A doctor who won't take any insurance or Medicare? Yank their license, plus imprisonment.

[JoeyT]

52. There are insurance companies

that give the doctor such a hard time over billing that they actually lose money by accepting patients that use them. Literally the amount of time their employee spends repeatedly filing outweighs the amount the company will pay them.

The answer isn't to force the doctor to take that insurance, it's to drop the hammer on shady insurance companies. Send them an "Act right or be nationalized, scumfucker!" type letter, and when they fail to act right strip them of their assets and jail their corporate execs.

On the doctor side, I'm far more annoyed by doctors that won't deal with anyone that doesn't have insurance. (Won't take cash) They know they're going to order a shitload of tests to diagnose a cold, and someone paying cash isn't going to want fifteen X-rays and a blood test to be prescribed cough syrup. ETA: If you're worried about the poor, this is the group of doctors you're going to want to chase through the streets on horseback. There's a huge range of poor between poor enough to qualify for medicaid and doing well enough to afford insurance. The whole "If I get sick, I'm probably going to die." range.