[robertAngst]

Healthcare is expensive because of Physicians.

They are the bottleneck. The American Medical Association has lobbied 400,000,000 dollars in the last 30 years to make sure they are the only ones that can issue prescriptions.

Making 300,000 USD/yr is unnatural, even for professionals. The market is artificial and gives them massive power even outside yearly income.

[zdragnar]

You're not wrong that physicians are an artificially restricted job market. The consequence is that most people actually spend very little time with one; PAs and nurses do a lot of what a doctor used to do.

Rather than doctors salaries driving up health care, there are fewer doctors serving more patients. A substantial amount of the increase in health care is the fancy facilities, high tech equipment, and the under-charging by medicaid and medicare for services.

On the one hand, I know a doctor who was essentially paid by medicaid less than minimum wage for certain treatments. On the other hand, I paid cash for a pre-surgery physical to make sure I was healthy enough for the surgery (I showed up thinking they were in my insurance network, and they were not).

Basically, a couple hundred bucks down the drain for a nurse to take my temperature, blood pressure, height, weight, and for a doctor to look at me and say "yup, you're good to go".

[tech_tuna]

There are doctors in my extended family. . . the way their referral networks work and the way they can restrict who can practice in the same town/area is straight up mafia.

[tech_tuna]

Don't forget the HMOs and Big Pharma. Healthcare in the US is massively one big racket.

[masonic]

  they are the only ones that can issue prescriptions.

In California, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants can write prescriptions. Is CA unique?