Today's health consumer is ready to accept this more active role. Present research suggests that the number of people who say they have a strong or moderate commitment to self-care should increase from 20 percent in 1984 to 51 percent in 1990.2
It is no longer reasonable to leave all serious health matters to our doctors. "Medical licensure," Baron suggests, "is an idea whose time has come—and gone."
Editor Tom Ferguson would like to hear from those who are working toward a self-care-based health care system.
REFERENCES
1. Iohn-Henry Pfifferling. Personal communication.
2. Helping Ourselves to Health: The Self-Care and Personal Enhancement Market in the US., The Health Strategy Group, New York, 1983.
R E S O U R C E S
A good review article from the legal literature is Dr. Baron's, "Licensure of Health Care Professionals: The Consumer's Case for Abolition," in the American Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 9, pp. 335-356, 1983. (Reprints are available from: Charles H. Baron, Ph.D., Professor of Law, Boston College Law School, Newton Centre MA 02159.)
Deregulating Doctoring: Do Medical Licensing Laws Meet Today’s Health Care Needs?, by Lori B. Andrews, 1983, 82 pages, $10.95 from the People's Medical Society, 14 East Minor Street, Emmaus PA 18049.