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Milton Friedman on Medicine and health care

Hippocrates himself gave his name to the Hippocratic oath, but he had nothing to do with it. What happened is, as most of you probably know, when he died, the island was full of physicians and of patients who had been attracted by Hippocrates’ fame. But when he died, the fame was not there any more and the attraction was not so great, so you had an oversupply of physicians. Of course, physicians didn’t like that so they organized themselves into a group and they drafted the Hippocratic oath.

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. Recalling a visit to Kos, Hippocrates’ island, which he had meant to use to open the Free to Choose episode on labor unions. This is his account of the oath’s origin as given in the talk.

The Market and Human Freedom
Speech, 1981, 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”, Congressional Record, September 9, 1981, p. 19996
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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. 19996. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/hippocrates-nothing-to-do-with-oath-1981

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  1. The Hippocratic oath, which all of you probably took when you entered practice but didn’t read very carefully, contains many fine and noble sentiments and statements. But if you examine it more carefully, you will see it is essentially a trade union agreement.

    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 cite the oath’s clauses limiting students to physicians’ children and dividing jurisdiction between surgeons and physicians.

    The Market and Human Freedom
    Speech, 1981, 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”, Congressional Record, September 9, 1981, p. 19996
    Checked against the sourceRead the original
  2. In the course of his testimony, he made the statement that he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. I stopped him and said, 'General, would you rather command an army of slaves?' He drew himself up and said, 'I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves.' I replied, 'I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries.' But I went on to say, 'If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher.' That was the last that we heard from the general about mercenaries.

    Context. From his memoir. He is recalling General Westmoreland, top commander of the American troops in Vietnam and then, he believed, Army Chief of Staff, testifying against a volunteer army before the Advisory Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force, of which Friedman was a member. The memoir prints all but the last sentence inside a longer quotation of an earlier first-person account.

    Two Lucky People: Memoirs
    Book, 1998, University of Chicago Press, Ch. 23 “Adviser to Presidents Nixon and Reagan”, p. 380
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  3. Life is unfair. There’s nothing fair about one man being born blind and another man being born with sight. There’s nothing fair about one man being born of a wealthy parent and one of an impecunious parent. There’s nothing fair about Muhammad Ali having been born with a skill that enables him to make millions of dollars one night. There’s nothing fair about Marlene Dietrich having great legs that we all want to watch. There’s nothing fair about any of that. But on the other hand, don’t you think a lot of people who like to look at Marlene Dietrich’s legs benefited from nature’s unfairness in producing a Marlene Dietrich?

    Context. From the opening of “Created Equal,” the fifth film of his 1980 television series Free to Choose. Shortly before, he describes a favorite device of reformers: contrasting extremes of wealth and poverty, so that we conclude the rich are rich at the expense of the poor.

    Free to Choose: Created Equal
    Television, 1980, PBS, Vol. 5, at 1:46
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