Doctors could, to some approximation anyway, go on strike. They endorse the system we have by working in it (and have not been silent participants in building either).
It seems uncommon for one group to strike on behalf of another group. Pragmatically that seems very unlikely to happen even if theoretically possible. Policy level changes seem more likely to me.
That is by design. Look up the Taft-Hartley Act. Secondary striking is a forbidden labor practice in the United States. Any doctor's union that orchestrated one would be in hot water legally. It would essentially have to be a collective action orchestrated by distinct individuals with no legal entity providing any type of war chest.
To be clear, I believe at least that section of Taft-Hartley is arguably unconstitutional, and worthy of getting civil disobedienced hard. I just don't see it as likely to happen in such a way as to be effective in facilitating change. Add on top of that the onerous burden of medical school debt, and I don't exactly see many being willing to make that choice.
Okay, but the point is sort of that doctors are not in fact blameless for the system that they helped build and continue to participate in.
Like sure, they aren't solely to blame, and it would probably be hard for individual doctors to successfully push for systematic changes, but the flip side to that is that they don't get to say "Oopsie doopsie, it sure isn't great".
I disagree. Doctors did not build the insurance billing system that we have today, and are not implicated in creating the incredible complexity and challenge that exists for patients. They provide the care, and don't get to view the costs born by patients.
That particular deck is stacked against the favor of doctors and patients.
After all, a care facility can probably be reasonably confident that if a patient needs help, doctors will feel compelled to care for them.
Put another way, would you want to walk into a hospital/ER/your doctors office for something acute and get an apology that care is unavailable because the doctors are on strike?
I imagine he’s suggesting a strike where they do not fill out the necessary billing paperwork, like Japanese bus drivers didn’t collect fares or the Canadian customs officers didn’t collect tariffs during their strikes. Not sure if that’s possible, but that’s how I’d think they can strike.
This would absolutely work when the EHR/EMR is down. Otherwise, most of that stuff is automated and pulled directly from the medical/surgical records in the EHR/EMR.