I am about to commit a professional heresy.
Here it goes: Government licensing of doctors is both morally and economically wrong.
Most organized medical societies including the AMA (American Medical Association) and my own state medical society support government licensing of physicians, on the grounds that it protects the public from incompetent practitioners. But as with all other forms of occupational licensing, medical licensing actually serves primarily to protect the practitioners at the expense of the public. Furthermore, the interaction between current licensing laws and upcoming ObamaCare laws will harm both patients and doctors in unanticipated ways.
Government licensing of physicians is a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to the mid-1800s, there was relatively little regulation over who could or could not practice medicine. But in 1847, the AMA was formed to promote the interests of MD physicians relative to other health practitioners (such as naturopaths and chiropractors). Over the next several decades, the AMA persuaded Congress and state legislators to shut down “substandard” medical schools and impose the current system of state-based medical licensing under licensing boards controlled by physicians. (Some of these other health practitioners eventually survived by forming their own government-sanctioned licensing organizations.)
Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman identified the basic problem with medical licensing in his classic 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom. Friedman observed, “[L]icensure… almost inevitably becomes a tool in the hands of a special producer group to obtain a monopoly position at the expense of the rest of the public.” Licensing laws restrict the supply of practitioners, thus raising prices for patients. Thus, “The public [is] deprived of the medical care it wants to buy and is prevented from buying.”
Read more: http://pjmedia.com/blog/medical-licensing-laws/?singlepage=true
Here it goes: Government licensing of doctors is both morally and economically wrong.
Most organized medical societies including the AMA (American Medical Association) and my own state medical society support government licensing of physicians, on the grounds that it protects the public from incompetent practitioners. But as with all other forms of occupational licensing, medical licensing actually serves primarily to protect the practitioners at the expense of the public. Furthermore, the interaction between current licensing laws and upcoming ObamaCare laws will harm both patients and doctors in unanticipated ways.
Government licensing of physicians is a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to the mid-1800s, there was relatively little regulation over who could or could not practice medicine. But in 1847, the AMA was formed to promote the interests of MD physicians relative to other health practitioners (such as naturopaths and chiropractors). Over the next several decades, the AMA persuaded Congress and state legislators to shut down “substandard” medical schools and impose the current system of state-based medical licensing under licensing boards controlled by physicians. (Some of these other health practitioners eventually survived by forming their own government-sanctioned licensing organizations.)
Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman identified the basic problem with medical licensing in his classic 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom. Friedman observed, “[L]icensure… almost inevitably becomes a tool in the hands of a special producer group to obtain a monopoly position at the expense of the rest of the public.” Licensing laws restrict the supply of practitioners, thus raising prices for patients. Thus, “The public [is] deprived of the medical care it wants to buy and is prevented from buying.”
Read more: http://pjmedia.com/blog/medical-licensing-laws/?singlepage=true
No comments:
Post a Comment