How Government is Destroying the Medical Profession

How Government is Destroying the Medical Profession: Q&A with Dr. Jeffrey Singer

Doctors are being reduced to shift-workers, who spend a lot of their time doing data entry

Matt Welch & Jim Epstein | September 7, 2013

"Over the past 30 to 40 years, government involvement in medicine has resulted in a progressive regimentation of the industry," says Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a general surgeon who's also an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. "Doctors are being reduced to shift workers who are compelled to follow guidelines and protocols that tell them how to practice and they spend a great amount of time entering data into computers."

Reason's Matt Welch caught up with Dr. Singer at this year's FreedomFest to discuss his article from the May 2013 issue of the magazine, "How Government Killed the Medical Profession: As health care gets more bureaucratic, will doctors go Galt?"

Held each July in Las Vegas, FreedomFest is attended by around 2,000 limited-government enthusiasts and libertarians. Reason TV spoke with over two dozen speakers and attendees and will be releasing interviews over the coming weeks. Go here for an ever-growing playlist of this year's interviews.

About 6 minutes.

Edited by Jim Epstein. Camera by Paul Detrick and Tracy Oppenheimer.

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