November 01, 2010
The answer is that they would get significant cuts in revenue. The Washington Post, which is known for its problems with logic and economics, never made this point as it discussed the possibility of a mass exodus of physicians from the Medicare program. The Post uncritically presented complaints about Medicare’s compensation schedule from Cecil B. Wilson, the president of the American Medical Association that Medicare does not pay them enough money. (The article was headlined: “Physicians Face Painful Decision on Medicare.”)
While it is possible that any individual physician can make more money by taking patients from private insurers rather than Medicare patients, physicians in aggregate could only make up for the revenue lost by not seeing Medicare patients if there was a large pool of individuals with money or high-paying insurers who do not currently have access to doctors. Of course, people with money in the United States are already seeing doctors, so if physicians en masse turned away from Medicare then they would simply have fewer patients. (This may be the painful decision referred to in the headline.)
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