>Medicare was the first experiment with socialized medicine and over time, the healthcare system figured out that it could extort money and Americans were stuck paying unbelievably high medical expenses.
>Not sure what the answer is.
Medicare is price fixing.
Medicare pays 80%, and to accept it, providers have to set “usual and customary price” at 120% of Medicare allowable, which never drops, even when patents run out and competition increases.
Docs can’t charge cash patients less without running the risk of Medicare catching it in an audit and demanding millions of dollars in ‘overpayments’ being returned because the “usual and customary price” wasn’t 120% of Medicare allowable.
Sauce: am medfag who also worked in design and manufacturing.