Jeffrey Miron and Jacob Winter
Health care costs in the United States are among the highest in the world, and many Americans avoid seeing a doctor because of the expense. Increasing the number of doctors would expand access and reduce costs, and states can do this easily: by recognizing physician licenses from other states.
A recent study supports this claim:
Our findings reveal that adopting [universal licensing recognition (ULR)] for physicians increased the proportion of people who have personal doctors or health care providers, especially older adults, and reduced the proportion of people who did not see doctors because of costs.
However, the authors found that,
ULR increased physician availability by increasing out-of-state practices … ULR did not cause physicians to move to other states. Thus, the availability of physicians and the degree of patient well-being did not increase in the three states that added residency requirements to their ULR policy: Arizona, Kansas, and Mississippi.
This second finding illustrates that bad ideas can kill good policy: states can’t always have their cake and eat it too. Patients are better off when doctors can work across state lines.
