Boutique Medical Practices--Yes!
by Dr. Yaron Brook

Monday January 28, 2002

"The outcry against 'boutique medical practices'-- where doctors
charge a flat yearly fee in return for services superior to those
offered by government-controlled health care-- is outrageous and
immoral," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand
Institute.

Critics charge that these doctors, by taking fewer patients,
will create further shortages of doctors. "But the responsibility for
shortages," said Dr. Brook, "lies with government price-controls and
regulations that have made being a doctor unrewarding and
unprofitable.

If shortages of doctors were their real concern, the critics would
demand that the government get out of health care entirely--and let
the free market produce a flood of affordable, competent doctors."

"The critics' real concern stems from their egalitarianism,"
continued Dr. Brook. "They object to what they call 'two-class'
medicine. They think that everyone, regardless of their personal
wealth, should have the same level of health care. The only way to
achieve this unjust 'ideal' is to pull down the wealthy by force-- to
make the doctors' superior services and the patients' voluntary
purchase of them illegal. This is thick-headed communism at its
worst."

"The greatness of America," observed Dr. Brook, "is that it
leaves the producers free to produce--and, properly and morally, to
reap the rewards. These entrepreneurial doctors, by finding a way to
offer their patients--in the face of crippling government controls--
same-day appointments, house calls, accompanying patients to
specialists, and 24-hour cell-phone access, are raising the level of
health care that Americans can purchase. For this they should not be
denounced but applauded."

ARI executive director Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews.

For other articles on health care like these, go to:

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=media_topic_healthcare