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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: The medical industry is not regulated?
Message-ID: <251@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Feb-85 09:11:12 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.251
Posted: Thu Feb 14 09:11:12 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Feb-85 04:26:56 EST
References: <250@mhuxr.UUCP> <3390@alice.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 43

> => Andrew Koenig
> 
> I can think of two good reasons why abolishing government regulation
> of the medical industry would make it harder, not easier, for
> incompetents to practice.
> 
> 	1. If physicians were permitted to advertise, it might
> 	   be possible for prospective patients to compare their
> 	   qualifications.

How so? Are you able to really tell the differences between, say, cars
*strictly* by their advertising? To take an example closer to the
subject matter, lawyers are now permitted to advertise. How does this
fact (advertisement), to the exclusion of others, make for better
lawyers?

If you meant that advertisement might make a given doctor better known,
thereby increasing his/her word of mouth reputation, the present system
is only marginally less efficient, since physician advertisement by
nature would be local and thereby not widely recognized.

> 
> 	2. I understand that most of the malpractice claims
> 	   come from a small number of physicians....

Not quite. Most of the *successful* malpractice suits are against a
relatively small number of doctors. In my opinion, the increase on
malpractice suits is a direct result of the increased litigiousness
of US society. "If the doctor did not heal me totally and immediately,
the doctor must have done something wrong". The cost of malpractice
insurance would go up even if all suits were dismissed, just because
of the legal costs involved.

> 	   In a free
> 	   market, incompetents would not be able to afford
> 	   to stay in business very long.
> 

As I said above, a deregulated (by your definition) medical industry
would only marginally improve public knowledge of a doctor's competence
and not at all reduce the trend toward more malpractice suits.

Marcel Simon