That is good to know. Perhaps the "discount" is not as great a hit as I believed.
From a pragmatic standpoint, most of the serious high dollar medical work is done on old people. Almost all old people are on Medicare.
While there is a lot of doom and gloom about the medical system (much of it deserved) I was happy to see a record number of students for “match day”
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/MedicalEducation/50600
“Perhaps the “discount” is not as great a hit as I believed.”
No one pays the discount. That is a discount Medicare gets. Then, Medicare pays 80% of the remainder and the patient pays only the 20% left. If the patient has a supplemental policy 2nd to Medicare, that insurance pays the patient part so the patient pays nothing.
The Medicare premium to have that insurance, comes out of the patient’s social security check. The patient him/her/self pays for the supplemental insurance if he/she wants that insurance.