Of course it's arbitrary but that doesn't mean it's not reasonable. Sure - they might be close to breaking even or at a slight loss when taking medicare, and th

Of course it's arbitrary but that doesn't mean it's not reasonable. Sure - they might be close to breaking even or at a slight loss when taking medicare, and that probably gives them the wiggle room they need to be sustainable. Put another way - the government gets a 33% discount compared to private insurers. If the argument is that medicare prices are unreasonably low, that seems like a different issue.