Here’s what a practicing physician, with over 45 years of clinical experience, had to say when I interviewed him in August 2025:
“Another issue I believe is important is that Medicare and Medicaid have severed the traditional relationship between physicians and patients. Physicians now serve the corporate entities that pay them rather than the patients who don’t pay them. You serve the person who pays you. In the past, there was a true doctor/patient relationship where the patient paid the doctor directly.”
He continues, “For example, many who were against lockdowns or the vaccine mandate were terminated from employment. If the hospital didn’t implement the vaccine mandate, Medicare would not pay them. If you are paid by Medicare, you have to do what Medicare says, or you will lose your income. The physicians have become employees of the system. Physicians are like anyone else – they have the capacity to rationalize that what is good for them is good for the patient.
“Internally, the physicians on the hospital committees ar ...
