Isn't the whole argument that our system is inefficient and therefore expensive? Get rid of the inefficiency and doctors should still get paid the same, no? Again (I think we are going back and forth in different threads here), free markets are great at doing that. We should try it with health care.
Doctors become public servants. They should get paid relatively comparably to other first-world countries but the fact is what they're getting paid right now is unsustainable for us as a society if our goal is to cover everyone at a reasonable price -- and it should be. Preserving doctors top-0.5% pay is strictly a non-goal. Building a functioning public health system is a goal.
That's pure tyranny. Stop it. People are paid what the market dictates, not what some government bureaucrat decides.
If by that you mean the entire OECD then yes, some tiny homogenous countries have tried it. And it works great. Also, diversity has nothing to do with medicine.
> I have spoken with doctors and they hate medicare. It doesn't pay on time, it pays below market rates, it dictates what they can do with their patients, etc. These doctors still see medicare patients out of compassion, but they are losing money on each one.
Lowering reimbursement rates reduces costs, that's how it's supposed to work. Did you think costs just go down while people get paid the same or more? Where did you think the money was to come from? Sorry, America's costs are 2X Canada's, those doctors do need to be paid less.
> Why are more and more doctors turning down Medicare? The answer is simple: Medicare typically pays doctors only 80% of what private health insurance pays.
Great, now all programs will pay the same, much less than today. You do know doctors in Canada make $200-500K/yr right, they're not exactly starving. They don't need to make more, they're public servants.
In the US the mean salary for a doctor is just shy of $300K (range $200-663K). In Canada the mean salary $225K, ranging from $232 to $676. I think they'll manage with the pay-cut.
> So, if we all go only-medicare, how many doctors decide to retire early?
Those who scrape by on $250-500K/yr and save, then retire, like the rest of the 1%.