Very few medical bills paid directly by the patient and under the Master Charge system you end up paying 2-3X what insurance or medicare pay.
The insurance companies already know what they all charge- they effectively set the price or negotiate it.
M4A isn't going to happen anytime soon but a strong public option that paid at medicare rates would be a lot cheaper- 20% administrative and 20% average lower reimbursement rates.
As they currently do now- some providers might refuse or attempt to limit the number of medicare (public option) patients because they're less lucrative. Probably can't 100% mandate away from that but it could be limited as it is for medicare.
And as my Doc friend says, he might just go 100% public option/medicare or as much as his existing patient base permits- he pays a lot for staff to hassle with insurance companies.
The path to M4A is to have such a good public option that it ultimately crowds out private insurance. They won't, but if they can't continue to kill everything the insurance companies might be better off accepting the Swiss model where they continue to exist but only as the privatized administrators of a highly regulated public plan.
