22. Medicare led to favorable changes in the practice of medicine
The American Medical Association (AMA) strongly opposed the implementation of Medicare as well, using the argument that it would lead to fully socialized medicine, and government oversight of medical practices and procedures. At the same time, the AMA acknowledged that doctors frequently used practices of outright fraud in billing, were overaggressive in performing many surgeries, and were driven more by fees collected than patient care. In a report written 10 years before Medicare was created the AMA wrote that doctors “display a consistent preoccupation with their economic security”. The report went on to describe the preoccupation in detail.
“They think about money a lot”, the report read. It continued, “…about how to increase their incomes…about what plumbers make for house calls and what a liquor dealer’s net is compared to their own”. Fee splitting between surgeons, in which a doctor paid another to perform a surgery for a portion of the fee paid by the patient were common. After Medicare took full effect (July, 1966) Medicare fraud became so notorious that Senate hearings were convened to investigate in 1969. Abuse of the system by doctors was revealed to be widespread, with many charging Medicare up to four times the fees charged to private insurance companies. Medicare didn’t lead to socialized medicine, it led instead to medical fraud. Government oversight helped curtail it somewhat.