Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpg.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihlpg!tan From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Credentials, State vs. private Message-ID: <1258@ihlpg.UUCP> Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 18:00:36 EDT Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1258 Posted: Mon Sep 16 18:00:36 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 17-Sep-85 06:14:55 EDT References: <1208@ihlpg.UUCP> <4297@alice.UUCP> <1224@ihlpg.UUCP> <112@l5.uucp> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 33 > [Me] > I don't really care in principle whether the government or a > private group does the credentialling itself. But I want the > government to enforce it ahead of time, not ex post facto when > it may be too late. Of course, if multiple private groups do > the credentialling, I might notwant to have to become an > authority on WHICH private groups to trust. So I might want > the government to approve the private credentialling groups. > [Laura Creighton] > There are frauds passing themselves off as doctors right now. That there > are governments does not prevent this. If you like the current doctors, > all you have to do is only accept AMA accredited doctors. Why do you believe > that having the government approve the private credentialling groups is > going to do anything above and beyond only going to AMA registered doctors? --- 1)Granted that governmental policing does not guarantee the absence of frauds. Governmental policing does not guarantee the absence of murder either, but we all think government should try. 2)In the absence of governmental credentialling of physicians, a situation might arise where there were lots of small credentialling organizations, and no generally recognized large ones. (The extreme, albeit unlikely, example of this would be each doctor having his own organization to credential himself.) Then the consumer's problem of judgeing physicians would be replaced by an equally difficult one of judgeing credentialling organizations, and credentialling would become useless. In such a case, I would want the government to step in and either do the credentialling itself, or do the equivalent and credential the credentiallers. Unlike libertarians, who can always predict the exact consequences of every libertarian experiment with unerring accuracy, I don't know whether such a situation would occur in practice in the absence of government credentialling. I suspect, however, that it is a possibility. -- Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan