It certainly is. It's just that the crux of this article is that occupational licensing for low or medium skilled trades is inherently problematic rent-seeking, whereas the requirement for a license to practice medicine or dentistry isn't itself a problem, it's the artificial limiting of those who can get the license that presents a problem.
Considering pretty high educated professionals immigration numbers, it is surprising dental costs staying so high (which is not the case with other professions).
(I had a bodgy root canal reworked over 3 visits for $3k and a tooth extracted and bone abcess cleaned out under general for ~$1500 all up, including initial consultations. I didn't hunt around for a cheaper option, since that was how I got the bad root canal in the first place...)
1) at the time you need treatment, you may not have any choice (or you may be in pain, or ...). So expect to see free root canals with $10k pain relief "option". Or have "normal" medicine (e.g. mild ear pain) priced into the ground and get gouged on emergency procedures (e.g. acute inner ear pain).
2) it is somewhere between very hard and impossible for normal people to see the quality of medical treatment. Given what can happen with bad quality medical treatment ... I find this a very scary prospect.
Minimum wage of $12 or $15 is great, but in many places still not a true middle class wage, especially for a head of household. But, still it's a worthwhile law to put on the books and it does help entry level workers and others.
On top of that, union wages are great for those who are in them and actually have enough work to be full time.
In addition, to address another group in society, we can empower service providers who are small business owners with state licensing boards to help them control their market segment and truly attain durable middle class living standards.
We can have it all. What's not to love?
So if we set up service providers with a way to prevent new entrants into the market, what that means is that they get monopoly-like control over pricing (because the simplest mechanism for fighting that is new market entrants) and then that means that everyone overpays for their services. Including the people who now discover that their $12 or $15 wage is still not enough.
Or put another way, the technical term for "small business owners who control their market segment" is "cartel"...