If you've gotten a raise since 2005 you really need to sit out on any discussion of windfalls especially when we are talking about a small percentage of overhead.
I would more than welcome a free market to find a price point. Guess who isn't up for that? The carriers. Because they know what the costs are for comparable services. I know this personally because DBA/maritime cases are similar but less complex and pay more.
Proof that ML fees are not high enough to be worth it is in declining pool of new QME applicants and the geriatric demographic of the current pool. It's not worth it to be a QME if you're 35. They don't pay enough to jump through all the hoops. Older doctors stay with it because they understand it and there are barriers to entry.
What happened during the last days of disco is irrelevant to the current situation.
It's a little off topic, but if carriers were seriously interested in reducing med-legal costs, and by a lot, they'd instruct DAs to reduce unnecessary records. I've had many people here tell me that it's impossible yet it happens all the time in DBA/maritime. In those cases I'm not reading colds and flu records from the last days of disco like I do on comp cases. It's a waste of your money and my time.