A recent article in the Federation Bulletin by Shirley Svorny, comparing certification with licensure, suggests that medical licensure does not benefit consumers but, instead, serves the interests of physicians by restricting supply. When supply is restricted, physicians benefit from higher prices and consumers are worse off. An important point that the author and others have made is that specialty certification of practitioners would be better than licensure for consumers. Under certification, “the government agency may certify that an individual has certain skills but may not prevent, in any way, the practice of any occupation using these skills by people who do not have such a certificate. The preference for certification over licensure is based on the assumption that consumers are competent to make choices for themselves. If, with all the relevant information available to them, consumers choose to purchase service from uncertified individuals, then restricting such exchanges would make consumers worse off.”
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