Approving Medicine

Medical License Licensing of anything is applying the legality of its use to a collective group of people. Understanding this concept is critical in developing an attitude towards the history of licensing of health care professionals. The purpose of this essay is to describe how it came to be that physicians are licensed and essentially under governmental control and direction. The essay will give a brief history of this process to help contextualize these efforts.

Before concluding this essay will also address the importance of why the federal government is the sole licensing authority for physicians to dispense or prescribe control substances. The Role of Government Before realizing the impact of the licensing of health care professionals by the government, it is necessary to understand the role of the government. While it is historically and culturally acceptable to interpret the role of government as extremely important in guiding the citizens of its tenure to the right direction, this may not always be the case.

This is especially true in most instances where governmental authorities do not hold their citizens best interests as primary concerns. Ultimately this responsibility is the citizens themselves as the people they chose to represent them must be upheld to these standards. Since medical practices are not widely known or sufficiently mastered, it is our collective belief that these processes must be governed by a collective force. These intentions are what have brought the issue of licensing to health care professionals to light.

There is too much opportunity for predatory groups of people willing to manipulate people out of their resources in return for health care services. The need for this licensing appears necessary in today's world. History of Licensing In the mid 19th century, the beginning of the industrial age, there were no government barriers to entry into the medical field. Anyone could help anyone they chose with whatever methods they desired, it was free for all.

The creation of the American Medical Association in 1847 began a new era where medicine was first regulated within the U.S. Since that time the AMA has concentrated political power to dictate the current situation that we have today within the licensing procedures. The federal structure of the republic that is the U.S.A. places much political power within the states' hands to best handle problems. This has become the case with medical licensing procedures.

The federal government does not license professionals, these are attained at a state level where differing standards apply to the differing circumstances of those localities. This process came to be due to the impossibility of the management of such a complex and vast array of products and services. The scale of this problem had to be controlled at different levels. Therefore the medical degrees perquisite to a license are in fact authorized by medical agencies that are controlled at a national level.

This places some quality control over the power of the states but also allows for local applications to be infused within the medical community. This balance is key in the success or failure of this relationship. Federal Control of Substances Another key area of medical policy that is controlled at the federal level is the administration of controlled substances, or drugs. The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is the specific policy that has been enacted into law that dictates the practice of medicine from this point-of-view.

The Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) also supplements the CSA in determining what can or cannot be prescribed by a medical professional to their patient. These policies have created drug schedules that mandate the physicians choices in what they may prescribe. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, " Drugs,.