Healthcare in America

I worked 2 years in private practice, 2 for an HMO, and 3 for the VA; which is a government run, basically socialized medicine program. As a physician, I feel greater freedom in the VA to make my own decisions that I did in the private sector. I felt the insurance companies breathe down my neck more than the government does. I also see that the government monitors the quality of our outcomes, They reward us for improved blood pressure, and light a fire under us about poorly controlled diabetics. My other settings NEVER monitored that…they only monitored the money.
It is a fallacy to think that doctors in America control their decisions right now. As a profession we gave up our decision making when we began allowing the 3rd party payer system. I will attest that I have much more control over my decisions as a physician, working for the VA, than I ever did in the private sector. Insurance companies controlled my decisions more than the VA does.
Insurance companies do not care about the health of their policy owners. They care about profit. Capitalistic medicine is driven by money, federal healthcare by positive outcomes.

Voters have more control over their government than consumers do over private insurance companies. Who do people want to be in control of their doctors? For-profit companies, or a democratic government that answers to them? We ARE the nation. We are the voters. We have the power to change government because we have the right to vote. We do not have control over our insurance companies -- they are privately owned.
I do not understand the resistance to healthcare reform. Our country is not 100% capitalists. Water, sewer, fire, police, Pell grants, the Army…and so on. We pay our governments to provide services. These services are not for profit, but they could be if we wanted them to. Why does healthcare have to be for profit any more than city water? Why not privatize the armed forces? People would find these suggestions absurd. Of course we want the government to manage these public concerns. should not be for profit. Public health is more philosophically pure and more in keeping with the Hippocratic oath. You want your doctor to make decisions based on your health, not on profit.
The capilazation of medicine is not sacred.