I read, kat. That doesn't mean I agree. No evil intent there, I'm just not seeing how an already existing practice -- for instance a practice that already KNOWS it cannot survive on medicare/medicade levels of payments (not in theory, but in real life practice) could expect that it will suddenly have its fixed costs of doing business taken care of when all payments are at the government-determined medicare/medicade level. It's not a hypothetical. It's real and my brother lives it.

And sure, it's just doctors. They're expendable just like any other worker whose livilhood is based on an outmoded idea. I'm sure no tears were wept for the slide-rule manufacturer when TI came along and made them obsolete.

On the other hand, it's a little different too. The slide-rule manufacturer was made obsolete and just went to another industry. But we will still need the doctors. Even the ones who used to be able to have a private practice (it'll be sort of a rich irony -- the private practices like my brother's will go up for sale and be picked up by younger doctors who will be able to buy them a penny on the dollar from the suckers like my brother, and with a new financial structure (that doesn't include a huge business loan -- having gotten the business so cheap), may well be able to make the same practice then work with medicare/medicade level payments).

This discussion has made me think about contacting my cousin to get his opinion. I hadn't really thought about him (relative to this discussion) because I just met him. We're both in our fifties, but because my father died when I was very young, and our families have always lived more than 700 miles apart, I never met the guy 'til last Summer. Anyway, he's a doctor who lectures internationally on stem cell treatment. He's a Johns Hopkins guy and has always been hospital-connected. I'd be curious to hear his take on the whole thing and how he thinks it will impact him. Would anyone be interested in his response if I called him and discussed it?