Another republican attempt to drag race (black=socialism) into a discussion.

What I get is that Huckabee is against the Republican claim that making the patient bear some of the cost would improve the inflation rate of the healthcare industry.

"If a member of my family has a brain tumor...I want the best neurosurgeon I can find, and I'm not going to be looking for the low bidder. Or seeing if there is a coupon in the paper for 10% off the cost." Apparently he doesn't believe that the perception of "free" medical care drives up the cost. Instead, like most people, he realizes that medical care is not (in most cases) a fungible product...you don't shop around for the best price for surgery, ER visits, or most any other medical procedure.

If I ever have brain surgery I hope that while my surgeon is poking around in there he's thinking about brain surgery and not about how much money he invested with Bernie Madoff.

"I want my doctor to make a lot of money."

I want my doctor to be passionate about being a doctor, not about making lots of money.

Actually it makes sense (I'm not saying he's right or wrong here in his logic though), though I get the impression he's trying to bring up as many fear instilling mentions as he can (the 'I don't want Oprah working on me' wasn't really needed in his argument).

What he's trying to say is that skilled and motivated people will flock to what pays the most. So if the wages of doctors go down, by his logic they'll seek other professions.. like becoming a wealthy TV personality, and thus people who are less motivated to become rich and less skilled because they're slackers or something will become doctors instead. Also by not having as comfortable a living they'll be less motivated to be awesome at their job since they'll be worried about making enough money (this may have SOME merit to it, but only if they're getting major salary reductions).

PREEEEETY sure people who want to become doctors BECOME DOCTORS.

OOOOOOOOOH BUUUUUUUUUURN!! WHITEY JUST CALLED OPRAH STUPID!! O NO U DI'IN'T!

Giving doctors more money does not make them better doctors. Now spending money on grade school and post-secondary education, that makes better doctors, working on that Science curriculum and weeding out time wasters like 'alternatives' to evolution, that would make better doctors, better student loan programs so more people from a lower income background can go to medical school, that would definitely make better doctors.

I somehow get the impression that 'better doctors' is not really what he's after.

Just a hunch.

So, an idea to control costs in health care is to mandate that doctors are paid a salary instead of being paid per the things they perform. This also extends to limiting the financial interests doctors can have in businesses that provide testing or surgical procedures. There are a few U.S. hospitals that currently do this successfully (Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, ...)

I think Huckabee doesn't understand whats going on, or is trying to spin the idea of hospitals/clinics hiring doctors as salaried workers as removing incentives to being a doctor... basically saying that doctors are only in it to make tons of cash, which is a fairly cruel thing to say.