I think it's a bit more complicated than that, because in most socialized medicine systems, the suppliers are not owned by the government, so there's a lot of private industry billing (pharmaceuticals, medical devices and implants. etc.)
It's comparable to the USA's freeway system - yes the roads are publicly owned, but road repairs and material procurement are contracted out to private industry, and there's always the possibility of things like a government employee getting a kickback from a construction company for signing off on unnecessary work requests, etc.
Correct..but pretty much any "medical supplier" requires a doctors note to provide services.
"blood testing labs" for example might want to blood test everyone in the country for everything imaginable..Without a doctors note they are prohibited from taking blood.
Doctors (effectively government employees) do control the gates.
Kickback schemes are possible (and have been uncovered), but this is a pretty big tangent to "over-treating those near death" isnt it?
Most "medial fraud" in canada tends to focus on "services charged but not rendered".
Hospitals perhaps not, but someone always makes money in the system and those people may have conflicts of interest.
I live in a country with a population-wide insurance system. Big Pharma dealers do their utmost to curry favors with all the doctors out there, showering them with gifts, inviting them to "conferences" in attractive locations etc.
As my friend from high school, now an accomplished ORL expert, said: "Of course it works. They wouldn't be doing it otherwise."
