The Dubious Case for Professional Licensing
Posted by
The Florida Panhandle Nurse Practitioner Coalition
on
Panama City, FL
Uwe E. Reinhardt is an economics professor at Princeton. He has some financial interests in the health care field.
A recent brouhaha in California surrounding a bill introduced by State Senator Ed Hernandez, a Democrat, brings to mind Chapter 9, “Occupational Licensure,” of Milton Friedman’s classic book “Capitalism and Freedom,” published in 1962.
The original version of the bill, S.B. 491,would have allowed qualified nurse practitioners to offer a defined scope of primary care services in independent primary care practices, without supervision by a licensed physician. That is already permitted in 17 states. The politically powerful AARP had endorsed that version of S.B. 491, a free-market approach that Friedman would have enthusiastically endorsed as well.