I have a really good libertarian friend - in medical school - who would like to see the NHS privatised. I’m in England btw.
The problem, however, is that he thinks government is needed to ensure that only decent and proper medicine is made available on the market place. Without government, any dodgy person would be selling fake medicine and getting away with it - so the argument goes.
I am not entirely sure how to respond to this. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
The Purpose of licensing is not quality assurance. Oligopoly does not improve quality. If anything, it decreases quality and/or raises prices. It’s like if I were to come along and say, I should be the only one permitted to produce x and permit others to produce x. Obviously, I would simply not allow anyone to compete with me. The real professional cartels can’t get away with that much without snapping the illusion. However, they have gotten away with a lot. There is already a huge shortage of medical workers and it is getting worse because the cartels keep getting stricter. For example, University of Toronto told me that the College of Physiotherapists recently added a masters degree as a requirement to entry. So, they already in the club can cash in on the aging population with their outdated education and pose as “primary care” care professionals and require me to know 3 times more than them to get into the clique.