Bomb#20, Would not it be nice to fix this problem?
It would indeed. Repealing the laws that make it illegal to buy medical care from those outside the government-enforced cartel would be a good start -- it's hard to see who benefits from Americans facing a chronic doctor shortage while New York restaurant patrons are served meals by guys with MDs from Indian medical schools, except maybe the AMA and the legislators they buy. And if doctors had to compete for patients they'd probably be a lot more up-front about what they charge.
Alternately, we could have the government design a national health service. Those work pretty well in some countries. But knowing our government, we'd probably create another one that doesn't work well. Better, we could get the government to admit that they aren't competent to design one and instead just copy the NHS from a country with one that works well. I nominate
the French system. '... the World Health Organization found that France provided the "close to best overall health care" in the world.'
(Of course, that's assuming it works as well as Wikipedia says. Wikipedia is known to be unreliable; and the above link is full of obviously wrong assertions like these:
"Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies.
...
Only about 3.7% of hospital treatment costs are reimbursed through private insurance, but a much higher share of the cost of spectacles and prostheses (21.9%), drugs (18.6%) and dental care (35.9%) (Figures from the year 2000). There are public hospitals, non-profit independent hospitals (which are linked to the public system), as well as private for-profit hospitals.
...
After paying the doctor's or dentist's fee, a proportion is reimbursed. This is around 75 to 80%, but can be as much as 85%. The balance is effectively a co-payment paid by the patient but it can also be recovered if the patient pays a regular premium to a voluntary health insurance scheme. Nationally, about half of such copayments are paid from VHI insurance and half out of pocket.
...
All working people are required to pay a portion of their income into a health insurance fund, which mutualizes the risk of illness and which reimburses medical expenses at varying rates. Children and spouses of insured individuals are eligible for benefits, as well. Each fund is free to manage its own budget and reimburse medical expenses at the rate it saw fit."
If those things were true then that would mean the French system isn't single-payer.)