They can do that. Unfortunately, the doctor will be seeing you in a cardboard box in a back alley, because rent in a professional / medical building costs money. If the doctor chooses to rent, he'd be mopping the floor while listening to you because the $12/hr does not buy a janitor. He will not be using thin, sterile gloves and clean scrubs because all that takes money to buy and maintain; crude plastic gloves from Costco, intended for making a sandwich, will do. The doctor will be also on the phone as he is sticking a needle into you because the $12/hr does not buy a receptionist.
All that is possible. In fact, it was done this way, and it is done this way today. Where, you might ask? In every 3rd world country, like Zimbabwe. There they drill your teeth without novocaine (that also costs money,) and then they place the cheapest filling that falls out in a year. The doctor may not even know how to do it right - the $12/hr does not pay for much education either.
The US healthcare costs money; but it is not overpriced if you pay the doctors directly. You get exactly what you pay for. Sometimes I am even surprised how little they charge, considering their obvious expenses. The equipment alone in a small dental office costs a million dollars. Your money buys you very good care (at least today.)
There is one catch with insurances, though. Direct cash payment to the provider is 50% to 75% cheaper than what the provider has to charge the insurance. In the end it is you who pays all the overhead - and there is a lot of that.
Well boo freakin hoo... none of those expenses justify hundreds of dollars for a 6 minute doctor session. Keep thinking those Chinese made sterile gloves cost anything more than few cents, or renting those drills for 15 minutes cost more than a few bucks. When customers are held hostage, sick customers, basic economic theory tells that it becomes criminally inelastic.
Those doctors have to pay for their completely outrageous education debt... let it burst by paying the true free market price... no more than $12.
Well, not quite a million dollars. A dentist can equip a 3-chair office with all the updated chairs, hand-piece units, lights, digital radiograph units, supplies, computers, lab equipment and so on for a ‘measly’ sum of around $250,000-$500,000 depending on perceived name brand ‘quality’. When I was practicing, the average dental office overhead was just north of 70% and I don’t believe that has changed much today. I felt like a fricking economic/management genius 30 years ago with an overhead of 48%-54%. With the cost of dental school, not to mention carried debt from undergraduate programs, it is extremely difficult for new grads to start or buy a practice. Most have to work like dogs for a few years to pay down that debt in order to qualify for loans for that desired practice. Only to go back into massive debt for that desired practice hoping their limited business know-how carries them to ‘glory land’..... The only Docs one would see for $12/hr are the ones with diplomas from ‘Backwater’ India, China, or Africa. Hell, even a nurse wouldn’t give you the time of day for less than $20/hr and it would be a desperate RN at that price.