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Milton Friedman on Medicine and health care

I have argued against the licensure of physicians before the board of directors of the American Medical Association and had one of the most vituperative, the most argumentative evenings I have ever had. But, your endorsement of that is fascinating because I think physicians everywhere and people everywhere are coming to realize the truth of that old saying that if you’re going to sup with the devil you better have a very long spoon. And licensure is not a long enough spoon. It has been a major source of the problem.

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. Responding to the audience’s applause for his call for no government licensure of 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. 19997
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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. 19997. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/sup-with-devil-licensure-long-spoon-1981

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He also said

  1. I have examined the story in this area in the United States, in particular with the American Medical Association during the course of the 1920’s and 1930’s. It’s an extreme example of a very powerful trade union which succeeded in keeping down the number of physicians and in the process raising costs, which succeeded in retarding the development of efficient group medical practice and in the process reduced the quality. I mention this not to attack the American Medical Association or the members of it. They are noble, able people who wanted good things, but were misled. But only to suggest again a sense in which the developments in medicine are not special to medicine.

    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. On the American Medical Association in the 1920s and 1930s, a history he says he had examined.

    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. Well, I have always argued that you will not solve problems by electing the right man to the White House. Certainly not by electing the wrong man. … The only way you will ever solve problems, in my opinion, and move in the direction we want to move is by making it in the political interest of the wrong people to do the right thing.

    Context. Asked by Heffner how he evaluates President Carter. This is a recorded statement of the idea behind the widely circulated line about making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things, whose own source this archive has not verified.

    The Open Mind
    Interview, 1977, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy” (May 3, 1977)
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  3. Almost everywhere medical practitioners have formed themselves into organizations that have generally, with the assistance of the state, restricted entry into medicine—all, of course, for good purposes. Nobody ever does undesirable things for bad reasons; all for the good purpose of raising standards of medical practice.

    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. Following the Hippocratic oath forward through the centuries of medical practice.

    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

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