[danachow]

> Also the number of doctors is still limited by the AMA, so even this is not fully competitive. There's an arbitrary cap on number of providers

This is an old trope but hasn’t even been superficially true for years. The AMA does not have the authority to limit the number of doctors. In any event their political influence has become less and less relevant for decades now, so even their ability to influence the number of docs is quite limited - I am not even am AMA member - I was only during medical school to get discounts on test prep. I don’t believe most of my peers are AMA members either - they belong to their specialist groups. Meanwhile the number of medical schools and students in the US has increased substantially in part due to AMA and AAMC. Meanwhile internal medicine residencies still have to fill their ranks with imported talent (foreign medical graduates) - only the lucrative subspecialties are the ones that remain limited and competitive. There are also forces at work to limit the number of MD jobs available that have nothing to do with the supply of MDs (replacement of positions with midlevels). The limit on residency positions is a partisan federal funding issue going on for years and only recently has much headway been made.

On eye care, I can of course self prescribe but even so for contact lenses I usually end up purchasing overseas from reputable retailers because of the price fixing of contact lenses - and I’ve never been asked for a prescription. It’s not that hard to get eyewear without a prescription.