structured, so more people can get service at lower costs to themselves, the doctors threaten to abandon the plan.
|
And, who wouldn't? The doctor that is worth $4,000 does not want to lower his income. The only doctors I'd expect to be FOR rate structuring would be the $40 doctor whose new rate would be $400. We don't structure the cost of food in general, which is necessary for life. Why would we structure the cost of a service industry?
Quote:
|
So, Canada is learning, and hopefully Americans will as well, that it's not insurers that drive costs, it's providers. And as long as most people have this "they deserve as much money as they can make" mindset, the providers will keep hiking the costs and folks will keep paying more and more in premiums or taxes... while the folks who decry any controls on provider incomes will be whining and crying about how their healthcare costs so much.
|
You pay for what you get. If you want a health care provider who willingly, knowingly could make the same amount of money fixing cars, you pay for what you get. If you want the doctor who got mostly A's in college, you pay for that.