How Medical Licensing Drives Up Health Care Prices
The role of licensing in driving up healthcare costs has been almost completely ignored. The apparent explanation is that nobody can imagine that there is any alternative. The obvious complexity of modern medicine, the obvious need for extensive training to master that complexity, and the obvious harms that can be inflicted by incompetent physicians all lead to the seemingly obvious conclusion that state screening of physicians is inescapably necessary. In fact, even critics of the expansion of licensing into areas like cosmetology and interior decorating are usually careful to point out that doctors should, obviously, be licensed.