Medicare for All and the Myth of the 40% Physician Pay Cut

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

The surge in support for improved Medicare for All—now up to 70% in recent polling—has single-payer opponents ramping up their scare tactics. The Koch-funded Mercatus Center recently claimed that Medicare for all could only work with painful sacrifices from doctors, specifically by paying us Medicare’s current reimbursement rates, which are about 40% lower than private insurance....

Since for-profit insurers ultimately decide what will be covered, it’s like having a third party in the exam room second-guessing our medical decisions. This process disrupts the doctor-patient relationship that we work so hard to build. And copays and coinsurance (what patients pay out-of-pocket) mean that even smaller practices must employ several full-time staff just to handle payments, billing, and collections.
Smaller practices spend an average of $83,000 per year on claims, coverage and billing. Doctors personally spend nine hours each week on billing and admin; that’s time we’re not seeing patients. It’s no surprise that doctors today report unprecedented levels of exhaustion and burnout.

To read more:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/09/11/medicare-all-and-myth-40-physician-pay-cut?cd-o

A single payer system would result in less total expenditures for Americans because the profit motive generated waste built into the current privatized system would be eliminated.

[Downtown Hound]

1. My fiance's best friend is a doctor who recently moved to New Zealand

and has now had the experience of working in both systems. To say she prefers the NZ system is an understatement. It's true she gets paid less in NZ (although it's only a little bit less, she still makes a great living). But in America she spends so much time dealing with insurance companies that that little bit of extra pay is just not worth it. She's much happier being a doctor in NZ.

[guillaumeb]

2. The average pay for physicians in Canada is less than in the US.

But there is no issue of Canadian physicians moving to the US. And Canadian doctors deal with the provincial health authority.

[roamer65]

9. I once saw a doctor in a urgent care in Ontario.

Great doctor. Took time and explained the problem to me. Had worked in the British and Australian systems. Said he would NEVER work in the US. Told me he wanted to be doctor, not a businessman.

[Poiuyt]

3. It would be less expensive not only because the profit motive would be eliminated,

Last edited Sat Sep 15, 2018, 09:55 PM - Edit history (1)

but it would also eliminate administrative excess, eliminate high executive pay, and eliminate advertising and marketing costs.

[Meadowoak]

5. +1

[shraby]

4. If it weren't a win-win for doctors, patients and companies, there wouldn't be so many

countries having that kind of system.

Insurance companies can divert their resources to other types of insurance. They make money at all the other kinds anyway, they don't have to make it denying people health care.

[guillaumeb]

6. And the insurance companies are incredibly profitable.

There is no reason for the middle man except to allow that middle man to profit, in part by denying care.

[Meowmee]

7. One of my uncle's was

A doctor in Canada. He was head of a hospital dept for many years. He made a way better than average living and he was happy doing it. It’s time to take a the greed out of medicine and big pharma for good.

[guillaumeb]

8. Agreed. eom