The truth is that prison is not the first option, it is the last. If it was a choice between obedience and prison, it would actually be *easier*.
What they intend to do is to break down resistance a bit at a time. First of all, mandate that medical students *have* to study these subjects to graduate. “Just studying” is different from “practicing”, so a lot of resistance will be broken down. It also eliminates the most stubborn, who are will to give up medicine even before they are trained, so they are never “counted” as medical people who resisted.
Second, since medicine is already dominated by federal money, they incrementally cut back on money for physicians who resist.
Then they work at the institutional level as well. So it’s not just the government applying pressure, but the HMOs, insurance companies, hospitals, etc.
They have willing accomplices in some State governments as well, who also turn the screws.
They are masters at coercion.
You´re absolutely right. This isn´t a John Wayne western, where the good guy gets beaten up, then takes a stand for what´s right and wins. It´s 1984. The good news is that we will all learn to love Big Brother.