Indeed. And in a properly functioning marketplace, how does one profit? By things like pride, quality service, and innovation.
To be sure, there are many ways in which government rules and regulations have changed the health-care system away from being a properly-functioning marketplace, but the solution is not to shift things even further from one. Rather, the solution is to shift things toward a model where services are allocated based on people's willingness to pay for them.
If a doctor has time to treat one of two patients for some condition, and patient #1 would rather have $500 cash than receive the treatment, while patient #2 would rather give up $1,000 cash than go without treatment, having the doctor treat patient #2 would be a far more efficient outcome than having him treat patient #1. If patient #2 gave $667 to patient #1, and gave $167 more to the doctor for treating him than he would get for treating patient #1, then patient #1 would get $667 for a treatment he would have gladly surrendered for $500, the doctor would get $167 more than he otherwise would have gotten, and patient #2 would only have to pay $834 to get a treatment for which he would have gladly paid $1,000. Having the doctor treat patient #2 instead of patient #1 would be a win for everyone.
“Indeed. And in a properly functioning marketplace, how does one profit? By things like pride, quality service, and innovation.”
The only problem is that we have a limited supply of docs. I agree with your argument but we need to increase the supply of docs for it to work. There is no need for competition now. They all charge the same excessive prices.