We’re supposed to believe that medical licensing exists to protect healthcare consumers from “quacks” and “charlatans.” The purpose, we’re told, is to improve the quality of healthcare, yet this system has manifestly failed to produce good patient outcomes. The simple explanation for this is that medical licensing was never designed to protect the interests of healthcare consumers. Instead, the purpose has always been to protect the financial interests of a medical trade organization allied with the pharmaceutical industry. The effective result is a government-enforced medical cartel that