As Matt Yglesias points out, one of the many reasons health care is so expensive in the United States: doctors are paid way too much. See also: 21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous. And after that: The Serpent on the Staff.
Along with pretty much always being on the wrong side of reform, the American Medical Association has contributed heavily to this problem. First, by working to artificially limit the supply of doctors for decades, and thus helping to ensure the doctors we do have are burdened with crushing amounts of debt. Second, by pushing for a cap on Medicare-supported residencies in 1997, further decreasing the US supply of doctors — They’ve since reversed course on that. And third, by continually skewing Medicare payment models and reimbursement rates. Don’t expect this issue to be resolved anytime soon.
Whoa. I go to a private GP in Australia, and they charge me $60 for an office visit. I’m then able to claim $35.60 back from Medicare (the government’s public insurance scheme). So I’m out of pocket about $25. I think that’s fair, given that this is a fairly new and high-tech office in a very busy area. When I lived a few suburbs away, I went to a doctor that “bulk billed” (i.e. charged only the scheduled Medicare fee so there was no out of pocket cost). It was a slightly more run-down practice, and I noticed that all the doctors there were recent immigrants. The area had a lot of students and lower income earners though, so I assume they took it as part of their mandate to keep costs as low as possible. That’s also very cool. (According to this article, 80+% of all doctor’s visits last year were bulk billed.)