Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Last week, Dr. James Kenley complained (Readers Write, Sept. 23) about profit-seeking insurance companies. I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers that many years ago, the American Medical Association teamed up with federal regulators to control the number of medical colleges and how many students they would accept each year.

Ostensibly, this was done with the intent to insure quality. It was actually a successful effort by doctors to create a medical cartel and limit the quantity of physicians. As any high school economics student knows, when you limit the quantity of something, the price goes up.

I’m sure Dr. Kenley is enjoying his salary; as American physicians with the protection of their cartel are enjoying the highest average doctor salaries in the world—almost twice the next highest country, Germany. And while we are talking about competition, let me also mention that Virginia, like all states, limits the number of hos...