Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Another example of how physician licensure affects earnings is a paper by Keith Leffler. In the paper, Leffler looks at the different states who accepted and refused to accept the Federal Licensing Exam (FLEX) in the late 1960s. Leffler proposes that if physicians acted as a cartel, only states with lenient state examinations would accept…
What is the purpose for licensing physicians? For the general public, the answer seems obvious: society must prevent individuals from consuming low-quality health care. From the economist’s point of view, this reasoning is not very compelling. If individuals are looking out for their own best interests, it would be illogical for them to consume low-quality medical care…
When traveling from San Diego to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving, my flight was delayed two hours. While this was an inconvenience, it did provide me with the opportunity to finish the book Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman. The book espouses a libertarian point of view; this point of view is one which is currently held…
In most markets, quality regulation is not used. If you buy a pair of pants that is lower quality than you had anticipated, you simply will not frequent the store again. If the firm continues to offer low quality pants (at insufficiently low prices), few consumers will patronize the store and the firm will go…
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a national physicians organization founded in 1847 by Nathan Smith Davis. While, the AMA exists explicitly to serve the interests of physicians, politicians often seek advice from the AMA when setting health care policy. Conventional wisdom is that the AMA is dedicated to providing the best care for patients. …