Wendell -- that was as concise and complete and articulate summary of the problem as any I have seen. Thank you.
I see mostly adult patients -- geriatric now that we have all aged together. Medicare is mostly much easier to deal with than most of the insurance companies, and they almost never play the GOTCHA games with me that the private insurance does. It is true that some of the private companies pay more for services than Medicare -- but not always. And Medicare seems to set a floor under the fee structure that private companies strive to meet.
It is insane to base the insurance system on family policies paid for by employers - this is an era of broken families and gig-workers whose employers spend billions to avoid paying health insurance.
People who really need health insurance (cancer, major anomalies, premature births, injuries caused by drunks) will quickly find themselves with no insurance when they can't work -- even if you put 30 years into a company, you can be left high and dry if you have a serious illness or injury.
And finally, for the "free market" crowd -- Medicine is not a free market, it is a tightly controlled monopoly run by the Mob. Independent practitioners such as I am are being rapidly squeezed out
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