And of course there seems to be no mention in the Time article that doctors pay half of what they make to insurance companies so when the ambulance chasers sue them they are covered. The same is true for hospitals, drug manufacturers and the people who make hip replacement equipment, etc. I´m surprised Rush didn;t point this out.

How would you like to spend a quarter of a million bucks getting trained only to make $25K a year? OFCOURSE Doctors make money, they earn it, they save LIVES every day and they practically killed themselves learning their trade. Oh, I wish society would see doctors as a nobles and lawyers as pond scum.

Patient heal thyself....

Canadians escape socialized Canadian medicine by coming to America. Where do Americans go to escape Obamacare? Answer: to floating hospitals three miles offshore.

Many lawyers get paid way too much too. Why not put a flat rate on them, or come up with Obamalegal to cap their rates and make every lawyer a government employee? Jes sayin.

Divide and conquer. Scapegoating. Socialism/soft dictatorship. The attacks of the envious against the producers of useful goods and services is in high gear. All but the "elites" will become poorer and have less freedom and material wealth.

Doctors who don´t work for corporations work the hours of the self-employed - 16-18 hour days, little time off. As for why they should make money - with that logic, why should I have to pay for food? It´s not my fault I get hungry.

Of course, we pay money for most products based on a combination of how much they benefit us and how rare they are (water benefits us but it isn´t rare so it costs little; brain surgery skills are rare and benefit us if we need them so we pay a lot).

And if I have a malignancy I will be happy to pay a lot if it is successfully treated.

In early January I relapsed from the flu and got bronchial pneumonia. I went to see a doctor. The office visit and two injections were billed to medicare at $711.00. I don´t know exactly what, but there is something seriously wrong with this situation. I don´t believe ObamaCare is the answer, but hell, neither is $711.00 for an office visit.

You could see this coming four years ago. They want to drive all private entities out of healthcare entirely. Every procedure, every device, every health professional will be told what will be paid by the all wise, all knowing state.

We in the health care profession are already bound to a fee schedule prepared by the feds. Each individual insurance company contracts us based on a percentage (reduction) we will accept based on the Medicare or Medicaid fee schedules. We have been paid this way since the early 90´s (based on Hillarycare). We can charge $710.00 but we are still only paid the fee the feds allow. Your doctor was paid exactly what every other doctor is paid for an office visit and exactly the same amount for the two shots, no more no less. You are all free to negotiate a cash fee with any provider of your choice if we don´t like the fees the feds allow providers to be paid.

I receive as an average between commercial insurance and Medicare about $1900 to perform a hip replacement and $1700 for a knee replacement.

After 50% to overhead and 50% to taxes I put in my pocket about $450.

You can´t call your plumber over to unclog your toilet for much less than that.

If you think that is too much, there is something very wrong with you.

#8, as mentioned above, look at your papers and see how much your physician was awarded by Medicare. He could have billed one million dollars, and would have received the same, maybe $60 if he was lucky. I haven´t raised my rates for 25 years. (in family practice). Why bother? Medicare and insurance companies pay whatever they wish, and only then if you badger them long enough. Go to the ER next time. They will create a ten page electronic "medical record", given you a spiral CT scan and billed Medicare 5,000 or so.
We expect to hear back from you.

American citizens are free to do their business in the best way they know how, obeying existing laws as such laws are understood -- which has become difficult as time has passed, and the commie-oriented groups have introduced more and more laws to control free enterprise! The American citizen is no longer free to chose his doctor or hospital, it seems -- altho´ I´m a bit out of touch as to the actual and present alternatives available for health care -- laws change too quickly! hussein´s cadres seem to have, more and more, stifled free enterprise, and the honest, hard-working citizen suffers! Freeing our dear America from the grasp of these demented and so ignorant communists has become priority number one! Get a good government in Washington next time around, me hearties! Restore free enterprise!

The responses to my post (#8) were exactly my point. I wasn´t trying to say that the doctor was paid too much. I´m just wondering where all the rest of that $711.00 dollars went. Medicare shortfalls? I only see the situation getting worse. I´m going to have my uninsured daughter call and ask how much it would be for a self-pay visit.

Yeah, Obamacare is going to help alright. It´ll put us $7 trillion more in debt by 2021.