Thought a bit more on the profit-motive factor in modern medicine. I see how sole employment, potentially, can be a negative. When a person -- a doctor -- is dependent on attracting new customers, he is more inclined to force a shoe on that doesn't fit.
More inclined to find illness, if the illness will bring money.
More inclined to suppose he can remedy something when he cannot, if that will bring money.
I see how having doctors work for others can have a buffering effect. If he gets $30 an hour, regardless how many illnesses he finds, and regardless how many treatments he gives, he is more likely to honestly appraise whether the illnesses exist and the treatments are beneficial. He doesn't stretch the truth in order to catch another dollar.
I see how insurance has a benefit -- not saying I like health systems where insurance is involved, but just saying I can see this benefit: If a person has the ability to pay for something, he is more likely to accept the service. Insurance companies expand the customer's ability to pay and, in doing so, increase the doctor's stability of customers. If the doctor has a more stable base of patients, he is less likely to fret about making enough money, he is less inclined to get desperate and sell a service that isn't needed -- he is less likely to stretch to find illnesses and stretch to find reasons to operate.
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