Milton Friedman on Medicine and health care
In my opinion, government involvement in medicine has been the problem and not the solution.
Context. From a talk to physicians, published in Private Practice in July 1981, on the trend toward government control of medicine and the prospects for reversing it. He goes on to say the right ultimate course is no government involvement, regulation or subsidy, and no government licensure of physicians, a position he expects most of the audience not to share; the audience applauds.
Where this comes from
Checked against the sourceThe wording was checked against the work itself.
Cite this passage
Milton Friedman, “The Market and Human Freedom” (Private Practice (July 1981); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, September 9, 1981, pp. 19996 to 19997, introduced by Representative Larry McDonald of Georgia as “Professor Friedman’s recent article on this subject” in “Private Practice magazine for July 1981”, 1981), Congressional Record, September 9, 1981, p. 19997. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/government-involvement-medicine-problem-not-solution-1981
Quoted for commentary and research. Rights in the underlying work remain with its rights holder, so cite the work itself, not only this page.
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He also said
Generally. Because I think the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.
Context. His answer when the interviewer said, “But you prefer the laissez-faire—free-enterprise—approach.”
Interview with Milton FriedmanInterview, 1973, Playboy, February 1973; reprinted in There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (Open Court, 1975), p. 6Checked against the sourceFind the bookMy conclusion is that an automatic commodity standard is neither a feasible nor a desirable solution to the problem of establishing monetary arrangements for a free society. It is not desirable because it would involve a large cost in the form of resources used to produce the monetary commodity. It is not feasible because the mythology and beliefs required to make it effective do not exist.
Context. From his essay on how a free society should control money, which weighs a commodity standard, an independent central bank, and legislated rules. He enclosed it with his 1968 statement to the House subcommittee, which reprinted it.
Should There Be an Independent Monetary Authority?Journal article, 1962, In Search of a Monetary Constitution, ed. Leland B. Yeager (Harvard University Press, 1962) (the reprint’s heading gives no page range for the original and it remains unverified); reprinted in the Compendium on Monetary Policy Guidelines and Federal Reserve Structure, Subcommittee on Domestic Finance, House Committee on Banking and Currency, December 1968, pp. 205 to 214., p. 206 of the 1968 House reprintChecked against the sourceRead the originalIs rationing the solution? Far from it. It is the problem. We already have rationing of producers and distributors. Coupon rationing of final consumers would simply be the hair of the dog that bit you.
Context. From a Newsweek column of March 4, 1974, written in Chicago during the gasoline lines of early 1974, after the Arab oil embargo and under the price and allocation controls administered by the Federal Energy Office, headed by William E. Simon.
FEO and the Gas LinesColumn, 1974, Newsweek, March 4, 1974; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, February 27, 1974, pp. 4559 to 4560, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who gives it as the column of “Newsweek columnist, Dr. Milton Friedman, in the March 4, 1974, issue”; reprinted again in Extensions of Remarks, April 30, 1974, p. 12454, by Representative Steven D. Symms, from The Freeman (Foundation for Economic Education), Congressional Record, February 27, 1974, p. 4560
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