Right now, private insurance take their cues from Medicare when it comes to reimbursement. Frankly, in their view, why would they want to pay anymore than what the government is willing to pay.
Hence, when reimbursements go down, insurance follows.
Enter this goliath called the Public Plan, entering on the premise of not only being, available to everyone, but also "cheaper" most likely at our expense, the doctors through convoluted and screw loose billing schedules, but definitely the taxpayer.
Insurance can only be undercut by the federal government so low before the income vs expense ratio becomes unsustainable.
Once they go out of business...Single Payer prevails.
So yeah, Obama can say you can keep your doctor if you like him...for now, as long as insurance turns a profit. However what patients need to understand is WHEN they finally go under, how are they going to convince their doctor to keep them as a patient when they're finally converted to the public plan?
With as many red flags and red tape that apparently is attached to all aspects of health care in this bill, you're gonna have to practically write an entire book of claims and justification letters backed by probably some EBM crap just to have a damn antibiotic written for a patient.
This thing passes, then it's time instead opt out and convert to cash only practice.