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

[Chan790]

163. If I were a GP doctor, I'd not accept insurance.

Cash or check only, willing to finance at low-or-no interest. (I'd probably accept Medicare/Medicaid.) For the same reason my general practitioner does not accept insurance (and I opt to not carry anything except major medical to account for things like broken-legs and cancer), because the standards-of-care and the payment-schedule imposed by most insurers are awful.

Because my doctor does not accept insurance: my visits are reasonably-priced, my lab-work is reasonably-priced, the pharmacist he works with is reasonably priced, and on and on and on.

This week I had bronchitis...my total out-of-pocket cost with scripts: $122. If I had insurance, the copays would have been higher than that, less money than that ends up in the doctor's and pharmacist's pocket, the insurance company would have billed higher than that. Refusing insurance keeps costs down. Refusing insurance increases the ability of practitioners to serve the poor or to work out ways to be paid. Refusing insurance keeps medical costs reasonable.

While I see your point, you're jousting at the wrong windmill. If the compensation to the service-provider were fair, the process to file simple and the benefit to the consumer equal or better; I have no doubt that my GP would take insurance if for no other reason than billing-ease. Absent serious healthcare-reform, no doctor should accept insurance. It's bad for patients and for doctors.