Finally, somebody who gets it! (and the others here of course)
I'm in S.E. Michigan and my brother-in-law is/was an oncologist in a medical group associated with the St. John Hospital system.
Because he's a cancer specialist, it's up to him to buy all the chemotherapy drugs which is administered to his patients - well over a million dollars a year.
Within the past two years he had to leave the group and went on staff with the hospital because he was losing money on all the drugs he had to purchase because medicare, wasn't reimbursing for the actual cost to him...........
Another factor that many people don't consider is that a doctor will not turn away a patient just because they can't pay. And in many cases, people just don't pay and the doctor's office is stuck with charges.
Also, my BIL belongs to a group of doctors that run what they call a "hippie clinic" (the name goes back to when it was founded). All the doctors in his clinic volunteer one day a month to care for sick people free of charge........
In the future I see many overseas small to medium clinics opening that will take US insurance and could easily be the wave of the future.Places like,the Bahamas, Costa Rica, other Central and South American countries will and could all be medical havens. The US will be a "has been" when it comes to medical treatment.