Wal-Mart Ordered to Provide Morning-After Pill

[haha]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11391926/

How do you feel about this? It seems like there are valid points on both sides of the issue. Could the state for example order a pharmacy to stock some little used medication that would be unprofitable for it to stock? (That is not the question here, but it does certainly bring up a number of thorny problems.)

I personally don't like this recent trend of workers in basic service industries getting their private morals bound up in what lawful things they will or won't perform on the job. But I can imagine that if I were a doctor, I might feel forced to quit my job if I were ordered to perform elective abortions. Maybe Wal-Mart as a corporate entity should be given the same freedom that I would want for myself?  But since Wal-Mart has the power to run smaller pharmacies out of business, do we really want them deciding which drugs will be made available in a given locality? What if a woman has no car to get to another pharmacy across town? Or maybe they are all closed?

Still, this decision does extend state power at the expense of the private firm or individual. Hard for me at least to know how to best frame these issues.

Ha

 

[sgeeeee]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11391926/

How do you feel about this? It seems like there are valid points on both sides of the issue. Could the state for example order a pharmacy to stock some little used medication that would be unprofitable for it to stock? . . .

It seems to me that this is a problem related to how you view healthcare. Is it a venture that should be run by pure capitalism? Or is it more like military or highway systems that should be controled/regulated by government?

If you think that we should have a national healthcare system with guaranteed benefits, then Walmart should be forced to provide whatever the nation believes is minimum service. A soldier cannot decide that he/she doesn't agree with the current attack strategy so they will just sit it out. A contractor cannot decide that they won't provide off-ramps through a poor neighborhood.

If you believe that healthcare is like any other commodity, then Walmart should be allowed to do whatever they want. If they put every other Pharmacy within 100 miles out of business and choose to sell only what they find most profitable, then that is simply capitalism at work.

 

[BUM]

"oops" my mistake. I thought this was the Lead In Your Pencil thread.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think that if it was (insert any individual) all by themselves, they're entitled to do whatever they wish. Once they enter into employment to provide a service under the restrictions of an employer, they lose that entitlement. Walmart can chose to carry or not carry a medication based on profitability, local needs or any other reasonable criteria. The employee in this case is aware that their employer provides that product/service. If they dont want to provide that product/service, they should not work there.

I dont think its up to the individuals personal morals and motivations to decide they will or will not carry out a reasonable expectation for their job, which in this case is to meter out a specified supply of available medications to a patient who has a legal application to receive that supply.

Asking the common people to navigate a town full of personal morals to receive a contracted service is a little too much. If we were talking about artisan breads and one bakers disdain for white bread, thats one thing. When its a medical service, particularly one already fraught with emtional charges, asking a patient to approach the service provider with the trepidation of rejection isnt reasonable.

Whats next? Christian scientist pharmacists who refuse to fill any prescriptions?

 

[sgeeeee]

. . .
Whats next?  Christian scientist pharmacists who refuse to fill any prescriptions?

I'd like to see that business plan.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'll have it on your desk in the morning.

Now that we know you HAVE a desk at a JOB.

 

[Yipee-Ki-O]

A simple solution would be for the FDA to allow for over-the-counter sale of Plan B, as its own advisory committee recommended. Unfortunately, its OTC status got caught up in abortion politics and the personal religious beliefs of ex-FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford.