Opinion ID: 1969808
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Role of the Legislature

Text: I agree with the majority's statement that [t]he legislature is the appropriate branch of government to debate and evaluate the necessity and desirability of alternative forms of health care delivery in this state. But I disagree about what should be the default consequence until the legislature does act. The majority uses judicial restraint to decline to permit the corporate ownership of a chiropractic practice. I would use judicial restraint to decline to prohibit corporate ownership of a chiropractic practice. Proposals to prohibit the corporate practice of medicine have been around since the turn of the 19th century. [1] But the Minnesota legislature never enacted any prohibitions against the corporate practice of medicine except for veterinary medicine, Minn.Stat. § 156.11 (2004), first enacted in 1937, see Act of March 31, 1937, ch. 119, § 11, 1937 Minn. Laws 189, 192; and dentistry, Minn.Stat. § 150A.11, subd. 1 (2004), first enacted in 1969, see Act of June 5, 1969, ch. 974, § 11, 1969 Minn. Laws 1924, 1935. The legislature has not enacted any prohibition against the corporate practice of chiropractic. To the contrary, on the one known occasion when a bill was presented that would have given the legislature the opportunity to debate and evaluate the necessity and desirability of a prohibition against the corporate practice of chiropractic, it was not even given a hearing in committee, and the proposed prohibition was not enacted. S.F. 3228, 82d Minn. Leg.2002. I agree that some policy considerations can be cited to support a prohibition against the corporate practice of chiropractic, but I find that other policy considerations weigh against any prohibition. The concern of commercial exploitation seems quaint in light of the enormous role the health care industry plays in our national economy, the consolidation of the major portions of that industry into just a few dominant corporations and the annual reports of executive compensation that place health care executives in the top echelons. And, the concerns about commercial exploitation and conflicts of interest compete with the perhaps more pressing concerns about inefficiencies that may increase the already high cost of health care and organizational restrictions that may perpetuate the barriers to better public access to health care providers. Because I see no evidence that the legislature has taken a position on these competing concerns one way or the other, I would decline to impose prohibitions where none has been imposed by the legislature.