“Ah, but you lose the two thirds you don’t want anyway...”
The two thirds of patients that was lost to the practice may have only contributed a relatively small amount (if any) to the profit margin. Doctors in self pay practices can offer relatively lower rates to self pay patients because of much lower overheads, ie less paperwork, phone calls, collection efforts etc.
There will be a lot of people that want health care services, but do not want to fill out all the paperwork for the subsidies and pay for over inflated ‘insurance’. Even the low information others will realize that it is cheaper for the average family to pay for some doctor visits, diagnostic tests or even a minor procedure out of pocket than it is to pay $20k for a 0-care budget plan.
Other factors are also still up in the air. We still don’t know whether in the federal exchange states, subsidies will be available (no funding in 0-care law). And if you file your taxes as not to receive a refund, whether this prevents enforcement of the mandate tax/penalty.
The IRS has a well established mechanism for tapping into your personal assets to collect taxes you owe.
See above.