The AHCA is now the law of the land, so we can stop pretending we can do something to stop it.
Inasmuch as the law was written by, and for the insurance "industry", it stands to reason that the purpose of all this is to generate profits for the insurance companies, not serve patients, and certainly not for the comfort of physicians.
The fundamental realities are that they (the insurance companies) are much more clever and politically savvy than doctors. They have arranged to collect and be in charge of ALL the money, then they get to decide how to dole it out. And now they have even more power: it is a crime (a violation of tax law) to fail to participate and give them whatever they demand!
Not only that, the health insurance companies enjoy almost total immunity from anti-trust law, so they have enormous financial leverage that organized medicine (let alone individual doctors) can't even imagine.
sic transit gloria mundi. The profession of medicine is toast, but there will of course still be sick people, and doctors to take care of them. So I suppose nothing will really change much in the trenches.
Tom
