The worst problem with the AMA is that it's worked to completely distort our expectations about what is possible in a healthcare system. A lot of the comments h

The worst problem with the AMA is that it's worked to completely distort our expectations about what is possible in a healthcare system. A lot of the comments here are focused on artificial restrictions in supply of physicians and so forth, which are important issues, but the more insidious problem is the way in which licensing and practice laws distort alternative structurings of healthcare delivery. As you point out, healthcare should be more consumer-driven, with providers acting more as consultants, akin to how tax accountants and lawyers work. The problem isn't necessarily that we need more physicians, it's that we need consumers to get more of their healthcare directly, and/or through alternate providers like pharmacists, psychologists, dentists, optometrists, or some other classes of providers we haven't even dreamed up yet because the healthcare system is so centralized and rigid. The discussion of healthcare in the US has focused so much on who pays, with such little attention to how the care is structured, when it seems to me that's a much bigger problem. To me the payment issue is almost an entirely different issue. I have lots of family in healthcare, including physicians in administration, and they're terrified of single-payer not because they don't want universal care, but because they already see the healthcare system overburdened by regulation and red tape, and don't really see how having single payer (as opposed to something like the ACA) will really help a lot. In their minds the only thing worse than what existed 10 years ago, is what existed 10 years ago plus a monolithic government agency controlling payment as well. I see an important role for physicians, but there needs to be a lot more flexibility and deregulation in healthcare. There's so much that could be written about this it's absurd.