The situation leads inevitably to nationalization.
The Democrats know what they want, the Republicans do not know what they want - in fact, they are deeply divided over what they want. I will have a longer post about this later today.
Under the circumstances, single payer is inevitable and if you don’t like that, you had better be ready to fight hard for a private option.
Under the final draft of Hillarycare, a doctor would be fined $50 000 or spend five years in prison, or both, for treating a patient for a fee if “the system” had refused treatment. That is going to be the last ditch in the 75 year war over nationalization.
Jailing doctors will inevitably lead to slavery. What happens when doctors abandon the profession because of government-controlled wages and the risk of fines or prison? Will the government force doctors to practice?
As that great constitutional scholar Kanye West pointed out, the thirteenth amendment allows the government to force doctors into "involuntary servitude" if the government can find a crime to convict a doctor of. Unauthorized treatment of patients might be one such crime, given the clash between government edict and the Hippocratic Oath. Instead of "death panels" we will have "star chambers" to find and convict doctors in order to press them into single-payer service.
-PJ