American medical care is a racket and the main beneficiaries of the racket are the doctors.

A century ago, doctors often treated the poor for free and their fees to the rest of us were reasonable and set by supply and demand. The Flexner report changed all that.

Restrictions on medical schools were made so as to limit the supply of doctors. The AMA loved it. This succeeded so well that by the 1960s when Nobel laureate Milton Friedman wrote "Capitalism and Freedom," doctors and lawyers merited an entire chapter on the effects of professional licensure on harming the consumer.

About the same time, Medicare and Medicaid were proposed to help poor patients. Ironically, at the time, the AMA bitterly opposed these programs as the beginning of socialist medicine. Now, since the taxpayers pick up the bill and doctors make even more money as a result, the AMA would have a heart attack if these programs were eliminated.

Only Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, wants to end the racket.

Get the United States out of Iraq, the United Nations, your wallet, your bedroom, your medicine chest and your life and vote Libertarian Nov. 4.

Robert Edward Johnson

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