The healthcare industry in America consists of a multitude of specialty professions. While most of these require licensing through state agencies, the legislation involved largely rubber stamps the desires of the professional associations, self-perpetuating and self-regulating bodies that effectively impose restrictions on entry to the profession, type and location of practice, and advertising.Professionalism and the Public Interest provides a case study of one such profession -- optometry and vision care -- as a means of arriving at some valid general conclusions about professional...