MOC and ABIM - not the biggest racket in medicine, but what the hell is this?

When I graduated from residency, I paid astronomical sums to sit for the ABIM exam. I was under the impression that I am fully board certified for 10 years - the state of California has its own CME requirements to maintain state licensure and I've been compliant with that.

I have never at any point given the time of day to the many, many MOC emails I've gotten over the past few years. Now, I've been emailed stating that I must pay a yearly MOC fee or risk losing certification.

I don't actually think they can remove my board certification status until I'm due for a repeat exam at the 10 year mark and the website is extremely vague - in my opinion, to make it seem like there are legitimate consequences to not paying ABIM's protection money MOC fee when there likely are not - and I have absolutely zero intention of paying anything to the ABIM.

How do other specialty boards extort extract money from the doctors in their field? Is there no hope for the future of medicine? Our own boards would sell our organs for a dime, how can anyone reasonably expect the medical field to survive during this time of political and economic turmoil?

I'll be up for renewal in 2029; either my hospital will allow me to keep practicing without board certification or I'll be looking into jobs that don't require it. Funny that the only difference between being board certified and not nowadays is whether you are willing to pay an extra $2k every 10 years.