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Physicians

Physician Introduction There has been a long debate on whether people should be allowed to choose anyone theywant to be their doctor. Many American citizens place more value on the ability to select their own Physician. Choice of the primary care Physician is one of the greatest issues in the current debate of the US health care reforms.
Citizens should be allowed to choose their own doctors. The patient is able to have more faith in the treatment if his or her own preferences are included in the delivery of health care. Allowing the people to select their own doctors will increase the quality of health care since the Physicians will have more information on the disease history of the patient and medical attention needs. Allowing people to select their own doctors will decrease the health care costs in the economy. This move will create an environment whereby Physicians will compete for clients thus leading to better services since physicians will be expecting more referrals from satisfied consumers (Dingwall 59).
Doctors should not be licensed. According to the proponents of licensing, information asymmetries in the medical filed is the main aim of licensing since the government needs to protect consumers. Patients do not have prior knowledge of the quality of services to be provided but word-of mouth through referrals and doctor reputation can solve the information asymmetry problem (Dingwall 88). The consumer has still considerable market power since he can shop elsewhere for medical services if the service provided is either expensive or poor thus improving the quality of medical services. Licensing alone is not the best solution to protect the consumers since certification is enough to rid out the incompetent health service providers. Proponents of licensing argue that it makes the licensed Physicians provide competent services in an ethical manner since it makes them accountable for the health outcomes of patients (Dingwall 97).
If there was no licensing, the price of Physician services will decline since there would be more competition among the physicians thus leading to reduction in costs. The need to comply with the licensing requirements also increases the costs of services and leads to more litigations that also raise the prices of services (Shi and Singh 78).
If the medical field was not regulated, the quality of medical care would increase. Licensing reduces the number of available physicians and inflates the medical costs that limiting the access of health care by the poor population. Licensing also stifles innovation in health care by controlling curriculums in medical schools thus limiting the implementation of better alternatives in medical services. Licensing also damages the doctor-patient relationship since it creates a conflict of interests in instances where physician loyalty may be divided between satisfying the licensing board requirements and providing medical attention to the patient since the doctor must follow the requirements of the licensing board (Shi and Singh 105.
Conclusion
There are enough laws that protect the consumers like liability laws thus licensing increases the costs of medical services and limit the access to quality health services. The physicians should not be licensed since this action creates false consumer expectations and distorts the healthcare market through subsidies from the government. Licensing also limits innovation, reduces competition between the doctors and creates an artificial shortage of physicians.
Works cited:
Dingwall, R. Quality and regulation in health in health care: international experiences. New York. Routledge. 1992.
Shi, Leiyu and Singh, Douglas. Essentials of the U. S health care system. Sudbury. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. 2010.

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